BEAUTY AND THE BASKET

December 22,2003

The packaging of products in The Picnic Basket line-up is so colourfully coordinated, customers are created on the spot. Then they come back for more. That's because Judith Hartmann's selection of six pre-cooked dishes began with her own desire for a healthful diet, and her love of cooking. Not only that, as she openly admits, she's a good cook.

Saskatonian Hartmann founded The Picnic Basket after a 1999 holiday in New Orleans. She had brought back a package of bean chili and black bean soup mix and, while showing them to a friend, was told about Saskatoon's InfraReady Products, which would make similar products possible in a pre-cooked form. With that, it all fell into place: as a realtor, she was burned out; as a breast cancer survivor, she needed less stress in her life; and, as a creative cook, she liked the idea of a business based on her culinary talents.

She started with four MSG-free products - Black Bean Soup Mix, Mixed Bean Soup Mix, Bean Chili Mix and Wild Rice Casserole Mix - that she created, packaged and sold at a farmer's market. By 2000, she had added Vegetable Mixed Bean Soup Mix and Mulligatawny Soup Mix, both of which were also vegetarian, MSG-free and required only the addition of water. By 2002, she knew she definitely was on to something but, if she was to expand the business, she had to make a few changes.

Helping her make these changes was the Agriculture Development Fund's (ADF) Agri-Value Program. It allowed her to have a nutritional analysis of all products carried out, and a nutritional label for all products developed. She also had a new package and new labels designed.

"I love the new packaging and labels. They stand out. They're unique. I've never seen packaging as attractive. Judging by the comments I get, others think the same way. The Saskatoon company that designed and printed the labels even won an award for them," Hartmann enthuses.

The ADF support also allowed her to attend tradeshows, including the Alberta Gift Show for retailers in Edmonton and the Business Expo Show in Saskatoon. These, along with craft shows such as Saskatoon's Sun Dog, the North American Craft Challenge in Regina and Scattered Seeds in Winnipeg, have resulted in a distribution web of specialty food stores across Western Canada.

Despite these retail sales, however, Hartmann continues to spend every weekend from September to December at craft shows, where customers are often introduced to her products and then seek out retailers that carry the products the rest of the year. She also continues to do everything, from the mix preparation to the packaging.

"I enjoy what I'm doing. This is fun. It's my product, my own baby, so it's a different kind of busy. It's so rewarding. And because I enjoy cooking, it's not a job job."

Next year, she says, she plans to introduce new products and test market them though farmers' markets. She is already test-marketing about 15 other products and, of these, the lentil soup may soon be graduating to number seven in her line-up. This means it too will wear one of her specially designed "jackets". These, she says, are reserved for the best only.

"I believe my products are top of the line, and they wear their jackets well," says Hartmann.