Astoria Mills History

Over the years we told our story to people and Trina shared recipes and helped others find out more about the gf diet, at first through Astoria Magazine and then through the GlutenFreeTrina website and by answering desperate emails.

We found more and more people who complained of symptoms of gluten intolerance, or who knew people that were having problems and did not know what it was in their diets that was affecting them.

As a result, many people kept encouraging us to take our experience and our recipes to the gluten free community at large. We embarked on a course of taste testing the recipes at events, a little here a little there just to see if what we had to offer was really that much better than what people on a gluten free diet were able to get. Everywhere, people loved the breads and other baked goods. Our hearts would go out to so many people who, would ask sheepishly, "Could I have another piece of your bread? I haven't had any good bread in years!"

"I can't tell you all the people who asked me to make them my bread and I had to say no, I don't have a commercial kitchen," says Trina.

Finally we started down the road of seeing if it would be possible to have our recipes commercially blended. We had a huge wish list, we had to have certified gluten free ingredients, a dedicated facility from blending to packaging. Then we had to go through trials and testing blending large amounts to see the ratios needed to keep the same quality in a large amount as in a small home made batch. Not as easy as one would think.

Then, one of the things Trina had always wished for was to be able to give people a more nutritious product. Although a gluten free diet can be very nutritious and healthy, if followed properly, and a great deal of care is taken. Still research shows that people on a gluten free diet, whether because of the years of damage to their systems pre-diagnosis, or through lack of time to prepare nutritous foods, many celiacs and those who are gluten intolerant experience some nutrient deficiencies. This is even more apparent with children and teens. Being parents ourselves we know how difficult it is to get those vitamins and minerals into the kids!

Thus the search for a food lab that could design and manufacture an Enrichment Formula, specifically to help augment those dietary deficiencies. We almost thought we would have to give up on this wish but through extreme perseverence and helpful investors, this became a reality. We had to delay launching the mixes, but we feel this enrichment will be worth it. Now, as Trina tells it, "Even eating a piece of pie, will be healthier!" It makes us feel really good to know we are helping people gain more nutrition.

The Word Has been Spreading

The word spread quickly online, and Trina was soon being asked by various health professionals - such as Dr. Stephanie Jennings and Jane Snyder of New Vision Nutrition - to appear at their seminars. We gave taste tests, baking demonstrations, and lectures for various organizations - such as the Canadian Celiac Association, and at the Whitby Seniors Center. We gave radio interviews with various interested people - such as Rose-Anne Kumpunen of Real Life Changes. There were a few TV appearances with Kasia Bodurka on Rogers TV and Garth Riley of First Take Live at CHEX Channel 1 as well as the Small Business Big Ideas Show on Sunday morning radio.

Now here we are ready to launch into the next phase of getting these mixes into the hands and mouths of those who need them.  It has been quite a long road, we hardly knew all the steps that would have to be taken to get here. 

We would like to thank everyone who has helped, encouraged and invested along the way to make this venture a possibility.

-The little family business that is now Astoria Mills