With Island Greetings

  • March 19, 2018

Maritime Marzipan venturing offshore

We love our Island. We have been blessed with Islanders welcoming our new business idea with open arms. The opportunities that arose for us in such a short timeline are incredible. But we are not stopping here.

First of all, we know that there are lots of folks like us out there: German and other immigrants to Canada (and the US) who miss marzipan from their home countries. Remember, Maritime Marzipan’s business idea came about when I was trying to find baking marzipan locally. Ah, sweet childhood memories… And why would we keep something this tasty as a secret?! Let the world know, um, the country… well, you know what I mean…

Long story short, Maritime Marzipan is now available off-island. Nova Scotia came first. One cold and sunny day in February, we decided to tour the neighbouring province to casually stop by some stores that were recommended to us by our friend and fellow entrepreneur, Julain Molnar, from Fresh Start Fauxmage. I had made a couple of calls ahead but in certain areas we just dropped in, left samples, and talked about the product. A small store in Truro, NS first took on our marzipan, and as of last week, our product is in Halifax, NS at Local Source Market. And then Ontario! We have an old connection to Vienna Fine Foods, a German delicatessen store in the Greater Toronto Area in Ontario. What better place for marzipan?! Our friend and co-owner Ken took a leap of faith and got a box full of our goodies too. Woohoo!

Also, did I mention already that I am married to a web tech guy? Recently, he became a great marzipan maker, but he can also program beautiful websites and online shops. And so he did. Maritime Marzipan can now be ordered across Canada and in the US. Tell your friends! An Etsy shop is next…

From a business side, there are a couple of things to look into before selling inter-provincially. Depending on what category your food product falls into you have to follow not only provincial regulations, but federal ones. The CFIA website provides detailed information on their requirements that might affect your labeling and the need for providing manufacturing information in regards to food safety. Our product doesn’t appear to be listed under CFIA regulations, and as we follow provincial regulations and federal labeling guides already, the process to sell outside the boundaries of PEI was a bit faster for us. However, we have been using one of CFIA’s fairly new services called Ask CFIA, where you can pose specific questions via email. Our current inquiry with them is to get final confirmation from them for our product category.

The other step towards growing our business was the most recent Sobeys Partnership Workshop that we attended alongside other local food entrepreneurs. Thinking about our products being available in a grocery store that supports local producers and manufactures is quite exciting. Let’s see to which coasts our marzipan ship will sail next… 😉

About Jessica L. Fritz

Jessica is "from away" in the truest sense of its meaning: her roots are in Germany. She immigrated to Toronto, Canada in 2010 and moved to PEI two summers ago. As a passionate home cook Jessica likes to explore different types of cuisines including her native one. "Thinking globally, buying locally" is her foodie mantra, and being able to grow veggies in her own backyard was one of the big drivers for her move to PEI.
Putting words on paper has always been a way to express herself. Hence, writing for Salty combines her love for food and the written word while at the same time discovering PEI's thriving culinary landscape.
And recently, Jessica and her husband launched their own food business: Maritime Marzipan offers hand-made traditional European almond treats inspired by Island living. She is blogging about her adventure here on saltyisland.com or you can find them at maritimemarzipan.com.

View All Posts
Share This Post