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Call her the “big cheese” or maybe, as her product is labelled — as per government diktat — the big “creamy cultured cashew wheel.”

Former Health Canada scientist Lynda Turner has gone from whipping up dairy-free cashew-based cheeses in her Alexandria kitchen to making seven different types in a 5,000-square headquarters on the village’s main street.

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Five-year-old Fauxmagerie Zengarry now has 15 employees, sells in 350 stores across Canada, including Farm Boy and Whole Foods, and goes through a whopping 2,000 pounds of cashews a month.

Photo by Julie Oliver / Postmedia

The seed was planted when Turner, a former senior health evaluator at Health Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency and a long-time vegetarian, went vegan almost a decade ago.

“Cheese was the one big thing I missed a lot in my diet,” Turner said in an interview in the sunny headquarters she opened adjacent to a historic armoury an hour east of Ottawa.