Alberta Farmer Express: Field peas are the latest Alberta crop to be distilled into a spirit

Jennifer Blair from Alberta Farmer Express chats with our founder, Faaiza Ramji, to learn how she and Lindsey Good decided to distill field peas, and what that could mean for our pulse farmers as more food producers get creative with our crops.

If Alberta’s malt barley can be transformed into craft beer and its rye into premium whisky, why not field peas?

That’s the question that Faaiza Ramji asked herself early in the pandemic as she explored ways to use more Alberta-grown crops in locally processed foods and drinks.

“I was disappointed to learn that we grow so many amazing crops here and then sell them raw and unfinished to other countries where they add a lot of the value and then sell them around the world, including Alberta,” said the Edmonton-based co-founder of Field Notes, the first company in North America to make spirits from distilled field peas.

“I just don’t see a need to go outside of Alberta for all these things. I wanted to create something out of Alberta pulses to see if I could do it differently.”

Alberta Pulse Growers Chair, Robert Semeniuk, is also featured in the article—both for his review of Don’t Call Me Sweet Pea and his thoughts on the potential of this market.

As a pulse grower, Semeniuk sees this as another (albeit currently small) potential market for his crops.

“Any time we can find unique markets like this is awesome,” he said. “Look at what craft beer did for barley. So much more barley started getting used up closer to home here because of that. It’s really about keeping our market as close to home as we can. We have so much potential here in Alberta for more markets and more processing for pulses.

“Kudos to Field Notes for trying it. To see that kind of stuff come onto the market is great.”

Read the full article here.