Last night Andrew texted me this article about Red River Cereal. I can’t remember ever eating the iconic hot cereal, but I do remember my parents buying boxes of it to deliver to a friend in Michigan when I was growing up. And now I am pleased to see the connection to Arva Flour Mill, where my parents shop. Let’s start at the beginning…
1924 – Red River Cereal was created in Manitoba by Gertrude Edna Skilling and manufactured by Red River Grain Co., whose president was her husband Harvey Kavener. According to blogger Ruth Zaryski Jackson, Edna “experimented in her kitchen with various grains and various degrees of grinding to come up with the exact formula for Red River Cereal: 85% wheat, 10 % rye, and 5% flax.” The Red River Grain Company – and thus the cereal – is named after the Red River, which flows through the north-central United States and Manitoba, emptying into Lake Winnipeg.
1926 – “[T]he cereal was introduced in the Food Building at the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto, with family members giving out free samples with real cream in little paper cups.” (Jackson)
1927 – Harvey Kavener applied for a patent for Red River Cereal.
1928 – Manufacturing was taken over by Maple Leaf Milling Co.
1929 – The patent was granted.
1995 – Red River Cereal was purchased by Robin Hood Multifoods, Inc., part of the Smucker Foods of Canada Co. Smuckers withdrew Red River Cereal from the U.S. retail market.
2011 – The recipe was altered sightly to include steel cut wheat and rye.
2014 – Packaging now read: “Steel-cut Wheat, steel-cut Rye, cracked and whole Flax. May contain Barley, Mustard, Oat, Sesame seed, Soybean, and Triticale ingredients.”
2020 – Red River Cereal stopped being distributed in Canada.
2021 – Smuckers announced that production of Red River Cereal had ceased.
2022 – Arva Flour Mill acquired the Red River Cereal brand from Smuckers.
The Arva Flour Mill website currently states:
The nearly century old Hot Cereal that has been a favourite way for thousands of Canadians to start their day is back in production at the Historic Arva Flour Mill!
Made the original way, with Cracked Wheat, Cracked Rye, Cracked and Whole Flax. Enjoy!
* US Customers Please Note * Unfortunately US Customs does not allow food items to be imported, so at this time we are unable to fill US orders. We know Americans enjoy Red River Cereal as much as Canadians and we are working on a solution that hopefully will allow us to ship to US homes in the near future. If you would like to be notified when we are able to ship, please send an email to mark@arvaflourmills.com. Thanks and sorry for the inconvenience.
A little backstory about Arva Flour Mill — it is “North America’s oldest continuously-operating commercial water-powered flour mill” and located 20 kilometers from where I grew up. Last year it went up for sale and the community feared that it would be closed and sold to a developer. Fortunately it was purchased by Mark Rincker and continues to run. In June 2022 Arva Flour Mill finalized the purchase of Red River Cereal. A press release states that “Arva would be reverting it back to the original recipe and including cracked wheat and rye… the mill is in the process of acquiring a hammer mill to crack the grain.” (Carroll)
Long live Arva Flour Mill! (I suppose I should buy some Red River Cereal now…)
Sources
- “Gertrude Skilling Kavaner and The Invention of Red River Cereal” by Ruth Zaryski Jackson
- “How an Ontario flour mill saved an iconic Canadian hot cereal loved by northerners” by Luke Carroll via CBC
Thank you SO much for posting this. This was news to me. I am one of the many fans of Red River Cereal hugely disappointed when Smuckers discontinued it. At first I used a home made facsimile recipe, but then the mill in Saskatchewan I was buying my organic cracked rye from stopped their mail order business and other sources, in the U.S. and the U.K., were too expensive. So then I starting filling my suitcase full of Sunny Boy Cereal from the Co-op whenever I was in Calgary or Edmonton on business. Sunny Boy is close (same ingredients), but the favour is slightly off (too much rye?) and the texture is wrong (too creamy). I’m emailing Arva right now putting in my order. Thanks again.
Hi thanks for reading my blog about Aunt Gert and Red River Cereal. She’s legendary in our family and we’re very happy Arva is producing the cereal again.
Red River Cereal is a Canadian National Treasure; it should never have been sold in the first place!