Smallhold

I am SO EXCITED to OFFICIALLY announce the Smallhold MUSHROOM PESTO, launching today! This is a nutty, deeply savory, a little earthy, subtly sweet, and definitely mushroomy spread / stir in / cooking shortcut that will completely blow your mind. Put it on pasta, sandwiches, eat it with cheese, marinate something, whatever you want. We’re still learning what you can do with it. It’s truly unlike anything you’ve ever tasted. The Pesto is the brainchild of the Smallhold Innovations Department, run by Adam DeMartino, Adrianna Rae Baeza, and Travis Breihan, utilizing all the extra trimmings / mushrooms that don’t make it into the clamshells that you can find in grocery stores all over the country. It’s an upcycled product. You can find over 1/2 lb of mushrooms (oysters, trumpets, oh my) in each of these pesto containers! They’re simmered with roasted onion, garlic, spices, and swirled into a literal mushroom container. It’s already won a Nexty, which shows just how tasty this stuff is. Thank you to the Smallhold Marketing team for making this launch such a success. Thank you Abigail Knoff, Hayley Kats, and Martha Abbott. To start, we’re on the shelves of our favorite independent grocers. You can find the very first tubs of Mushroom pesto at The Meat Hook, Mccalls , Pop Up Grocer, Perlandra, Thoms Market, Wheatsville Food Co-op, Carlas, and more... some really, big news on the way. Eat more mushrooms.

Thank you Whitney B. and The Guardian, you get it. Mushrooms are having a moment, but specifically specialty mushrooms (lion's mane, oysters, trumpets, etc.), with Smallhold leading the charge. Now, it's time to admit that we're moving past the moment, and now it's a movement. Whitney goes deep with Elly Truesdell and Errol Schweizer, digging into what makes a food trend and where it can go from here (hint - a lot more mushrooms). Thank you for spreading the word about the mushroom industry and letting us tell a little bit of our story. Thank you Adam DeMartino, Abigail Knoff, Aurora Porter, Samuel Bolis, Gary Indjian, Leslie Nelms, Adrianna Rae Baeza, Travis Breihan, and so many more for making this happen. https://lnkd.in/d9jGPi_6

Our wonderful impact manager, Travis Breihan, has been listed as one of The Packer's 25 people leading a change in fresh produce. Travis has been with us since 2020 and has been expanding our environmental impact through our compost and dehydration programs. Thank you Travis, we appreciate you!! https://lnkd.in/dsfMd7yQ

Another year, another Smallhold mention in Whole Foods Market top 10 food trend reports. This time, though, it's more important than ever - "Putting the "plant" back in "plant-based" Why bother with all those complex veggie burgers? Consumers want to eat less meat, though the large entities out there aren't creating products people actually want to incorporate into their day-to-day diet. Eat a mushroom (ideally a Smallhold mushroom). Simple, unprocessed, single-ingredient meat alternative... it's meat that grows on trees. The only problem is it's not plant-based... it's fungi-based, or tree-based (grow on the base of trees) as Adam DeMartino likes to say.

In case you missed it, Smallhold was on Marketplace on NPR with Kai Ryssdal last night, NATIONWIDE. We took them on a tour of our Southern California Macrofarm, got to see the lions mane (blobs) and the blue oysters, and talked about everything Smallhold and mushrooms. Having over 8 minutes to talk to millions of people about mushrooms while they cook dinner or sit in traffic is a milestone. Listen to it below (forgot the link in the previous post). If you didn't know already, both Adam DeMartino and I were both DJs on 90.1 WRUV FM Burlington FM for years so you could say I have a voice for radio. If any of you will be at International Fresh Produce Association Conference (IFPA) next week, stop by our booth (#1684) to see a Minifarm in action and eat some amazing mushroom dishes.

We tried to keep this a secret for as long as possible, but the cat is out of the bag. The Smallhold Innovations Team has been hard at work developing the next big thing in mushrooms - the SMALLHOLD MUSHROOM PESTO, and it just won a NEXTY for BEST NEW CONDIMENT! We haven’t even launched yet! If you don’t know Adrianna Rae Baeza yet, you should. The amount of care, organization, and perseverance this person has when she’s developing products is inspiring, and I’m not surprised at all that this is already an award-winning product. Also, thank you to Adam DeMartino, Travis Breihan, Abigail Knoff, Martha Abbott, Aurora Porter, Gary Indjian, Leslie Nelms, Benjamin Parker, and so many others for all your support with getting it to where it is now. If you’re wondering what got the judges at New Hope Network excited (apparently they ate the whole tub) it’s made with our dried blue oyster, trumpet, and shiitake mushrooms as well as roasted onion, garlic, sunflower, and lots of other good stuff to deliver a serious hit of umami. It’s not your typical pesto, there’s no basil to be found. It has a beautiful dark brown color and can live many lives as a highly addictive dip, spread, or sauce. This represents a whole new chapter for Smallhold and the next phase in our mission to get people to eat more mushrooms - in every way possible. It’s going to full production very very soon, and we’ll let you know when you can find it on shelves... we just couldn’t keep it secret for much longer, so we hope you enjoy the sneak peak. Bonus pic of my son Oscar our #1 taste tester licking the bottom of the container because it's that good. <3