New Website Launched To Promote De-Hulled Canary Seed

The Canary Seed Development Commission of Saskatchewan held its Annual General Meeting this morning.

Producers taking part in the virtual event learned about the new website, which will focus on the use of Canary Seed in the human food market.

Chair Darren Yungmann, a Canary seed producer from St. Gregor,says the commission obtained human food approval in both Canada and the U.S. for glabrous (hairless) de-hulled Canary seed back in early 2016, market development has been hampered by the lack of a consistent supply.

CSDCS Executive Director Kevin Hursh says the dehulled Canary Seed which is a fit for human use is being branded with its Spanish name, Alpiste.

"It's not an easy product to dehull, but within the last year there's been a group of people out at Herschel located at Wiens Seed Farm that has a good dehulling operation."

Brennan and Cara Wiens together with Tim and Jeannine James have been able to supply Alpiste for the past year.

"Infra Ready products in Saskatoon is selling de-hulled Canary Seed flour and meal, both cooked and raw, pre-cooked and raw. Purely Canada Foods, which is a subsidiary of Above Food that has many food interests, is looking at Canary Seed for a package product and also as an ingredient."

The new website www.alpistecanada.ca provides a variety of information from how it's produced to nutritional and health information to recipes and a list of suppliers.

He says the human food market for Canary seed is still in its infancy, but having companies interested and product available is a big step.