Villagers here will be reminded all week long that it's Festival du Voyageur time, by the sweet smell of pea soup emanating from Gloria Gallant's kitchen.

    Her kitchen turns into pea soup headquarters every year at this time. She'll make a total of 680 litres of homemade pea soup for three food tents at the Festival.

    And she'll make it fresh every day.

    "The first year, we froze it in pails," Gallant explained. "But it's such a thich soup that it's very hard to thaw. The Festival had to put it in front of space heaters to try to that it out."

    The Festival du Boyageur, in its 35th year, runs from today until Feb. 22 in St. Boniface.

    By Festival's end, residents of Letellier are so hungry for pea soup from smelling it all week, they practically break down Gallant's door to buy any that's left over. "There usually is some because I make lots so we don't run out," she said.

    Pea soup isn't all Gloria cooks for the Festival, from the mom-and-pop operation she runs with husband Rick, and Rick's brother Bob Gallant, in Letellier, about 80 kilometres south of Winnipeg. Letellier has an estimated population of about 200 people.

    The family runs a third-generation grocery store. Gallant's Family Foods, started in 1927 by grandfather Albani Gallant. In 1997, the family bought the recipes of the former Del's Quality Meats of St. Boniface, renowned for its francophone products. The Gallants boast they now are Manitoba's leading maker of French-Canadian cuisine.

    For the festival, the Gallants will also supply tarte au sucre (sugar pie). "It's like a pecan pie without pecans," explained Gloria. "It has the same sweet, creamy filling. For traditional French-Canadians, it's a real treat."

    She is making a caramel fudge called sucre à la creme. French frontiersmen were known to get down on the floor and grovel for a slice of their wives' sucre à la creme.

    She will supply tourtière (meat pie), vegetarian baked beans, bannock, and ci-pate or voyageur's pie a lasagne-like dish layered with three different kinds of meat and vegetables.

    "Ci-pate is like a huge pot pie but with different spices. People who are not French-Canadian have not normally tried it," Gloria said.

    Rick and Gloria returned to Letellier in 1990 to run the grocery (store). Rick quit a position as district manager for Wang Computers, and Gloria left her job as a physiotherapist. They made the move so their four kids could grow up in a rural francophone community, Gloria said.

    They have found synergies between Del's and their grocery (store). For example, they can distribute Del's products on the back-haul of trucks that deliver them groceries.

    But their biggest surprise was the discovery that Del's had a little known pizza recipe. Del's sold just a dozen of the pizzas per week, before the Gallant's bought the store. Today, the Gallants are selling about 600 per week, or 30, 000 per year.

    "One day we just tried the pizza recipe and we thought, hey, that tastes really good," said Rick. He described it as a high-end gourmet, thin crust pizza, made with Winnipeg Old Country Meat sausage, and mostly local produce. The pizzas are sold mainly in rural or independent groceries.

    As for the pea soup, you can tell it's homemade by the large chunks of ham and the creamy texture. It took several tries for Gloria to meet Festival specifications. The Festival wanted the soup with very little salt for people with low tolerance, and not too thick so it won't burn on the bottom of the pot when heated.

    The Gallants also supply the French-Canadian pavilion during Folklorama.

    The Gallants employ six staff.