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Taste of Abby: Mama Maan Surprises Aaron with Her Signature Spicy Hot Sauce
Aaron speaks with Mama Maan from Maan Farms about her family's journey from India to Canada, their passion for providing unforgettable food and farming experiences, and how they've blended tradition and innovation to create a thriving business in the Fraser Valley.
Welcome to Taste of Abbey. I'm Aaron Peet from Chihuahua First Nation and I host the Bigger Than Me podcast. In this series, we'll explore Canada's largest farming community, connect you with local farmers, creators and restaurant owners. We'll dive into how they harvest from the land, strive towards sustainability and strengthen the social fabric of our region. Join me as we deepen our connection to these lands and explore the taste of Abbey. It is an honour to be with you today. I'm so excited to get into this. Would you mind first just introducing your background and perhaps how you got started with this business and the fruit stand?
Mama Maan:Yes, no, thank you for coming and bringing your team. Awesome. So my journey started in 1985, october 19, and my university wedding anniversary coming soon, and so it's been a pleasure to be in Fraser Valley. My journey is now. I'm Canadian more than I spent more years in Canada than in India.
Aaron Pete:Did you have this vision when you started? Like looking at how far you've come, it's probably remarkable, but did you have this path envisioned when you had started?
Mama Maan:out To be honest, no, no innovation. I just came with open hands, like embracing the love that our community offers and my family supported. So, no, I had nothing in vision when I landed into Canada.
Aaron Pete:Amazing, and it sounds like today we're going to be doing some cooking. Would you mind telling us about that?
Mama Maan:Right. So my culture cooking is a very big part of feeding people. It's part of our hospitality. Whenever you go to any Indian, punjabi people especially, they feed you, they give you the food, more than the specialized food when you are there. So, and today I am showing you how to make butter chicken.
Aaron Pete:Oh, fantastic yeah. So would you mind telling me how you got started? Did you develop this recipe years ago?
Mama Maan:Yes, we did, in fact, when we opened the man farm, so we were doing more Western food. But then I learned no, we need to offer our ethnic food, which is we are proud. We made the switch and in our menu every day, the butter chicken is one part of it, with the samosas and other curries.
Aaron Pete:Fantastic. Tell me about how we get started here, right?
Mama Maan:so we got all the ingredients here then. So obviously the base is always onions, lots of, I would say, ginger and garlic. And then that's going to start. When I was growing up back home, we never had any cookbooks. Where I came from, aaron, and I just learned seeing my sisters in the kitchen or my mom cooking, so standing or sitting next to the pot like observing that's how our schooling of any recipes Most of them are still back home, all the cooking still happens freehand, and this is what I'm doing today.
Aaron Pete:So how do you think about it? I guess because I always rely on recipes. How do you make sure that it's gonna taste good?
Mama Maan:Usually, when you're cooking for your family, you know how many members you have and how much food you need, and then so after in my age, you get a pretty good idea as to how much you need. Yeah, so now I'm adding onions, yeah.
Aaron Pete:And how do you determine what flavor you want to stand out at the end of the recipe?
Mama Maan:Again, it depends the cooking happens. One is more like curry style, or one vegetables are more like dry, so they're the same or similar, but the different forms of spices are determined and how you cook them. So any vegetable I'm cooking, then there's no water goes in them, it's just the. The base is all the same, uh. Ginger, garlic and onions, with the spices like a salt and pepper, and turmeric is the main three, uh, and then then there is a garam masala, or our coriander is also part of it I find that cooks often have like a preference, like one that's their favorite.
Aaron Pete:Do you have a preferred seasoning or flavor?
Mama Maan:It's just the same. Spices makes how you cook it and what you're cooking it makes a different flavoring.
Aaron Pete:Okay, okay.
Mama Maan:And how do you garnish it. Everything is part of the full recipe.
Aaron Pete:And do you have a particular feedback that you really like to hear? You have so many different varieties of hot sauces and types of food. Do you have one that really stands out that you love the feedback on?
