In this episode, explore the origin story and innovative journey of Fresh Vintage Farms with Tommy Tickenoff. Delve into their sustainable approach to creating healthy oils from walnuts and almonds, hear about the challenges and triumphs of balancing a family business with raising children, and catch a glimpse of their exciting plans for the future. Perfect for anyone passionate about farm-to-table practices and healthy living!
This is Liz Frenzel with Crawford Media Group, and today our guest is Tommy Tikenoff, one half of the husband and wife team that are reviving California walnut and almond oil production through their family-run company called Fresh Vintage Farms. We’ll be talking about how they are redefining healthy, traceable cooking oils and what it looks like to grow a farm-to-table small business. Welcome to our program, Tommy.
SPEAKER 02 :
Oh, thank you so much for having me on. I’m excited.
SPEAKER 01 :
Tommy, what a different concept. Tell us how you came up with the idea of producing walnut and almond oils.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, my wife and I are involved in agriculture here in Northern California, the Central Valley, and we have a company that markets and sells almonds, walnuts, pistachios, and a lot of different items that are grown and produced here by our fabulous farming community. And one of the things that we identified was there was a certain amount of waste produced with almonds and walnuts, and they weren’t products that weren’t healthy and nutritious. They were just not cosmetically perfect. So they had chips, scratches, broken nuts, and a lot of times that’s not what you end up with in your trail mix bag or on a confectionary item or just in the snack bag you get at a grocery store.
SPEAKER 01 :
Right.
SPEAKER 02 :
Those don’t always get used by almond processors, and there was a certain amount of waste, and we see that in our other business because we sell bird food, we sell cattle food, we deal with what we call byproducts. And so we got a hold of a cold press and started making our own almond and walnut oil, similar in the ways that an extra virgin olive oil is made. And what started out as simply, hey, this is fun and neat, We would sample it with friends, family, and some professional chefs that we knew. And the response was, wow, we’ve never seen, tasted, or experienced anything like this before. You guys should sell this. And, you know, just like many other businesses that came out of a fun hobby and an idea and a business and a brand was born. And aside from being flavorful and nutritious, they – help our farming community as well. So we were able to send some extra value in our farmers’ pockets by using those to produce a food item as opposed to throwing them out in the dump or using them as a cattle feed, which is a very high return for the farmers. So it’s a great product, and we’re really excited to continue to grow the brand.
SPEAKER 01 :
So when you were doing this, you saw all of your wasted almonds or walnuts, and then I imagine to do the production that you do, you’re using that of other farmers around you?
SPEAKER 02 :
Absolutely. So we cover the entire state’s production, which is from Chico down to Bakersfield, probably a 400-mile up and down the state area. And we’re able to buy from other producers, usually products that they sell for little to nothing. And we’re able to crush those into healthy almond and walnut oils and market them in a variety of cooking oils. And then also we are about to debut an almond oil mayonnaise. that we’re really excited about. So our first production run with that will be here in a couple of days. But a little known fact about almond and walnuts, almonds are about a 50% oil content, and walnuts are even higher than that, about 65%. So they’re a really robust nutritional product that a lot of the health benefits you get from them are from the oil in there. So they’re healthy, rich in omega-3 fatty acids, omega-6s, A lot of vitamin E. So it’s a great product, and we’re able to maximize grower returns. And so we’ve got a good community supporting us that wants us to win and succeed as well. So we’re all in this together here.
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah, I know with olive oil, as far as cooking goes, it can stand higher temperatures. Is that the same with walnut and almond?
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, our walnut oil has about the same smoke point as an extra virgin olive oil, so about 350, 360 degrees. And then the almond oil has a higher smoke point. It’s over 400 degrees. So a lot of people are looking for a high-heat cooking oil, and I always recommend the almond. It’s a little bit more of a neutral flavor, but when you try our cold-pressed almond oil, you go, wow, that is an almond because it’s got the flavor, the aroma, and the nutritional still intact because they’re cold-pressed. And our walnut oil is the same thing. It’s about 65% oil is a walnut. So we do a cold press on it. You taste that healthy, we’ll say nutty flavor of the walnut. I like sampling them at trade shows and in grocery stores because I can see people’s reaction. They’ll take a little sip out of, you know, a cup that we put walnut oil in, and they’ll go three, two, one, and their eyes light up like, wow, that’s a walnut. And so it’s a fun reaction to see. But, yeah, it’s – a great product that we’re finding more and more people are enjoying. So it’s been a fun little ride to this point.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, definitely the health factor is coming up on the rise. You know, people are getting more aware of how damaging seed oils are, you know, the canola oils, the vegetable oils, and that was the standard forever. I myself use olive oil mayonnaise because of that whole, you know, how bad seed oils are for you and the things that they do to manipulate it to make it an oil, you know, the bleaching, the… the dying or whatever they do. So, you know, something that I know about you is that you and your wife have quite a family that you are growing in addition to getting your small business off the ground. Tell us a little bit about that and, you know, the hurdles that you’ve had or encountered with getting this business off the ground.