This new series is about the people who bring us the goods. There is a great story behind the people and the products we sell at Provenance and we want to share this info with you. We hope you enjoy reading the answers to these questions, all selected by our staff members. Next, tell us who you want to get to know better and we'll ask!
Our first interview is with Lee Greene. Provenance struck up a relationship with Lee Greene and her line of imported handmade Italian Foods known as "The Scrumptious Pantry" in December 2009 when she first moved to Chicago. Lee is originally from Duesseldorf, Germany but spent five years in Tuscany working as vineyard manager for Cosimo Maria Masini. We are pleased to be working with her and wanted you to get to know Lee, the producers she represents, and their products a little better.
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What do you hope to accomplish through providing quality products/How did you get into this “line of business”?/What do you see as the biggest benefit you offer to your retailers and consumers?
Before I came to the USA, I worked in Italy and managed a small biodynamic vineyard. That experience showed me three things: First, sense of place, the so called terroir, was an established concept for wines, but it was only minor for foodstuffs, especially commodity type foods like vegetables, grains etc. Secondly, as a small quality oriented farmer you do not have the resources to tell your story and explain to consumers what makes your product different – and more pricey – than industrial foodstuffs. Lastly as a consumer it is hard to understand which product is truly artisanal and farmer grown and which just pretends to be.
I saw an opportunity of bridging this gap by creating a brand vehicle for small, organic farms growing food with a sense of place – using indigenous heritage crops and recipes based on the regional culinary heritage. It creates an opportunity for farmers to bring their food to market and an easy way for the consumer to identify these products on the retail shelf. That is why all our farmers smile from the front label of the packaging.
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Do you personally know the farmers that produce your products/What is involved with working with the farmers to get a product to market/What did you do before Scrumptious Pantry?
Oh yes, I absolutely know everyone, although the process for the Italian and US farmed products is different. As I mentioned, I managed a small biodynamic farm in Tuscany and through that job, I had the luck to meet the most amazing, passionate farmers – passionate about sustainability, about ‘terroir’. Over there, you can be assured that every farmer can give you an hour long talk why his tomato is different than the tomato grown by his neighbor and what to cook with it. Plus, the Italian economy is built on small businesses, hence the processing infrastructure for farmers to turn their produce into food is readily available. So all I had to do was to tap into the pool of these gorgeous products for The Scrumptious Pantry.
When I started working on the US farmed line, I quickly learned that things would be different and take more time. Finding great, motivated farmers that wanted to join was not the problem. We are so lucky to have one of the most vibrant real food movements here in the Midwest! But the products itself were the challenge. Although many farmers now grow heirloom (aka non hybrid) varieties, indigenous varieties are seldom planted. The regional culinary heritage has been flooded away by industrial food production. What is the taste profile of the Midwest? I spent a lot of time researching immigration patterns and cookbooks from 1750 to better understand what the culinary heritage of the Midwest is and how we can capture that in jars and packages. That was an unexpected twist to my job profile. And of course as soon as you have found a great farmer and have a great idea for a product figured out, you need to find a processor! The infrastructure for small food production is virtually non-existent. That poses a constant challenge. But we are finally about to launch two Midwestern - and one from California - in March. We are very excited!
Where do you find the inspiration for the products/flavors you select for your portfolio? How do you plan to grow your portfolio, horizontally or vertically, and why?
This might sound not very managerial, but we do not necessarily have a plan. We have a guideline of what The Scrumptious Pantry products are. And we are constantly looking for inspiration, meeting farmers, ranchers, fishermen to come up with new ideas for foods with a sense of place.
The one thing all our products have in common is that we are a PANTRY. We are building a line of food products that makes the busy lifestyle of our customers easier. A bag or jar that you can pull out when you need to prepare a quick dinner. I love cooking multiple course meals, but that is not everyday reality. The Scrumptious Pantry is composed of products, which allow you to prepare a quick and delicious meal, but at the same time can inspire the home chef to try something new. Like our Eggplant Tomato spread: if you are in a hurry you just need to whisk half a tablespoon in an egg to make a tasty egg dish. But you can also spread a thin layer on a piece of thinly pounded filet of veal, roll it up and broil it in the oven.
Of all the millions of food products you could have specialized in, why these? Describe your a-ha moment that made you say, "I'm going to do this!" What was the spark that led you to working with food?
Because this is the food I like to eat. There would surely have been many other products out there, foods everyone knows and that would have been easier to sell, or food with much higher margins. And although by Business School Profs will kill me for saying that: I do not care about making the highest margin. I care about what we put in our bellies, how we nourish our bodies, cause that also nourishes our soul. I needed to go to Italy and struggle up our up-wards sloping vineyards, spraying biodynamic preparations from a heavy copper tank on my back to realize that if this was the effort necessary to grow healthy food in a healthy environment, I had surely been eating wrong for the first thirty years of my live. Real food, small farmers needed a platform. So I set out to create one.
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What did you want to do as a kid, "when you grew up"?
Well, the usual dreams of little girls, I guess - princess, singer and figure skater. I realized pretty early though that neither of those would work out. The first “real” jobs I found attractive were either journalist or pastry chef. I cannot remember which one came first, but I do find it fascinating that my work now includes elements of both.
