Olive Roots: A Bridge from Greece to the U.S.
By Lorrie Baumann
Katerina Barka wants Americans to know that there’s more to the Mediterranean diet, and to Greek food in particular, than olives and olive oil. To really appreciate that fact, though, they’ll need access to products that are authentically Greek rather than “Greek-style,” and that means that somebody’s got to go to Greece and fetch them back to the United States. She says she’s that person, and her company, Olive Roots, is the vehicle she launched at this year’s Summer Fancy Food Show to do that.
Barka herself is as much of a Greek import as the products she’s bringing to the States. She grew up in Greece, went to college there, and came to the U.S. only after she’d graduated from college and needed to figure out what to do next with her life. While searching online for options for further education, she came across a Harvard University postgraduate course in international business, enrolled in the program, and came to Boston. There, she later completed her degree in finance at Boston College and then went to work at as a wealth manager for an American firm.
Six years later, it was an encounter with one of her wealthy clients that changed the direction of her life. She presented him with a bottle of her family’s olive oil. His reaction to the gift, and to the oil itself, sparked a chain reaction that led to her decision to abandon an interesting and successful career in finance for the risky proposition of starting her own business in the food industry. “At that moment, I realized that you can do any job you want, but when you do great, it’s when you’re doing what you love,” she said.
She and her husband, another Greek native that she’d met in Boston, picked up their lives and moved them back to Cyprus, where her husband has family, and then to mainland Greece, which is closer to the farmers who grow her ingredients. She found farmers and artisanal food producers who were making amazing products but who didn’t have the expertise to navigate the bureaucratic requirements of exporting them to the United States. Back in the United States, she found buyers who were willing to sell Greek products to the American market but who had grown frustrated with the difficulties of working with small producers inexperienced in managing an international supply chain. What they both needed, she discovered, was a bridge between the two groups, and that’s the role that she sees for herself and Olive Roots.
Her initial product line, which she’s just started to sell in the U.S., consists of authentic Greek products sourced from small producers who make the foods that comprise the Greek version of the Mediterranean diet, which, compared to the usual American diet, contains more olive oil to salads and other dishes, more fish and less meat. “The Greek diet is full of vegetarian and vegan food options,” Barka said. “More than half the days of the week, we eat vegetarian meals – we just don’t notice, because they are Mama’s recipes.”
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The company’s first products to market include marinated sardines packed in olive oil. “They are a tasty way to eat fish,” Barka said, in addition to containing about 10 meals’ worth of Omega 3 fatty acids per serving.
The company also offers a line of dried mushrooms – both cultivated and wild varieties, including a powdered mushroom line that’s used in cooking to add flavor and umami to dishes – and an Organic Grape Syrup that was named a best food at the Summer Fancy Food Show by the editors of Culture magazine. “It’s a great replacement for honey on pancakes or waffles,” Barka said.
Among other products, Olive Roots also offers EON Pine Honey with Mastic, the MELIMA line of handmade Greek pasta and LACONIAN LEGACY monovarietal extra virgin olive oil from Sparta. The newest release, one that Barka is very excited about, is a dip called Greek Salad in a Jar. All of the products are created from simple, everyday authentic ingredients. Barka said, “There’s nothing weird in any of our jars or packages.”
Most of the farmers who grow the ingredients for the products and the producers who package them for the market are Greek women, Barka said. “It just happened,” she added. “With this team of women, we can only succeed.”
Find our more about Olive Roots by visiting www.myoliveroots.com or email Barka at katerina@myoliveroots.com.
Epicurean Trader Contributes to San Francisco’s Foodie Vibe
By Lorrie Baumann
The Epicurean Trader store in the Cow Hollow neighborhood of San Francisco, California, is one of two locations in the city for the specialty grocer and wine merchant. The store devotes one entire wall to its range of wine and spirits, with the rest of its limited footprint devoted to nonperishable specialty items and its cheese case. The merchandise mix is “anything that fits the upscale boutique grocery store theme,” says Store Manager Ruthie Young. “It’s a mix of items that are pantry staples and the hard-to-find smaller batch liquors with a lot of local products that you’re not going to find in 
an upscale grocery store across the country.”
Typical of those hard-to-find items is bread produced by a local bakery that’s so sought-after that the store regularly receives phone calls from customers inquiring if the store has received its delivery yet. “People seek it out, but you can’t get it anywhere,” Young said. “It’s nice to be able to offer something kind of exclusive like that.”
Epicurean Trader also partners with a local coffee roaster for a special coffee blend and a couple of distillers to get the small-batch products that its customers come looking for. “We do have a whiskey club that members can join,” Young said.
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This location opened here in Cow Hollow about a year and a half ago in a storefront formerly occupied by a jewelry store – the original Epicurean Trader store is also located in San Francisco. Young has managed it for the past few months after moving from Minneapolis, Minnesota, where she had been a sales representative for a cheese distribution company. “I was changing things up,” she said. “My family lives close to here. I saw this job come up and jumped on the opportunity.”
The Cow Hollow neighborhood is walkable from the waterfront, and its population is a mix of young people just starting their careers, those with young children and older San Franciscans, and because it’s close to both the water and a couple of nearby parks, Epicurean Trader sees quite a few tourists as well as customers who live in the neighborhood. “We have a lot of picnickers coming in on the weekend,” Young said. “And we have people who come in on the weekend to get a baguette and a wedge of cheese and a bottle of wine and call that dinner. We’ve definitely seen success in that area.”
Local products are a particular draw, especially for customers who come into the store looking for a gift, Young said. “We have a good selection of items that you might not buy for yourself but make good gifts,” she said. “Usually those people want things made in San Francisco.”
Bimbo Bakeries USA Unveils System to Recycle Wastewater
Bimbo Bakeries USA has just unveiled its latest digester system at the Thomas’ English Muffin bakery in Frederick, Maryland. The state-of-the-art anaerobic digester system treats wastewater and will eventually convert the residual biogas produced by the system into a renewable energy stream.
Bimbo Bakeries USA teamed with Environmental Management Group International (EMG) to design and install the system, which removes 300 pounds of waste material per day. It uses the highest achievable organic loading rates in the industry, relative to its small footprint, and is fully automated, allowing for remote monitoring and operation. The system’s technology is capable of handling spikes in waste stream strength and volume, yet maintains low energy usage and operating and maintenance costs compared to conventional treatment systems.
“We are thrilled about the many environmental benefits provided by the new digester,” said Leslie Adebayo, Corporate Sustainability Manager at Bimbo Bakeries USA. “Generating renewable energy from Frederick allows us to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and fossil fuels. We hope it serves as a positive example of our commitment to the environment among our peers, associates, customers and consumers.”
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In 2014, Bimbo Bakeries USA’s Frederick, Maryland, bakery became the first commercial bakery to meet the ENERGY STAR Challenge for Industry. It selected EMG’s Anaerobic Fluidized Bed Digester technology for its Frederick bakery because of its proven track record in treating wastewater for other food and beverage companies including systems at two additional Bimbo Bakeries USA bakeries.
“Bimbo Bakeries USA is proud to be a part of Grupo Bimbo, an environmental sustainability leader since its beginning more than 70 years ago,” said Chris Wolfe, Director, Environmental & Sustainability at Bimbo Bakeries USA. “We are committed to reducing our environmental footprint in the United States and look for every opportunity to do so. We look forward to expanding efforts like those done in Frederick to other facilities across our business.”
