“We needed a bigger marketplace than Saskatoon and Regina and needed to
prove the success of the oil.” ElysiaVandenhurk, Chief Operating Officer
JULY 2015
H
business elite canada 41
FIRST BATCH WAS BOTTLED
BY HAND IN 2010
Natasha and ElysiaVandenhurk, the daugh-
ters of Dan, soon became involved in the
prospective business. Natasha, the com-
pany’s Chief Executive Officer, brought a
sample of the oil taken from the plant’s
crushed seed to Elysia, whose background
in culinary arts and certification as a Red
Seal Chef were essential in discovering
how the oil could be transformed into a
viable food product. In 2010, they bottled
their first small batch of cold-pressed cam-
elina oil by hand at a local food centre and
soon sold their first bottles at the Saska-
toon Farmers’ Market and local health
food stores, said Elysia, who is now the
company’s Chief Operating Officer. But
that was just the beginning.
“We needed a bigger marketplace than
Saskatoon and Regina and needed to prove
the success of the oil,” Elysia said.The next
step was a road trip to Toronto where the
sisters spent about seven weeks knocking
on the doors of specialty and health food
stores and offering to demonstrate their
innovative product to the store’s custom-
ers. “The customers were excited; 99 per
cent were loving the flavour of the oil and
the story and its use,” she said. The prod-
uct was so popular that Three Farmers
proceeded to set up warehousing in the
city, hiring a courier to grow the business
and service stores.
There are several reasons why consum-
ers are paying attention to camelina oil. Its
