Picture this: You come in from the cold and pour yourself a cup of hot chocolate to warm yourself. Your lips tremble in anticipation of the velvety liquid while your nostrils fill with the rich chocolate aroma. The flavour is delicious, rich, full of chocolatey flavour… and it’s SPICY! The added heat – that of the chilli pepper – quickly fills you with a warmth, ever more comforting than plain chocolate ever could and it doesn’t hurt or burn. It’s an intense experience.

Created by Greg Brooks for the Peppermaster(R) brand. Chili Chocolate: a delicately peppered chocolate sauce made with pure, organic, fair trade dark chocolate, heavy cream, tahitian vanilla and infused with the fresh essence and personality of the chili pepper.

In addition to enriching this wintery beverage, this unctuous sauce can be used in desserts, such as Poire Belle Helene or chocolate mousse, or even as the secret ingredient for a decadent chili con carne.  “I am a fan of both chocolate and pepper”, explains Greg, “so, I played around in the kitchen until I managed to finesse this chocolate sauce. It’s one of our best sellers – we sold hundreds of them at the One of a Kind Show in Toronto that took place from November 24 through December 4.”

Chili Chocolate is part of the ever-expanding Peppermaster brand product line that marries the sweet heat. For the majority of these products, the level of heat is kept relatively moderate, just enough to notice and to enhance the flavours of the other ingredients in the product. Raspberries in Heat is a raspberry coulis full of life that can be used as readily in a dessert as for cooking with duck or pork. Ginger Lime is a light sauce, mildly spicy but full of flavour, like the Raspberries in Heat, it can be used for making cocktails or in asian cooking. Red Savina Mango positively glows with the flavour of mango enhance by the spicy red savina habanero – it is as exquisite as a dessert sauce as it is an inspiration for Thai cooking.

Each of these products like many of the rest of the Peppermaster  brand line, are available in two heat levels, mild and spicy.

– Translated from vf: La Douceur Épicée de vivre by Suzanne Morel, available here.

Imaginez: vous rentrez du froid et préparez un bon chocolat chaud pour vous réchauffer. Vous approchez vos lèvres du liquide velouté, vos narines remplies d’effluves chocolatées. Le goût est délicieux, riche, plein de saveurs… et épicé! Cette autre chaleur – celle du piment – vous remplit d’un confort interne en quelques secondes, sans piquer ou brûler. C’est d’une intense douceur.

Voilà ce que Greg Brooks a créé pour Peppermaster – le Chili Chocolat: une sauce au chocolat légèrement pimentée, faite à partir de pur chocolat biologique, de crème épaisse, de vanille de Tahiti et de jus de piment rouge infusé dans le chocolat. Autant que dans votre tasse de chocolat chaud d’hiver, cette sauce onctueuse s’utilise dans vos desserts, comme la Poire Belle Hélène ou la mousse au chocolat et est l’ingrédient secret pour un chili con carne original. “Je suis friand de chocolat et de piment, et j’adore la douceur épicée”, explique Greg, “j’ai donc expérimenté en cuisine jusqu’à ce que j’arrive à cette sauce Chili Chocolat“. C’est un de nos articles les plus vendus – nous en avons vendus des centaines au salon des métiers d’art de Toronto One of A Kind, qui a eu lieu du 24 novembre au 4 décembre.”

Chili Chocolat” fait partie d’une gamme grandissante chez Peppermaster – celle des produits sucrés-pimentés. Pour la plupart de ces produits le niveau de piment est maintenu modéré, mais suffisant pour faire ressortir de manière marquée le goût des autres ingrédients. Framboises Impétueuses est un coulis de framboise plein de vitalité, utilisé dans des desserts ou pour cuisiner le canard et le porc. Gingembre et Lime est une sauce légère, peu piquante mais pleine de saveur, utilisée comme liqueur dans des cocktails ou des recettes chinoises. Red Savina à la Mangue est une sauce à la mangue augmentée d’un habanéro energique – il est exquis à la fois en dessert ou dans des mets d’inspiration thaïe.

Ces produits Peppermaster, existent en différents niveaux pimentés, épicés et doux.

Pour la version anglaise de cet article, cliquez ici.

