When shoppers purchased 1,700 bottles of specialty olive oils and balsamic vinegars from a holiday-season kiosk at Kalispell Center Mall, Apple Barrel Fruit Stand owners Dave and Dana Cordell realized that the Flathead Valley has developed a taste for healthy, high-end kitchen ingredients.

So the proprietors of the original Apple Barrel on U.S. 2 opened Apple Barrel Center Street Market in the Center Street Plaza, banking partly on the popularity of the Montana Olive Oil Co. products.

The store, which opened Feb. 1, is located across Center Street from the mall in part of the space once occupied by CM Anderson Design.

Besides selling 14 oils and 16 varieties of vinegar from Montana Olive Oil, the market features locally made specialty food items — Senior Chili Pepper Salsa, Montana Big Sky Bloody Mary Mix, Beeline Nutty Honey Butter (which has given Apple Barrel exclusive Flathead Valley rights to its product line), Alpine Spice blends, huckleberry products and more. The store also sells a mix of specialty kitchen items.

Dave Cordell said the Center Street location might offer some produce eventually, with local vegetables and fruit possibly being sold outside from a cart during the warmer months.

The Apple Barrel Fruit Stand on U.S. 2 started out as mostly a farmers market in 1996, when Cordell was looking for a location from which to sell his father’s cherries, peaches and pears being grown in Washington.

The store added produce varieties to meet customer demand, then added a number of other food-related lines to the inventory and cooking classes, plus an adjacent wine store, Glacier Sun.

“With the addition of the winery and several remodels, we’ve reinvented so we can be open year-round,” he said.

The Cordells have found that a growing number of customers want to know more about the sources of their food, so they’re tapping into that trend with the olive oil line especially.

The new market’s store manager, Stu Saye, is also the founder of the Montana Olive Oil Co., so he’s able to tell customers anything they might want to know about his product lines.

The balsamics, for instance, are from Modena, Italy, made with white Tribbiano grapes. The white balsamics in Saye’s lines are aged for 12 years, while his darker balsamics are aged for 18 years. He sells the balsamics, which come in flavored and traditional varieties, in two sizes. Free tastings are always available.

His vinegars can only be found in a few places in the valley — used in recipes at North Bay Grille in Kalispell and Sweet Serenity Cafe in Evergreen (which also sells bottles of the product) and by the bottle in the gourmet section of Whitefish Liquors in Whitefish and at both Apple Barrel locations.

Saye became interested in olive oils and balsamic vinegars first for the taste, but has since been sold on the health benefits. True balsamic vinegars are said to contain antioxidants that fight cell damage, helping prevent heart or circulation problems, and to aid in digestion. Olive oil is full of monounsaturated fatty acids, considered a healthy dietary fat.

Apple Barrel Center Street plans to hold a grand opening on the first Saturday of the Kalispell Farmers Market, which is held across the street in the mall parking lot.

Business reporter Heidi Gaiser may be reached at 758-4439 or by email at hgaiser@dailyinterlake.com.