Oregon-based Artisan Chocolate company gets Organic Certification.

Jacksonville, Oregon (PRWEB) August 28, 2006 -- Lillie Belle Farms, Oregon's premier Artisan Chocolate company, is pleased to announce that their berry farm located in Jacksonville has received Organic Certification from International Certification Services under the NOP/FVO guidelines.

After five years of re-building and re-planting their two acre farm with red raspberries, gold raspberries, strawberries, marionberries, boysenberries, and blueberries; Lillie Belle Farms was rewarded for their hard work by receiving their Organic certificates this month. No chemicals, herbicides or pesticides of any kind have ever been used on the farm.

Known nationwide for their inclusions of fresh berries in their chocolates farmer/chocolatier Jeff Shepherd has put countless hours into his land. Asked why he goes to so much trouble to farm his own fruit for his chocolates when it would be much easier to buy it already processed he said, "It is truly a labor of love, and when you eat one of our raspberry or strawberry filled chocolates you can taste the freshness."

"I am excited," he said. "People know we farm organically and we have made no secret about it, but now our stewardship for the land has been verified. ICS was great to wrok with and the inspector called our land "a model of bio-diversity". People can now rest assured that the berries we use in our chocolates are grown under the strictest of organic methods."

"The next step in our process", continued Mr.Shepherd, "is to certify many of our products as 100% organic. It should be fairly easy now that we have certified the farm. We have already secured over 90% of our ingredients from certified organic suppliers and we expect the product certification process to be completed soon"
Combining the fruits of their labors with the finest single origin organic chocolate available, Lillie Belle Farms continues to grow and expand the reach of their outstanding product line.

"We were just picked up by Whole Foods Markets in Northern California, Oregon, and Washington. They recognized the quality and integrity we put into our products and are excited to be carrying our line" said Jeff during a recent interview.

For more information about Lillie Belle Farms Hand Made Chocolates you can visit their website at www.lilliebellefarms.com or call 1-888-899-2022

LILLIE BELLE FARMS
Contact: Jeff Shepherd
Phone: 1-888-899-2022
Website: www.lilliebellefarms.com