{"id":2562,"date":"2015-08-17T17:03:23","date_gmt":"2015-08-17T21:03:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/huntsville.dopperonline.ca\/?p=2562"},"modified":"2016-06-15T08:29:15","modified_gmt":"2016-06-15T12:29:15","slug":"totem-juice-company-from-seed-to-bottle-and-back-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/totem-juice-company-from-seed-to-bottle-and-back-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Totem Juice Company: from seed to bottle and back again"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Huntsville couple are putting good health at the fingertips of locals with a new business. Brent and Rebecca Ellerson started Totem Juice Company after making a lifestyle change that they realized they could share with others.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight around the time our son, Jack, was born, we realized we were mortal,\u201d laughs Brent. \u201cWe needed to stick around for our kids and be good role models.\u201d They had also just watched the documentary Forks Over Knives<\/em> \u2013 a film that touts the health benefits of rejecting animal-based and processed foods \u2013 and were inspired by its message.<\/p>\n

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Cold-pressed juice is a trend right now. But yoga was a trend on the fringe once…<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

They switched to a mainly organic, whole-foods, plant-based diet for their son but a busy schedule didn\u2019t allow them to completely follow suit. \u201cWe were blending and freezing our own organic baby food, but at the same time we\u2019d eat a pizza for dinner because we were so busy. We realized we couldn\u2019t be saying one thing and do another.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Ellersons began making smoothies and juices as an easy way to fill in the gaps in their diet. Then, a year and a half ago, they offered to lend Jenny Spring of The Spring Farm \u2013 a local, urban farm \u2013 the empty plot of land beside their house in town. \u201cIt was a vegetable lease \u2013 we gave the land and she gave us weekly vegetables. Some of the produce went straight from the garden to our kitchen and then the pulp went right back to her garden compost.\u201d<\/p>\n

https:\/\/youtu.be\/6JMl7Z11PIM<\/a><\/p>\n

Rebecca and Brent soon realized that they could sustainably do the same thing on a larger scale and a business idea was born. They developed flavours and built a juicer adjacent to the garden. They now buy their produce from The Spring Farm\u2019s plot in season and juice 1500 pounds of it every week. The pulp \u2013 700 to 800 pounds of it \u2013 is returned to the garden\u2019s compost, often the same morning.<\/p>\n

The process as local as you can get. Jenny and Oliver from The Spring Farm pick the produce from the garden in the morning and walk it over to the juicer. It goes through a washing process \u2013 rinse, sanitize, wash \u2013 before going into the juicer, a large, hydraulic press that applies 11,000 psi of slow pressure to extract the juice. \u201cCold-pressed juice keeps the cells and enzymes intact,\u201d explains Brent. \u201cWhen you use a blender, the chopping slices the cells and even the small amount of heat produced by a spinning blade starts to denature the enzymes. The cold-press process keeps the cells and enzymes alive and we bottle them right away. No one is doing seed-to-bottle as fast as we are.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s incredibly efficient, but it begs the question: what happens in the winter?<\/p>\n

Herbs and small greens will still come from The Spring Farm\u2019s greenhouse and indoor grow lights. The rest of their organic produce will be sourced from Pfennings, an organic farm near Waterloo, and Toronto\u2019s food terminal. It\u2019s a necessity that takes a toll on a small business. \u201cIn the winter our costs go up substantially \u2013 as much as 40 per cent,\u201d says Brent. \u201cIt\u2019s difficult to set standard pricing when there\u2019s that much difference between summer and winter.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Bottles<\/a>

Every bottle of Totem Juice contains two-and-a-half pounds of produce.<\/p><\/div>\n

The equivalent of five or six good-sized salads \u2013 two-and-a-half pounds of produce \u2013 goes into every bottle of Totem juice. \u201cYou can get six to seven of your daily 10 servings of vegetables on the run.\u201d It\u2019s a concept that\u2019s been well received by local shoppers to their juice bar behind The Great Vine on Huntsville\u2019s Main Street.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the trust is gone in the big corporations,\u201d says Brent. \u201cPeople are turning back to conscious, reliable sources of food. You know the people you\u2019re getting your food from that way and there are measures of control. You can ask questions \u2013 where did the beets come from, can I see them? Yes, you can. And we can even ask the farmer about the soil they grew in.\u201d About 65 per cent of the company\u2019s business comes from locals with the remaining 35 per cent comprised of cottagers and visitors to the area.<\/p>\n

Brent also believes that younger generations are becoming more conscious of food choices because they are seeing older relatives getter sicker at younger ages than previously. \u201cIn the 1970s and 1980s, the fast food movement wasn\u2019t created with health in mind. People are switching to being more preventative.\u201d<\/p>\n

The trend to healthier lifestyles is one Brent is happy to see and they\u2019re riding the wave at its leading edge. \u201cCold-pressed juice is a trend right now. But yoga was a trend on the fringe once \u2013 a lot of people thought it was strange but now it\u2019s everywhere. Health-based, simple trends are awesome. Our next step will be shortening the seed-to-bottle time in elite freshness even more. We want to get ahead of that curve.\u201d<\/p>\n

TOTEM Juice Bar (aka ‘The Juice Box’)
\n36 MAIN STREET EAST — P1H 2C8 HUNTSVILLE ONTARIO (705) 380-4354 hello@totemjuice.com
\n(Down the boardwalk connected to the back of our partner ‘The Great Vine’ natural health store)<\/span><\/p>\n

Summer Hours (7 DAYS A WEEK):
\nMon – Friday: 9:00am – 5:00pm
\nSaturday and Sunday: 9:30am – 5:00pm<\/p>\n\n\t\t