BTW, there’s nothing wrong with canola oil (it’s rich in Omega-3 for example), only hummus should NOT contain oils of any kind. The only fatty ingredient hummus needs is tahini – oils are a cheap alternative, used by cheap people.

Thank you for your advice about sterilizing the containers and making my Hummus product green products. It is a great idea and it may appeal to a lot of people who believe in saving the environment.

Sabra’s colorful and commercial packaging will not scare me. Just today, I brought a sample of my hummus to a store that sells Sabra’s Hummus to
sell it there. I will let you what the manager will say.

Thank you for your support and kind wishes. Good luck to you too on openning a Humos store in Germany. Is Humos popular in Europe as it is in the Middle East?

I agree that the market is still new … or “virgin” as you called it, and there is room for people like us ( who grew up on Humos) to make it big with careful planning and good marketing strategies.

I like what you wrote about having a muslim-jewish partnership or in my case a Lebanese-Israli partnership and how you described it as a message of peace and unity. AS a marketing idea, I think it is great.

I am not afraid of other competitors in the US such as Sabra who use very attractive and colored packaging, I have a great confidence that my homemade Humos will sell better when more and more people get the chance to try it.

Best of luck to you too.

my email is [shamdoun@law.harvard.edu]

Its great to hear your story, it all sounds like a truly wonderful initiative!

I was just on a long trip in Germany, and before i came back i talked with my friend in Munich about opening a Humosia there. Yeah, if not in Munich, then somewhere else in Bavaria/Bad-Würrtemberg. I think it could really work – not only in Germany, but also in the United States. I feel it has a nice.. virgin.. market. It could even be better if it will be opened with a muslem-jewish parternership. Not only it could be fun, but it could also be a great way to spread a message of unity and peace.. (something which obviously also has a strong effect on marketing).
Have no fear. If you open a place with fresh humos, the israelis will definitely be hanging there. Industrial packed humos can never ever compete with good, homemade, humos – every 5 yrs old knows that here. There might not be a *humos culture* in the USA, so people dont know that, but they’ll learn fast.

GOOD LUCK.. i wish you all the best..
Itay.

p.s. i might go in the Humos Biz.. can you please email me? Im at =zin5 at yahoo dot com=. I’ll just save it.. and maybe ill be able to help you somehow sometimes soon. Not sure, uhm, but it’ll be good to have you in my contacts.

You mentioned in your reply to Shooky that “Sabra are big and got financial resources for adverstisement and nice packaging.” – that shouldn’t stop you!

Word of mouth would do you better than any advertisement… And you can beat Sabra’s size and packaging by offering to take back boxes from consumers, sterilize them and refill them – thus turning your product to a green product, which might better appeal to people out there – eating a good humus and not creating more waste at the same time.

Anyways, good luck with it!

Good luck
Tal.

Sorry I misspelled your name earlier.

I will shoot photos of my homemade Hummus and other food I am making for Formaggio Kitchen in cambridge, Massachusetts and send it to you. Every saturday I put a sampling table for people to taste the food. When People try it they go crazy about the creamy taste of “Samira’s Hummus” that the name of my hummus. It was suggested by the owner of the store.

If I wanted to create my own website, do I have to pay a fee for it?
I know the basic about creating new website, but my son Amir 17 and my daughter Yasmeen could help me.

Please send me your email address so I can send the photos as attachments.

The link is from the Hebrew version of this blog, and there’s also one from my personal blog. Who know…

That’s a great story you have, with very good vibes. I do hope you’d make it big. Don’t forget to tell me when there’s where to link. Meanwhile, feel free to shoot a photo or two and send us so we can give a nice intro.

Thank you for your comment and kind wishes.

Yes, it is exciting to have a business opportunity but it also requires lots of thinking and planning.

I did think about having an investor, and I am aslo thinking about starting small on my own. The Market is new and the competitors such as Sabra are big and got financial resources for adverstisement and nice packaging. I am feeling good about this business opportunity because the other products are not homemade and don’t have the same health benefits.

Thank you for the idea about creating a website with photos of the hummus and the other goods. I agree with you when you said that you would not care for the other variations of hummus with olives or Chili. Here in the US, people like to get variety of choices. It is a different culture than ours in the Middle East.

Thank you for offering to wrtie about it from your end. You never know, maybe it would happen. I actually talked to an Israeli faculty who was visiting Harvard this year about investing in my hummus.
He liked eating my hummus so much and encouraged me to sell it to Formaggio Kitchen. He and I joked about starting a Lebanese and Jewish business together. We predicted that It would be very successful since it would bring two of the best business people in the Middle East (Lebanese & Jews).

In my house, hummus was also a kind of something you put on the table aside other dishes. We also had tahini with every meal. We have very good tahini in Israel two (although most of them come from Nablus).

Congratulations for your entrepreneurship. It seems like a very goof idea, and I’m glad that you’re doing fine. It all sounds very exciting (except for the chili and olive stuff – sorry, don’t care for such variations much).

here are a few tips:

A. It sounds like you can use an investor, and making a well written BUSINESS PLAN could be an important step in that direction. There are many good how-to books about BPs, and probably lots of useful resources online.

B. Why don’t you set up a website, or even a nice blog, about your new business? Shoot some nice photos of the hummus and other goods, give one or two “secret recipes”, tell the story of your business – and so on.

C. I, for one, will like very much to write about it here when it happens. Who knows – maybe one of our readers would like to invest…

Good luck.

I started making my homemade Hummus at Formaggio Kitchen store, a gourmet food store located in Cambridge, Massachussets almost three months ago and it is selling very well. I was surprised that more Americans knew about it than I had expected.

The idea came to me when lots of my colleagues and faculty I work with at Harvard Univeristy, some of whom are jewish who tried my homemade Lebanese Hummus asked if I could sell it. They told me that the hummus they buy in the store had preservatives and too much soduim, and didn’t taste as fresh as mine.

Formaggio Kitchen has chefs who cook every day fresh meals.
I am making more Hummus each week as the demand is growing. I introduced the kalamata olives and roasted red peppers flavors in addtion to the original one. I am also making fresh Tabbouleh Salad and Babaganough. No one makes it as I do for any stores around here.

I am thinking about making more and deliver it to other stores, so more people can enjoy the taste and health benefits of homemade hummus. I need capital to rent or buy a commercial kitchen but don’t have money to start my own business. Can anyone make suggestions how to start my homemade hummus business?

I am thinking about making it for other stores too but need capital to rent or buy a commercial kitchen.