Who doesn’t love Little Creek Dressing? The success of this unique brand of salad dressing, created by local farmer Donna Denison, makes for a wonderful story.
Donna and her husband Dale Ziech own and operate organic Little Creek Gardens farm that overlooks Okanagan Lake on the west side. Their businesses began. “In July 1995, Nature’s Fare in Orchard Plaza allowed me to do a demo with Dale’s salad greens (and the dressing),” says Donna. “I sold one case and then they bought a case. In those days we used a homemade label that I had drawn and photocopied—the kids and friends helped me colour them all in by hand.”
From that day, both the organic salad greens and dressing were in demand.
Dale has since retired his salad greens business to focus on his music but Donna’s dressing business continues to grow.
“Last week we shipped out 270 large cases of dressing (half Original and half Okanagan Caesar) to the Calgary CO-OPS—our biggest order to date,” Donna says. “I’m amazed and grateful.”
Donna is moving the “factory” off the farm to a 4,000 sq ft facility on McCurdy Road. This new space will provide room for growth, a much-needed on-site storage space and it will allow foodies and culinary tourists a place to visit and see where the magic happens.
Jasmine Stonebridge will be taking over as manager of operations for Little Creek Dressing and Donna’s son Jubi Steinhauer will be joining the family business.
Donna pointed out that even though the overall operation will be bigger, “the dressings will continue to be created in small batches with integrity and love”—the magic secret ingredients.
In addition to four all-natural salad dressings, she is also making fruit vinegars and organic sunflower oil. www.littlecreekdressing.com
