Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Yumpeez -- organic roasted split pea snack The Big Idea
MARGARET Hughes was getting ready to represent her company, Portage la Prairie-based Best Cooking Pulses, at a commodity trade show in Nuremberg, Germany, a year ago and discovered something was amiss. Samples of roasted pea snacks she was to take to reel in people to the company's booth at the large international event had disappeared. She realized her kids had been taking them to school and giving them to their friends. Then her husband, a physician, fessed up that he had been taking them while working long hours on call at a local hospital. Hughes and her sister, Trudy Heal, who own and manage the 73-year-old pulse crop marketing company, realized that if kids -- and older folks -- were pilfering the samples, maybe there was a market for them.
The product
Yumpeez is an organic roasted split yellow pea snack food that comes in two flavours, barbecue and dill pickle. It was unveiled Thursday at Fort Gibraltar, home of Festival du Voyageur (more on that below). The product, which is promoted as a high source of dietary fibre, protein and iron, is sold in 30 gram packets with a suggested retail price of $1.99. It's available at Winnipeg organic and health food stores and specialty shops.
They're yummy and peas, so...
With help of federal-provincial funding and Manitoba's Food Development Centre in Portage, the company perfected the product and test-marketed it last fall. The roasted veggie snack needed a name and the company wanted to make it fun because it was targeting the healthy snack at tweens. In a brainstorming session with her family, Hughes' oldest son came up with the name: "They're yummy and they're peas. They're Yumpeez."
The company
Best Cooking Pulses is a family-owned business that has marketed pulse crops internationally since 1936. Pulse crops include peas, beans, lentils and chickpeas. Its products now include yellow and green split peas, pea fibre, pea bran meal and pulse flours. It operates plants in Portage la Prairie and Rowatt, Sask., and markets its products across North America and abroad. Heal and Hughes took over the business in 2004 after the death of their father, Geoffrey Heal.
More Canadian than maple syrup
Yumpeez was formally launched Thursday at Fort Gibraltar, home of the annual Festival du Voyageur, which begins today. Heal said it was an appropriate location. "Every boat that left Montreal with the Voyageurs had a sack of dried soup peas to supplement the hunting along the way. So it's the food that fuelled the exploration of Canada," she said. The organizers of Festival were interested in the product -- it will be sold at the event -- because it was a modern twist on a traditional Canadian food, Heal said. "We think it's more Canadian than maple syrup."
-- Larry Kusch
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition February 13, 2009 B6
-
WFP Hockey
Download our new hockey app for the iPhone for Winnipeg Jets updates
-
Editor's Bulletin
Sign up for daily bulletins from editor Margo Goodhand
-
Winnipeg Jets
All things NHL on our Jets landing page
-
Twitter
Follow our reporters and our news feeds on Twitter
-
News Cafe
Check out the menu, read our blog posts or get info on coming events
-
Facebook Fanpage
Follow our Facebook Fanpage for story links, contests and special events
Ads by Google
- Back to Top
- Return to Business
Poll
Most Popular
- Piers Morgan blasts 'gruesome' Madonna
- Two Mounties shot and wounded in rural area southeast of Edmonton
- Search is on for man seen leaving the scene where two Alberta Mounties were shot
- Should the federal government be spending $7.5 million on the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee?
- Province rules out reports of cougar in Transcona
- Slain woman appears before jury on video
- Beachcomber found Rowbotham's wallet, trial hears
- Jets defeat Leafs 2-1
- LeAnn Rimes in pain following 'minor surgery'
- City family donates $1 million for endowed research chair in cardiology
- Piers Morgan blasts 'gruesome' Madonna
- Clothing chain pulls Caterpillar boots to protest closure of London, Ont., plant
- Three winning tickets sold for Friday's $50 million Lotto Max jackpot
- Woman sexually assaulted during noon-hour in Exchange District
- Woman's car stolen at gunpoint at St. Vital mall, police say
- 'This is so silly': Mom and Dad tell story of baby Zade, born on side of Highway 59
- Stobbe said slaying during shopping trip 'strange': sister-in-law
- Eleven people killed after truck hits van in southwestern Ontario
- Tactical squad storms St. Vital house
- Restaurant Dubrovnik may be closed for good
- Do you smoke marijuana?
- Driver dead after SUV goes over Disraeli Bridge
- George Clooney's prank could end Pitt's career
- Piers Morgan blasts 'gruesome' Madonna
- Clothing chain pulls Caterpillar boots to protest closure of London, Ont., plant
- Minor earthquake strikes near Manitoba
- Tina Maze strips down to her sports bra to send out underwear message: 'Not your business'
- Group's speed-limit sign removed from Pembina Highway
- Car's plunge off Disraeli fatal
- Two children, two women die in fire
- Harper driven by libertarian ideology, not reality
- Province rules out reports of cougar in Transcona
- Census 2011 : Immigrant influx boosts Manitoban population
- Stobbe said slaying during shopping trip 'strange': sister-in-law
- Trapped bear commits vehicular mauling, also manages to open garage door
- Easy, economical, healthy soup
- Winnipeg software company ranked top employer
- RIM up against 'bring your own device' trend in workplace where it dominated
- Insidious disease killing city trees
- OSC launches new insider trading probe; high-profile mining exec named
- Swedish bunny's sheep herding skills becomes click-monster on YouTube
- League encourages hazing secrecy
- Minor earthquake strikes near Manitoba
- Northern fishing lodge destroyed by fire
- Police target drivers talking on cellphones, texting
- Obama torn by conflicting allies
- 'This is so silly': Mom and Dad tell story of baby Zade, born on side of Highway 59
- Time, it appears, is on Assad's side
- Harper driven by libertarian ideology, not reality
- Woman's car stolen at gunpoint at St. Vital mall, police say
- Minor earthquake strikes near Manitoba
- Paddler Starkell was modern-day voyageur
- Driver dead after SUV goes over Disraeli Bridge
- Car's plunge off Disraeli fatal
- Local shooting spoofed on SNL
- Winnipeg mother watches as car stolen with child inside
- Canadian woman 'badly injured' in Mexico, local media report apparent beating
- Swedish bunny's sheep herding skills becomes click-monster on YouTube
- League encourages hazing secrecy
- 4 dead in northern Ontario plane crash
You can comment on most stories on winnipegfreepress.com. You can also agree or disagree with other comments. All you need to do is register and/or login and you can join the conversation and give your feedback.
The Winnipeg Free Press does not necessarily endorse any of the views posted. By submitting your comment, you agree to our Terms and Conditions. These terms were revised effective April 16, 2010; View the changes. New to commenting? Check out our Frequently Asked Questions.