Suzanne Morel

It is an absolute given that USAID is helpful. They have done and are doing wonderful things helping farmers the world over improve their crop management skills and farm output. They spend a great deal of money financing agronomists to help farmers ensure their plantations are working at peak capacity.

What they don’t tell you is that their hands are tied by a little known law signed in 1986. Called the Bumpers’ Amendment, this law is mentioned several times on their website, but never actually defined in any way. It is important because it determines most specifically how USAID funds are allowed to be spent, or more specifically, how they are NOT allowed to be spent.

The amendment stipulates that “none of the funds to be appropriated … may be available for any testing or breeding, feasibility study, variety improvement or introduction, consultancy, publication, or training in connection with the growth or production in a foreign country for export if such export would compete in world markets with a similar commodity grown or produced in the United States.”

In more common terms, what this means, is that Farmers who grow crops that compete in world markets with American crops CANNOT receive funding from USAID.

Clear enough? Here are even simpler terms.

Americans sell rice, soybeans and sugar into the Haitian markets. Although these three food staples (among others) are able to be grown on Haitian soil and are the key to Haitian food security, if a farmer plants either of them, they will more than likely be cut off from USAID aid, so they do not, nay will not grow them. No Haitian farmer is willing to cut off their nose to spite their face in the hopes that maybe they might survive without the help of USAID.

But, how does USAID help Haiti get sovereign and self-sufficient as it pertains to food security? Well, technically it doesn’t. What it does do is turn Haiti into a Nation even further beholden to the US for its food staples, and unable to feed itself, even if it does manage to create farms and farms the nation over who are capable of growing export crops. Perpetuating the wrong that was done to this nations’ farmers when the tariffs on rice and other foodstuffs was reduced from 30% (which protected the Haitian growers and is standard in most first world countries), to 3% by the Clinton Administration, simply hamstrings the farmers.

A glowing example of changing the economic status of a country through USAID programs is the history of Malawi. USAID has been working in Malawi since the 1960′s. They have taken a nation in abject poverty and turned it into a nation where the average income is still less than $1 per day, but whose economy is indeed growing, but how long should it take? 50 years on, USAID continues to provide approximately $100 million per year in food aid to Malawi. Sadly, what Malawi shows us is that USAID is willing to contribute to a nation’s food security over a long period of time, so long as the recipients do not compete with the US export markets. We’d rather it not be 50 years on before Haiti begins to see progression on the food security front.

Most recently, we have seen in the news the affect that the Bumpers’ Amendment can have on reconstruction projects in Afghanistan. A USAID project was supposed to replace poppy growing for the opium trade with cotton fields. The Bumpers Amendment kicked into gear and caused the project to be rejected for funding because the cotton would compete with the US market. So much for the cotton for poppies idea.

The problem that the Bumpers Amendment raises for Haitian farmers is that it creates a high probability that Haitian farmers who plant soy, sugar or rice and possibly corn, coconut or palm for use as oil, will not be eligible for funding. The aid promised to Haitians for the reconstruction will not be forthcoming. Worse, in the event that emergency support is required, the Haitian farmers would again not be eligible because they compete with US farmers.

For more on the topic, we invite you to click here to read the report:  Feeding Dependency, Starving Democracy: USAID Policies in Haiti, From Grassroots International, 6 March 1997 we believe it is entirely relevant today.

Author’s note: USAID has been asked repeatedly about the Bumper’s Amendment and has as yet refused any response to inquiries.

Greg Brooks, owner of Brooks Pepperfire Foods Inc of Rigaud Quebec shows contempt to ‘Harper Government’ Economic Action Plan. This plan, approved by CED, was to assist in a long sought $211,000 expansion to improve capacity for this niche market co-pack food processing company.

According to CBC news (@CBCNews: http://bit.ly/ghxNyS Jump forward to 10:43 to see the story) 3% of recipients of an approval for financial assistance from Canada Economic Development goes unused. That’s $1.8 billion dollars promised and not spent.

Now I hear that they are taking $26 million and are spending it on their current advertising program (is this amount included in reported Election spending limits?)that references frequently the ‘Harper Government’ Economic Action Plan.
And we thought we were dealing with the Government of Canada. When did our government change?

It feels like they have taken OUR money that was supposed to go to Canadians and are spending it on telling Canadians how great the Harper Government is. That makes ME feel contempt!