Mama Maan:Yeah. So since we have been doing for so many years, people definitely want to try, but then they are scared of the hot spices. Obviously, we come up front to break that barrier to tell them there's no spices. There is spices, but they're good spices. As for the hot spice level, they're very milder and, especially with the butter chicken, we'll be adding cream or the milk at the end, so that that breaks make, brings the more like sweetness into the recipe.
Mama Maan:Okay, interesting, yeah because I get all nervous about spices too yes, I know that if you, if you put too much of one thing, or even too much of salt, that doesn't taste good. I know where you're coming from, yeah and so the fruit stand.
Aaron Pete:When that started out, did you have a vision that it would eventually turn into this? What was that process to start that business?
Mama Maan:when I came and Canada so after I think within a year, my daughter born and then I was kind of a mom, stay-at-home mom, but then always on the back end I wanted to support my husband and then so back when I joined the family, they already had a food stand, whatever they grow on the farm, selling just for four or five weeks Back then we were just growing strawberries Right, and then then we shut our doors and then I kept kind of like how somehow I managed to help them and then when the children were growing, they, they became part of that, that food stand as well. They were supporting mom and dad and grandpa and grandma as well.
Aaron Pete:Have you seen that growth Obviously shopping local has become more and more of a priority? And it's more of a topic. Did you see that back then, or has it?
Mama Maan:changed Definitely. It was overwhelming when the community was coming year after year. I still remember memories of my customers. They come buy the product, then they disappear and every year, then the next year, they come back. I always wonder where they get disappeared, kind of like for my thought process. But overall I never had idea how that can become. So I learned from Canadian community to yes, there's a need for to serve the local community like first-hand grower to the, the consumer. That I learned with my journey.
Aaron Pete:One piece that I find really beautiful is that it's a family-owned business. During those early days, did you work to instill that that family-owned business into it? Did you teach that to your children? How did that kind of come about?
Mama Maan:it just happened to be. I think it just fall into place by itself. We never planned it, so we were raising kids like any typical mom and dad. Dad, dad works out of the home. He, my husband, did even three jobs, like he had a permanent job. He was doing the farming, raising the family, and he has his business as well. Right, and then I, I was like he was a role model for our family to how hard he was working and then to me, be by himself, uh, by on his side, was kind of like a so like our children also grew up seeing dad how hard he was working and then when they were growing up on the farm it gave them firsthand training, like even though they were not interested to be farmers.
Mama Maan:But then over the years, years it built the interest, how ideas. I remember when we built our first kind of like when we brought the farm animals. It was for our children. It was saying why are we doing different than any of their friends' parents are doing kind of like all-immigrant parents here of my children's friends. They were not doing the same thing what we were doing. So we were almost coming out of the box, like trying to build a facility where people can come and stop, they buy the food but then they can interact with our farm animals. So it was not making sense. But then over the years, when they finish their degrees and that journey, it just progress, happened in the into their minds.
Aaron Pete:Yeah, so was that always a dream to have a space that people could kind of gather, enjoy a meal, learn, kind of develop themselves? Was that something you saw during those fruit stand days, or when did that idea come about?
Mama Maan:Whenever I guess we were used to. All our life mostly we have been into this road name is Mackenzie Road and we did move for almost 30 years on to another, another, like a neighborhood. But then our heart was here and then when we left this road and then it was always a dream to come back and stay into this same neighborhood and then that brought us to like buy a property into that same neighborhood where the location makes more sense. So when we were standing we acquired this land in 2005, and then, with that dream to go back into more, agritourism came along.
Aaron Pete:Yes, ok, fantastic. So what would be our next step to bring this to fruition?
