At this summer’s Fancy Food Show in Manhattan, we had the chance to try Beit Yitzhak’s jams and tapenades. With farms located in the Sharon Valley, Beit Yitzhak Natural Products is a family business that has been producing all-natural fruit products since 1993. Among the most popular of their products are the fruit spreads, which contain 100 percent fruit sweetened with only fruit juice (with no cane sugar added). The spreads are created with specific attention to maintaining the wholeness of the fruit and come in 15 delicious, supremely balanced flavors, including acai strawberry, quince, orange marmalade, apple cinnamon, feijoa (a fruit of the Brazilian acca sellowiana shrub), cherry, plum, blueberry and guava. Beit Yitzhak’s signature pomegranate spread, which is chock full of healthy antioxidants, potassium and vitamins, won a 2008 Kosherfest new product award for best jam.
The Beit Yitzhak new tapenades are a part of the company’s “Olive and More” line, which combines natural ingredients from Europe, spices from the Middle East and exotic fragrances from Asia. These include the classic black-olive tapenade, which can be enjoyed on crackers or fresh bread and artichoke spread that you can add to pasta, dips, chicken or sandwiches.
The natural sun-dried tomato spread is packed with lycopene and other healthy antioxidants and can be used in a number of dishes to add that zesty tomato flavor. It’s also one of the best we’ve ever tasted. The savory basil pesto spread can be baked into fresh bread as an alternative to garlic or used on pasta and in salad dressings.
Some of the items can be purchased online while others are already in stores. Visit one of Fruit of the Land’s four culinary markets in Israel to purchase a variety of artisanal delicacies. Some of the products can be found in gourmet stores like Eli’s Manhattan, Hyde Park Gourmet and others. Look out for the Beit Yitzhak fruit bars, which are being launched in the fall. Visit the online website, fruitoftheland.com to order a Beit Yitzchak gift box with three different flavors of the fruit spread.
By Mairav Linzer and Elizabeth Kratz