Perhaps WE should heed the warning from our poorer global neighbours. The message for us is to look at democracy and how our leaders show contempt for OUR country through their activities in the parliament of Canada and the image THEY present to us through the media lens with OUR own money . This, and legal head shots, such as personal attack ads being imported from less civilized countries, is changing the very nature of who we are. Pay attention Canada !

Greg Brooks
aka The Peppermaster, hard at work in Rigaud Quebec.

A quick reminder to everyone that we will be once again at the Spring One of a Kind Show.

http://www.oneofakindshow.com/toronto/

March 30 to April 3 in Toronto at the Direct Energy Center

Will you be joining us?

Tired of simply wishing that you had the time to get out to the one day a week market where our booth might or might not be based on whether or not it rains?

Tired of wishing you lived closer to the Peppermaster Shop in Rigaud?

Tired of thinking that shipping charges from Rigaud to Montreal are high?

Stop being tired…

Come and visit our new Kiosk opening tomorrow morning, October 1st, 2010 in the heart of the Eaton’s Center Mall.

We’ll be easy to find. Enter the mall from the Ste. Catherine street entrance, walk left around the elevator bank and there we’ll be at the top of the stairs on your right.

If you come in by way of the Metro level simply take the elevator up to the ground level, Level 3, turn right and there we’ll be at the top of the stairs.

The kiosk will be open through New Year’s Eve, so you’ll more easily be able to stock up.

We’ll also have gift assortments and specials over the coming weeks, so come back and visit us often!

See you there!

Rigaud, Quebec – June 17, 2010- New Toronto Store Green Instead selected to carry Peppermaster Brand Cooking and Grilling Sauces in Toronto!

Brooks Pepperfire Foods announces the selection of their new Toronto retailer, Green Instead.

Brooks Pepperfire Foods has chosen Green Instead to sell their products because of their new concept in sales distribution; they use showcases and educational events to market their products. A green lifestyle marketplace, Green Instead brings consumers a variety of healthy, natural and eco-friendly products through a series of showcases and educational events designed to introduce consumers to the types of products that suit their healthy lifestyle.

Green Instead announced their presence in the GTA in March at the Total Health Show at the Metro Toronto Convention Center. Consumers were introduced to a series of healthy, natural and eco-friendly products. Unlike other shops in the area, Green Lifestyle Marketplace offers vendors the opportunity to educate and inform potential customers as well as share in costs and expenses for trade shows.

Gisela McKay, Managing Director for the enterprise said of the concept, “By holding the events in here, we keep a steady flow of traffic and educate customers in how to implement the products into their lives, as opposed to consumers simply purchasing something, bringing it home and having it sit on their shelves because they don’t know what to do with it.”

Situated between the Fashion District and Chinatown, the location caters to Torontonians and visitors alike. A short walk up from Spadina, near Queen Street West, the shop offers sidewalk level samplings on Tuesday afternoons and evenings.

The concept of boutique sales is not new, but what makes this concept different is the opportunity to hands-on try the products before taking them home. The shop behaves more like a mini-trade show than an ordinary boutique.

Ms. McKay of Green Instead chooses their products based on their potential for alignment with the goals of the shop. They need to be Fairly Traded, ethically sourced, all natural, organic or have a unique flare to them that makes them highly desireable to their target customer base.

Consumers will find a wide selection of food products, cosmetics, and home health items. The vendors are small Canadian companies and tend to be small family-run businesses most from the GTA, with the exception of Brooks Pepperfire Foods inc. makers of the Peppermaster brand line of fresh pepper sauces normally only available in Toronto through the One of a Kind Christmas Gift Show and Sale or by mail order.

Tina Brooks, VP Marketing said of the project, “When Ms. McKay told me about the shop, I got excited. We have a very exclusive product line that can’t be sold just anywhere. And Green Instead is focusing on our target market. They are dedicated to teaching their customers how to use our products. So, a shop that would simply put our product on the shelf and allow it to collect dust was, by comparison, a bad choice. Since opening we have had several comments from customers who are very excited at how easy it is to visit the shop and with the advent of tourist season, we’re hoping to drive tourist traffic to the shop as well.”

