Taste of nostalgia taking over Okanagan with farm-to-table relish
An Okanagan-produced relish is giving consumers a taste of nostalgia while raising awareness for Métis entrepreneurs.
Peggy Millsap was born in a small town in Alberta, raised on a 2,000-acre homestead, and enjoyed cooking her entire life. To use the abundance of zucchini on the farm she grew up on, Millsap experimented with recipes and species until she created the recipe used for Rad Relish.
Her grandson, Garrett Millsap, grew up eating the relish, and during COVID he launched the product with the help of a friend and owner of Rad Jamz, Kyla King.
“Garrett said it was the best relish he ever had, and he grew up with it. I had way too much zucchini than I knew what to do with, and wanted to try out the recipe,” King said. “I made it and tested it at a farmers’ market and had an amazing response.”
For Garrett, being Métis, it was extremely important to have the Métis Nation of B.C. endorse the relish and raise awareness for the community.
“There’s not that much awareness of Métis people in general. My mission was to create Métis awareness,” Garrett said. “A lot of Métis people are successful entrepreneurs.”
King added: “It’s the very first food product to be endorsed by the Métis Nation of B.C. That’s very special because we want to show that we are proud to be Métis, and this isn’t something we have to hide.”
The zucchini relish is unique because most relishes on the market are cucumber-based, King explained.
Since there is a lot of water in zucchini, the vegetable must be grated, salted, and left for 24 hours to ensure all of the water has dried. Once the 24 hours is up, the salt is rinsed off, and the zucchini is added to a steam kettle with other ingredients and spices.
“It’s a complete farm-to-table local product. It comes out of the field at Paynter’s, and goes to Kyla’s kitchen three blocks away, it’s cooked, and then it’s put on the shelves in stores,” Garrett said. “You can’t get any more farm-to-table than this.”
King makes 75 litre batches at a time that typically take two hours to cook. After the product is finished cooking, the team cans it, adds labels and sends it to local retailers.
“The steam kettle cuts down the time immensely because you can heat up all the ingredients all at once, if we were to do a batch that size it would take all day long,” King said. “Because we’re making such big batches, once it’s done cooking, we pour it into an automated filler that disperses it into the jars one by one at the perfect amount.”
Zucchini relish was the standard recipe that anyone who was canning used from the 1920s.
“The recipe has dwindled and hasn’t been a recipe in the home canners kitchen in a long time,” King said.
When giving out samples, King has found that the relish gives consumers a feeling of nostalgia.
“It’s special in that way. We’re bringing that comfort food back for many people,” she said.
READ MORE: Kamloops charcuterie processing plant dodges supply issues by sourcing meat locally
King spends most of her day in the kitchen cooking relish and other preserves, and while products cook, she manages her team.
“The summertime is our go time. We get all of our fruits and vegetables that we use throughout the summer when they are in season and then we freeze and process them to use throughout the year,” King said.
Typically, the team will take an entire day to process, wash, break down, shred, and store the zucchini that will be frozen.
“It’s a lot of prep and a lot of cooking,” King said.
As the relish increases in popularity across the Okanagan, King has run into supply chain challenges that make it difficult to keep up with demand.
“Overall, keeping up with supply with everything that I’m making has been the biggest challenge,” King said. “All the ingredients that go into the relish, that’s easy, that’s never an issue in the Okanagan because we have such an abundance of fruit and vegetables here, it’s everything else with the supply chain that puts a damper on things.”
King, Garrett, and Peggy have now developed a smoked relish and a spicy relish.
“Grandma Peg is taking part in creating the recipe, and she’s been playing around with Serrano peppers,” Garrett said.
Rad Relish and Rad Jamz can be found at Peters Independent Grocers, Nature's Fare Markets, and London Drugs, or online.
To contact a reporter for this story, email Emily Rogers or call 250-718-0428 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.
We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above.
