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Stewart & Jasper offer a taste of the Valley's bounty
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BY ALYSSON AREDAS

Stewart & Jasper Orchards are known for their almonds, but with four retail locations to stock in Newman, Modesto, Patterson and Monterey, the local farmers do not limit their publicly available inventory to just nuts.

Customers who visit these locations can browse from a selection of dried fruits, gourmet sauces, salad dressings, popcorn and more—with over 50 percent of the store’s inventory produced by Stewart & Jasper Orchards.

“Retail stores are a good venue to try things out and see how the public likes different types of almonds and flavors,” said owner and president Jim Jasper.

According to food technician Harley Brinkman, Stewart & Jasper Orchards has greatly expanded upon its glazed and seasoned almond offerings, with new glazed flavors including caramel apple, snickerdoodle, birthday cake, peaches and cream and root beer float.

Seasoned flavors have also increased, with new offerings like blue cheese cracked pepper, angry spice, dill ranch and jalapeno cheddar.

“We like to create new flavors and see how customers respond,” said Brinkman. “Everyone has wanted a spicy almond, so we developed the jalapeno cheddar flavored almond.

“It’s something different than what customers are used to. It’s a big hit right now,” added Brinkman.

Brinkman also noted that the company has encountered success in other retail offerings, one of which is the almond butter that is available in vanilla, honey and natural flavors.

“People love our vanilla almond butter because it is so unique in texture,” said Brinkman. “It is smooth and creamy and the taste of vanilla is really good.”

Additionally, customers are invited to taste over 20 wines at the Modesto location and over 16 wines at the Patterson location.

According to Jason Jasper, who works with his father on the retail aspect of Stewart & Jasper Orchards, the business has approximately 300 different California wines to offer consumers.

“We are California farmers and we figured we should support California wine producers as well,” said Jason Jasper.

The work does not stop there for Jason Jasper, however, since he has aspirations to further enhance the business’ variety of products and flavor profiles, with plans to unveil new products prior to the holidays. He also aims to delve more into wholesale opportunities.

“We are always trying to get better and create new products, so we are busy fine tuning what we have,” he said.

Jason Jasper also revealed that Stewart & Jasper Orchards began selling some of their products on Amazon.com in November in addition to their online store as an effort to increase product accessibility for more consumers.

“We want to continue with the exposure of what we are doing,” said Jason Jasper. “We want to get out there to make our products available to more people.”

For more information, visit

stewartandjasper.com

.