Mama Maan:OK, so they are more like. I was waiting for our onions and garlic and ginger to be sauteed and now they are on the next level. And then we are adding some spices. I usually I know they're measuring spoons. I am used to my teaspoon, so I'm cooking here. I would have four to five people, so the taste of the spices could be up to your level, so I'm just putting I know these. Some peppers are very hot than others, so I know they are very hot as well. I'm using a little bit half a teaspoon of, and then turmeric is good for your joints and for color. I'm putting lots of coriander to build the crease and then this is a garam masala. I'm just adding a little bit less than a teaspoon, so I'm roasting the spices into the oil and all the base, right, and then we'll be adding some. We can add fresh tomatoes or I will be adding more like tomato paste and tomato sauce.
Aaron Pete:Okay, how important is color when you're making food.
Mama Maan:To me when I learn the cooking, it is very important, okay. So especially when you're having almost like a feast or party Having the food, when I'm planning the food, I don't want all the food should be yellow with turmeric. I want it green. It could be serving spinach with the paneer, it could be a little bit infused with more like tomatoes. It could be on the red side side or it could be green, green vegetables bright and colorful yes, bright and colorful, that's our culture too, so make it.
Mama Maan:Make sure there's a many different colors in the food as well interesting.
Aaron Pete:What advice would you have for people starting out, like myself, that aren't that good at cooking? How do I? How do I improve over time?
Mama Maan:I would say just don't get afraid. First thing, you don't get afraid. Bases, three things oil, garlic, ginger and onions, and then spices. If they have any question, they can, they can come and talk to me. Right? And yeah, those are the main basics, like any curries or or any dry vegetables. Yes, so I think our spices are roasted. So this is the paste. I'm just adding a kind of a tablespoon of paste and I'll add, I would say, four tablespoon of the sauce tomato. You can smell that, that smells really good, yeah, hey.
Aaron Pete:So my other question for you is obviously, when you're young you might not see your vision for where you want to go, but you've watched your children develop and they've all taken on different roles and kind of found their true potential. Did that surprise you, how involved they've gotten or the roles that they've taken on?
Mama Maan:I think at the back end as a parent especially my husband he kind of did vision them to be involved in farming, like being a farmer, keeping the land and keep passing on to the generation. It's very, very I would say. It takes time to think about your planning and not always you're successful. That happens. Like as a parent, you wish that your journey you started it passes on to your kids and they continue with it. I think, luckily, we did a good job. I think, luckily, we did a good job.
Aaron Pete:Somehow they kind of liked the idea they had grasped to them, and they are now their own bosses kind of like that.
Aaron Pete:So if I even talk about a kid like Amir, like he doesn't want to work for somebody, he has a freedom or any child like they have freedom to when to work, what to work on, and and yeah, it just uh, they love this life yeah, within my first nations culture we have this idea of seven generations, where we're supposed to think into the future, and what I love is like that feels like it's uh, it's something that's sort of gotten lost with people, that that you pass something on to your kids and then they take it on like you used to have a blacksmith who would teach their kid how to be a blacksmith.
Aaron Pete:Then they'd kind of pass that on and it'd be a family trade right, and it feels like this reminds us of that value of like passing that on in a good way, but also that they kind of take it and then they run with it in their own direction, because now you have like a haunted house and you have a haunted maze and like I don't, did you ever imagine seeing that? Because they're taking these ideas and and kind of pulling out new ways of going about things.
Mama Maan:No, I think our family always now believe in like, as they're growing up, they believe in a sky's the limit, like that's my children say. And then look at this girline, what she turned into. You have to put yourself into the situation. And then us as a family, we love challenges. It's not easy what we do at the back end. We suffer so many challenges and bringing our children too, in our pace, in our shoes, to see and take the business to the next level. It was not easy. I was still talking. I was just even today I was talking to another group and say even Gaurav was saying I don't want to do farming and then it was definitely a kind of like we had to think about a new, innovative idea how he can be still involved. And then the winery came in the picture. Then he liked that. He liked that he's making wine, since he is not he was not in drinking age.
Mama Maan:So, there's a plan, somebody has a plan. We wished for it, but then it happened.
Aaron Pete:Maybe if we could just briefly go through each one of your children and what roles they've taken on and how they've flourished.
