Habitant Pea Soup

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Habitant is a brand of soups, jams, and condiments originally created and manufactured by the Dominion Preserving Company in Montreal, and now owned by Campbell's. Its pea soup in particular has achieved cultural recognition in Quebec, as a representative of the traditional cuisine of the early French-Canadian settlers.

History

Founding and early history

The soup was first created in 1918, at the Outremont grocery and butcher store owned by Philias Morin (1884-1957).[1] Born in Sainte-Claire, Quebec, to a family of farmers, Morin was looking to expand his business and established a small plant for canning jams and pickles. One of Morin's fifteen children, Marie-Blanche, cooked the first batch of pea soup, using the family recipe of yellow peas, pork fat and savory spices that Rose Aimée Couture, Morin's wife, had been making for years.[2] Morin canned those first batches, gave away free samples to his salespeople, and "everyone who tried it ordered some more."[3]

To commercialize the soup, Morin and associates Rémi and Albert Limoges create the Dominion Preserving Company Ltd. in 1920, with Morin as President.[4] The first factory is located in Montreal at 8455 Saint-Dominique street (45° 32′ 29″ N, 73° 38′ 13″ O).[5] The name "Habitant" is registered by the company as a trademark in 1929.

In 1938, the company expands to the United States by opening a plant in Manchester, New Hampshire, close to the large French-Canadian populations of New England that had emigrated in the previous decades to escape poverty. Morin established the plant in a building of the Amoskeag mills which had recently closed.[6] Headed by Gilles Morin, a son of Philias, the plant remains in operation until 1983. At its peak, it produced as much as 80,000 cans of soup per day.[3]

Subsequent ownership

In 1954, the company is sold to Montreal-based Catelli, the largest manufacturer of macaroni products in the Commonwealth, with the new entity renamed Catelli-Habitant.[7] In 1958, Catelli-Habitant is bought by Ogilvie Flour Mills Company Ltd., builders of the famous Five Roses flour mill in Montreal.[8] Ogilvie Flour Mills Company is purchased by John Labbat Limited in 1968 as part of the trend for corporations to diversify their assets.[9] In 1989, Borden purchases Catelli from Labatt for an estimated $225-$300 million, and as part of the deal, sells Habitant soups to the Campbell Soup Company.[10] Campbell announces shortly after the purchase that manufacturing of the soups will be transferred to its Etobicoke plant in Ontario.[11] After that plant closes in 2018, production is moved to the United States. [12] Campbell sells the Saint-Hyacinthe factory along with its jam, jellies and syrup product lines to E.D. Smith & Sons in 1991.[13]

As of 2022, Habitant brands and products are owned and manufactured by three distinct food conglomerates: Campbell Soup for the soups; ED Smith, for the jams and jellies; and Smuckers, for condiments. A Campbell executive noted that "Quebec people are simply very loyal to certain products,"[14] and Campbell reportedly continues to sell 18.3 million cans of Habitant pea soup per year in Canada, 10 million of which are sold in Quebec.[15] Smuckers dropped the Habitant Mustard Pickles from its Canadian product line in 2016, creating a “condiment crisis” in Newfoundland.[16] ED Smith dropped the Habitant table syrup from its product line at an unknown date.

Cultural significance

The name "Habitant" refers to the early settlers and farmers of Quebec. Habitant drew on these associations through its name and soup labels that featured comforting scenes of rural family meals and conviviality.

In the 1980s, the company continued to draw on these associations, with its popular slogan of "Il y a un petit peu de nous autres là-dedans" (there is a little bit of us inside).[17] However, in Le Code Québec, a sociological analysis of Quebec targeted at the advertising industry, the authors question whether such loyalty to the Habitant products is appropriate given they are no longer owned or manufactured by a Quebec company.[18]

The popularity of the Habitant pea soup presumably contributed to the spread of a colloquial derogatory nickname for French-Canadians, "pea soupers".

References

  1. ↑ "Philias Morin". Biographies Françaises d'Amérique (in français). Sherbrooke: Les Journalistes Associés. 1950. p. 360.
  2. ↑ Pea soup, with either fresh or dried peas, was a familiar dish in French cooking and became enshrined in the classical repertoire as "Potage Saint-Germain": Francoeur, Jean-Marie (2011). Genèse de la cuisine québécoise. Montréal: Fides. pp. 347–349.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Clayton, John (December 14, 2015). "The Healing Power of Peas: Remember when Manchester was the Habitant soup hub?". Ink Link. Archived from the original on January 13, 2016. Retrieved March 20, 2022.
  4. ↑ "Dominion Preserving Company Limited". Quebec Official Gazette. 52 (17): 40. April 24, 1920. Such British commercial names were common at the time. The company would make its name bilingual in 1939, as required by law.
  5. ↑ The building still stands but has been converted to condos: Loverseed, Helga (January 13, 2018). "Shelter: Old Villeray factory's industrial details showcased in condo transformation". The Montreal Gazette.
  6. ↑ "Entreprise Canadienne-Française aux États-Unis". Le Devoir. September 16, 1938. p. 8.
  7. ↑ "Catelli achète une compagnie". Le Soleil. September 17, 1954. p. 15.
  8. ↑ "Offre d'Ogilvie d'acheter Catelli". Le Droit. January 4, 1965. p. 65.
  9. ↑ "Les administrateurs de Ogilvie Flours acceptent l'offre de Labatt". La Presse. January 16, 1968. p. 32.
  10. ↑ "Labatt a eu son prix pour Catelli". Le Devoir. March 17, 1989. p. 15.
  11. ↑ Dupaul, Richard. "Les 700 employés de Catelli et d'Humpty Dumpty gardent espoir". La Presse. pp. D-1. Retrieved March 29, 2022.
  12. ↑ Doherty, Brennan (January 24, 2018). "Campbell Soup factory in Toronto to close". Toronto Star. Retrieved March 24, 2022.
  13. ↑ Cloutier, Laurier (February 21, 1991). "Campbell vend ses produits sucrés de St-Hyacinthe à E.D. Smith & Sons". La Presse. pp. D-4. Retrieved March 24, 2022.
  14. ↑ "A Century of Red and White". Strategy. March 19, 1997. Retrieved March 20, 2022.
  15. ↑ Brimacombe, Jodey (September 17, 2020). "How Habitant soup became a grocery staple in Canada". Freshdaily. Archived from the original on October 1, 2020. Retrieved March 20, 2022.
  16. ↑ "Newfoundland Faces Condiment Crisis As Smucker's Scraps Mustard Pickles". NPR All Things Considered. March 25, 2016. Retrieved March 22, 2022.
  17. ↑ Plante, Stéphane (October 12, 2016). "20 publicités québécoises marquantes des années 80". Le sac de chips. Retrieved March 20, 2022.
  18. ↑ Léger, Jean-Marc; Nantel, Jacques; Duhamel, Pierre (2016). Le Code Québec. Éditions de l'Homme. p. 2010.

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