Green Instead, located at 200 Spadina, focuses on products that are free from preservatives, colours and additives, uses sustainable growing and production methods and are ethically sourced. The shop prefers to offer products that are fairly traded, fair trade certified, all natural and/or organic. The shop is open Monday through Friday 10:00 am to 6:00 pm Saturday from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm. Green Instead is closed on Sundays.

Brooks Pepperfire Foods Inc. is a small batch food manufacturing company that is peanut-free, nut-free and bleach free. Peppermaster brand products are free from preservatives, chemical extracts and gluten. The product line’s focus is on top quality ingredients that can be traced from farm to table, and specialize in being very hot and spicy. The company is located at 26 St. Jean Baptiste, in Rigaud Quebec.

# # #
For more information contact:

Tina Brooks, VP Marketing
Brooks Pepperfire Foods Inc.
Rigaud, Quebec, Canada
tbrooks@peppermaster.com

http://www.peppermaster.com

Tel/Fax: 1 (514) 393-3430

Gisela McKay
Green Instead
200 Spadina
Toronto, Ontario
gisela.mckay@gmail.com

http://www.greeninstead.ca

Tel: 1 (647) 351-1042

Hi everyone!

You’ll be glad to know that Sexy Salsa has been moved into all of the IGA stores on the West Island of Montreal and in the Vaudreuil-Soulanges area of the Monteregie.

We’ve got to thank you all for enjoying it so much, we’re enjoying having a difficult time keeping the shelves stocked!

If you haven’t made Sexy Salsa your choice for salsa yet, you may just think twice about it the next time you’ve got salsa on your shopping list. I received an industry press release today, I’ll share it with you here:

Department of Justice Press Release

For Immediate Release
February 4, 2010
United States Attorney’s Office
Eastern District of California
Contact: (916) 554-2700

SK Foods LP Former Owner and CEO Arrested at JFK Airport

SACRAMENTO, CA—United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced today the arrest of the former owner and chief executive officer for the Monterey-based SK Foods LP today at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York City. FREDERICK SCOTT SALYER, 54, of Pebble Beach, Calif., is charged with 20 counts of mail and wire fraud in connection with his direction of various schemes to defraud SK Foods’ corporate customers through bribery and food misbranding and adulteration. SALYER will make his initial appearance in court tomorrow afternoon before a U.S. Magistrate Judge in the Eastern District of New York.

This case is the product of a joint and extensive investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation, and the United States Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division.

According to Assistant United States Attorney Sean C. Flynn, who is prosecuting the case together with Barbara Nelson and Richard Cohen of the San Francisco Field Office of the Antitrust Division, a 20-count criminal complaint was signed by United States Magistrate Judge Dale A. Drozd and filed on January 5, 2010. The complaint was unsealed today. Between 1990 and 2008, SALYER was the owner and served as chief executive officer of SK Foods LP, a grower, processor, and distributor of tomato products and other food products for sale to food product manufacturers, food service distributors and marketers, and retail outlets nationwide.

The complaint alleges that over a period of at least 10 years, SALYER orchestrated a number of wide-ranging schemes whereby SK Foods regularly paid bribes to the purchasing managers of many of its customers such as Kraft Foods Inc., Frito-Lay Inc., B&G Foods Inc., and Safeway Inc. to ensure that those customers purchased processed tomato products from SK Foods rather than from its competitors, and that they purchased the product from SK Foods at elevated, above-market prices. In other instances, SK Foods’ bribes to purchasing managers were made in order to wrongfully obtain its competitors’ proprietary bid information.

As SK Foods’ leader and primary decision maker, SALYER is alleged to have directed a widespread practice of selling and shipping processed tomato product to customers that did not meet contractual specifications, and was adulterated because it contained mold levels in excess of the thresholds established by the United States Food and Drug Administration and was thus unsaleable domestically. At SALYER’s direction, various individuals at SK Foods falsified both internal and customer-bound documentation to make the product appear as if it were legal and contractually compliant when, in fact, it was not.

FBI Special Agents arrested SALYER at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City this afternoon. According to the complaint, SALYER left the United States in October 2009, following the guilty pleas of several employees of SK Foods and some of its customers, intending to permanently relocate abroad. SALYER had instructed a subordinate to sell many of SALYER’s belongings and had transferred millions of dollars from bank accounts formerly associated with SK Foods entities to bank accounts in the Caribbean and Liechtenstein. The complaint alleges that SALYER spoke with a former SK Foods employee about obtaining permanent residence status in Uruguay, Paraguay, Andorra, and France because he believed he would not be extradited from these countries.