Mama Maan:As we're talking, our kids. Amir started with the farming so he studied about how to be a good student of the land. So he studied a four-year degree in UFV BBA in agriculture. So part of that he went to Holland. My husband believes in education, opens your eyes, it broadens your mind and your thinking goes fast. So he grows all the berries.
Aaron Pete:He's very passionate you know, on the social media about the strawberries.
Mama Maan:And then Hans, it brings him something else, like he loves it. So Gurleen joined the family like they were part of the Venus in the early age when we were building like the food stand stage. But then when she finished her degree she went to work as a like a corporate world and then after five years she realized that, being in a downtown why I'm here I need to go back home and make the difference. So she came back. She had struggled to fit in to the family because she had her own ways, but she brought good things to the business. She knows how to, how to kind of like a tackle there's so many problems comes on a, on a um, even hiring the like. She knows. She knows what to look for to hire a person, right, so how to talk to other people and anyhow. And then goror came between kind of like a. He is, he's our wine man, so he loves making wine.
Aaron Pete:Yeah, that's got to be so rewarding to be able to see, like, try that wine and see them creating their own thing, contributing the strawberries and all that growth, and just see them reaching their full potential in the ways you might not have imagined when they were little kids.
Mama Maan:Right, yeah, now know it's not the end. We are still in the beginning stage and so it takes time. So we're getting bigger and bigger. So we're proud of our children, so they are on the upfront stage and we are supporting them.
Mama Maan:So, even though we are fully involved, fully invested. But they are taking the lead and we support them. So, part of the recipe I am grinding it or like making it puree. Oh, it smells really good, thank you. So this is what I call one pot recipe, right? So it's going to give a few minutes and then this curry base is ready. Then I'll be finishing up with the cream. So we're going to try some wine today.
Aaron Pete:I'm very excited.
Mama Maan:And then I also want you to try some hot sauce.
Aaron Pete:Okay, I can't wait. Yes, so how do you make pumpkin wine? Wow, how do we make pumpkin wine?
Mama Maan:This is made from the pumpkins which are grown on the farm. Wow, goro makes them and yeah, so I'm excited. Coral mix them and yeah, so I'm excited. Is this like from the seed? Or from the mushy part of the pumpkin Mushy, mushy. Okay, got it.
Aaron Pete:I guess it wouldn't be as good with the seeds.
Mama Maan:No seeds. And we take the seeds out, but oh, did I pour more for me.
Aaron Pete:You go ahead. Okay, there you go Perfect, thank you.
Mama Maan:So it's more the flesh and the skin. It smells good yeah it is really good.
Aaron Pete:Oh, and you've got the glasses. Look at that, Okay cheers, cheers.
Mama Maan:Thank you very much. Thank you. That's amazing. Yeah, it has lots of that's amazing spices and more like fall spices. Yeah, and people can't have enough of it. Yeah, this is so smooth, so this one's. Does anybody else make pumpkin wine? Why have I never heard of this? We are an innovative family.
Aaron Pete:So we do things nobody else does in a way yeah, so we Does anybody else make pumpkin wine. Why have I never heard of this?
Mama Maan:We are an innovative family, so we do things nobody else does, in a way, kids Okay, so I'm adding milk and stirring it. Sorry, no worries. And then finishing up with some cream to make it more heavier.
Aaron Pete:Right, so that's milk and cream.
Mama Maan:Yes, so they're like different textures. You can add only milk or only cream. If you want more creamy, I would say, do the cream side. At man Farms we do more like more milk, less cream, because otherwise it's too much. It's very heavy, right. This way it's more healthier, right. So now my color has been changed as well.
Aaron Pete:So it's more smoother.
Mama Maan:So I'm gonna let it cook and then I will add some chicken. Fantastic yeah.
Aaron Pete:And you have these available so people can actually try the sauce itself.
Mama Maan:You want to try the sauce itself? It's there, but then we saute the chicken and then we add in there. So that's how it is. That's cool. Yeah, Awesome.
