The most delicious thing you can do to celebrate the USA’s 250th Birthday this July 4th is buy American
American Food Brands Making Your July 4th (USA 250) Celebration More Delicious
Here's something nobody tells you when you're planning a Fourth of July cookout: the ingredients matter more than the menu. You can have the most ambitious grilling spread of the summer, but if your olive oil isn’t fresh and your tortillas fall apart on the way to the table, none of it is actually good.
This year, a few American food companies are making it very easy to do better. I'm talking about California olive oil that professional chefs have been quietly hoarding for years, regenerative USA-grown buckwheat bread baked in San Diego, and heirloom rice harvested by a fifth-generation Northern California farmer. None of this is hard to find. All of it is worth it.
Corto Olive: California
Run by seventh-generation farmers in Lodi, CA, Corto’s olive oil is, frankly, the kind of thing that makes you question everything you've been putting on your salads. The TRULY@ Extra Virgin Olive Oil is cold-pressed within hours of harvest at peak freshness and bottled either in a glass bottle or a FlavorLock box that keeps it that way. It has bright floral notes, a peppery finish, and the kind of body that makes a piece of grilled bread feel like a complete meal.
“If you want an olive oil that’s completely sourced in the U.S., it’s tough to do better than a bottle of Corto. The family-run brand is devoted to maintaining freshness and quality throughout every stage of production at its Northern California farm. After picking the olives at just the right level of ripeness and running them through the cold press process, the oil undergoes a taste test and is stored in a climate-controlled cellar. Is all that hard work necessary to produce a delicious olive oil? Well, Corto’s Truly Blend was strong enough to nab the No. 1 spot on the 2024 EVOO World Ranking’s American olive oils. Customers rave about Truly’s ultra-smooth taste and rich character.”
For cookout season, their La Padella is the one we reach for at the grill. It’s a precision blend of rice bran oil (high smoke point), fresh EVOO, avocado oil, and grapeseed oil, specifically developed for high-heat cooking. Burgers, vegetables, fish, whatever. It won't smoke up on you.
But don’t just take our word for it. Mashed, which declared Truly one of the best olive oils, agrees.
TRULY® Extra Virgin Olive Oil
$24.50 / 500mL bottle, Corto-olive.com + Amazon
$74 / 3L FlavorLock box, Corto-Olive.com + Amazon
Ultra fresh, cold-pressed California EVOO with bright floral notes. Ideal for cooking, finishing, dipping, and dressings.
La Padella High-Heat Cooking Oil
$58 / 3L box, Corto-Olive.com + Amazon
Rice bran + EVOO + avocado/grapeseed blend. Built for grilling, roasting, and searing at high temp.
Pacha: California
Pacha is a San Diego bakery doing something genuinely interesting: all of its products are made from buckwheat sourced entirely in the United States, double-fermented with wild yeast, and free of gums, fillers, and preservatives. Everything is naturally gluten-free. Everything is also, somehow, totally delicious.
Their Sourdough Buckwheat Tortillas are two-ingredient (buckwheat and sea salt), fermented, and soft enough to fold without cracking, which is not a given with gluten-free tortillas. Use them for cookout wraps or tacos. Their Sprouted Sourdough Buckwheat Bread comes in Multi-Seed, Rye, and Cinnamon Raisin; the cinnamon raisin on a charcuterie board at a picnic is a power move. And the Sourdough Buckwheat English Muffins — 6g protein, 4.5g fiber, made from fermented sprouted buckwheat are a solid Fourth of July breakfast choice before a long day of celebrations.
Sourdough Buckwheat Tortillas
$13.75 / 2-pack, Livepacha.com
Two ingredients: sprouted buckwheat + sea salt. Fermented, gluten-free, no gums, and soft enough to fold.
Sprouted Sourdough Buckwheat Bread
$13.75 / 2-pack, Livepacha.com
Flavors: Multi-Seed, Rye, Cinnamon Raisin Certified organic, flourless, two ingredients. The Cinnamon Raisin is excellent on a charcuterie board.
Sourdough Buckwheat English Muffins
$13.75 / 2-pack, Livepacha.com
6g protein, 4.5g fiber per serving. Fermented, sprouted buckwheat, no additives.
Lotus Foods: California
Lotus Foods has been in the heirloom and organic rice business for over 30 years, and their Organic Jade Pearl Rice is an underrated grain for summer cooking. It's grown by farming partner Next Generation Foods, a farmer-owned company founded by fifth-generation Northern California farmer Michael Bosworth.
The pale green color and slightly sweet flavor make it good for grain salads, cold side dishes, and anything where you want a rice that looks as good as it tastes.
Organic Jade Pearl Rice
$7.49 per 15 oz bag, Lotusfoods.com + Amazon
Heirloom, organic, regeneratively farmed in Northern California. Great for grain salads and cold sides.
None of these brands require a specialty store run or a complicated order. They're on Amazon. They're on their own sites. And they're the kind of thing that actually makes everything you put on the table taste better — which is, ultimately, the only argument worth making about any ingredient.
Happy Fourth!