There are many ways to implement blueberries into your menu for your customers to enjoy. Wawona Frozen Foods offers its foodservice clients fresh frozen blueberries as a year-round staple to use in traditional breakfast and dessert dishes. Chefs have expanded the menu uses of blueberries as their popularity have skyrocketed in recent year as diners have recognized it as an antioxidant superfood and a leading source of vitamin C and potassium.
Here are ten ways to use blueberries in your menu:
Salads
Pancakes/Waffles
Juice
Bran Muffins
Oatmeal
Fruit Kabobs
Smoothies
Parfaits
Quesadillas
On their own!
To utilize blueberries in your operation, contact us at Wawona today!
The name Smittcamp is synonymous with entrepreneurial ventures in the Central Valley. With its recent Family Owned Business Award in the large business category, the family continues to build on its business legacy.
Wawona Frozen Foods, founded in 1963 by Earl Smittcamp, specializes in growing and freezing of fresh fruits — namely, peaches. In 1945, after returning from fighting in the Pacific Theater of World War II, he and his wife Muriel bought a 200-acre spread in Clovis called Wawona Ranch.
Wawona began as the 15th largest frozen peach operation in the United States. Today, it is the only one left of the original group.
Earl instilled a sense of discipline and hard work in his four children.
“My father being a Marine, each day he had us stand and salute as the Marine Corps Hymn played,” Bill said with a laugh. “I didn’t put my kids through the same drill.”
Today, the company ships more than 100 million pounds of frozen fruit annually and is the largest peach processing facility in the nation, turning out 65 to 75 million pounds in about 120 days of its season.
Wawona Frozen Foods is being led by both the second and third generations of the family. Bill Smittcamp is president and CEO, with Bill’s son Blake Smittcamp serving as vice president of sales.
A key part of the company’s success, Bill said, is treating everyone like family. He said Wawona Frozen Foods has had employees who worked for the company a whopping 55 to 60 years.
Blair Smittcamp-Martin, Bill’s daughter and Wawona’s marketing and special projects coordinator, said that when you’re born into a family with a business, you’re in the business.
“When you have a family business, you’re in it from the very beginning. My brothers and I started working at the fruit stand at the age of 10, and then on the line, and now we are at an official capacity with Wawona,” Blair said.
The Smittcamp family is also synonymous with philanthropy and advocacy. In June, Bill testified at the U.S. House of Representatives AG Committee meeting to urge Congress to ensure frozen foods are included and promoted in nutrition programs in the writing of the 2023 farm bill.
Wawona Frozen Foods has been a Best of the Central Valley Winner for Best Family Owned Business from 2017-2021. In 2021, Bill was awarded the Fresno Chamber of Commerce’s Agriculturalist of the Year award.
“The key is the family approach. We take ownership of what we have. Every peach that goes by is being looked at by someone — its family. Every employee that is looking for a defect in our fruit is part of the family,” Smittcamp said.
The below article was originally published in The Business Journal on July 29th to celebrate Wawona Frozen Foods winning the Large Business Category of the 2022 Family Owned Business Awards (FOBA).
Summer is here and do you know what that means? Peaches. While I love all in-season summer produce, to me there’s not much that beats the deliciousness of biting into a fresh peach and having juice run down your hands. As a produce enthusiast, not only do I love consuming my peaches raw, but they add the most incredible flavor to a variety of summer dishes. Check out four of my favorite peach recipes below:
Grilled Pork Tenderloin with Grilled Peaches – With grilling on everyone’s mind this time of year, why not add fruit to the mix. This recipe really hits the mark with flavor and nutrition!
Grilled Halibut with Jalapeño-Peach Relish – If you’re trying to consume more fish these days, try adding peaches and jalapeños to the grill, too and make a knock-your-socks-off jalapeño-peach relish that goes well with just about everything.
Peach Rosé Bellini – What pairs well with a delicious grilled dinner or appetizer? A fancy drink of course! With four simple ingredients, you have an elevated drink that is sure to please the crowd. Sober curious? Try replacing the sparkling rosé with sparkling cider.
Voila! There you have it—four tasty recipes that will have you eating (and drinking) peaches all summer-long!
For National Peach Ice Cream Day, make sure that you have plenty of these golden beauties on hand with the help of Wawona Frozen Foods! Treat your guests to the holiday’s official recipe or a scratch-made peach milkshake. Another idea, place a scoop or two of peach ice cream on top of a still-warm peach cobbler. Or, top off the ice cream with an indulgent peach wine! Try your hand at making your own with this detailed guide. Just be sure to stock up on fresh or frozen peaches in bulk, because these summery sweets are guaranteed to be popular menu items! Wawona Frozen Foods has all of the answers for your peachy needs.
The American Heart Association says that peaches are perfect for summertime, fuzzy and full of nutrients! Typically in season from July to September, peaches are a staple of summertime salads, meals and desserts. They’re also a popular choice for nutritionists, who say their sweet taste makes it easier for people to add them to their diet.
Known for their golden orange color and delicate, fuzzy skin, peaches are packed with vitamin C and other antioxidants, which research suggests may help prevent heart disease, stroke and cancer. The fresher and more ripe they are, the more antioxidants they contain.
They’re low in fat, high in potassium, and free of cholesterol and sodium. They also are loaded with fiber, both soluble and insoluble, which improves satiety and can contribute to good digestion and gut health.
Peaches work well when paired with any number of foods. They can be added to salads or served with a scoop of yogurt. Peaches also can add a surprisingly sweet taste to salsa, be blended into beverages like tea or smoothies, or even grilled in a kabob with other fresh fruit.