Aaron Pete:Yes, go ahead. The other question I had is you've gone through so many challenges, I imagine, over the years. There's been floods, there's been droughts, there's been all types of weather challenges. How do you, as a family, try and approach those challenges?
Mama Maan:yeah, I, I know. In fr Fraser Valley the floods came a few years back. We were blessed it didn't get affected. We are on higher spot, but as a being a farmer, there are lots of challenges growing the especially the strawberries so close to the ground. When the rain comes it spoils so quickly and then it has been happening year after year you lose your crop like 30, 40%, and then so again. Throughout the COVID we had made a switch to grow the berries indoor, so now we have enclosed greenhouses. That's where we grow our strawberries. And also this year we have introduced standing strawberry you pick, so it's happening just across the street and under the hoop houses so people can stand and pick their strawberries. Wow, fantastic. So we kind of like again. The whole world is changing. People are growing more scientifically rather than being a typical farm. We're still farmer, but then we're bringing the more technology.
Aaron Pete:How to be a better grower with the family, with everybody, and kind of go like how are we approaching this issue? I just find it fascinating because in a business you might have like a board meeting, but you're family mixed with business, so there's this intermingling that allows you guys to have it over the dinner table or something like that?
Mama Maan:Yes, definitely, we do regularly family meetings, especially when there's any issues. We just get together and try to get the ideas from each other right, and we have a really strong team in our office as well, so we involve them as well. So we tackle everybody, help each other, so any challenge we come through. Yeah, that's amazing. Okay, so this one is cooked and do you want to try some? Absolutely, it's going to be hot, temperature hot. I don't know if the spice is hot, but temperature hot.
Aaron Pete:That's really good. Not too spicy, mm-hmm, that's very good yeah it is good, that's awesome. And then how do you put it into a pie?
Mama Maan:How do we put it in a pot?
Aaron Pete:Like a pie, Like this sometimes ends up being in a pie right.
Mama Maan:Oh, we do savory pies, butter, chicken pot pies, yeah, yeah, so mostly it's a sauce and chicken, right. Then we put in some rice to give the body, yeah, into the small pot pies, yeah, and then, yeah, we bake them.
Aaron Pete:That's fantastic, and then people can take those, buy them frozen and then we go cook them at home.
Mama Maan:We do lots of savory pies. They are five inches and then they could make easy dinner or lunch. Yeah.
Aaron Pete:Yeah, one of my favorite things about this space is it isn't just about the food, it isn't just about the amazing views. It's like you're giving people a memorable experience, like when they come out with their family. They're going to remember that in 10 years, 20 years, they're going to have that story. How does that make you feel that you're giving people more than just food or or just one item. You're giving them that memory it feels great.
Mama Maan:Um, that's always our kind of like, almost like a motto, or that's our dream to have a facility where people come and build their memories with their families and, uh, and remember us in their memories. That's always kind of like a take-home memories. That's how our dream is.
Aaron Pete:I love that because there's so much to having trying a new drink or trying a new food. But it's all of that coming together with your family and making those memories that I think is so valuable and coming out of the COVID pandemic like that's what everybody's looking for and that's what you're providing people.
Mama Maan:Right, yeah, no, no, we're blessed. Everything is coming together. There's lots, lots more to achieve, so we're working on different ideas. We're very innovative family and we're all leaders. That's that. Sometimes it's a good and bad, so not in a bad, in a bad sense, but that could be a challenge to whose idea is better and not better.
Aaron Pete:So it's family issues yes, is there one idea that's come out of this over the years that you've been like? I just could have never seen that coming. That really just stands out to you.
Mama Maan:Like if I'm standing here and thinking about doing the haunt nights, serving thousands of people every night kind of thing I never dreamed about it I never dreamed about it. But people I guess people like- it, people love it people love it to come out seasonally and enjoying themselves and when people enjoy on our property and we're giving, we feel good. We're giving, we feel good, we are doing something right.
