How Exciting is This...

Hello Fellow Barley Lovers,

We are thrilled and honored to have received this wonderful letter from the winners of the High School Culinary Challenge sponsored by the CCFCC. This was held last month with teams from Edmonton and area competing for First Place! I'll let the letter do the talking...

To whom it may concern,

 In reflecting the views of many and in keeping with the emerging tradition of purchasing locally developed food items I would like to comment on Progressive Foods Inc, and Marvin Kakonechnys’ innovative fast cooking barley product.  It is truly an Alberta made product that was used by the Culinary Art team in Camrose Composite High School and formed a large part of their gold medal award winning result at the prestigious 2011 Canadian Federation of Chefs, High School Culinary Art Competition that was held in February with the results just being released on the 10th March.  13 High schools participate in the competition with 3 students forming a team.  Each team was given the same ingredients and instructed to cook the same 3 course meal.  Part of the meal was a barley risotto that went with a stuffed chicken thigh, carrots and tomato Florentine.  The dessert was a Bavarian cream served with a Saskatoon sauce and garnishes of choice, and the soup was a fusion South American and East Indian black bean soup.  The beans were also a local product.

                The barley was a key ingredient for our winning team and it is an exciting and as stated innovative product to work with.  Our team gently released the starches within the barley by sautéing it with onion, garlic and butter then poaching it with a well prepared chicken stock.  We finished the barley with copious amounts of butter a fresh cream and added texture with peas.  We have also added brunoise cut carrots and asparagus tips to the barley to give it extra zip.  This home grown product is quickly replacing rice in our menus and it is adding an excellent fibre and it is packed with extra nutrients amid a reflective golden bronze colour.  We have also cooked the barley using a vegetarian stock and again it presented us with a fabulous product.  I have used it in the traditional beef and barley soup, what could be more Albertan, and it was fantastic.  This precooked product cooks really fast and releases gentle starches and a rustic yet pleasant aroma and flavour that blend well with surrounding foods.  This barley used as a risotto is remarkable and I would choose to present it over rice without hesitation knowing that it is a local food meeting the requirements of the 100 mile diet.

                Marvin from Progressive Foods Inc., kindly supplied endless quantities of his homespun product to all the teams via the NAIT culinary art department.  Our team is convinced that their barley presentation formed an important component of the meal that won them gold.  I hope that more consumers come to see the diversity of this local product.

Matthew Stinson M.ed  Chef Educator, Camrose Composite High School.

Article sent in by Mr. Matthew Stinson. Teacher, CCHS, HM: 780 672 5399

Congratulations to Chef Teacher Matthew Stinson, his culinary team and all those that participated in the challenge!

Quick Cooking Barley...on the road again...

Well folks, we're on the move again. This time we are heading to the "Celebrating Women's Conference 2011" in Camrose, Ab on April 15, 2011. We are very excited to be a part of their conference being held at the Camrose Regional Exhibition. Quick Cooking Barley will be featured at their luncheon and we will also have a booth during the conference where attendee's can sample our Quick Cooking Barley in a yummy recipe and also purchase our Quick Cooking Barley.

In our busy lives we often don't have time to cook and prepare good meals for our families...and for ourselves! Quick Cooking Barley offers the convenience of a short cooking time and healthy nutrition. We have some tasty recipes on our website for you to try, or substitute the Quick Cooking Barley for rice or pasta in your favorite recipe. I added some QC Barley to the stew I was preparing a couple of weekends ago. I froze the stew in meal portions to take to work for lunch or for suppertime. Today I brought in some of that stew for lunch and it was yummy! The QC Barley retained it's texture and consistency which is a great quality in our barley. Also, because barley works slowly through your system you feel full without feeling bloated and are not reaching for that mid-afternoon snack. Sounds good to me!

In good health....

More Pictures from the Cooking Demo's at Sobey's Nottingham and Sobey's Lakeland Ridge

Here are a couple more pictures from the taste samplings held this past weekend...

Quick Cooking Barley on the shelf at Sobey's.

Quick Cooking Barley Chiptole....mmmm.....

Cooking Demonstrations - Sobey's Nottingham & Lakeland

Hi All!

What a great weekend!! Sobey's Nottingham and Sobey's Lakeland Ridge in Sherwood Park, Alberta gave us the opportunity to have taste samples of our Quick Cooking Barley in two very yummy recipes this past weekend. The wonderful ladies at Sara Consulting, Shirley and Ivie are true professionals! They cooked up some Quick Cooking Barley Jambalaya and Quick Cooking Barley Chipotle! The enticing smells from their skillets brought everyone in the store to their booth wanting a sample. The feedback from customers was very positive and very exciting for us. We sold alot of product and hope this is the start of great things for our Quick Cooking Barley! A big Thank You to the Sobey's Store Managers. Their invitation to have us sample the QC Barley and their enthusiasm for our product is very much appreciated!

Thank you again to Sobey's Lakeland Ridge and Sobey's Nottingham for featuring our Quick Cooking Barley this past weekend.

