Aran Spelt Bakery Launches New Hours and New Cookbook
By CATHOLINE BUTLER
VANCOUVER - Janet Feirin owner of Aran Spelt Bakery on Venables Street in Vancouver, would sooner be baking and writing recipes for her cookbooks than anything else. That’s why she recently hired a manager to take care of the day-to-day management and retail, so that she could do just that.
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JANET FEIRIN, owner of Aran Spelt Bakery, proudly holds a copy of her Basic Spelt Cookbook.
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The Celtic Connection recently stopped into Aran Spelt Bakery to speak to Janet about her spelt bakery and her new cookbook. “Considering that we are doing production seven days a week, my business right now is about 60 percent wholesale and 40 percent retail.”
Janet said, “with the wholesale, I deliver as far out as Coquitlam, Maple Ridge and Surrey. Our retail days are so busy and our record is serving 107 customers in a seven-hour period, which considering that you’re slicing bread, talking and asking customers ‘how many cookies do you want? For 107 people, that’s quite a lot.”
Starting May 4, the retail end of the business will be open weekdays from 12 noon to 7 PM and Saturdays from 10 AM to 5 PM. “But,” Janet said, “customers can also give us a call and place their orders for pick-up at the store.“
Janet explained that she has recently published the Basic Spelt Cookbook, and she is now working on a second cookbook which is all about cooking with spelt and it’s also going to include some recipes for diabetics.
“I recently developed a cake for diabetics,” she said, “which is called the Chocolate Marquise and it has no sugar in it. Most people have described the cake as a chocolate cloud in your mouth. It’s so soft. It’s somewhat of a cross between a mousse and a ganache, but it’s sugar free and that’s one of my most recent developments.”
So what is spelt you say? Janet described it saying, “spelt is an ancient grain. It’s the same genus as wheat but a different species. So, there’s a lot of people who digest spelt a lot easier than wheat. Spelt has a higher protein content, a lower gluten content, it’s got complex vitamin Bs, which you get a lot more vitamin B out of it than you do out of wheat.
“So, nutritionally you’re getting a lot more out of spelt. It’s also lower in carbs than wheat, so that’s another thing about spelt that people kind of like. It’s not hugely lower in carbs but it is lower than wheat, so it’s a great alternative.”
It is also grown organically, all Aran Spelt Bakery flour is certified organic, “so that’s another issue that’s important for people,” said Janet. “We use very traditional ways of baking.
“For instance I have a white potato bread which is not like the traditional Irish potato bread – it’s a pan loaf. What we do is peel, boil and mash B.C. grown organic russet potatoes, and we put them in the bread. A lot of people think we use potato flour and they are surprised when we tell them we actually use real potatoes.”
Janet has created what she calls “the breakfast cookie.” She explained, “Many people purchase the cookie for breakfast since it’s packed with nutrients. The ingredients are cornflakes, oats, flax, millet, sesame, sunflower, raisin and apricots.
“We also use a dairy-free margarine called Earth Balance and that’s a GMO free non-hydrogenated margarine. It’s trans fat free...so that’s another benefit to the margarine. It’s the margarine that we use in all our baking.”
Janet said one of the advantages of the breakfast cookie if you’re a hiker or a camper or someone travelling, it that it can be a great source of energy. She said, “I recently went to the UK and I took a dozen breakfast cookies with me. On a number of occasions, it saved me from having to stop for a £10 lunch. Instead, I could eat my $2 Canadian breakfast cookie. Great difference in price.”
Speaking about her stock, Janet said, “I am now making organic blueberry pies and they are just to die for. We also have quiches and chicken pot pie using organic meats. Our chicken pot pies are also made from scratch. I take a chicken, cook it and roast it, and make the broth out of the chicken bones. We also have a lot of packaged mixes such as baking powder biscuit mix which is very similar to Bisquik only it’s organic baking powder biscuit mix.”
Janet Feirin is an Irish speaker and when not so busy has taught the Irish language. She is also a ceili dancer and said she sometimes talks to her eight-year-old daughter, Boedicea in Irish. Her daughter also takes Irish dancing lessons with the Scoil Rince de Danaan.
Janet’s cookbook entitled Basic Spelt Cookbook is reasonably priced at $16.99 and she has a special offer for the month of May. If you buy $100 dollars worth of product at Aran Foods, then you get the cookbook for $10. If you buy $150, then you get the cookbook free.
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Aran Spelt Bakery is located at 1692 Venables Street in Vancouver. For more information, call (604) 258-2726, or call toll free: 1-888-551-2726. Visit the website at: www.aranfoods.com.
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