CRESTON, B.C. – Two Creston Valley entrepreneurs are banking the time is ripe for tomatoes that inspire as much interest with their looks as they do with their taste.
Mike and Bev Blades’ fruits include yellow tomatoes that look like tiny pears, striped “green zebras” and orange cherry tomatoes.
“It’s kind of like wine connoisseurs – you become a tomato connoisseur,” Bev joked after explaining that a 15 centimetre truss bearing a dozen currant tomatoes will be used for decorative culinary art purposes.
This year, the owners of Creston Valley Produce in southeastern British Columbia grew 25 unique tomato varieties.
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Most end up on menus of fine restaurants and a few retail stores in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, and Spokane, Wash.
“We’ve opened up a lot of eyes,” Mike said. “Everybody is racing to get new varieties. I think consumers are waking up to flavor.”
And that is the key to his company’s business strategy.
“We grow for flavor, not shipping and storage,” he said.
“It’s a real catch-22 to try and have a product that you can ship and handle and be able to work with, that also has flavor or something unique.”
The Blades started some trial tomato crops in a home garden five years ago near Brooks, Alta. where Mike worked at the horticultural research station. His job researching crop varieties adaptable to the Prairies provided the experience and the contacts in the seed business that he relies on today.
With initial crops of yellow medium, yellow cherry and beefsteak tomatoes, they surveyed wholesalers to gauge interest for specialty tomatoes.
The number of varieties grew gradually and three years ago the family moved to the Creston Valley where the experimentation continues.
Of 21 varieties tested last season, only two made it to the commercial market this year. At least 10 more are still being developed.
One success story has proven to be the green zebra. Creston Valley Produce started with 200 plants on a trial basis, but this year planted 2,000.
Business in unique produce wasn’t just sitting out there waiting for the Blades to snap it up.
After three years of moderate sales, Bev adopted a more direct approach to marketing.
Until then, their product had been only one of hundreds listed on wholesalers’ price lists. So, with no formal training in sales or marketing, Bev approached wholesale buyers for lists of their key accounts. She then started to call on restaurants and retailers directly.
“Because I grow the products and have such a knowledge and enthusiasm, it’s so much better … you are just one of many people out there. You have to make yourself known.”
In addition to promotion, a reputation for reliability and consistency is equally important, the Blades say. “They’ll weed you out so fast if you’re not committed. You’ll only ship a bad load once,” Bev said.
This year the extra legwork seemed to have paid off. The couple landed a deal that saw them double their tomato acreage from two acres planted in 1995 to four this year.
Restaurant deal
The agreement was supposed to supply 48 Earls restaurants across B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba with five varieties for a tomato salad. The recipe, suggested to the chain by Bev, called for one green zebra, half a red pear, half a yellow pear, one yellow medium and one orange medium tomato.
But foul spring weather caused a late start to the growing season and the tomatoes didn’t ripen in time for the promotion, scheduled for the first two weeks of September.
Although the Earls’ deal fell through, the Blades were able sell most of the crop to a grocery store chain on Vancouver Island.
Another curve ball came in the form of an early frost at the end of September that killed two acres of yellow and orange tomatoes.
“All the planning in the world and all the marketing and fancy packaging is all great and well, but Mother Nature still holds the cards,” Bev said.
Bev and Mike envision the day when tomatoes follow the trend set by peppers on supermarket shelves with small amounts of different varieties for consumers to choose. By that time they expect to have gone beyond tomatoes and be growing something else unusual.
They are experimenting with other fruits such as personal-sized watermelon with both with red and yellow flesh, canary yellow melons from Taiwan, strawberries and chili plants.
“You have to stay ahead of the thundering herd and we will be,” Bev said. “Mike just keeps trialing us to death.”
Line of the vines
Here are the house specials at Creston Valley Produce:
- Specialty tomatoes include yellow cherry, orange cherry, sunshine yellow medium, tangerine orange medium, green zebra medium, red and yellow pear or teardrop and red vine ripe field run.
