Dried Fruit Deep Dive: Natural Tart Apples

May 13, 2021

A customer favorite and one of our top-sellers, Bella Viva Orchards’ Natural Tart Apples are packed with nutrients, providing a sweet-yet-tart punch of flavor that bursts in every bite! Not only do they have a crisp texture that our customers love, but nutrients found in tart green apples are associated with lower cholesterol, liver detoxification, improved bone strength, joint health, digestion, and overall gut health.

A well-known source of dietary fiber, just one serving of our California-grown Natural Tart Apples provide over 50% of your daily fiber needs and 15% of your daily potassium. As with all our high-quality fruit products, you won’t find added preservatives or sweeteners of any kind – just delicious tart apples grown by American family farmers! We even leave on the skin to maximize the vitamin, nutrient, and fiber content this tasty fruit has to offer.

Along with their fantastic flavor and nutrient density, they provide a unique flavor profile for manufacturers, developers, and brands.

Enjoy Tart Apples on their own, or pair them with your favorite nut butter such as almond butter or peanut butter! They pair excellently with a glass of champagne or white sangria. If you’re looking add some crunch and high-powered nutrition to your favorite toppings, they can be chopped and added to your favorite granola, muesli, oatmeal, yogurt, and baked goods.

For more information about our Natural Tart Apples, please visit our website or contact us for pricing and sample requests.

Dried Fruit Deep Dive: Cherries

February 18, 2021

The beauty of dried fruit is that it’s supercharged with flavor and nutrients – ideal for nutrient-dense products like bars, bites, clusters, & crumbles. Bella Viva Orchards offers natural dried cherries to a wide range of customers who utilize them in various formulations. The balance of sweet and tart goes a long way in mixes, muesli, granola, baked goods, beverages, and more.

We provide the freshest, most flavor-forward dried fruits without any additives. What’s one of our key points of differentiation? We do not add sugar, sulfur, or preservatives of any kind in the drying process, providing our customers the ability to maintain a clean ingredient deck for their manufactured products. Read on for more info on one of our favorite superfoods – Cherries.

A superfood grown right here in Central California, cherries are overflowing with nutrient density, and their flavor profile combined with our unique process makes for an optimal addition to an ingredient deck. Superfoods connote good health, so let us explore just how packed cherries are with health benefits.

Cherries are known for their anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, including high percentages of polyphenols, carotenoids, vitamin C, and potassium – all of which have been shown to help decrease the risk of chronic diseases such as arthritis, cardiovascular disease, cancer, as well as Alzheimer’s. The main phenol present in cherries are anthocyanins which are also present in wine, often touted as healthy in small amounts. Dried cherries have a higher concentration of nutrients compared with their fresh counterparts due to the drying process. When the water is removed from the fruit, the result is power-packed nutrient and fiber content.

Cherries, a stone fruit, are part of the Rosacea family (think raspberries, strawberries, apples, pears, plums, and roses) and here in the US, the most common varietals are Bing sweet cherries and Montmorency tart cherries. Natural Sweet Cherries have been increasing in demand due to their vibrant flavor, antioxidant properties, and the fact that they contain no added sugars.

You can find more on our natural dried cherries here. Contact us today for more information!

Bella Viva Orchards in the Community: An Interview with Angela Martino

December 2, 2020

‘Bella Viva’ in Italian (loosely) translates to ‘Beautiful Life,’ why does that phrase have meaning and purpose?

The Bella Viva Orchard’s (BVO) name has two significant meanings; first, it emerged from our two daughters’ names, and second, ‘beautiful life’ encapsulates the mission of our company overall. Our mission at Bella Viva Orchards is to enhance and make beautiful the lives of all whom we serve, which includes our employees, our customers, our vendors, and our community.

The notion of ‘giving’ was incorporated as a founding principle in Bella Viva Orchards’ early stage. Why was that important to you and your husband Victor when you first started Bella Viva Orchards?

We are motivated to help others thrive, and we do so by supporting our community and giving to those in need. That commitment comes naturally, both on a personal and business level. Since giving back is a significant part of who we are as Christians, we believe that giving to those in need was essential to our company’s founding principles. Giving is just part of our DNA. Through the years, our motivation to persevere through difficult times has been sustained because we know, in a small way, we have elevated others going through challenging times of their own. We hope to empower others through inspiration and education. To us, empowering others is more than just giving away a product or providing a monetary donation. For example, we participate in school visits and talk about Agribusiness, where we encourage students to consider an entrepreneurial approach to their career. Also, we encourage and welcome students to ask questions about the BVO Drying operation and who we have become as an agribusiness corporation. Together, Victor and I share the Bella Viva Orchards story and our personal mission we help others, connecting all our lessons learned with our passion and commitment to producing dried fruit, which brings healthy nutrition to everyone.