If peaches are frozen shortly after being picked at peak ripeness, they maintain their nutritional value. At Wawona, we do just that! Wawona Frozen Foods is the industry leader in the growing, processing and production of fresh frozen peaches. Whether conventional or organic, Wawona grows and processes both Freestone and Clingstone varieties of peaches and offers year-round availability – in many different styles and packs to meet the product needs of customers.
To learn more about all of the benefits of peaches, click here:
When the summer heat hits hard that’s where frozen mango desserts come in handy. We’ve rounded up several desserts from sherbet to popsicles to help you beat the heat! Use Wawona’s delicious frozen mangos to create these amazing treats for your customers!
Grilled Mango with Balsamic Caramel & Vanilla Ice Cream
If you haven’t already tried grilled mango on your menu, maybe adding ice cream will entice you! When placed on the grill, the sugars in mango caramelizes adding a delicious depth to the flavor. A scoop of ice cream and warm balsamic caramel glaze drizzled on top is just a bonus!
Mango & Raspberry Sour Cream Sorbet
Fresh juicy mangos, raspberries, light sour cream, and little sugar goes into a food processor and the rest is taken care of by your freezer. What’s so great about this no-fuss recipe is that it doesn’t require churning, and the sour cream really helps boost the fat content to keep the texture smooth and satisfying to the tastebuds.
Mango Berry Pops
Mangos mixed with berries is one of the best summer combos! And better yet, Wawona has all of the ingredients to help you make these delicious treats.
Click below to learn about more “cool” options for your operation!
Mangos are an excellent source of vitamin A, vitamin C and folate. Mangos are also a good source of vitamin B6, fiber and copper. Mangos contain no fat, saturated fat, cholesterol or sodium. Adding mangos into your menu is easy with the help of Wawona Frozen Foods! Here are some recipe ideas:
Mango Lassie Smoothie Bowl
Combine the yogurt, orange juice, ¼ cup water, cardamom in a blender and blend until smooth. Add the mango and chia seeds and blend until very smooth and thick, about 2 minutes. Taste for sweetness and add honey or agave, if you desire. This is light and refreshing for the summer!
Quinoa Chicken Bowl
Add grilled chicken, quinoa, black beans, corn, and any other vegetables you desire with mango, adding cilantro and lime for a little pop!
Tropical Fruit Guacamole
This sweet and spicy version of guac is the perfect topping for summer fish tacos! Make guacamole as you would, adding diced mango. Add a serrano pepper to spice it up, too!
Finish off National Mango Month in style by adding mangos to your menu all summer long.
During the American Frozen Food Institute (AFFI) AFFI-CON 2022, nearly 500 companies and more than 1,100 attendees gathered in Dallas, Texas to meet one-on-one and discuss current and future business opportunities. The data is clear – frozen food has been a pandemic powerhouse and growth already outpaced total food and beverages in the three years preceding the pandemic.
Supply Chain
2021 data indicate strong results in light of the supply chain challenges. As Lyons Wyatt put it, “we cannot sell what we do not have.” In-stock rates progressively worsened as 2021 went on. February 2021 was the high-water mark, with an in-stock position of 91.4%. November was the category’s lowest in-stock position, at 85.8%. “This means the resulting assortment has to work harder to achieve the same sales levels. With levels such as these, it is important to optimize product allocation, leverage the information to assess competitive risk and understand the potential loss of core buyers,” Lyons Wyatt explained.
Inflation
Inflation was one of the biggest stories affecting food retailing in 2021 and frozen food was no exception, though the experience was different than for other categories in the food and beverage sector. Frozen food had a 3.6% increase in the price per unit, which was far below the average across all foods and beverages, at more than 6.0%. This inflationary difference means that dollar sales for frozen did not experience the same sales bump as some of the other departments across the store, where inflation may have reached the high single-digit or even double-digit territory.
Frozen Fruit
Mixed fruit items stood out as sales winners, a trend that is expected to continue in 2022. Frozen fruit also found pockets of growth in a number of sustainability-related claims, with above-average growth for recyclable and water conservation.
“Fruit has a distinct opportunity for continued growth,” said Lyons Wyatt. “Make the section easier to shop, with a good assortment and innovation in packaging and size. Entry price points and smaller bag options can be ideal to engage with smaller households and those with less freezer capacity.”
Click here to learn more about the outlooks on the frozen food industry for the future!
Do you know that mangos contain over 20 different vitamins and minerals, helping to make them a superfood? Some nutrients in mango may help support your body’s immune system.
Add Mangos to Your Diet to Help Support a Healthy Immune System
In addition to their amazing fruity flavor, mangos contain several key nutrients which may help your body’s natural immune system to work properly. These include important micronutrients such as Vitamin A, Vitamin B6 and Vitamin C. Just one 3/4 cup serving of tasty mango provides 8% of your daily Vitamin A, 8% of your daily vitamin B6, and 50% of your daily vitamin C!
Three Essential Micronutrients in Mango – A, B6, C
Vitamin A, Vitamin B6 and Vitamin C are essential micronutrients. This means that your bodies cannot manufacture them and therefore they have to be included in the food and drink you consume. You should be able to get all the vitamin A, Vitamin B6 and Vitamin C you need by eating a varied and balanced diet.
Adding mango to your daily regimen, whether in meals, in drinks (such as smoothies) or as healthy snacks, helps to get your required amount of these three key nutrients which help support a strong immune system.
Click here to try a few mango recipes with the help of Wawona’s frozen fruit!
You can incorporate fruit into your menu by making peach cobbler, strawberry shortcake, mango sticky rice, blueberry pie, apple pie, pineapple upside-down cake, or fruit parfaits. We have all of the fruit that you need to make your menu shine this summer!
