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Northwest Munchables

Harvest Roast Gourmet Pumpkin Seeds

By Dawn Stanton

Marc Andresen looked all around the world for the perfect pumpkin seed and found it as close as the Willamette Valley, Oregon

In fact, all the ingredients in his Harvest Roast gourmet pumpkin seeds come from Oregon suppliers.

"It really makes a difference," he says. "People underestimate the power of freshly ground spices."

Andresen, 40, sells the pumpkin seeds at the Beaverton Farmers Market and Portland Saturday Market and is negotiating to get the product into local specialty stores. It's already carried by Food Front Cooperative Grocery in Northwest Portland and Made in Oregon stores.

Andresen sells about 2,000 bags of gourmet pumpkin seeds a month and earns what he calls a modest profit, returning most of the money to his gourmet snack food business, Zennix Life.

Amber McCoy, the grocery clerk at Food Front who pushed to get Harvest Roast products into the store, says: "I think they're awesome. I wanted them as snacks for people who go camping and hiking. The first month was kind of slow, but after people found out we sold them here, we couldn't keep them in stock."

Andresen, of Beaverton, began experimenting with gourmet seasonings for roasted pumpkin seeds five years ago. In the beginning, his family thought it was a little crazy, Andresen says. He spent a year choosing ingredients and perfecting recipes and technique before introducing his product to the public. He tried seeds from China, the Middle East, the Mediterranean and Mexico, but most were too delicate and did not cook well. His seeds of choice ultimately came from a Willamette Valley grower. He also buys peppers, honey, lime and other seasonings locally.

Andresen estimates that he roasts 10,000 pounds of pumpkin seeds each year, going through 20 50-pound bags a month during summer. He works on the snacks during evenings and weekends, while working full time at Pak-Sel, a flexible packaging producer and supplier.

He got the inspiration for gourmet pumpkin seeds from snack foods he ate in Asia. Andresen lived in Japan for nine years, teaching English for a short time and working for a publisher, and has traveled extensively throughout Southeast Asia.

"Wasabi was going to be one of my flavors, and I tried everything from the fake, processed seasoning to having some wasabi shipped over from Japan," he says. "But when you cook with it, as soon as you get it to a certain temperature, it loses its potency."

Current flavors include chili lime, jalapeno, honey sesame, garlic herb and sea salt. New flavors are based on demand, and he phases out unpopular ones. Andresen plans to expand the business during the next two years. He hopes that by tweaking Asian-style snack foods to appeal to the American palate, he can develop products that would otherwise be too strange to transplant here.

He chose pumpkin seeds as a first product simply because he likes them. "And I've always had a passion for Halloween. Plus, I've been fascinated by their amazing nutritional value."

Andresen is striving to produce healthy snacks, and pumpkin seeds, which are rich in dietary fiber and are a good source for Omega 3 and six essential fatty acids, fit the profile.

"My next line of snacks is going to be out-of-the-shell seeds," Andresen says. "Because I have so many people asking for it."

* Article originally appeared in The Oregonian on November 20, 2003 as “Beaverton snacker roasts his way into a business.”

Ordering Information

The Harvest Roast Web site, http://www.harvestroast.com, is not yet fully functional. However, Andresen processes many orders via email at info@harvestroast.com, shipping via U.S. Post or UPS.

Harvest Roast gourmet seeds cost $2.00 ~ $2.50 for a 1.8 oz. bag and $4.00 ~ $5.00 for a 4 oz. bag, depending on which flavor. Contact Marc Andresen at info@harvestroast.com for complete ordering and shipping information.

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