What organizations does Bella Viva Orchards support?

Over the past three decades, domestically we have aligned with 60 or more like-minded organizations in our local community. Many of the requests are renewed each year, and some are one time asks. For example, one organization near and dear to our hearts is “Jessica’s House”, a family service agency that provides grief support for children, teens, young adults, and their families. As a volunteer for Jessica’s House, I have experienced firsthand its role in helping young children express their grief and sorrow. Through our work with Jessica’s House, we have found an abundance of joy. We have witnessed the positive transformation that occurs when these children can see light again as they emerge from a sad and dark period in their life. This is the essence, in our minds, of helping others live a more beautiful life.

It sounds like Bella Viva Orchards does more than provide monetary donations. What takes place behind the scenes with your dried fruit product donations?

At Bella Viva Orchards, we believe that to elevate a person, one must and can satisfy some of their nutritional requirements through delicious, dried fruits. Bella Viva Orchard’s products truly delight the senses as well as provide concentrated and much-needed nutrition. Our goal is to give hope and enhance people’s lives through our bounty – the fruits of our labor. On an international scale, for the past three decades, BVO has partnered with “Gleanings for the Hungry”. A non-profit, faith-based global organization. ‘Gleanings’ purpose and mission is to feed the needy of the world, both physically and spiritually. Since 2011, BVO have donated 122,290,161 grams of fruit, which equates to 3,057,254 servings of dried fruit. Our ongoing partnership with Gleanings affords Bella Viva Orchards this donation opportunity throughout the world. Our two organizations have been able to scale together and grow synergistically over the past 30 years. It brings us tremendous happiness to know that we are feeding people on distant continents from our little pocket of the world in Central California.

Bella Viva Orchards has also provided support for troops overseas. How has Bella Viva Orchards shown its support for the United States Armed Forces?

Bella Viva Orchards received a request called “Support the Troops Campaign” in Afghanistan, and as you can imagine, we were honored and eager to help. Since our dried fruit is non-perishable, we could send several pallets of our most favorite product to Afghanistan without a problem. We even put prayers and uplifting Bible verses on each fruit package to provide encouragement and to show signs of our appreciation for their wartime service. When the soldiers received our fruit, they were very touched by our donation. They sent a dedicated American Flag along with several meaningful notes of gratitude and official certificates as an acknowledgment of their appreciation. This was a very meaningful way for Bella Viva Orchards to give back to our country in a time of need.

Lastly, Bella Viva Orchards is very committed to providing a beautiful life to its employees. What does that mean for the people who work at Bella Viva Orchards?

Our main goal is for our employees to thrive as they use their talents and initiative to propagate our BVO mission and purpose. When we first started Bella Viva Orchards, we had a small team of four, that included me, Victor, and two other employees. Together, we completed every single job within our company. We learned quickly that the fruit drying process requires physical work that is strenuous on one’s body. There is not a task in our production facility that either Victor or I have not done ourselves. We can say without question what skill is needed to get the job done safely and efficiently. That is why it is vital to provide a safe, clean, and welcoming environment for our employees because I know what it takes to be out working on the production line on a hot summer day! Our industry is in a constant state of change due to various California state and U.S. federal regulatory requirements involved with running a food production corporation in 2020. Our hard-working and dedicated employees are a priority as we pursue innovation and success. With this success, we can continue to provide satisfying employment while meeting all mandated food and employee safety requirements. At BVO, we have a family atmosphere in which turn-over is rare. Several employees have been with the company for 20 years or more and they in turn, have watched our children grow up around the business. Every employee as part of our team, is empowered to internalize their value to BVO and to understand their integral contribution in advancing our corporate mission and purpose. We extend thanks with ongoing programs, such as, our quarterly employee appreciation lunches and our safety incentive lunches. As leaders at BVO, we believe that staying acquainted with each employee is essential in appreciating them. Our BVO lunches allow time for conversations surrounding our corporate purpose and core values. We communicate our corporate priorities of safety, efficiency, and corporate pride as we share a meal together. We believe that much good can result when we simply sit down and break bread together. We hope and strive to make Bella Viva Orchards a great place to work. We are grateful for all our vendors, employees, customers around the world.

