Pepper jelly, tea, olives and pastas also among offerings
Local entrepreneurs, who have been toiling away in Norco to produce sauces, tea, pasta and pepper jelly, will begin offering their food products for sale at the East Bank German Coast Farmers’ Market.
The products have all been made and packaged at Edible Enterprises. The incubator boasts two commercial kitchens filled with all of the equipment needed to produce a food product and get it to the marketplace. Experts are also on hand to offer advice, design product labels and give the companies the marketing advice they need to get into groceries or markets.
Starting this Saturday, six of Edible Enterprises’ tenants will be on hand at the East Bank Farmers’ Market, located at Ormond Plantation. Those include Omi’s Gourmet Foods and their remoulade sauce, Magoun’s Kitchen and their ice tea and twisted lemonade, Louisiana Sister’s Olives, which sells tapenade, spiced olives and pepper jelly, Sicily’s Finest Gourmet Specialities and their marinara sauce, and Zydeco Spices, which produces hot sauce and assorted spices.
Pastables will also be on hand to sell their flavored pastas.
Several of the businesses are locally owned, including Sicily’s Finest and Omi’s Gourmet Foods.
Destrehan resident Rosario D’Amico owns Sicily’s Finest, and got into the food business after he was laid off as a hotel manager due to the recession.
“I had a dinner party after I was laid off, and I served pasta with my homemade sauce,” D’Amico said. “Everyone at the party told me I needed to bottle it and sell it.”
D’Amico heard about Edible Enterprises and registered as a tenant. Now, he is ready to take his Sicily’s Finest Gourmet Foods Original New Orleans pasta sauce to the market.
“Edible Enterprises has made this a stress-free process for me,” he said. “They have helped me with everything and they are always offering suggestions and answering my questions.
“I have a really good feeling about this, and so far, I have gotten a really good response for my sauce.”
Hahnville entrepreneur Stacey Greco had a similar experience.
“We have been here since Edible Enterprises opened and it has been wonderful,” said Greco, who along with her husband, Francis, created a Creole remoulade sauce under the name Omi’s. “Small companies could never afford to buy this equipment or bottle a product on their own.
“This is the only way you can really be successful.”
In fact, because of the help that Edible Enterprises offers, shoppers will be able to purchase Omi’s sauce at Rouse’s Supermarkets in addition to the farmers’ market.
“We are also in several other groceries and you can purchase Omi’s at some seafood markets in Florida,” Greco said. “A country club in Lake Charles also spreads our sauce over their crab cakes, and they would have never heard about us if it wasn’t for Edible Enterprises.”
Gaye Sandoz, the marketing and production director of Edible Enterprises, says that the agreement between the farmers’ market and the incubator is a win-win for both.
“We are excited to be at the market because it will show everyone the types of food products that are being created right in this community,” she said. “It’s also going to add more to the farmers’ market.”
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