Thursday, February 17, 2011 - Cheemo Perogies Have Fans across North America

Italians have their raviolis. The Mexicans serve empanadas and the Chinese are famous for spicy pot-stickers. The Ukrainian version of a little pillow of dough stuffed with luscious goodies is the perogy. In Edmonton, the Heritage Frozen Foods Company has been filling these doughy dumplings and shipping them across North America for decades.

Sold under the brand name “Cheemo” roughly three million perogies are made each day at the 80,000 square foot factory and then shipped as far away as Vancouver Island and even down to North Carolina in the American South. Only one of three companies on the continent that makes and ships frozen perogies, the Cheemo variety is the closest to home made.

The company was founded in 1972 by Walter Makowecki, father of the current CEO Joe Makowecki. Walter also invented a patented perogy rolling machine that lets the company use a softer dough. The machine creates a long, stretchy tube that can be filled with cooked and mashed potatoes, cheese and an assortment of flavours. Then they are cut into pieces, steam-cooked and then fast frozen and packaged.

The Edmonton firm believes in buying local so all the potatoes, canola oil and grain for flour is Alberta grown. The flour is milled in Lethbridge and stored on-site in two one-storey silos. Cheemo perogies have been around for almost 40 years and still turn out an effortless comfort food meal that is equally easy on the wallet.