Parkland Meats Ltd. in Shellbrook, Sask., had its best Christmas ever
in 2001. Pepperoni sticks are always its top seller, but sales of this
product reached 225 kilograms during the festive season.
Keeping up with the demand for it and 19 other sausage varieties kept
owner David Mumm and his seven employees hopping until Christmas Eve.
It wasn’t the Parkland sausages that garnered two awards at the
Canadian Western Agribition in November, however.
Rather, Mumm won the processed meat grand champion award for his ham,
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and the reserve grand champion award for his turkey breast.
Originally from Shellbrook, Mumm’s family moved to Red Deer when he was
14, and his first job after high school graduation was cutting meat at
what was then Fletcher’s Fine Foods.
After five years, he moved back to Shellbrook to take over his uncle’s
farm and, soon, to work at the local butcher shop.
In the mid-1980s, he and his wife, Heather, bought the shop and renamed
it Parkland Meats.
He sells a full line of fresh-cut meat, does custom slaughtering and
processing, and has added to his line of processed meat, often in
response to his customers’ comments.
When the pepperoni sticks were too hot for some customers, for example,
he made honey-garlic beer sticks.
The pepperoni sticks, however, were just right for the judges of the
Saskatchewan Meat Processors competition last year, who awarded Mumm
first prize.
He enters this and the Canadian Western Agribition competition every
year and usually comes home with ribbons.
“I’ve been processing meat a long time so I’ve learned a few tricks
over the years. But I never take anything for granted.”
The competitions allow him to compare his product’s quality “against
the big guys,” he said.
“Still, it’s our customers who are our best and most valuable judges.
We have to please them. And, based on our Christmas sales, we are.”
