We are a story people, us humans. And just as there is a story behind each of the products we sell, there is also a story behind our name. Eggplant. Oh, don't pretend you didn't wonder. Everyone wonders. A few ask. So here is the story...

When Jon and I first met, I was organizing a youth leadership conference for the YMCA with Possibilities at Camp Elphinstone, a gorgeous camp on the Sunshine Coast, close to Vancouver, BC. Jon was a volunteer youth advisor for the Vancouver Y, and after the sparks flew on our first meeting, kindly offered to come over to Victoria the weekend before the conference to help me get organized. As we were assigning campers to cabins, we talked about giving each cabin an original name, instead of calling them (as they always do) Cabin 1, Cabin 2, Cabin 3, etc. I suggested we call the cabins words that had absolutely no relation to camping or leadership, since the theme of the weekend was "Thinking outside the Box". Imagine how cool it would be, I mused, if you told your friends you were just going to go back to "Eggplant" to get your jacket? Jon agreed, and we set out to find original names for all the other cabins. The problem was, we couldn't think of any other words that sounded as fabulous as "Eggplant"! We tried and tried, throwing out all kinds of words that we thought would work, but when put alongside "Eggplant", (we thought) paled in comparison. Eventually, we gave up and called the cabins, "Cabin 1", "Cabin 2", Cabin 3", etc.

A week later, at the end of the conference, as we were sitting in a circle doing our final "debrief/check-out" with all the leaders, I asked each member of the group to describe their experience in one word. Everyone came up with words like "inspiring"; "energizing"; "fun". When it was Jon's turn, with a little smirk on his face, he said, "I guess I'd have to say ...Eggplant". His buddy commented, "oooh, thinking outside the box", but Jon just smiled. I smiled, too, all the way down to my toes.

And there you have it. The origin of the meaning of Eggplant, for us. (Plus, ever since I went to Bishop's University for my undergrad, I've always loved purple.) So it just worked, somehow. We knew we'd find a use for that delicious word sometime in our lives! We hope you like it as much as we do.