Armed with a fresh degree and what I believe to be a strong business acumen, I was able to launch my small family business in 2001. I had come across a hand-me-down family recipe book from the motherland of the Czech Republic, and being just ‘nutty’ enough to take the leap of faith, it became the muse and heart of what we do. Our products are meticulously crafted in small batches with adherence to quality, taste and freshness. For this reason, our products are not widely available, we do not wholesale, we do not have a permanent retail presence and for the most part, we do not ship, preferring instead to control the entire process ourselves, from the earliest part of production to saying thank you to the customer after bagging their purchase. In many ways, this is limits our opportunities to bring our products to the consumer, however we feel that no one is as passionate as we are about our products and that the customer gets rewarded with an entire experience seeing our passion on display.
Making flavoured almonds has been a family tradition for years. Each winter as the Christmas season approached, I would cloister myself into the family kitchen and produce delicious tasting flavoured nuts. After numerous positive responses to these flavoured treats, I decided to sell my creations at Christmas craft fairs and summer festivals around the province and have been doing this on a full time basis for the past eleven years. The entire production process begins by selecting only premium raw almonds and hazelnuts directly from the growers. With only the best and the freshest nuts selected, I begin the arduous flavouring process. All the flavours are original family recipes having been developed with the citrus nut recipe passed down from my great grandmother many years ago. Working in a health department approved kitchen and abiding by all the Food Safe principals, I begin by slowly oven roasting the almonds and hazelnuts until they are golden brown. After about 22 minutes and once the nuts are golden- roasted, I then marinade them into one of my various all- natural flavourings. Here, I try to use as many local ingredients as possible. For the citrus taste, I use actual orange peel and real lemon juice. The honey roast almonds are made with pure BC honey. And my garlic almonds are flavoured with fresh garlic cloves grown at the nearby family farm. Using fresh, local and premium ingredients exemplifies the character of my small enterprise, the quality of my products and the pride of my family tradition. Once the initial flavouring is complete, I re-roast the almonds and hazelnuts to bring out all their natural aromas and flavours, and to complete the adhesion process of the different ingredients to the nut. With the roasting and flavouring process completed, I then package the confections into either cello bags or cones. With the cones, I make each bow from a spool of ribbon, attach a gift card to the bow, and then attach the bow and the card to the packaged nuts. Once the hazelnuts and almonds have been weighed into cones, and the bow and card has been attached, I place the cones into boxes and seal the boxes.
We respectfully acknowledge that the Filberg Festival takes place on the unceded traditional territory of the K'omoks First Nation, Gila 'kasla...Hay ch q'a'.
