Baba Jenny’s Ukrainian Foods makes homemade Ukrainian foods like pyrohy, nalysnyky, and cabbage rolls. Baba Jenny’s catering service has been serving the Vermilion community for 40 years, and their food has recently expanded into grocery stores.
Carolyn Pulyk of Baba Jenny’s Ukrainian Foods always thought that her family’s traditional Ukrainian food tasted as good as anyone else’s. But her husband, Garry, knew its taste had potential–business potential. Carolyn’s family’s food was good enough to sell, it just needed some effort to make the jump into the retail market.
Carolyn’s mother, Jenny Borysiuk (the woman who shares the store’s name), had been catering in the Vermilion community for over 40 years before the company’s start, so Garry found it easy to market her food locally. Vermilionites knew that Jenny’s pyrohy and Ukrainian specialties were delicious, and her catering service was constantly booked full.
As a locally owned company, Baba Jenny’s staunchly believes that its local roots should be upheld with local sourcing for their ingredients whenever they can. During the summer and fall months, all of their ingredients come from farms near Vermilion. During the deep winter months, Garry resorts to sourcing some of the ingredients from the U.S., just to ensure that the quality remains in their cabbage rolls.
Garry jokes, “Even the labour is local!” About a dozen babas from Vermilion form a line along the kitchen counters, making cabbage rolls and other Ukrainian treats. The whole staff is committed to upholding Baba Jenny’s image and the great, homemade taste of its food.
The business has seen a lot of success in its infancy, being only about a year and a half old. But it’s constantly expanding, producing more food for more grocery stores. Garry hopes to see Baba Jenny’s expand across the provinces so that everyone can enjoy the Borysiuk family’s yummy Ukrainian food.
Baba Jenny’s impressive growth is tracked and displayed on their Facebook page. Every time a new store stocks their products, Garry updates the page. We at Localize have been so impressed with their rate of growth that we transplanted that information onto this neat map below. If you click on the image, you can see a visual representation of how quickly they’ve been moving into stores!
Baba Jenny’s also spends time supporting the local Alberta community. They recently sponsored a pyrohy eating contest at the Vegreville Ukrainian Pysanka Festival. After having tried many of their pyrohy, I can personally vouch for the reason they’ve expanded so rapidly: Baba Jenny’s pyrohy taste delicious!
We’re excited to see them continue on their path of growth!
For more information about Baba Jenny’s Ukrainian Foods, visit their Localize product profiles:
https://www.localizeyourfood.com/s/?q=baba%20jenny
or their Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Baba-Jennys-Ukrainian-Foods/109480442457048
