Plenty & Grace Co Ltd. dba The Preservatory
Plenty & Grace Food Hub & Innovation Centre, a 5000-square-foot shared-use food production facility, we designed and built for The Preservatory, as well as to support B.C.’s artisan food producers and Fraser Valley farmers. We are part of the B.C. Food Hub Network, which aims to foster growth and innovation in the processing sector through improved industry access to facilities, equipment, technology, technical services and business support. We’re creating a cooperative community of like-minded entrepreneurs who share innovative and creative values producing delicious products from B.C. grown ingredients to be shared with the world.
The Preservatory, is our farm created artisanal food production company, specializing in seasonal preserves. The Preservatory preserves are made in copper kettles using traditional cooking methods and innovative flavour pairings. Using ‘at their peak’ in-season fruits, much of which is grown on our farm, Vista D’oro. We’ve been proudly making fruit shine since 2002.
Seriously - Jam…who knew? We found the ideal location for our family home in 1997– five acres on Campbell Valley Park. We proceeded to build our home, plant orchards and a small greenhouse for heirloom tomatoes and herbs. We also built a carriage house – which began its life as a cooking school. We started attending Farmers Markets to sell our fresh fruits and to direct market the cooking classes. Our orchard began to take shape and I quickly realized adding value to the fruit would be a more sustainable model then selling apples by the pound. Before I knew it the preserves were outselling everything else we were loading onto the truck.
Whole Foods came calling in 2004 and that’s when I decided to continue to create preserves for each season and one copper pot quickly grew to six. I began to obsess about flavour combining and before I knew it we had over 24 offerings. From the beginning we did the preserves seasonally. Using the fruit at it’s peak is the one true secret to jam making – I’ve never used ‘jam’ fruit, the flat of berries too soft to sell at the end of the market day, the natural pectin left at that time is little to none and makes an inferior product. My philosophy “if I wouldn’t eat it, I won’t use it for jam’ is just one way we make sure we are producing the best jam with each and every kettle.
The market for the Preserves grew rapidly and we decided to automate a few of the steps – namely filling, capping and labeling which led to building the Preservatory 1.0 in 2012,
fast forward ten years later, the Preservatory preserves are in over 750 stores across North America and we are now working out of the Plenty & Grace Food Hub & Innovation Centre, a 5000-square-foot shared-use food production facility, I designed and built for The Preservatory 2.0 as well as to support B.C.’s artisan food producers and Fraser Valley farmers.
Oh, the reality of living the dream…not for the faint of heart or the lazy of body! No rest for the wicked they say – gotta work on the wicked part a bit I think.
Happy Jammin’, Lee
Founder, CEO and Jam ‘Master
Plenty & Grace Co Ltd.
Dba The Preservatory
www.thepreservatory.com