So I realize it's been like... a decade since I posted last, but I have been lazy on my mini-vacation so please cut me some slack! :)
As I mentioned earlier this week, I've been on vacation since Wednesday! I had some extra vacation days so I only worked two days this week, it's been nice to have a few days to myself! On Tuesday night I attended the Miracle 10 Fall Beauty Event in Mississauga, and then on Thursday I made my way out to Woodbridge to participate in a blogger event that Summer Fresh Foods held! I've been a busy bee!
The Summer Fresh event was definitely one of the better blogger events that I've ever been to. It started at 11 in Woodbridge but I was (of course) 15 minutes late. The good news was that I wasn't the only late one. We started by talking with the founder of Summer Fresh, Susan, and her head of Marketing, Lynn! They basically gave us a rundown of how Summer Fresh came about and a little education about the company in general.
Summer Fresh is the #1 brand in Canada for Dips and Hummus! They actually have more than 22 different dips, over 29 flavours of hummus, and all of their hummus and a lot of their dips are gluten free and lactose free. They also are the #1 brand in Canada for salads. They have over 16 flavours of packaged salads and over 66 kinds of bulk salads. They also produce a line of fresh sauces and mini mouse desserts, which are amazing. They say that their most popular product is the Artichoke & Asiago Dip, you've heard of that before right?
So there were about 17 of us in attendance (I'll list the names and then link them to their blog):
Heather @ Tasty Gardener
Marisa @ Tasty D
Julie @ Sober Julie
Melanie @ MBA Mama Musings
Clara @ The Food Sisterhood
Monica @ The Food Sisterhood
Vicky @ Mom Who Runs
Louisa @ Living Lou
Danielle @ Ginger Rose
Zannat @ Food 4 Happiness
Christine @ Life On Manitoulin
Cindy @ Hun What's For Dinner
Jennifer @ One Heart One Family
Nadia @ Life Over Easy
Kathleen @ Could It Be Celiac
Deb @ The Fridge Whisperer
After we had our initial introduction to the company, we went to check out their store that they have right in their office building.
Everything about the offices and the store was so pretty. They're so clean and everything is so organized, obviously by the photos you can see that they are SO clean and it was honestly really cool to see that. After we were done photographing the store (it's so much easier to take pictures of everything when everyone is doing it... so much more comfortable around other blogger!) we drove over to their actual food processing plant, which was at a separate location! I drove with Lynn, the head of their Marketing department. Her and I clicked because we're both tall and we got a few minutes of 1-on-1 time while we were driving over which was nice. She's SO lovely and so pretty and so nice.. it was a pleasure getting to connect with her!
When we got to the plant we broke up into two groups, and my group first hung out with Susan, the founder of Summer Fresh, in a beeeeeauuuuutiful kitchen where we were given forms to fill out and we taste tested some of the products. There were some that weren't up to their standard and we were challenged to try and figure out which products were not able to go to stores. I honestly couldn't find one that I didn't enjoy, and to this day I don't even know which ones weren't up to par! They actually taste test their foods every morning and rate them on a bunch of different scales. It's really neat.
Next we went into the actual processing plant to see how they make all of these amazing dips and salads and hummus. We weren't able to take pictures in the plant, but honestly it was one of the cleanest plants I've ever seen in my life. They have a huge room that's the temperature of an actual fridge that keep all of their fresh veggies cool and they get restocked daily. They use ZERO preservatives in their food so they have to get new stocks of veggies on a daily basis. There are people who actually cut the veggies by hand and send it into the made into hummus or dip. Then we saw how they fill up their little containers, seal them and put them in boxes! Everything is kept so separate from the food, which is the best way to keep the food and the food plant clean.
After the tour we went back to their office building and we were treated to some serious food pampering. They had SO MUCH food!! It was all gorgeously decorated and the place settings were spectacular.
After we checked everything out, they actually had a chef come out and show us how to make quick little appy's and then we got to eat them!
I didn't stay for all of the food being served because it was getting late and I had to drive an hour back home, but this is what I did get to eat and it was AH-mazing!!
They actually gave us spoons of lemon sorbet to "cleanse our pallets" after each serving, so that made me feel like a super intense foodie, it was sooo cool!!
The experience was so cool over all and I was so impressed by everything they showed us!! Not only was the experience cool and I left with a mini food baby, but check out what they sent us home with!
Right!?! I've been eating hummus all week now! Haha, not complaining because it's SO GOOD. Thank you SO MUCH for having me, it was an amazing time and I was so glad to meet some really cool new people!! Here's the picture that Summer Fresh sent us last week:
Aren't they the coolest??