U.S. Attorney Wagner said, “Mr. Salyer apparently intended to become a fugitive from justice. We are pleased that he will now have his day in court, and we commend the FBI for its excellent work in apprehending him.”

The current charges against SALYER are the latest in the government’s ongoing investigation in the domestic tomato processing industry. Between January 2008 and January 2009, four high-ranking corporate purchasing managers pleaded guilty to receiving bribes from SK Foods while working at some of the nation’s largest food companies:

MICHAEL CHAVEZ, 52, of Fremont, Calif., former purchasing manager at Safeway; ROBERT L. WATSON, 59, of White Plains, N.Y., former purchasing managers at Kraft Foods; JAMES RICHARD WAHL, 58, of Dallas, Texas, former purchasing managers at Frito-Lay; ROBERT TURNER, 59, of Randolph, N.J., former purchasing managers at B&G Foods.

They all admitted to receiving illicit payments from former SK Foods sales broker and director RANDALL LEE RAHAL, 61, of Ramsey, N.J. RAHAL pleaded guilty in December 2008 to participating in racketeering, bid rigging, and contract allocation conspiracies, among other charges. He has admitted that the hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribe payments he made to customer purchasing managers were ordered by SALYER. WATSON was sentenced on August 11, 2009 to two years and three months in prison to be followed by two years of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay $1,858,000 in restitution to his former employer, Kraft. The other defendants are awaiting sentencing.

Furthermore, on November 17, 2009, former SK Foods Vice President ALAN SCOTT HUEY pleaded guilty to participating in a conspiracy involving honest services fraud and causing the introduction and delivery for introduction of adulterated and misbranded food into interstate commerce with the intent to defraud and mislead. In his plea agreement, HUEY admitted that at the instruction and direction of SALYER, he routinely falsified, and directed other SK Foods employees to falsify, the various grading factors and data contained on Certificates of Analysis and other quality control documents that accompanied customer-bound shipments of tomato product that was produced, purchased and sold by SK Foods. HUEY admitted that the quality control documents were falsified so that they reflected mold count levels in SK Foods tomato product as being below the applicable U.S. Food and Drug Administration Food Defect Action Level in many instances when, in fact, those levels were significantly above the federal threshold. Huey also admitted that at SALYER’s direction, SK Foods intentionally falsified quality control documents so that they reflected natural tomato soluble solids levels that were higher than what the product actually contained. In other instances, they altered dates of production of the tomato product. At SALYER’s direction, SK Foods routinely shipped adulterated and misbranded tomato product to at least 55 different customers in 22 different states.

One SK Foods employee that was directed in this fashion was former Records and Business Analyst JENNIFER LOU DAHLMAN, 48, of Lemoore, Calif. DAHLMAN pleaded guilty on February 18, 2009 to causing the shipment of processed tomato products that were adulterated and unsaleable domestically due to their excessive mold content.

Former SK Foods Vice President JEFFREY SHERMAN BEASLEY pleaded guilty to participating in honest services and mislabeling conspiracies on August 25, 2009. RAHAL, HUEY, DAHLMAN, WAHL and BEASLEY are all cooperating in the government’s ongoing investigation.

In a related case, ANTHONY RAY MANUEL, 57, of Turlock, Calif., formerly an employee of Morning Star Packing Company and then of SK Foods, pleaded guilty on January 27, 2009 to embezzling approximately $975,000 from Morning Star and to filing a false tax return.

The maximum statutory penalty on the mail and wire fraud charges is twenty years in prison, and a criminal fine of $250,000. The actual sentence, however, will be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables and any applicable statutory sentencing factors.

The charges in the complaint are only allegations and the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

Longueuil, Quebec, October 10, 2009 – The Honourable Denis Lebel, Minister of State for Canada Economic Development, today announced the awarding of $130,000 in funding, half of it in the form of a non-repayable contribution, to the firm Brooks Pepperfire Inc. under the Community Adjustment Fund of Canada’s Economic Action Plan to relocate to new facilities, acquire new production equipment, implement a new marketing strategy and create 17 new jobs in Rigaud.

Read the rest of this entry