Two Cowboys: Every Individually Perfect Pierogi is Pinched by Hand in Airdrie, Alberta

The Little Things

When you work with dough, every batch is a little different. Only the trained eye and the sensitive touch of a master baker is in tune with the moods of the gluten gods. They all say that knowing dough is to understand its feel.

The perfect pierogi has the same demands for detail and attention. Emma Linton knows that to craft the ideal delicate shell of her creative flavour explosions, she has to pay particular attention to the dough’s consistency, bounce and stretch. She feels with her hands for when the mixture is perfect. Every pierogi is hand-crafted. She makes her pierogies the way its traditionally been made. She pinches them by hand.

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When she makes them by hand, she can trust each one to provide a thin, yet sturdy housing for her traditional and more adventurous fillings. The shell enhances the overall taste of the morsel, and it promises to remain closed so that no filling leaks out during steaming, cooking, frying or grilling.

Emma makes a lot of pierogies. She sells them at several farmers’ markets in and around Calgary. It is also available for online order through her website (http://www.pinchedbyhand.com) and delivery within Alberta.

We checked in to see how she does it and she obliged us with a privileged look into the inner-workings of pierogi making genius, by taking us through her processes. We are not divulging any secrets, but it is safe to say that as it is with all the simple classical recipes, it has a lot to do with the method of making and with the quality of the ingredients. In the case of pierogies, it also has a lot to do with practice and patience.

Pinching every one by hand is a tedious job. Why then the attraction is to do it? According to Emma, pierogi making was, and still is a family affair. It has a social aspect to it. It brings people together to collectively prepare food and share a meal - something that is quite unique to our species. When Emma makes pierogies, it brings her people together, and it is her hope and wish that it does the same for others.

Observations

Pierogi making is a lot simpler than most people think. A little dough, some filling, a bit of creativity, practice and patience and time with family and friends around the kitchen table.

Not only is it simple, it also allows small quantities of food to go a long way. If you have leftover meat or vegetables from another meal that you prepared, you can mush it together and work it into a filling for pierogies. Add some extra spices or flavouring sauces, and you will soon have your own style and unique pierogi creations. Freeze it to keep it and fry it up with lots of butter when it comes time to enjoy it.

If you are pinched for time and cannot go without your pierogi fix, then Emma will look after you. Enjoy her pierogies because it gives her a chance to come up with another recipe. Emma's pinched by hand pierogies comes with the Two Cowboys endorsement. It is that good!

Hendrik van Wyk 

Pinched Cowboy

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o-CNN: How to Fill Big Shoes and Take Care of Your Boots at Alberta Boot Company in Calgary, Alberta

Filling Big Shoes

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Most family businesses don't survive generation three.

Forbes states that family businesses generate over fifty percent of the US Gross National Product (GNP). It is no different in Canada, New Zealand or Australia. In fact, it is even more widespread Downunder due to the higher concentration of smaller firms.

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These businesses are significant economic contributors. They create wealth, and scores of people are involved with them in job creation, local employment and support for activities in their communities. It concerns that less than one-third of family businesses survive the transition from first to second generational ownership. Another fifty percent doesn’t survive the transition from second to the third generation.

According to Harvard Business Review, seventy percent of family-owned businesses fail or are sold before the second generation gets a chance to take over. Just ten percent remain active, privately held companies for the third generation to lead. Why is this?

The reality is that family businesses only change when the pain is so great that they can’t stay where they are. There are many challenges subsequent generations face such as coping with shifts in technology, changing business models and consumer behaviour. Family firms in developing markets also face new threats from globalisation. Products are made cheaper overseas and shipped all over the world. It threatens smaller local operators. In many ways, leading a family-owned business has never been harder.

Ben Gerwing is the third generation in charge of Alberta Boot Company Co. He has big shoes to fill because his legacy is integrally part of the western identity of the Province and the city's character thanks to the annual Calgary Stampede event. This comes with opportunity. He also has to battle a substantial amount of inertia as a young proprietor of an iconic brand and the last remaining - only western boot manufacturer left in Western Canada.

Alberta Boot Co. was an idea that came from Ben's grandfather, Clement Gerwing in the mid-1970's. He was selling western boots from Mexico and Quebec out of his wholesale footwear store. The demand for well made western boots was high, and he didn't like the quality and products coming in from out of Province and out of Country. This was when he decided to start a new venture at an age many were considering retirement. Alberta Boot Co. was founded as premium western boot manufacturer.

Thirty-nine years later they still make all their boots the same way they did at the beginning, even using quite a few of the original machines to add to the allure and individuality of every pair of boots produced.

Alberta Boot Co. has outfitted Royalty, movie stars, entertainers, celebrities, athletes, public figures, religious leaders, and most importantly - ordinary people from all over the world who are intrigued by the mystique of the Wild West! "There is no greater compliment that we could receive," Ben says, "than when a customer comes into our store and lays down their hard earned money for a pair of Alberta Boots. People still appreciate quality hand-made boots.

