What started as a hunt for a healthy breakfast for their diabetic daughter led Hennie Bos and Tinie Eilers down an unexpected career path.
The couple came to the Lacombe area from Holland in 1994 and founded Bles-Wold Dairy. They had a hard time finding a good breakfast without sugars or added sweeteners for their daughter Martine, who has type 1 diabetes. That’s when Tinie had an idea: she could make her own yogurt. Tinie’s brother in Holland sent her a recipe, which received rave reviews from Martine, as well as their neighbours, friends and later customers at farmers markets. Hennie and Tinie decided to turn it into a small business called Bles-Wold Yogurt.
What makes their product unique is the whole process is in their own hands: from feeding and milking the cows to getting the milk to the plant and making the products. The yogurt is mixed by hand. There are no artificial flavours, colours or preservatives.
Bles-Wold Yogurt can be found in 120 stores in Alberta and it recently secured a contract to supply airliner KLM on its flights to Europe.