Discover the Difference with Bella Viva Orchards® at New Hope Network’s Spark Change Virtual Event

November 5, 2020

New Hope’s Spark Change is an online initiative to unite the natural products industry through product discovery, networking, and information. Bella Viva Orchards will share information about their offerings produced using a revolutionary proprietary method of drying fruits naturally without the use of additives, preservatives, or added sugars.

Visit Bella Viva Orchards’ virtual booth at the ‘Spark Change Product Discovery Zone’ on Thursday, November 12, 2020, Noon – 4:30 PM EST and Friday, November 13, 2020, Noon – 2:00 PM EST. There, participants can learn more about Bella Viva’s product line, request samples, live chat, and even set up a video meeting with one of Bella Viva’s team members – all within the platform.

Bella Viva Orchards is committed to retaining the integrity of the fruit’s flavor, nutrition, and texture. “As a market leader, the secret to our success is in the way we remove the moisture while maximizing all of the desirable characteristics of the fresh fruit. You could say we have set the standard in the industry for natural dried fruit,” says Victor Martino, Co-Owner and Innovator, Bella Viva Orchards.

In addition to a virtual exhibit booth, New Hope Network is featuring Victor and Bella Viva Orchards as part of its Spark Change Soapbox video series. Set amongst the orchards in California’s central valley, Victor explains how Bella Viva Orchards sparks change, “Bella Viva Orchards’ products are made without added sugars – making them a wholesome, healthy choice while not compromising flavor. We spark change by giving ingredient buyers and wholesalers a choice – do you want something with preservatives and additives or the real thing, that we grow and provide as nature intended? It’s that simple.”

Peaches and Pears with Passion

Driven by integrity, authenticity, and passion, Victor and his wife Angela founded Bella Viva Orchards in 1988 and are devoted to farming the land that has been in the Martino family since 1943. The business has been supplying apples, cherries, citrus, pears, peaches and more for over 30 years at its California farm and production facility and has more than 60 years of farming and fruit drying experience. Among its more unique product offerings include dried persimmons, blueberries, blood orange slices, orange chips, and diced, ground, and powdered citrus.

By participating in the Spark Change Virtual Event, Bella Viva Orchards is positioned to serve as an innovative leader in the natural products industry. “Bella Viva Orchards is my life’s work. The fabric of my being is my concern for my fellow humans. Our goal is to enhance the human experience and bring pleasure to the senses and nutrition to the body. This is my vocation – this is what we do,” says Victor Martino.

Bella Viva Orchards not only supports natural and organic agriculture but is committed to aligning with like-minded companies to form socially responsible strategic alliances. Victor adds, “We are vigorously working towards building relationships with like-minded companies and individuals who want to be a part of the movement to provide healthy food choices to the marketplace.”

Spark Change Product Discovery Zone

For more information on Bella Viva Orchards at New Hope Network’s Spark Change Discovery Zone, visit www.sparkchangenow.com. For more details about working with Bella Viva Orchards, email Brean Bettencourt at BBettencourt@bellaviva.com or visit bellavivawholesale.com.

New Hope Network is a leading producer of Natural Products Expo West and Expo East Conferences, which were both cancelled due to the pandemic. Spark Change Virtual was an idea born as a way to unite the industry online, with networking opportunities, presentations and product discovery.

About Bella Viva Orchards, Inc.

Founded in 1988, Bella Viva Orchards is in the heart of California’s “fruit basket” and extensively supplies high quality dried fruits and raw ingredients to many of North America’s leading snack companies, co-manufacturers, and specialty and natural retailers. Bella Viva Orchards, Inc. implements a proprietary method of drying fruit without preservatives or additives of any kind while maintaining color, nutritional content, and integrity of flavor never before achieved within the industry. The entire collection of dried fruits that Bella Villa Orchards produces is minimally processed, free of artificial flavors, colors, preservatives, and additives. The company practices sustainability efforts and reduces its carbon footprint by upcycling and recycling more than 95% of the waste from its production facility, with the by-products of finished goods going towards livestock feed or compost. For more information about Bella Viva Orchards, visit bellavivawholesale.com.

Contact

Steven Hoffman, Founder/Managing Director, Compass Natural Marketing, 303.807.1042, steve@compassnaturalmarketing.com