As night falls on DFC HQ, we can sometimes hear the calls of the variety of owls that have made their home in the woods around us. And who can blame them! They’re probably celebrating the piles of prey available to hunt, munch on, and then finally barf up the undigestible bits. You haven’t lived until you’ve gone on a field trip, and poked apart owl pellets to guess what unfortunate rodent met their maker on the wrong end of a dinner party. So memorable are owl pellets that they remain the only reliable fact I can (metaphorically) regurgitate about these birds!

Cue my reading of this news, along with a light smack of my forehead and an “Of course!”: Researchers have found that the pterosaur species Kunpengopterus sinensis  – winged dinosaurs that soared through the Jurassic skies over now-China – gulped down their prey, then, like their owl cousins, deftly upchucked the hard bits and went on with their prehistoric day. Now, scientists can study the contents of the pterosaur pellets, and get a fascinating peek into the long-dead creatures’ diets.

“[The study] reveals that members of this species, at least, were fish eaters. (Other possibly tree-climbing members of the genus Kunpengopterus may have dined on insects.) The find also suggests that, like modern birds, these pterosaurs had two-part stomachs: an acid-secreting part to dissolve the food, and a muscular gizzard to compact the indigestible bits into a pellet.

Based on the size of the scales in the larger pellet, found next to the adult, the fish it was eating was much larger than most fish fossils found at the site, the researchers note. That suggests that rather than opportunistically scavenging any fish that washed up onshore, K. sinensis may have been a hunter, actively choosing the largest prey it could catch.”

Current research puts forth that theropods (hollow-boned, three-toed, earthbound dinosaurs) are the true ancestors of birds; that is, they didn’t evolve from pterosaurs. So my delight is even greater, now that I’ve discovered that pellet-ralphing, like flight, evolved separately in two different species, millions of years apart! Next time I hear those owls in the woods, I’m going to head out there and yell that fun fact at them. Give them something else to chew on… besides their unfortunate dinner.

At DFC we pride ourselves on the quality of our sauces and mustards, using the tastiest ingredients to bring a time-tested family recipe – and a couple of twists! – to your table. We’ve learned a lot about the industry since pivoting from I.T., especially how to have more fun at work.

We’ve also learned that lots of creative folks are joining in on the fun in our rapidly growing condiment community. The days of dousing your hot dog with one kind of yellow mustard and one kind of ketchup seem to be well behind us! Just last week, our local paper, the Kingston Whig Standard, ran a state-of-the-industry profile of several seasoning superstars. The common thread between all of them? They wanted to be the spread they wanted to see in the world.

Auria Abraham, the founder of Auria’s Malaysian Kitchen, realizes the power of her condiments to connect people to a sense of home. ‘Sometimes as women, we see cooking as what we do for our family, what we do at home, but I started to see there was a value in it,’ says Abraham, who adds that not all sambal is the same; each household and street vendor in Malaysia has a different recipe. […]

‘Once you start using chili peppers in your life, you don’t go back. And while it’s not the case for everyone, it can be a gradual path that leads you to hotter peppers,’ says Julien Fréchette, founder of La Pimenterie, a hot sauce brand based in Montreal.

La Pimenterie’s flavours include a Bourbon barrel-aged hot sauce, cranberry hot sauce, and a hot sauce that includes a combination of citrus, mango and ants. Fréchette says ants have a citrusy flavour that complement salads, fish and chicken.”

I got a lot of inspiration from reading about fellow creators in our (by 2025) $181 billion USD industry – I want to try all of Kozlik’s Mustard’s more than 36 varieties! I also felt satisfied confirmation that we’re doing things right by sticking with recipes that come from the heart. Authenticity matters in most things, but especially in those you eat. I believe your tastebuds never lie to us – don’t we then owe it to them not to lie to them?