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, so I have a rock star of a wife. So we have five children, one daughter that’s age 12, and then four boys that are 9, 4, 2, and 1. So she does the heavy lifting as a mostly stay-at-home mom. That’s a big burden on her, and I get to do the easy job of going to the office every day. So we try to balance our entrepreneurial spirit with the priority of being parents in a married life. loving couple. So, you know, we try to make sure there’s time carved out for her and I go to lunch, you know, catch up on work, but on our own relationship as well. That’s kind of everything that we want out of our business centers around the priority of our family and our children, which is also one of the pillars of our brand and our products is that You know, we want healthy, nutritious items for those kids. So we, in our own household, we use our almond oil. We use our almond oil. The thought about the mayonnaise, to your point earlier, in all the canola and sunflower seed oils, you know, you look at even the olive oil mayonnaise, you look at the first ingredient a lot of times, it says olive oil, and then right behind it says canola and or sunflower or another oil. So it’s like they put just enough to claim it on the label that but then you kind of pull back the covers with a lot of other oils blended in. So our almond oil mayonnaise, first and foremost, has to taste great, because I know my kids are the best barometer for anything we’re going to try to sell. If they won’t eat it, it’s not going to be a viable product. So we developed our mayonnaise recipe in-house, had a bunch of different recipes, and they were our taste test panel out of the gates, and we tried to make it just like the tip of the iceberg, the best foods and the hellman’s of the world and some other great mayonnaise is out there so it had to have the flavor consistency but also uh the nutritional so it’s simple clean ingredients and we’re happy to feed that to our kids in the house and uh you know that’s a lot of sandwiches coming up for for back to school here in a couple weeks first we go through a lot of mayonnaise and then we’ll someday maybe get in a ranch dressing because man i think my kids have uh devoured enough ranch dressing, but we’ve been able to make that in our house with our mayonnaise at the base. And again, it’s just trying to feed them healthy on a daily basis. You know, it’s always a battle as a parent when they’re reaching for, you know, this, that, the other sugar refined processed item. But I think the food community is doing a better job of making good options for parents to alleviate some of the dyes, tea oils, and just highly refined processed food items. So We’re proud to be a part of that same movement as a company as well.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, I can imagine even so, the fact that they have a little hands-on in the business probably gives them a little more incentive to really eat it and enjoy it, right?
SPEAKER 02 :
Oh, yeah. My nine-year-old, I mean, hey, I believe in teaching them work and capitalism, but also just, hey, you work hard and we’ll pay you. So my nine-year-old He’ll come to work with me sometimes. He’s done kind of a trade show with me. He’s done some speaking engagements that I’ve had. And he’ll sell oil at the end to people. And I’ll pay him commission because I want him to understand, hey, you’re going to eat this. This is what we do for work. And enjoy it. And, hey, you can go buy the latest, greatest toy or, you know, new baseball glove that he’s wanted. So it kind of. helps teach them what we want them to learn as young kids growing up as well. So everything about it factors in how we want to raise our kids and then how we want them to eat as well.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, that comes to my next question is what is your vision for this company? Do you see you passing this on? Sounds like, you know, he’s already getting his hands wet, so to speak, in the family business. Is this something that you’re hoping that will go from generation to generation?
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, yeah. My dad was a pharmacist, not a farmer, so I got into ag business. via some other family friends and my wife’s family. They were farming all the way back to grandpa and beyond then. So I appreciate some of the family legacy businesses out there. And we want this to be one for our boys and daughter to take over if they so choose. Now, the funny thing is my nine-year-old goes, dad, I want to be the boss. I’m like, oh, buddy, you’re going to bottle at the warehouse and drive a forklift just like we did. You’ll learn from the bottom to the top. We’re not just sitting in a corner office because we share a bloodline and a last name. That’s another lesson that he’s going to be learning is, hey, you’ve got to do the tough stuff and get your hands dirty as me and my wife did. She’s a harder worker than I am. She worked her way all through high school and college and bought her first house. I think when she was 23 years old off of a waitress job that she had while she was doing a school full time. So we really want to instill that in our, in our children. So they’ll, uh, just like our first, you know, thousand bottles that we made, you know, fun to look back at. There was no Netflix and chill quote unquote for me and the wife. It was, Hey, we’re going to Netflix and bottle, uh, you know, a thousand, thousand bottles for our first production run. So, uh, it’s, it’s fun. I think the kids are enjoying it, and they get to see it, you know, mom and dad working hard for a goal. And that’s, you know, an invaluable experience, we think, for them.
SPEAKER 01 :
Yes, it is. We’re visiting with Tommy Tickenoff. Half of the husband and wife team that are reviving California walnut and almond oil production through their family-run company called Fresh Vintage Farms. Tommy, where can our listeners go to buy your oils?
SPEAKER 02 :
So depending on where you’re at in the country, you can always access our website, freshvintagefarms.com, and then also the big bad beast that is Amazon. We’re stocked on there as well. So Amazon is a good partner for us, but we’ll have some new exciting stuff, first looks on our website, again, freshvintagefarms.com. That’s the first place you’ll see our mayonnaise, some new oils that we’re releasing. So that’s a good spot to just be looked at because it’ll –
SPEAKER 01 :
first uh first hit there before populating any other retailer or amazon well tommy thank you so much for joining us today i encourage all of our listeners to go to fresh vintage farms.com or go on amazon and to find these oils they’re healthy they’re original and i’m sure they’re very tasty well thank you liz i appreciate your time we had a great time chatting with you
