Yeshi Dressing Mini Interview
It’s so nice to have the opportunity to introduce you to the founders of Yeshi, Paul and Barbara Kleinschmidt, who are not only partners in business, but in life! It’s no secret we absolutely love fresh, organic produce, so great salads are also very near and dear to our hearts. And a salad just can’t be great without an awesome dressing. Yeshi’s wonderful, creamy, nutritional yeast dressings more than fits the bill, and it’s an extra cool bonus that they are a local BC company based in Mill Bay. While Paul and Barbara originally created their line out of a quest for gluten-free dressing options, the fan-base for their products extend well beyond gluten-free customers and we’re sure you’ll enjoy learning a little about the fantastic people behind them.
Share your story with us in a 150 words or less.
Yeshi was created out of a desire for better wellness. Paul had developed a severe allergy to gluten and was finding the options for gluten-free dressings and dips to be limited and lacking flavour. Since he loves experiencing food, he kept asking Barbara (who happens to be a professional cook!) to help him find gluten-free alternatives that were really enjoyable. Barbara started experimenting in the kitchen with Paul as her taste testing side-kick and Yeshi was born! Everyone who tried Yeshi loved it, so we brought it to our local farmers' market and sold out every week. Shortly after, we decided to take the leap into grocery stores and have grown primarily via word of mouth ever since. What started as a conversation at home is now a favourite at farmers' markets and grocery stores across Canada.
Getting from an idea to a small business is a lot of work! When did it first sink in for you that ‘this is really happening’?
There has definitely been more than one milestone where we have pinched ourselves to check if this is really happening! The biggest one was when Yeshi went from something we enjoyed with family and friends, to bottling it and selling it at our local farmers' market every Saturday. It is such an incredible feeling when people tell us how much they love Yeshi and share how they like to use it. It's inspiring to hear other people's journey's with dietary limitations and restrictions and how Yeshi is changing the way they experience food.
Out of all your products, which is your personal favourite and why?
The original is our favourite. We're always looking at product development and how we can better serve our Yeshi community, and the original dressing is still our favourite one. We think it's because it holds so many memories of the two of us working together in the kitchen to create the perfect dressing! It's kind of like when you hear a song that brings you back to a memory - the original brings us back to when it was just us messing around together!
