Blueberry Thrills

Reprinted from Passable with permission.

While perusing my twitter feed last week, I noticed a link to this New York Times article, which extolled the virtues of Nova Scotia’s own Van Dyk Wild Blueberry Juice.

This eleven –year-old company was founded by Case and Riek Van Dyk who moved to Nova Scotia from Holland during the 1950’s. The couple launched their product in the fall of 2000, selling it at a few stories around the city. Soon you could buy it across Atlantic Canada as well as in Quebec and Ontario and as far away as Taiwan. The juice eventually made its way to New York, via Fairway stores, and it’s there that the NYT’s Florence Fabricant – as in Flo Fab – discovered the stuff.

Oddly enough, when the article first went to print, it started that the juice came from Maine, not Nova Scotia. We here at Passable fired off a quick email telling them about the error, and it was graciously fixed. We also sent off an email to the makers of Van Dyk Blueberry Juice to find out what they think of their new found attention. Passable spoke with Randy MacDonald from Van Dyk’s Health Juice Products Ltd.

Where does Case and Riek Van Dyk’s love of juice come from?

Casey (and Riek) were familiar with Bilberry Juice sold in Holland and felt there was an opportunity for a high quality pure wild blueberry juice here in Canada. Casey was aware of the increasing research on the health benefits of wild blueberries. He was also keenly aware of the increasing consumer awareness of making healthy food choices.

How many acres do you have producing wild blueberries?
The Van Dyk family own and/or manage approximately 700 acres of wild blueberries in southwest Nova Scotia.

How do you feel about the attention bestowed upon the product in the NYT?

The article in the New York Times is great for us – I have received numerous emails from all over the US and I expect that the sales of our product at Fairway Markets in New York have picked up as well.

Do you know how they -or the author Florence Fabricant – heard of it?

Our product was picked up by Fairway Markets in New York late last year. The owner (Steve Jenkins) of Fairway Markets knows Florence Fabricant and thus the article.

You can find Van Dyk Wild Blueberry juice at various retailers in the HRM and across Atlantic Canada.