Lake Michigan

© Profile of Success, Catalog Success magazine, October 2006 Catalog Success: When was the catalog established? Justin Rashid: 1983. I started as a wild-food forager and purveyor. I grew up in the food business. I was supplying chefs, and one the chefs I supplied was a New York-based chef. He and I partnered to make the best fruit preserves in America. He gave me a recipe and I found the fruit. And we were young and dumb and we started a company when we were in our late 20s. We incorporated in 1982. The catalog got started when the foods we made

In-depth product knowledge coupled with symbiotic supplier relationships have kept Justin Rashid at the top of his game. Background: Justin Rashid grew up in the food business; his father and uncle owned several grocery stores in Detroit. His mother, whom he describes as an Indiana farm girl, loved to garden and pick wild berries. Equally influenced by both, Rashid began foraging for and selling wild foods, such as berries and mushrooms, to upscale restaurants. A partnership with one chef in a New York-based restaurant led him to develop a unique preserved fruit recipe he began selling in retail stores in 1982. The