There sits in my refrigerator a near-empty container of Sabra red-pepper hummus. The Bacon family generally avoids pre-meal snacks and hors d’oeuvres, but when we do indulge, we put hummus on our crackers, not the usual cream cheese-based dips. Hummus, which uses chick peaks as the main ingredient, is high in protein. Not only does it have less fat than cream cheese, it’s the good kind of fat.
I wouldn’t go so far as to say that hummus hors d’oeuvres are healthy — you have to consider the salt, sugar and fat loaded into the crackers. But it’s definitely less unhealthy than cheese dip. And it tastes just as good. Maybe better. (Lots of garlic. Mmmm.)
That’s a round-about preamble to the news story of the day, the announcement by Sabra Dipping Co. that it will invest $86 million to double the size of its Chesterfield County manufacturing facility. Sabra will ramp up production of its hummus spread from 6,000 tons per month to 10,000 tons, reports the Richmond Times-Dispatch. The company also has just opened an 18,000-square-foot R&D facility on the property.
What’s more, Sabra is launching a major initiative to grow chickpeas in Virginia as a way to diversify the source of its chickpea supply in the event of crop failures in Washington state and Idaho. Sourcing chickpeas also would lower the trans-continental shipping costs, writes the Wall Street Journal. Right now, the chickpea crop is valued at a modest $115 million a year. But that number is bound to grow as hummus continues to gain in popularity and Americans develop export markets.
Virginia offers a longer growing season for chickpeas but the summer heat and humidity makes plants vulnerable to the Ascochyta fungus blight. Sabra is sponsoring research at Virginia State University, which is trying to identify a chickpea variety suited to the climate. Virginia farmers could be growing the crop on a commercial scale within three years.
Richmonders, it’s time to embrace not only Sabra as a good corporate citizen but to start chowing down its chickpeas! Not only is hummus a healthier alternative to fat- and calorie-drenched cheese-based dips and spreads, it’s locally processed and soon will be locally grown. What’s not to love?
— JAB
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