Aaron Pete:Yeah, because then people can come, they can experience that, they can grab food, they can relax, they can have a drink. It's the whole experience, that's all come together, but it's so cool that each family member kind of helped bring it to this one-stop shop for an experience.
Mama Maan:Thank you. Yeah, no, it is just meant to be. I guess everybody has a girline, has her own passions, and then amita, the farming, he loves what he does, and then gore does the wine. So everything they all work together. Yeah, we're, we're, we're proud parents. Yes, yeah, the.
Aaron Pete:The biggest takeaway for me from your story is that you really encourage people to find their own path and to like really push forward and like overcome that adversity and figure out how to share your gift with the world. What advice do you have for people who are like I want to go, start this, I want to start a fruit stand, I want to start farming or I want to do something with my life, but I'm a little bit nervous to take that big step.
Mama Maan:I think dreaming is a good idea, but then action is more important. Yeah, so my husband and I would say my children, everybody is a proactive about. If they want to achieve, you have to work, they understand. So anybody starting a new thing, you need to dream about it and you need to thing. You need to dream about it and you need to work on it. And then you need to work hard on it. It's not just oh yeah, I'm working on it. Some people I know that Even in our community people say oh yeah, but then 10 years they never start. Starting is always tough.
Aaron Pete:Agreed, okay, brilliant.
Mama Maan:Anything is doable, yeah, yeah amazing. So we have three hot sauces there's a habanero, there's a green and the red. These are the base is cayenne peppers, this is habanero pepper, which are grown on the farm. Wow, and then. But then they are same recipe but different flavors, because the maturity of the green versus red and this is different peppers, so we'll start with the green one. Okay, so let's see how hot you can taste.
Aaron Pete:How can I well, can I handle this yes?
Mama Maan:Is it too much? No, we're good. Do you need a glass of water or wine? No, I'm good.
Aaron Pete:We'll keep going. That one is very spicy, spicy. Yeah, you get it right at the back of the throat, okay.
Mama Maan:I'll give you a little smaller test.
Aaron Pete:Is this one spicier?
Mama Maan:Let's see you tell? Me. People ask me, but we need to hear from other people too.
Aaron Pete:That one's lighter. Okay, did I handle that one better? I'm not crying, you're not crying. Okay, that's good. Okay, do a big one on this one. Is this one the hottest one? I'm not crying, you're not crying. Okay, that's good. Okay, do a big one on this one. Is this one the hardest one?
Mama Maan:Well, I I this is a habanero pepper like. According to Google, it's more hotter, but let's see.
Aaron Pete:We conquered it.
Mama Maan:What do you think? Which one is? Oh, that one's coming now. Okay, so in my hand is a Mirch Achar. It's a pickle made with the peppers cayenne peppers again but it's a different recipe. They're cut, but with lots of. They're infused with the spices, so I don't know how much I should give you. I'm just thinking how about this?
Aaron Pete:go a little bit bigger. Is it hot? Is it spicy? No, no, it's a different spicy.
Mama Maan:It's infused with spices. It's meant to be eaten with the curries or with the rice or roti.
Aaron Pete:That's really good. Yeah, it's a different type of spicy. It's like the top of my mouth. Well, this has been an experience, okay.
Mama Maan:It is more good spices.
Aaron Pete:All the spices. It has flavor, it has lots of flavor. It's not just hot.
Mama Maan:All the flavors have their own health benefits. So yeah, so you're eating good things.
Aaron Pete:I'm glad. Hopefully I'm healthier as a consequence.
Mama Maan:That's great.
Aaron Pete:Amazing. Well, thank you so much for being willing to do this.
Mama Maan:One more cheers, one more cheers. Thank you.
Aaron Pete:Thank you for sharing this experience and for taking the time. This has been an honor to learn and. I'll definitely be picking up these products.
Mama Maan:You're welcome, thank you. Thank you very much for coming.
Aaron Pete:And thank you for watching Taste of Abbey.
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