Most of us are familiar with hummus, the thick, hearty spread made with chickpeas, lemon juice, olive oil, salt, garlic, and tahini (ground sesame seeds and oil), all blended together into a creamy consistency. Married couple Assaf (Chick-pea-O) and Tegan (Chickpresident) of Isreally Hummus have taken their hummus to a whole new level, selling uniquely flavored hummus with local ingredients.

While music is their first love, Tegan is a music director, conductor, singer and voice teacher. Assaf is a Grammy nominated pianist, arranger, composer and has written several Off-Broadway shows, two of which are touring nationally and internationally. During the pandemic with idyll time on their hands hummus quickly became their passion project. Assaf was born and raised in Israel, the thing he missed the most when he moved to the States was the food. Finding good Mediterranean food has always been a challenge, and especially good, authentic hummus. They decided to take it to the next level and apply to the Forsyth Farmers Market after being accepted, like every good entrepreneur, they said YES, and then frantically Googled “How to start a food business in 4 weeks.” But with a lot of help from very generous mentors and local business owners, they pulled it off and by January 16th they started selling their first hummus containers!

Starting February 28, 2022 you can not only find Isreally Hummus at Forsyth Farmer’s Market but also at their new brick-and-mortar located at 1000 Eisenhower Dr, Unit J. The store hours will be Monday-Wednesday 10am-6pm.

What can people expect to find at the new store?

This will be a great spot to pick up our products instead of waiting to find us at the markets. We will also carry products by local food makers, especially ones that we collaborate with, and soon also Israeli snacks!

How do you source your ingredients?

We try to use as many local food makers as possible, such as Wild Light Honey, Laterra Natural Oils, and Savannah Spice and Tea Exchange. We source our organic chickpeas from a company in New York and our tahini is imported from a tiny village in Israel!  All of our ingredients are gluten free, preservative free, vegan (unless you consider honey not vegan!).

 

Where can people currently buy your products?

They can find us at these local farmers markets:
Forsyth Farmers Market – Savannah, GA, Saturdays 9-1pm
Root and Bloom Market – Bluffton, SC, Select Sundays 11-3pm
Bluffton Farmers Market – Bluffton, SC, Thursdays 12-5pm
Tybee Farmers Market – Tybee Island, GA, Mondays 4-7pm (starting in March)
Islands Farmers Market – Whitemarsh Island, GA, Saturdays 9-12pm (starting in March)
We are also on the shelves at Low Country Fresh, on the menu at Burnt Church Distillery and Collins Quarter at Forsyth, and you can order our hummus through Local Farm Bag in Savannah!
Starting February 28th, you can also buy our hummus at our store! 1000 Eisenhower Dr!

If someone isn’t familiar with Isreally Hummus which product do you suggest they try and what should they make with it?

Definitely try or Oh Gee! flavor first. It’s the classic hummus flavor so you can’t go wrong there! I know people like to dip carrots in hummus here but we grew up eating hummus as a full meal with warm pita bread. That’s my favorite! But I also recommend our Pesto flavor, The Very Pesto! because not only is it deliciously unique, it is nut and dairy free! We’ve had people tell us they’ve never been able to have pesto before now! They even put it on their pasta!