Daddy, where does hummus come from?!?!?!

(I hope this works….by the way, I do work for Sound Bites so if this is a little biased then deal with it)

Yesterday, Rich and Steve from Sound Bites, took us all to Eastern Washington to show us where our hummus comes from. It was an early departure because the farms that produce our beans, seeds, and oil are about 2 1/2 hours away from the store where all the hummus is made (Tacoma, WA).

Before I go too far check out this link to find out more about Sound Bites and their products

What makes our hummus special? Well, other than me working there I always talk about ingredients, use the best, be the best. Instead of using products from all over the world or cutting costs in order to just give you hummus we use products that are local to us here in Washington State.

Ok, I’m following you…….but what does Washington State have that can make hummus? Instead of using olive oil we use varietal grape seed oil. Instead of using Tahini we use Camelina seed. Also, we use beans grown in the state of Washington which are fantastic!

What is a varietal grape seed oil?

Well, I’m glad you asked! Grape seed oil is starting to become popular in restaurants and health food nuts all around the world but a lot of those consumers have no idea that the product they’re buying is at the bottom of the totem pole in the grape seed oil world (Grape seed oil totem pole is real, sasquatch is too).

Lori Ramonas and Eric Leber from Apres Vin

Different varieties of grape seed oil.

Apres Vin makes the best stuff in my opinion. Instead of taking all seeds from all grapes and pressing them into a buffet of grape seed oil, Apres Vin separates each type of grape seed then presses the oil to create individual types of grape seed oils……….varietal (OMFG I’M LEARNING SOMETHING ON A COOKING BLOG, CLICK THE EXIT BUTTON NOW!!!).

Wait wait wait, taking a seed and pressing it to get oil? WTF.

Well kids, I have some video for you….please be quiet while I turn on the projector.

This is what it looks like from the top. You can see the seeds in there before they are pressed into those tootsie roll looking things. By the way, the whole room smells awesome……like wine! 75 lbs. of seeds will make 1 gallon of grape seed oil, it takes 3,000 lbs. of grapes in order to make that happen!

Who makes “that” happen for them? Jim and the crew over at Fruitsmart, that’s who! They process all of Apres Vin’s seeds and they also process the grape seed flours that Apres Vin sells. Fruitsmart also works with other companies to produce dried seeds, seed oils, fibers and seed powders, fruit extracts, fruit juices, concentrates, purees, and blends. Want to do something with fruit? You go to Fruitsmart (Click).

Varieties of seeds, flours, etc……….

The white bags contain grape seeds

That’s a lot of oil, extracts, and concentrates!

Where do they get the grape seeds from? You’re asking all the right questions today!! Well, the seeds actually come from 25 different wineries in the Yakima Valley. We visited one of the suppliers for a wine tasting.

George Schneider and Patricia O’Brien are the owners of a small boutique winery that produces 800 cases of wine per year. Their focus is quality so they stay as small as they can in order to make sure the best product is going through their doors.  You’re probably thinking to yourself right now, “well, the wine is probably really expensive”. I say to you, “nope”. They produce fantastic bottles of wine for under $20! They don’t sell in retail stores……..the only way you can buy their wine is by coming down to their winery or you can just jump online using this helpful link (VINE HEART)

Eric’s insider tip: If you ever make it to their shop then ask George about his smoked cheese, it is amazing!

Ok………so we know where the grapes come from then the oil and stuff but what about those camelina seeds you were talking about?

Let’s take a little step back in time.……….

We met up with a couple that produce Emmer, Spelt, and Camelina.

Lena Hardt & Rene Featherstone

Emmer

Camelina

Einkorn

Spelt Farm Video!

These are ancient foods that I will get to in a completely separate post but for now just realize this is pretty rare. None of these products are easy to work with. They are completely organic and require a lot of work. Click here for more information from their website. Like I said, I will be covering their products in a separate post because they blew my mind. AMAZING STUFF!!! Sound Bites also makes three varieties of crackers using the emmer flour, spelt flour, and grape seed flour so check it out at the Sound Bites page (Click)

Oil, check. Seeds, check. What am I forgetting?!?!?!

Tom, from Central Bean, showed us his many varieties of high quality beans. Here is a quick video showing you the variety of beans Central Bean has to offer.

Check out Central Bean for more information about their world class beans! click

Beans, Seeds, Oil, plus other ingredients =

Sound Bites Merlot Red Bean Hummus!

Thanks again to everyone involved in this tour. I will be expanding on this post later with separate posts for each of the companies profiled.I had a long, great day, and I’m excited to tell people about the journey their hummus made from farm to table!

I’ll leave the video up for 30 days, it’s a bandwidth killer so I can’t afford to keep it up much longer.

That’s what it looks like when I dance.

Eric