ottawa foodies

I'm looking for a source for dried orange peel. I need about a metric tonne.

Okay, maybe not that much, but a lot.

I just got confirmation of an order from Williams-Sonoma for their 3 Canadian stores (Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton) for 2 dozen bottles for each store of my 3 vanilla extracts, 3 flavoured maple syrups, and 5 different bitters.

The first 2 are a snap, but in order to make that much of the orange bitters, I need more dried peel. I've been able to keep up with demand by eating and drying my own oranges. When I have enough, I make a batch. Boom. Done.

This is way out of my orange-eating league.

To make it worse, I'm really looking for Mandarins or any other thin-skinned orange as I found that too much pith makes the bitter too ... well, bitter. And not in a good way.

I tried calling places like Booster Juice and Loblaws, but they have contracts to get their organic waste hauled away. Plus, using a peeler to carve away the needed exterior of navel oranges is best done before the orange is juiced.

Also, this isn't the season for this type of orange. Christmas, yes. We go through boxes of them.

I've seen orange 'granules' for sale online, but would prefer pieces or whole dried peel. Probably pieces. Granules? Who knows what that means.

www.penzeys.com

Does that help?

It does, and thank you. I was looking for something a bit more local.

It see that Cardamom and Cloves on Preston street list it as something they carry. Congrats, by the way, on getting into WS. I would think that is no mean feat.

ebay. you can get 5lbs for $60.

kowloon or T n T usually have dried orange peel or mandarin peel in the spice section

Congrats!

You know, I'd been to the C&C website a few times and could never find their list of items. Finally, this time, success. Thanks ceilingcat. I'll be calling them today. Also, dropping by T&T and Kowloon when I get a chance this weekend. I should have thought of those immediately.

Yeah, this Williams-Sonoma thing just kind of fell into my lap. They're opening a new market concept in their stores and want to stock with all kinds of great Canadian products. I guess they were trolling through the Foodie Pages website (where some of my products are listed) and just gave us a call for those they were interested in. It isn't as involved as the process to get into the new Whole Foods store, but it is a step up for my little hobby operation.

For amounts in the pound range i've dealt with this company before.

www.hollowreedholistic.ca

Located in Winnipeg- best to phone and discuss the order as they can have stock issues but will work with you.

Mountain Path is more local but start at 15kg
mountainpath.com
Maybe give them a call to see what they can do... may or may not be organic.

What about Bulk Barn ?

I generally think they are overpriced, but they do have stuff not found anywhere else easily. So I've gone back to being a customer. Yes they do have grated orange peel, according to the website. There is variation between the stores. The one in Gatineau has more items that the Billing's Bridge one for example.

T&T is overpriced too IMHO. Ever since Loblaws took it over, prices started creeping up.

sorry just saw you prefer not too use granules. I've only bought the granules from kowloon and T n T, haven't really looked for whole peel.

What about bousheys or bagelshop i know they make freshly squeezed orange juice pretty much everyday.

While we are on the subject of citrus peels . . .

Lemon peel apparently has many health benefits.

I've started to add a 1/4 of a lemon, seeds out but peel on to my green smoothies (blended in with a high power blender).

It really takes the taste to the next level ! If there are health benefits too, awesome.

My wife has lemons every day and throws out the peels. So now I can use them.

When life gives you lemons, make whisky sours.

... or ...

Francis - Peel or zest? I'm all for the zest, but not keen on the peel.

Hummm, the lady says zest. But I just throw the whole quarter lemon, without the seeds, into the vitamix. I know the white under the zest of most citrus fruits is high in bioflavonoids. If you take a bioflavonoid like rutin with vitamin C, it stays circulating in your body much longer.

www.anyvitamins.com


"Bioflavonoids are found in the white material just beneath citrus peel, as well as in peppers, grapes, pine bark, onions, garlic, blue and red berries, green tea as well as buckwheat."

Just a quick followup. The best source we found was Cardamom and Cloves. A good deal if buying a lot.

However, once going through the hoops and helping them to restructure their processes regarding Canadian food infrastructure, etc., they reduced their expected order to 15% of what they had originally asked for. The original order would have been worth the time, effort and money spent. Kind of disappointed now. We've decided to concentrate more on our local markets for the time being.