This is a huge deal in our industry, and deeply gratifying for Venise and I. "The Good Food Foundation exists to celebrate, connect, empower and leverage the passionate and engaged, yet often overlooked, players in the food system who are driving towards tasty, authentic and responsible food in order to humanize and reform our American food culture." (Good Food Foundation.) Over 2,000 entries from all 50 states are submitted each year, and Marionberry Mint rose to the top.

The Good Food Foundation exists to celebrate makers like us "swimming upstream to create and share the kind of food we all want to eat: tasty, authentic and responsible." Any crafter whose products meet the rigorous production standards can be a member of the Good Food Guild and attend one of their mercantiles, which are like stripped down trade shows, intended to remove the bells and whistles and focus on forging relationships between makers and merchants. Food crafters can also enter their products in a variety of awards categories. In order to gain a finalists spot in the Awards, products must score highest in a Blind Tasting and meet the environmental and social responsibility standards of the Good Food Awards.  

Mint can be a very difficult infusion, with it easily tasting of toothpaste or bitterness. Ours is bright, refreshing, and alive with flavors of the Pacific Northwest in summer, just as we intended. In addition, our production of the syrup (like all of our syrup flavors) meets the rigorous standards for the foundation. These standards include using only organic sweeteners, all non-GMO ingredients, no artificial ingredients, all ingredients are traceable to the farm level, and grown without the use of synthetic herbicides, pesticides, fungicides or fertilizers.

We grow our mint in big stock pools to prevent it slowly taking over the farm with its invasive nature, and baby it with plenty of water all summer long so that we can reap many harvests in a season. The marionberries we source from local farm friends Sidhu Farms in the Orting Valley. Their berries are grown on a three generation family owned and operated farm without the use of synthetic inputs. The natural tartness of the marionberries help to preserve the syrup for shelf stability, involving no additional inputs beyond the delicious flavors themselves. The Good Food Foundation also considers the maker, and only accepts makers in good standing with the food community. Our Rhubarb Vanilla syrup was a runner up in 2020, but this is our first experience as a finalist product.

In the past in the food world, certifications for responsible practices and awards for superior taste were distinct – one honored social and environmental responsibility, and the other acknowledged craftsmanship and flavor. The Good Food Awards recognizes that truly good food – the kind that brings people together and builds strong, healthy communities – contains all of these ingredients. This sentiment nicely parallels our mission to grow and source ingredients to make delicious products that give back, through great taste and investment, to agricultural communities. This is truly what we've all about, so the honor is great.

This week Marionberry Mint, along with all other finalist products, is featured for sale on the Good Food Awards virtual mercantile. In January, we will travel to San Francisco to the Good Food Foundation Awards Weekend to meet the other finalists, watch the awards show, taste and buy from the nearly 200 Winners, and celebrate this accomplishment. To meet the other Finalists, visit the Good Food Foundation's site here.