Observations

I admire Ben for his continued commitment to the foundational values of the business he inherited. He remains dedicated to his heritage and to the community that trusts him to continue the legacy. Alberta Boot Co. was founded on hand-crafted quality custom boots and personal service.

With these values firmly ingrained, Ben is now taking cautious steps towards moving Alberta Boot Co. into the new millennium, with newer products for a younger, urban and more contemporary consumer. The good news is that it is made with the same uncompromising commitment because the core values of his business don't go out of fashion. Ever!

We checked in with Ben to get instructions on how to take care of our Alberta Boots during the cold, dry Canadian winter months.

If you don't yet have a pair of boots, you can order a pair online. No, it is not the "one-click" order variety that so many online stores offer nowadays. Fortunately, you will still have to talk to a real person. The good news is that once they have your size, it is easy to order another pair or a different style. Ask for Ben. Tell him the Two Cowboys sent you.

Remember that you better like and look after your boots. You are going to have them for a very long time.

Hendrik van Wyk
Alberta Cowboy

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o-CNN: Brazilian Cheese Bread in Auckland, New Zealand

Mystery Bread

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Mining cooks in Brazil invented cheese bread around the 1700's. They combined cassava starch, eggs, lard/butter and hardened grated cheese chips to come up with something that resembles bread. 

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In those days the cheese bread was made by slave women. There was no wheat flour. Wheat doesn't grow in the warmth of the Brazilian North-East. The only wheat flour to be found in Brazil at the time was imported from Europe for Kings and Noblemen. The rest of the people enjoyed a tasty, cheesy morsel that today is well-known as Brazilian Cheese Bread.

While the recipe may have exists since the eighteenth century, it became popular in Brazil since the 1950s as a snack food. Now, New Zealand has its own and to our knowledge, the only producer of Brazilian Cheese Bread in the country. It is made in the traditional way Neide Durello learned to do it growing up in the Brazilian countryside a few decades ago. Marcelo, Neide's son and partner Barbara brought this know-how to New Zealand when they immigrated to the Islands arriving with a few suitcases and four children. They founded their Cheese Bread business.

It is a small company that goes by the Durello name. Initially, they rolled the bread by hand the traditional way. Now, Durello's production is mostly automated, and they boast a tiny little store in Queen Street, Auckland where they induct the downtown student population and tourists into the ways of Brazilian Cheese Bread. 

Durello's expanded product range is available in New Zealand's Supermarkets country wide. The New Zealand Food Awards recognised them as a winner in 2014. Business is booming. The phone rings off the hook with orders, and the empire is slowly growing. Kiwis like the Cheese Bread.

During our visit, Barbara mentioned that they are preparing to export products to Australia. The range grew with different flavours that suit the Kiwi palate. Bacon and garlic are new additions. They are also expanding with Chicken and Prawn Delights. Same little balls. Equally delicious.

Observations

The story by now is familiar. We encounter it often. Many of the profiles that the Two Cowboys do tell a similar story of immigrants arriving in a new country with nothing except their knowledge of their country of origin's authentic products. They have a strong commitment and will to make a new living for themselves and their family, in a new home country. With hope, drive and hard work they succeed in establishing a successful production business. 

Barbara mentioned that a big motivation for relocating to New Zealand was the country's favourable outlook and ease of launching and operating small businesses. Less regulation, lower taxation. Above all, less corruption than they faced in Brazil. 

It is the local markets that gave them their first opportunity to introduce Kiwis to Brazilian Cheese Bread. The reception was overwhelmingly positive. The rest, as they say, is history. 

Durello has energy. Barbara is busy, busy. Marcelo's passion for his products is contagious. We love the Cheese Bread and wish we could take some with us back when we head to Canada. 

One thing is a given. When we are in New Zealand, we will look up our Brazilian friends for some Durello Cheese Bread. It is the best we've had so far. Saúde Barbara and Marcello. We lift a Caipirinha to your continued success and will be back for more.

Hendrik van Wyk

Two Cowboys and Cheese Bread

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Two Cowboys on a Journey: Smithbilt Hats, Calgary - Alberta

The White Hatters of Calgary

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The company Smithbilt Hats Inc. has been crafting hats since 1919. After doing research on what type of business to open, a young entrepreneurial Morris Shumiatcher went to his local bank and borrowed $300 to buy Calgary Hat Works, and Smithbilt Hats was born. This means the company is actually older than the ninety-seven years it had its name.

In 1946 they've made the first white Cowboy Hat. The White Hat would become the internationally recognized symbol of the Calgary Stampede and the City of Calgary. In 1949, Mayor Don Mackay donned a White Smithbilt on a mission to promote Calgary and began handing out the White Hat to visiting dignitaries. The City of Calgary continues this tradition today. 

