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Kelly Beaulieu came up with a new way to flash-cook produce from Prairie fields

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If it’s one thing Kelly Beaulieu hates, it’s seeing food go to waste. So she started thinking about the best way to turn vegetables left behind on prairie fields into nutritious purees for use in soups, baby food, dips and desserts. Pictured here are raw beets that have been cleaned and peeled in her processing facility in Portage La Prairie, Man.JOHN WOODS/The Globe and Mail

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Armed with a BSc in agriculture and certified as a professional agrologist, Ms. Beaulieu, who grew up as a member of the Sandy Bay First Nation in Manitoba, started Canadian Prairie Garden Purees Inc. She uses a proprietary rapid steam-infusion process that she designed. It cooks vegetables in four to 20 seconds at ultra-high temperatures, which she says locks in nutrients, colour and taste. The purees, which contain no additives, are then packaged into easily transported pouches, as seen above.JOHN WOODS/The Globe and Mail

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What kind of produce does she look for? She gives the example of cauliflower. Only the most perfectly shaped heads of a certain size make it to supermarket shelves. The yield that doesn’t measure up is often sold for use in processed food or plowed under. The same goes for parsnips, squash, corn, broccoli, pumpkin, onions, sweet potatoes, beets and carrots, all of which Canadian Prairie Garden uses to make purees.JOHN WOODS/The Globe and Mail

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Kelly Beaulieu goes over quality control with process control manager Tyler Beaulieu. Canadian Prairie Garden already counts at least one multinational giant among its customers. And Ms. Beaulieu sees huge potential for exports, too.JOHN WOODS/The Globe and Mail

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Ms. Beaulieu operates cleaning and peeling equipment in her processing plant. She says her technology is a “game-changer,” but it also presents a challenge – how to persuade established players to change their game. Many potential customers are used to buying this type of product frozen, Ms. Beaulieu explains. “We had a customer say, ‘This stuff tastes too much like actual cauliflower.’ They’ve been using frozen products that taste different and so they don’t know how to blend it in. When you taste our carrot puree, it tastes just like fresh carrots.”JOHN WOODS/The Globe and Mail

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The purees may cost a bit more on the front end, she adds, but companies could reap huge potential savings in refrigeration, transport and processing costs. “People have to recognize quality to pay for quality. We have to educate the customer.”JOHN WOODS/The Globe and Mail

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