Pembroke Observer
BATTER UP! New local organic, gluten-free buckwheat pancake mix and flour launched
Under the mantra ‘nourishing soil and souls’ Randy Briand’s local organic farm Chateaubriand has launched an organic, gluten-free buckwheat waffle and pancake mix for the local community.
Recently launched at Hyska’s Your Independent Grocer store in Petawawa, Gramp’s Organic Certified (Ecocert) Buckwheat Waffle/Pancake Mix and Nanny’s Organic Buckwheat Flour pack a powerful nutritional punch.
According to Briand the products are high quality and use fair trade organic spices and ingredients including their own family-grown buckwheat. Buckwheat is gluten free and despite its name is not a wheat but rather a flowering plant related to leafy vegetables like rhubarb and sorrel.
Over a decade ago as concerned parents, Briand and his wife Mary started looking at what their family was eating, where it was grown, how it was grown and what health benefits were present if any, he said.
“Along with our very good friend (a retired medical doctor) and his wife, we became extremely alarmed with the ingestion of chemicals, the lack of nutrition in our foods, and the methods used to grow them; we knew we had to make some serious steps toward change,” Briand said.
And so, with no experience in farming and only a little background in ecology, the family expanded their small residential plot of land with only a few tomato and bean plants into a 35-acre garden and hobby farm. Immediately they took steps to become organically certified and to be chemical and GMO (genetically modified organism)-free.
Eventually discovering the benefits of organic buckwheat, they incorporated it into their crop rotation for their own consumption. After purchasing a small kitchen-sized mill, Randy began experimenting with recipes and after three years of work to nail down all organic and non-GMO ingredients, having used family and friends as the test groups, they decided to bring the pancake/waffle mix and flour to the tables of local residents and other Canadians.
“We wanted to maintain control over the process so that in the end we could truly say that we know what we’re eating all the way from the farm right to the plate,” Briand said.
Hyska’s Your Independent Grocer owner Valerie Hyska said she had the pleasure of meeting and hearing about Chateaubriand’s product.
“We’re always happy to support local producers, especially when one, he’s actually a neighbor and lives across the street so you can’t get more local than that,” Huska said. “But it’s a fantastic product. It’s new and unique and we’re really excited to see where Chateaubriand is going to go in the future. I’m sure this is just a just a small step in what’s going to be a great future for a really, really great product.”
For his part, Briand said it was solid in their minds that they were going to start selling the product locally and Valerie was the first person they spoke to.
“Just basing it on her response and her welcoming attitude we said, ‘wow, this is great. This is exactly what we wanted.’ We wanted to start here, and Val just made it so easy,” he said.
Randy Briand is a face that many local people may recognize as a long-time teacher in the Renfrew County Catholic District School Board, as a solo musician, as the front man and one of the lead singers of the band Nothing Sacred and the band officer with the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 72 Pembroke Pipes and Drums.