Interest is growing in Pieter Ijsselstein’s latest product — soap made from potatoes — and he hopes to find markets for it across Canada and abroad.
Ijsselstein and his wife Geraldine operate White Gables in Hope River, P.E.I., where they create and sell a number of things, including candles, textiles, pottery. And soap — most recently soap made out of the Island’s famous spuds.
Ijsselstein said using starchy potato juice in soap just made sense.
“This is a great product for P.E.I.,” he said. “It’s something that can be sold abroad, across Canada, different countries, because of the potato brand: the P.E.I. brand.”
Ijsselstein said one of the great things about the product is it uses potatoes that would otherwise be thrown away. Farmers are often stuck with them, and are paid just pennies per pound, if anything.
“It’s a great use for cull potatoes,” he said. “I’m up to a point where I’m using about 100 pounds (45 kilograms) of cull potatoes per day.”
Ijsselstein is investing in some new equipment so he can ramp up his production. He’s also looking at using some other P.E.I. ingredients in his soap, including craft beer. The soap is currently sold at a number of retail outlets across the Island.
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