When Alicia Bemiss' son was diagnosed with diabetes nearly four years ago her focus went to his diet and how to keep him healthy.
His dramatic weight loss and change in appearance, which was taking place at the time her parents had died just two weeks apart, was a cause for alarm and the start of a new way of living and eating for her, her husband and two sons and daughter.
When she learned that her son's diabetes might be connected to Celiac's Disease - an intolerance of wheat and other gluten-related grains - her way of cooking changed dramatically as she searched for recipes that would keep him happy and healthy at the same time.
Her discovery of a tasty gluten-free pierogi for her "pierogi-aholic son", now 16, eventually became the recipe for a business that is growing so fast she can hardly keep up.
Her
Old World Gluten Free Pierogi is based in St. Clair Shores, and the five frozen varieties - and growing - of pierogi is soon to go into cases at Westborn Market, which gave Old World its Product Placement Award at a Michigan foods exhibition. Currently the pierogi can be ordered online or by phone by individuals, restaurants or stores.
The business started in September and was flooded with orders over the holidays. Her commercial kitchen is located on Harper Avenue in St. Clair Shores, not far coincidentally from a booming gluten-free bakery, Ethel's Edibles.
"My parents were born in Poland. I grew up very Polish. We loved our pierogi. All my kids loved them," Bemiss says. "Once I started making them we could see how many other people wanted the same thing. It just took off."
"Nobody was making pierogi," except a small company called Conte's, she says.
"I didn't want to have the empty starches. I wanted it to be healthy."
For nine months she worked to come up with a recipe based in garbanzo beans, which are high in protein and a good source of iron.
She started selling favorites: potato cheddar cheese, sauerkraut and mushroom, sweet farmers cheese, salmon and cheese and savory sweet potato and making them preservative-free, with butter and cheese with cultured milk so they're virtually lactose free, she says.
Demand was so great she was consumed with cooking and is now focusing on the business end as she prepares for wider distribution: UPC codes, ingredient labels and more.
"Gluten-free is here to stay," she says. "It is not a fad or a trend. It is a health issue and there is a demand that will not be going away."
Source: Alicia Bemiss, owner, Old World Gluten Free Pierogi
Writer: Kim North Shine
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