Maine’s Own Buckwheat Treats:
Preserving Flavor
& a Way of Life
by Robin Elsbeth Jenkins
It’s an early spring day in March, 2007.
Janice and Joe Bouchard, wearing identical blue
chambray shirts sporting the name “Bouchard
Family Farms”, stand behind the table draped in
white at the New England Products Trade Show in
Portland, Maine. The intoxicating smell of freshly
made “ployes”, Acadian-style pancakes cooked
on a hot griddle, emanates from the booth as the
wholesale buyers gather to sample the specialty
food product. Janice looks up and smiles as she
spoons the batter onto the griddle, carefully using a circular motion with the back of her spoon
to spread the batter thinly. In just a minute, many
little “eyes” have appeared on the surface of the
pancakes, and they are ready to be removed from
the griddle. “You don’t need to flip them as you do
with regular pancakes”, she says. Janice removes the
pancakes from the electric griddle and passes them
to Joe, who spreads them with butter or jam and
serves them on a napkin to the intrigued onlookers.
As they savor the delicious pancakes with
obvious satisfaction, the buyers begin to pepper Joe
and Janice with questions about the commercial
Ployes mix and the Acadian Buckwheat Flour that
is packaged by the Bouchards. Joe hands out product information and sell sheets to the buyers as he
answers their questions. Bouchard Family Farms,
as the name suggests, is a family affair. Twenty five
years ago, Joe’s mother, Rita, and his sister, Jane
Crawford, began selling their Ployes mix in local
grocery stores. Today, the Ployes mix and Acadian Buckwheat Flour are sold in over 200 retail
stores throughout Maine and New England. The
Bouchards also have a website, ployes.com, where
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