Peg's Kitchen: For the Goodness of Homemade Foods

Source: Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food

Even in the age of convenience foods, it seems there are always consumers who appreciate the tastes of authenticity. That is pretty much what Vern and Peg Leippi were banking on when they launched Peg’s Legs out of their farm home in 1996.

“We started with turkey legs at Kronau,” recalls Mrs. Leippi. “We cured them, smoked them and cooked them. That was our very first product. We were farming at the time and did this mostly in the winter. We quit farming in 1997."

The Leippis celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary in 1998 and made their own cabbage rolls and sausage for their outdoor party for 250 people.

"The reaction we got was: ‘Oh, your food is so good,’" she reminisces. "From then on, we just kept going. Our cabbage rolls really took off. They were first and foremost among our products. We took them to our first craft sale in 1999, in Lumsden, and we sold out in one hour and a half. We took orders, and from there we just kept on growing.”

The Leippis used to prepare their food on their kitchen table, and then they built a commercial kitchen in the basement of their farm home. They stayed on the farm for three years, but in 2002, they moved to their present storefront location at 1653 Park Street in Regina. They changed the name of the business from Peg's Legs to Peg's Kitchen shortly after arriving in the city.

"It was quite funny," says Mrs. Leippi. "We were getting calls from people who thought we did cosmetic hair removal, or were a dance studio, or sold prostheses."

Now, Peg's Kitchen makes five kinds of cabbage rolls and 20 kinds of sausages ... and they still do the turkey legs. Peg's Kitchen also sells perogies, which they don't make but instead contract from different producers in Saskatchewan. Peg’s Kitchen is Regina’s Saskatchewan Made store, and carries all the Saskatchewan Made-branded products: jams, jellies, flax, pickles and preserves, cookie dough and sweets. The store also sells some crafts, music, art works and books, and they operate a take-out deli at lunch time from Monday to Friday, where they offer their cabbage rolls and sausage or homemade beef or pork hamburgers.

Mrs. Leippi says their customers come from all income categories, and generally range from 30 years old and up.

"The homemade taste and smell bring them back," she says. "We hear over and over that we make the world’s best cabbage rolls. For the sausage, my husband uses low fat beef and pork. So you don’t get the flame-up on the barbeque that usually happens when the fat drips into the fire."

All of Peg's Kitchen's recipes were passed down through the family. “The sausages come from Vern’s family and the cabbage rolls come from mine,” she says. Rest at ease… Saskatchewan’s culinary heritage is in good hands at Peg’s Kitchen.

For more information, contact:

Peg Leippi
Peg’s Kitchen
1653 Park Street
Regina
(306) 781-2830
http://www.pegslegs.ca