Most Calgarians know this story already, but do we still remember what it is all about?

Today, not many people wear hats and even fewer wear cowboy hats. This changes in this part of the world during Stampede, which takes place the first weeks of July every year. For this event, everyone in the region dusts off their cowboy hats and for one amazing week they are all Cowboys and Cowgirls again.

Every year, as we put away our hats after the festivities of the Stampede, I cannot help but wonder if there is still a place for a Cowboy in today's world? Is there still significance to the symbol of a Cowboy hat in today's Calgary and western society in general? 

Some may argue the city has lost its heritage in favour of becoming a typical North American metropolis, that it is indistinguishable from places such as Denver or Houston. Just a smaller version. Have we become what many feared may come from the multicultural melting pot, where everyone is somebody and nobody is actually anybody? What happened to the real Cowboys among us?

If you ask the older folk, they tell you quickly about the value system of the typical Cowboy. There are many versions, but it usually goes something like this:

• Honour: No one carries honour like a cowboy. To him, it's like breathing. It is who he is.
• Loyalty: He rides for the brand, for his family and for his people.
• Independence: The west and what it stands for is inbred in a cowboy. Some may call him a rebel. The pioneering spirit is what sets him apart.
• Bravery: A cowboy, whether working or rodeo, faces elements and dangerous animals without fear. He perseveres with his conviction and is ready to face the consequences, whether they are good or bad.
• A sense of Self: A cowboy has a unique ability to be himself. As Paul Brandt put it in his song for Alberta: "Independence in their veins." A person identifies himself with Cowboy is a person that knows who he is, and can be.

I reason that these are values that still prevail in today's world. In our travels, we've found them often, and in particular, prevailing amongst the people that make things: The Producers. The people responsible for the foundation of our economy and our society: 

• Honour: Producers realize that you don't take something that doesn't belong to you. You earn what you have through honourable hard work, by building something that provides value to the people around you.
• Loyalty: They are loyal to their identity, family, workers and communities. They are particularly loyal to the people that value who they are and appreciates them for what they do.
• Independence: The Producers are the people that ask: "Why not?". Their independence moves creative innovation and drives us forward to find better ways to live, care and look after ourselves and our world we live in.
• Bravery: Ask anyone that dares to establish a producing and manufacturing business just how hard it is to be successful. While you fight for a place in the market you are confronted with heavy taxes, levies, licenses, legislation and regulations. Every non-producer and service provider out there is determined to milk you as Producer, in every way possible for the very last drop of benefit they can extract from your efforts. Producers are the bravest among us.
• A sense of Self: Every Producer and maker know the satisfaction and value they derive from what they make. Many will tell you, they would be doing it, even if they cannot make a living from it. They have a rare gift of self-worth. Their skills and values cannot easily be taken from them.

For the similar values between that of a Cowboy and a Producer, I wear my Cowboy hat proudly - now a Smithbilt hat. I subscribe to the values of a Cowboy, and I salute the Producers amongst us, who dare to make something and make a difference.

Impressions

We thought we had the wrong building when looking for the Smithbilt shop and factory. We drove by a number of times before we realized that this is in fact where we should be. The Smithbilt branded truck outside confirmed our suspicions. The five-decade-old sign outside the building finally gave up the ghost this winter, which didn't make it any easier to know if we've arrived. You really must know the folks at Smithbilt personally, or be very, very committed to find the home of Calgary's white hat, to get to it.

Brian Hanson, today's proprietor, greeted us at the door in typical Cowboy fashion with a strong straight handshake and a firm look in the eye. We commented about the sign, and he assured us that Smithbilt is finally heading to a new building later this year. They are still debating if the sign should come along. 

When you see the photographs against the wall of this iconic company you realize just how profound a place this is. Even the Dalai Lama has one of Smithbilt's hats, and he wore it (for the photo opportunity at least), which goes against his faith. 

As Brian took us through their manufacturing processes we saw equipment and processes that are decades old. All are still doing the job for which they were originally invented, designed and built. 

I will let the video tell the rest of the story. 

The most pivotal observation of the day is the recognition that Smithbilt Hats is a piece of Calgary and a piece of what remains of the Cowboy values and heritage. Brian and his team of investors are only caretakers of this iconic brand, which will hopefully survive another one hundred years.

One proud part of me want Smithbilt to be the biggest hat business in the world, and for everyone to know about this amazing business, its heritage and its people. The other part wants to keep it a secret and preserve what it is. It is our brand, my Smithbilt. A happy place for a weary Cowboy in need of a new hat, and an opportunity to reminisce over the good times.

Hendrik van Wyk

Smithbilt Cowboy Hat-Wearing Producer

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