In Good Health!

Since you asked...

This past week a customer bought some barley from one of our outlets and was wondering if the product was Organic and is barley a GMO product. This was the reply.

Progressive Foods currently sells two product lines, an Organic Quick Cooking barley and “Natural” Quick Cooking barley.  These can be identified by the package. The Organic package is 400g in size and has the distinct Canada Certified Organic Label.

The “Natural” product is in a similar package without the Organic symbol but in a 500g bag. All of the barley used in the Progressive Foods Quick Cooking Barley label is grown under Identity Preserve standards and each lot can be traced back to the farm where it was grown. Our standards require the grain to be free of disease and other grain contaminants. Therefore we ask the grower to use Falcon hull-less barley seed and be grown under seed quality standards for field selection and rotation. Barley must also meet food grade criteria.  The grain kernel must be bright in appearance, free of any staining caused by fall weather conditions and other field contaminants. These are also some of the same criteria used in selecting malt barley. 

Barley is not a GMO grain. Barley plant breeding is strongly regulated by the malt and brewing industry and the bulk of barley plant breeding research is directed to this area.  As the final product of malt barley is beer, the industry is very conscious about protecting their image. Most of the barley breeding is still done through the traditional methods of field crossing various lines and making selections for specific traits. Since the barley genome has been sequenced, it is now possible to snip the exact gene and blast it into another barley plant – but this is still quite random in its functionality.

I hope this answers the question and also gives some information on how we have developed our Quick Cooking Barley.

Good Health to You!

Welcome Sunshine!!

The sunshine has come back! The warmer weather has arrived!! Could Spring be Springing upon us??!! I hope so!!

I have a few great news items to share today. The first being...Congratulations to the students, teachers, parents, Chef Simon Smotkowicz, the Shaw Conference Centre for their fabulous efforts at the High School Culinary Challenge Awards Lunch held at the Shaw Conference Centre on March 10, 2011. What a great event and what wonderful results from the challenge. We have some very talented youth in this city and surrounding areas!! Congratulations! CCFCC was the main sponsor of this event and I am proud to say that Progressive Foods Inc. donated the Quick Cooking Barley for the competition and luncheon. The students prepared a Barley Risotto that was incredibly delicious! There was also a stuffed chicken leg, stuffed tomato and fresh carrots. The soup was very hearty and hit the spot. The dessert...well...let's just say I had to resist stealing others desserts who weren't so quick on the draw!! We are very proud to be a part of this event and wish all the the culinary students the best of luck in their very bright futures.

More news! You can now purchase Quick Cooking Barley at Community Natural Foods in Calgary. They have two locations there: Chinook Station Market (202 - 61st Avenue SW) and 10th Avenue Market (1304 - 10th Avenue SW). We are very excited to be on their shelves. They will be stocking both the regular Quick Cooking Barley as well as the Organic Quick Cooking Barley. We will be doing some tasting demonstrations there soon. As soon as I know a date, I'll post it here and on Facebook.

Where else is Quick Cooking Barley popping up? Here in Edmonton we are also at Wild Earth Foods (8910 - 99 Street). They carry both regular and organic Quick Cooking Barley. Also, in Stony Plain we are on the shelves at Homegrown Foods (#10 - 19 Granite Drive). So, our Quick Cooking Barley is making its way into the stores and homes of Edmontonians. It's great!

MARCH 19 & 20th...come on by to the Sobey's Nottingham and Sobey's Lakeland in Sherwood Park from 12 - 6pm. We will be cooking up and handing out taste samples both days. So please come out and sample some great food!

MARCH 26 - If you're from Airdrie or passing through, stop by Nutter's Bulk and Natural Foods (#102, 400 Main Street) for their Grand Opening. Marvin will be there cooking up a storm and serving Quick Cooking Barley in a couple of different recipes. They will be delicious that's for sure! Come by and say Hi!

Enjoy the sunshine my friends!

Happy February 28, 2011 Everyone!!

Hi All,

February is nearly over...and I think March is coming in like a Lion!! Yikes!! Whoever is sending us this nasty weather can now stop!!
The only thing this weather is good for is for experimenting and creating warm and nourishing meals...like Quick Cooking Barley Mushroom Soup or Quick Cooking Barley Chili...now that will warm you right down to your bones!!
I am happy to announce that Marello's Market and Deli in the Telus Plaza downtown Edmonton is now featuring our Quick Cooking Barley in their deli AND they are selling our Quick Cooking Barley in their marketplace. How great is that?? We are very excited about it and have just recently (like today recently) placed one of our shelving units with recipe cards and bags of our regular and organic product on the shelves. This is new for us so we are looking forward to a success at Marcello's Market and Deli. Also, you now have another place to purchase our Quick Cooking Barley.
Till next time...stay warm...cook up some wonderful Quick Cooking Barley and if you'd like to share your recipes, we'd love to try them.

Take Care!