Marc Masson of the Assemblée Communautaire Fransaskoise said Saskatchewan has a rich and diverse range of foods to offer consumers.
“There is room for value added products that can only be grown here because of our geography,” he said. “We have to get the producers working on this.”
Besides bison, saskatoons and wild rice, he noted Saskatchewan produces half of the world’s mustard.
However, the province did not offer table mustards until Debe Aussant and Carlien Brouwer of Gravelbourg Mustard started selling their creations.
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They are taking advantage of raw ingredients grown and processed locally to produce French, German and cranberry mustard. Eighty percent of Saskatchewan’s mustard is grown in the southwest.
The business grew from a desire to stay in the community, where Aussant is an organic farmer and Brouwer runs a local hotel.
“We hope it will be an inspiration,” said Brouwer, who wants people to associate Gravelbourg with mustard.
Their mustard products were featured alongside other Saskatchewan food products at the Terroir, Identity and Seduction conference in Saskatoon Feb. 20-22.
Angela Hoffort of Bedard Acres at Choiceland, Sask., was giving out samples of red clover blossom syrup.
Used as a topping for pancakes or ice cream, it is extracted from red clover blossoms. They are made into a tea and boiled down to create the syrup.
Bedard Acres also sells clover blossoms as edible flowers for salads. It markets products through a website and at trade shows.
“We’re bringing flavours from rural to city people,” said Hoffort.
The multi-purpose crop is an important part of the farm’s crop rotation and is also used as livestock feed.
Hoffort said distribution is a big problem for rural agribusinesses, noting the high costs of shipping sugar and empty jars to Choiceland.
The business received much help from the provincial government’s value chain programs, which provide answers to their questions and support their travel to trade shows.
She said many Saskatchewan-made products are already known in other provinces, noting how Canada generally has a good reputation abroad for producing quality products.
