This homemade relish has a long family history

Garrett Millsap’s grandmother, Metis Elder Peggy Millsap’s relish recipe, is a national hit.

Rad Relish recently was part of the Pow Wow Pitch, and reached the semi-final stage.

The competition supports current and aspiring Indigenous entrepreneurs and Rad Relish finished among the top 125 products and services. It was selected out of 2,400 pitch submissions where they made a one-minute pitch to a panel of judges.

“My Grandma was one of 12 siblings, and she was tasked by her father at the time to make a relish that would be good on meats that they had stored over the winter to eat,” Millsap told Kelowna10. “We’ve sold over 15,000 jars in our first year, and happy to say we haven’t had any come back. Everybody seems to be loving Grandma Peg’s recipe and enjoying it at their next barbecue.”

The primarily ingredient in the tangy delicacy is zucchini from Paynters Fruit Stand along some other herbs and spices.

From the farm, it’s washed, cut, bagged, and frozen. When it comes to production time, it’s defrosted and put into a big steam kettle where it’s cooked before being transferred into jars and ready to sell.

Millsap said more Indigenous inclusion is important in the grocery market because he feels they are very underrepresented now.

“I’m proud to say that Rad Relish is starting to carve a pathway for other indigenous entrepreneurs who want to try to make it in the grocery business and the food business in general,” he said.

He added that many corporate businesses should look more into providing locally grown products to provide a fresh alternative.

“I truly believe that’s what the consumer is looking for these days,” Millsap said. “They’re looking for a local farm-to-table product that they can have at their next barbecue that they can share with their friends. From the entrepreneur side, sometimes you must take a bit of a risk.”

His partner Kyla King, who runs the manufacturing side of the operation, started working with Garrett in 2019, after a friend of hers had an abundance of zucchini and had to find something to do with the vegetable.

That led to her remembering his repeated insistence on her trying his grandma’s recipe.

“Every time I would go over to his house he’d be like ‘Kyla you got to try this, you go to try this.’ I knew what it tasted like, I knew it tasted great,” she said. “I asked to get the recipe and I made the relish out of all her overgrown zucchini, and I tested it out at the market that year to see how it would go, and we got such great feedback.”

The positive feedback wasn’t just local.

“I had people calling me from Alberta in the middle of winter asking if they can ship me a case,” King said. “That’s when I knew we had a good product that we should take to market.”

As of right now they are in 200 stores across Western Canada, in all 78 London Drugs and most recently in all the Superstore’s in the Interior.