By Mary Owen
Fresh to You Produce & Garden Center is featuring a new twist to the store’s holiday offerings: custom-made gift packs.
“When we first started gift packs, we offered three to four different options,” said Vince Hendricks, who coordinates gift pack sales. “But then people kept asking if they could substitute different flavors of jams, and as we started carrying other products in the store, they wanted to add some of them in our packs as well. So it became natural for us to start offering custom-made packs.”
Hendricks said people can even bring in items from home to be added to the packs.
“They are extremely popular,” he said. “People love sending something that is local to their friends, family, customers, suppliers and other contacts.”
So popular, in fact, that Fresh to You employees are going to almost double the number of packs they made last year based on interest expressed by customers, Hendricks said.
Everything is 100 percent Oregon-made, from Carl Hendricks’ hand-made wooden crate to the local sauces and goods that make these gift packs special, Hendricks said.
“We have locals who buy our gift packs for out-of-town friends and family, and companies who buy them for holiday gifts for their employees,” he said. “I really enjoy personalizing them for each customer.
Hendricks even creates custom labels for a business’s corporate customers, featured on the gift packs it purchases.
“So the gift pack is truly a personal gift from them,” Hendricks said.
Aside from custom packs, the most popular gift pack is “Oregon’s Berry,” filled with Marionberry syrup and jam, Marionberry-raspberry jam, Marionberry-blueberry jam, and Marionberry-coated hazelnuts. All the old-fashioned jams got a “better than homemade” rating from Sunset magazine, Hendricks said.
The Grandpa’s Breakfast pack features Christine & Rob’s famous oatmeal from Stayton, as well as Fresh to You’s syrup, nuts and raisins. Vincent’s BBQ pack features Tribal Moose sauces from Stayton, the Monastery Mustard from Mount Angel, and Fresh to You specialty sauces and hazelnuts.
Fresh to You has launched a website where folks can “pack” their crate with Oregon-made products, including syrups, barbecue sauces, honey, mustards, nuts, oatmeal, pancake mix and pasta sauces.
“We’re excited for customers to try our new website features,” said Nancy Hendricks, who co-owns the Stayton business with her husband, Carl.
“We can also do orders face-to-face or via e-mail or text messaging,” Vince Hendricks said. “This way the customer can see what it’ll look like before they finalize the order.”
Fresh to You also ships gift packs via UPS to anywhere in the continental United States.
“We don’t charge any extra to package them in the shipping boxes with peanuts and send them out,” he said.
For gift pack prices and other information, call 503-769-9682 or visit freshtoyouproduce.com.
