SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Libby Croom, co-founder of Syracuse Salt Company, says she and her father started the business about eight years ago and have been involved in New York’s Taste NY program since then.
“When we first started, we had to explain to people that, yes, we produce salt from Syracuse. No, it does not come from Onondaga Lake,” Croom says. “Now, after having done this for so long, we have people come up to us and we start to explain it and they already know us. That’s in large part thanks to Taste NY.”
Syracuse Salt Company is located at 333 Pulaski St. in Syracuse.
Croom was among several speakers at a Dec. 15 event at Destiny USA’s Central New York Welcome Center acknowledging Taste NY’s decade of operation.
Taste NY — the state program that “highlights the quality, diversity, and economic impact of food and beverages grown, produced, or processed” in New York state — has been in operation for 10 years.
New York State Agriculture Commissioner Richard Ball on Dec. 15 visited the Central New York Welcome Center at Destiny USA in Syracuse for an open-house event marking the milestone.
“It’s kind of hard to believe it’s 10 years,” Ball said.
He noted that he’s a farmer who works for about 30,000 farmers across New York.
“The reason why we’re all here is our growers, our beverage and food producers, and our farmers, our entrepreneurs, our families that work so hard to sell their products here and have a great venue and marketplace because of Taste NY,” Ball added.
The open-house event brought together regional agricultural, tourism, and supporting partners to introduce visitors to the New York farmers and producers whose products are available at the Welcome Center. Producers providing samples at the event included Dutch Hill Maple, Rich’s Apiary, Speech Family Candy Shoppe, and Nelson Farms.
A lot of different groups work together to benefit the state, Ross Levi, executive director of the New York State Division of Tourism (I Love New York) and a VP with Empire State Development, said to open his remarks.
“And the Taste NY program has certainly done a tremendous job of blending the worlds of tourism and agriculture, as Commissioner Ball was saying, to allow visitors to have a more enriched experience and producers and farmers to generate additional revenue. That’s the business that we’re in,” Levi said.
The Destiny USA event marked the ninth and final visit in a year-long tour of the regional welcome centers across the state in recognition of the Taste NY program’s 10-year milestone. The event also highlighted opportunities across the state to shop locally and support New York small businesses during the holiday season, the department said.
Since its launch in 2013, the Taste NY program has “grown significantly,” bringing more than $100 million in economic impact to producers across the state, per a Dec. 15 news release about the event.
The Central New York Welcome Center opened at Destiny in 2017, and since then, the Taste NY Market at the Welcome Center, operated by Visit Syracuse, has supported more than 50 vendors in bringing over 200 locally made products to market.
Allyson Towndrow has been manager of the Central New York Welcome Center since it opened in 2017.
“Personally, I just want to say this one of the best jobs that I’ve ever had,” Towndrow said in her remarks. “I love to come to work every day and promote this city, this region, this state, and all the producers that are there giving us all these wonderful products.”
More than 16,000 purchases have been made at the Taste NY Market, totaling more than $200,000 in sales of local New York state made products.
“Agriculture is tourism. They go really well, hand in hand,” Danny Liedka, president and CEO of Visit Syracuse, said in his remarks at the event.