An army veteran of the Great War, Stephen Heal, with his bride of 1919, Gertrude Jacks, took up residence on a small holding in the lower Fraser Valley. There numerous agricultural ventures were undertaken. In 1932 Stephen Heal joined forces with Ch... Read more
An army veteran of the Great War, Stephen Heal, with his bride of 1919, Gertrude Jacks, took up residence on a small holding in the lower Fraser Valley. There numerous agricultural ventures were undertaken. In 1932 Stephen Heal joined forces with Chauncey Eckhert. When an opportunity to produce seed for canning peas was presented by a coastal company, they found themselves launched into the pea business. However, following harvest, the canning company went bankrupt. Chauncey and Stephen tossed a coin to see who would go east to try and sell the peas. Chauncey won the toss and took the train to Montreal where he managed to sell the pea seed. BCP was born when they decided to continue contracting peas on their own for the eastern Canadian market. Stephen eventually bought out Chauncey’s interest and was joined in business by his three sons: Jack, Ronald and Geoff. By the 1960s BCP had milling operations in all four western Canadian provinces. Many people outside of the Heal family have contributed to BCP’s success over the years. Of special note are Dorothy Bird Smith of Armstrong, BC and Howard Braden of Portage la Prairie, MB. Dorothy began as a book-keeper in June 1943 eventually becoming BCP’s controller and a company shareholder. She retired after 52 years of service. Howard also spent over 50 years with the company, first in Portage then managing the Creston, BC plant until his retirement. After Geoff’s death early in 2004, daughters Trudy Heal and Margaret Hughes began working at BCP. Together with Mike Gallais in Rowatt, they are responsible for Best Cooking Pulses, Inc. Today, BCP exports split peas to many countries around the world and uses splitting by-products to create pea fiber and bran meal products for the North American market. Less
