Saskatoon News October 15, 2012

Saskatoon Girls Win on Dragon’s Den

I am so proud to blog about good friends of mine, Elysia and Natasha Vandenhurk, and their new business success. I won’t say new business venture as they have been working on this for several years and have now achieved National success. They have been all over the news this past week including an article in the Saskatoon Star Phoenix on their Camelina Oil.

They started this venture on a small scale and it has been ramping up, so much so that they were invited to go on the Dragon’s Den! They taped their show in the spring and it just aired last week and they did incredible! They got a deal with Arlene Dickinson, she even took the time to call during the launch party at Earls in Saskatoon on Wednesday night. She is amazing! They were quite happy with getting a deal with Arlene as she has a lot of experience in the food world and is a master marketer.

Three Farmers, the company, was indeed founded by three farmers in southeast Saskatchewan near my hometown in 2010, Colin Rosengren, Ron Emde and the girls father, Dan Vandenhurk. They were the first to introduce Camelina culinary oil to Canada and together with Elysia, who is a chef, and Tasha, a marketing graduate, they have brought Canada a wonderful product on so many levels.

This product is very versatile, has a high smoke point of 475F for frying, and can be used on salads as is. I personally have the Roasted Onion and Basil and love using it on cold cucumber, tomato and feta salads. So simple yet so delicious! They also have a Roasted Garlic and Chili as well as their original. Camelina oil is high in Vitamin E and Omega3 and can be traced back to the Bronze age. The unique factor to what they offer is the traceability. Each bottle has a code or a QR code that can be entered into the website to trace the oil back to the farmer who grew it and the field it was grown in. Pretty amazing!

They had originally applied for Dragon’s Den last year but decided to postpone for a year to get fully prepared and make a solid pitch…and the delay worked! Dickson offered $150,000 and 20% of the company-almost exactly what they were going for. Having Dickinson on board should help grow the company even faster as well as be a good learning experience for the company by utilizing her resources, advice and connections.

People ask me about real estate in Saskatoon and why it is so busy. Well here is yet another example of one of the not so hidden anymore gems out there in Saskatoon that helps propel the Saskatoon real estate market. We have a city full of entrepreneurs and so many random businesses that affect us in a positive way.

If you are contemplating investing in real estate in Saskatoon or are just looking to buy a home or sell a home in Saskatoon allow me and my experience to help you through the transaction.

Kari Calder
Saskatoon Real Estate Agent
Century 21 Fusion
kari@saskatoonrealestate.net