When Angie Defosses left her office job in Regina, she didn’t realize her future career path would be so egg-citing.
“Mum had always made pickled eggs, original type of flavor and we had that flavour growing up on the farm,” Desfosses said.
Pickled eggs are something Desfosses and her family know well, so well that in her hometown of Cupar she’s taking a crack at a new business called Nanjo’s.
The Nanjo’s name is a combination of Desfosses’s nickname, Auntie Anjo, and the grandkids calling her mother Marjorie nan.
Majorie Desfosses says she started making pickled eggs as a way to use up excess eggs produced by new chickens her husband brought home.
“So we’d end up with a bathtub full of eggs, pails for eggs,” Marjorie told CTV News amidst stacks of jars of her specially crafted eggs. “We’d take eggs to the store and we’d sell eggs to neighbours and then we started giving them away.”
Marjorie said eventually she had too many pickled eggs too – and started sending some to the town’s bar, family members, and others until a friend convinced her to start taking them to the farmers market.
Years later, Nanjo’s now produces 10 different flavours including sauerkraut, honey mustard, and their most popular offering – “Hot ‘n’ Saucy”.
In recent years the Cupar-based business has seen huge growth, even being stocked on grocery store shelves like the local section of Save-On-Foods and soon throughout stores run by the Federated Co-Op.
According to Angie, their company is the only one in Canada making flavoured pickled eggs at the retail level.
“These ones remain homemade tasting,” Angie said. “You don’t have a rubbery, hard, vinegary texture, you can still taste the egg.”
As for what makes a Nanjo’s egg stand out from other pickled eggs on the retail market and the ones speckled throughout Saskatchewan bars and pubs?
“You don’t have to be drunk to eat these ones,” Angie said with a laugh. “We say they’re so good you can actually eat them sober.”
