Perishke, pyrizhky, piroška… Any way you say it, savoury stuffed buns always sure to be a mouthful By: David Sanderson Posted: 6:00 AM CDT Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 12/10/2024 (659 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

LANDMARK — Let’s begin with a story about love at first bite.

Nyah Hiebert and Jordan Buys tied the knot in August at a ceremony in Niverville. Ahead of the big day, Nikki Hiebert, the mother of the bride, was tossing around ideas of what to offer guests as a late-evening snack at the reception. She wanted something that would be easy to serve and wouldn’t require a lot of prep time when it suddenly dawned on her: what about a particular meat-filled bun her daughter and future son-in-law used to rave about, when both were students at Niverville High School?

“I remembered hearing about them constantly and how Jordan used to get as many as 24 at a time, because they were, in his words, amazing,” Hiebert says, referring to Deb’s Meatbuns, which Landmark resident Deb Rogalsky has been supplying to school lunch programs throughout southeastern Manitoba for close to a decade. “When I approached Nyah and Jordan about having their favourite flavours at the wedding, they were pumped.”

Neither Hiebert’s daughter or her fiancé ever knew Rogalsky by name, so when the savoury treats, which are also available at retail outlets in Steinbach, Mitchell and Winnipeg, were brought out, they announced into a microphone that they were “from the meat-bun lady at school.”

“They were a big hit, though we did have leftovers as we had ordered quite a few — 24 dozen,” Hiebert says. “But the good thing was we were able to freeze the rest and have them for lunches and snacks another time.”

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Perishke. Pyrizhky. Pirazhki. Piroška.

No matter how you spell it, egg-shaped, yeast-leavened buns stuffed with a variety of fillings have been a staple in Rogalsky’s household for as long as she can remember.

The youngest of eight siblings, Rogalsky used to “toss ’em back like candy,” when she was a youngster growing up in Landmark, located 40 kilometres southeast of Winnipeg.

“My mom used to do them for special occasions like birthdays and holiday gatherings,” Rogalsky says, seated in a commercial kitchen she had built in 2021, directly adjacent to her main living space. “The only problem was, with eight kids, she had to prepare a ton of buns to fill all of us up, which is probably why she made them very occasionally.”

Rogalsky is a school teacher by profession, but cooking and baking have always been her first loves. She chuckles, recalling how she once sold homemade cupcakes served in ice cream cones to her Grade 6 classmates, charging all of a dime for the confections, which was barely enough to cover the cost of the ingredients. (She never said she was good at math, she cracks.)

The mother of four was working as a substitute music teacher for the Hanover School Division in 2000 when she started a side gig that offered fully-cooked meals such as lasagna and shepherd’s pie. A few years later, following a rehearsal with the Mennonite choir she belonged to, the topic of conversation turned to perishke. More specifically, did any of them know someone who made the Eastern European-flavoured foodstuffs? Up shot Rogalsky’s hand.

“I went home and, following my mom’s old recipes, made a bunch, which I brought along to the next practice for everyone to try out,” she says. “I walked out of there with orders for close to 100 dozen, and told myself on the way home that I guess I was now in the meat-bun business, too.”

Initially, Rogalsky was turning out a single sort of bun stuffed with ground beef, onions and mashed potatoes, which she dubbed the “original” in honour of her late mother. Her brother was munching away on them at her place one afternoon when he asked if she had ever considered swapping out the ground-beef mixture for farmer’s sausage and cheese. Just like that, she had a second selection… then a third after people she square-danced with suggested she add sauerkraut-filled buns to her arsenal.

Pretty soon, she couldn’t walk through a grocery store without wondering what would go good in a bun, she says, listing taco, pulled-pork, spinach-and-feta, bacon-and-egg and buffalo-chicken among the new flavours she came up with.

“I also did a beef Wellington bun for a while. Mind you, it was so labour-intensive — I’d lay out all the individual ingredients, and add them one by one — that it wasn’t worth the effort, though people told me they were sorry to see it go.”

In 2012 Rogalsky had a decision to make. She enjoyed teaching, but for mental-health reasons, she was finding it increasingly difficult to be in a prescribed place at a prescribed time, five days a week. She eventually switched gears by taking a position in the meat department of a local grocery store for two years. It was the same story there, however.

If there were mornings or afternoons when she wasn’t “feeling it,” she still felt pressured to fight through whatever it was she was dealing with and show up for work with a smile on her face, she says.

Her only recourse, she felt, was to become her own boss. From the get-go, she had been selling her wares under the banner Deb’s Delectables. Except when she went to the bank in the spring of 2015 to apply for a small-business loan, she listed Deb’s Meatbuns as her official moniker, figuring she should concentrate fully on what had turned out to be her runaway best seller.

“Sometimes getting forced into doing something opens up all these other opportunities,” Rogalsky says, noting because she could now afford to rent space in a commercial kitchen — previously, she cooked out of her home — she was suddenly eligible to sell her buns at farmers’ markets, pop-up sales, and, as mentioned off the top, to ravenous school students looking for an alternative to hot-dog or pizza day.

Danielle Mondor is executive director of the St. Norbert Farmers’ Market, where Rogalsky has been a regular vendor since 2016.

“For me, what’s cool about the market is that one, it’s a place where people can go for nutritious, fresh food and two, it’s great for businesses that need to grow before they can start thinking about establishing a bricks-and-mortar or online store,” Mondor says, when reached at home. “And even though Deb now has a retail presence, she still chooses to vend every week, which I’m sure she’d agree is a great opportunity to greet customers face-to-face, and get instant feedback about her products.”

To Mondor, Rogalsky’s tourtière buns, done with ground beef, onion, cinnamon, cloves and garlic, taste precisely like the spiced meat pies. One of her relatives, who is French-Canadian, is in full agreement.

“My auntie is always asking me to buy Deb’s Meatbuns and I routinely stop by her booth to pick up a dozen to honour her Franco-Manitoban roots,” Mondor says.

Mondor notes the weekly farmers’ market has an information station, where visitors can inquire as to the whereabouts of a particular booth. “Where can I find Deb’s Meatbuns?” is a common query, she says.

“If there’s ever a Saturday when she’s not here, she is definitely missed.”

Rogalsky is currently in the midst of what she calls her busy season, which generally lasts from mid-May until Christmas. The best investment she ever made was adding a commercial kitchen to her premises, which allows her to cook when it suits her, and to slip away for a mid-afternoon nap, if needed.

“And because I can pinch buns with my eyes closed pretty much, I spend a lot of time listening to audiobooks or watching my shows when I’m here,” she says, getting up to place three-dozen freshly rolled buns into a pre-heated oven. “What’s also been great is that all of my children have worked for me at some point, and it’s been awesome that the business allows me to give them money without giving them money, if you know what I mean.”

Last month, Rogalsky, who swears by a side of gravy with her “chicken dinner” bun (chicken, stuffing), travelled with one of her sons to Toronto to help him get set up in a new apartment before starting university. She shakes her head when asked if his mother’s buns were among the belongings he packed for the road.

“To be completely honest, I’m not sure any of my kids crave them any longer, I’ve tested so many buns on them through the years. Mind you, when the cupboard’s bare and there’s nothing else to eat, they know who to call.”

For more information, go to debsmeatbuns.ca

david.sanderson@freepress.mb.ca