Join us as we go beyond the label with food brands that we love at Martie. Today, we chat with Aishwarya Iyer, the founder and CEO of Brightland, the olive oil, vinegar and honey brand producing authentic and natural products that are as beautiful as they are delicious. Upgrade your kitchen (and your tastebuds) today with Brightland, and learn all about this hot brand, below!
But first, save on your olive oils here.
We’ve been seeing you and your olive oils everywhere, so we are very excited to chat with you.
Martie: What’s the mission behind Brightland?
Aishwarya: Brightland was born to elevate the simplest moments in your kitchen — the dashing, drizzling, dipping, dousing, and even drenching. We are on a mission to celebrate conscious cooking and intentional living. When it comes to Brightland, we pride ourselves on locally-sourced ingredients for our olive oils, vinegars, and honeys.
Martie: Can we peep beyond the label and understand more about how you produce your olive oils, vinegars and honey?
Aishwarya: Our olives, which come from family-run farms in the Paso Robles, Templeton and Atascadero areas in California, are harvested once a year between October to November and cold-pressed within 90 minutes to form our custom signature blends.
Our fruit-forward vinegars are made on a family-run farm in California's Central Coast. Champagne and Zinfandel grapes, Navel and Valencia oranges, and ripe Triple Crown blackberries are grown in nutrient-dense soil, selected with care, and double fermented in stainless steel.
We partnered with small, U.S. family-owned apiaries run by women-led teams for our two raw, unfiltered honey varieties. To make them, bees in California and Hawaii collect nectar from diverse botanical sources, producing two types of honey with wildly unique flavor, aroma and texture.
Martie: What’s your favorite way to use Brightland Olive Oils?
Aishwarya: Lately, I can’t stop making pasta salad!! This Greek-ish pantry pasta salad is one of my favorites.
INGREDIENTS
- 1 lb of macaroni pasta (save on your pasta here)
- 1/3 cup celery, diced small
- 1/3 cup cucumber, diced small
- 1/3 cup dill pickles, diced small
- 1/3 cup castelvetrano olives, diced small
- 1/3 cup capers, whole
- 1/3 cup scallions, diced small (white and green parts)
- 1/3 cup preserved lemon, diced small
- 1/2 cup feta cheese, crumbled
- 1/2 cup Brightland ROSETTE garlic olive oil (shop all Brightland here)
- 1/3 cup Brightland TRELLIS red wine vinegar
- 1 tbsp red pepper flakes
- 1/2 tbsp flaky salt
- black pepper, to be used liberally
INSTRUCTIONS
- Begin by cooking the pasta according to the packet instructions, then drain and let cool.
- Once the pasta is cooled, add all of the vegetables (celery, cucumber, dill pickles, olives, capers, scallions, preserved lemon) and mix well with with some salad servers. Next, dress with the Brightland ROSETTE garlic olive oil and TRELLIS red wine vinegar. Season to taste with salt, pepper and the red pepper flakes.
- Crumble half of the feta into the salad and mix again. Finally, crumble the rest of the feta on top of the salad, and serve!
Recipe by: Chloe Walsh
Martie: What has been your biggest “aha” moment when building your brand?
Aishwarya: The founder of Healthade Kombucha, Daina Trout, told me early on that instead of getting overwhelmed by all of the “to-dos”, I should just put one foot in front of the other, and tackle one thing at a time. It’s so simple, but I find that when I get into that mindset – it truly works!
Martie: What’s in the pipeline next for Brightland?
Aishwarya: We’re going to keep focusing on delicious, happy, wholesome products that brighten people’s kitchens!
Martie: Why is working with Martie important to Brightland?
Aishwarya: Working with Martie is important to us because we feel very passionately about Martie’s mission to fight food waste and make delicious food more accessible. We also love being able to support another female-founded company!
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