Produce That Bucks the Trend

Sponsored Editorial by Thaddeus Stanley, Senior Publications Officer

In a day and age where health foods dominate the market, one company continues to give the people what they want. Snedley Family Farms has been a midwest produce icon for over 100 years; however, their produce is unlike any other you are likely to find. The Snedley’s combine the goodness of real fruit with the great taste of bacon fat.

The Snedley’s began as a small family farm in 1903, raising pigs and growing produce. In 1910, Elmer Snedley, who had grown fond of cleaning up the bacon grease from his breakfast plate with apple slices, had an epiphany - what if the apples had bacon fat inside them, then he could snack on that amazing taste throughout the day, not just at breakfast.

Elmer spent the next ten years perfecting a method to distribute bacon fat throughout the interior of the apple without damaging the integrity of the fruit. Over the next five years, Elmer experimented with strawberries, zucchini, tomatoes, and carrots. At first, it was for his family’s consumption, but after friends and neighbors raved about the amazing taste of his bacon fatted fruits and vegetables, he decided there might be a market for his unique produce.

On June 5, 1926, Elmer Snedley loaded a bushel basket full of bacon fatted apples and took them to the farmers market. He only sold two apples, but wasn’t deterred; the following week he sold four, and on week three, only ten. Elmer kept returning, each week with a full bushel basket of his delicious apples. It wasn’t until the end July that Snedley finally returned home with an empty basket, but by the summer’s end, Elmer couldn’t produce enough fatted fruit to keep up with demand.

 

Since that time, the Snedley’s fatted produce business has grown in leaps and bounds. Elmer’s son Patrick Snedley took over the family business in 1949, and it has remained a family owned enterprise to this day, supplying grease loving Americans with the natural goodness of fruit and real animal fat. In 1999, the Snedley’s teamed up with Professor Eric DeGroff, a renown geneticist, to develop and patent a process to marble the meat of the fruit with real bacon fat. “When you slice into a Snedley’s product, it’s like slicing into a fresh grown pork chop,” proclaimed famed chef Reginald Fontaign, continuing, “the fruit is out of this world, and the vegetables literally fry themselves, just add heat.”

 

With “fat free” foods overtaking the precious real estate that is grocery store shelves, it is refreshing to find a product that embraces the animal fat that made this country great. “Grandma and Grandpa didn’t eat tofu, they ate bacon, real bacon dripping with the fat of this land, and we’ve forsaken that heritage for the sake of a few calories,” commented Adrian Sanders of the American Gastronomical Heritage Foundation. Great taste, and great tradition come standard with every piece of Snedley’s Bacon Fatted Produce. Why not bring home a bushel of Snedley’s today - available in you grocer’s meat department.