Food Security: Where to Buy Produce & Groceries

Inshallah, Manitobans will erect greenhouses in all neighborhoods, hook them up to renewable energy sources (geothermal, solar, wind, below-market hydro), and secure healthy, delicious, local food year-round. Until then, here's to a healthier summer lifestyle!

Farmers Market
The season is approximately June through October.

• Le Marche, St. Norbert Farmers' Market , Wednesdays (1-7 pm) and Saturdays (8am-3pm), 3514 Pembina Hwy.
• Osborne Village Market, 4-8 pm, Thursdays at Osborne & River.
• Fort Whyte Alive, 12-6 pm, Tuesdays and Thursdays.
• Urban Market at the Riverview Community Centre, 90 Ashland Ave.

Community Supported Agriculture (CSAs)

• South Osborne Urban Community Cooperative
• Harvest Moon in Clearwater
• Nature's Farm in Steinbeck
• Fort Whyte Farms CSA
• Hwy 59 road trip

Grocery

Groceries are not the greatest in Winnipeg. I hear it's much, much worse in northern Manitoba, though. Ladies and gentlemen, we are far, far away from a real growing season.

• Vita Health, for example in Osborne Village, sells some products (eg. kefir, Thayer's witch hazel face lotion, elk smokies) that are difficult to find elsewhere in this town.
• Vic's (A-1038 Pembina Highway, 475-833), sells expensive, fresh produce, meats, cheeses, as well as crackers and Indian packeted dishes.
• In summer only, Crampton's Farm Produce Market (1765 Waverley at Bishop Grandin, 204-269-3355) sells high quality local produce, affordable baked goods, and meat.
• Mondragon Cafe (91 Albert St. in the Exchange) has a tiny grocery section, Sacco & Vanzetti's, from which they sell produce, and some canned, boxed and refrigerated foods.
• Organza at Confusion Corner and Organic Planet Worker Co-op grocery (877 Westminister Avenue in Wolseley; phone 204-772-8771) both have delis that sell juice and coffee. Organza sells simple, nontoxic, bulk household cleaning products, such as baking soda, and a small amount of bulk ingredients. Along with the Vita Health chain (local to Manitoba), both stores sell expensive organic home & body-care products. These small groceries also sell a nominal amount of very expensive, low-quality organic produce. For example, one (1) petite head of organic purple cabbage and one (1) chocolate bar together cost me over $10 (2010) at Organic Planet (I have no idea how this business model can possibly survive, unless there are thousands of masochistic experimenters like myself; but the stores look lonely).
• This is not to say that there aren't standard supermarkets in Winnipeg. There are plenty of tiresome, fluorescent-lit supermarkets to stagger through in Winnipeg; unfortunately, food is only somewhat-less horrifyingly expensive here than the small specialty groceries, relative to grocery stores in agricultural regions that can competitively grow produce (eg. Oregon). Winnipeg's supermarkets sell plenty of standardized mass food from far away that English people like (Who knew that Tetley black teas could take up an entire supermarket aisle?), as well as things made out of canola (You will never see such gigantic, useless margarine sections in a grocery store any place else on Earth, gracias a dios). On the upside, the supermarkets sell fair trade coffee. Its fair trade culture is a point in Winnipeg's favor.

Winnipeg Localvore Resources and Organizations

• 100 Mile Manitoba
• Fair Trade Manitoba
• Food Matters Manitoba / Manitoba Food Security Network
• Ethical Food Market
• MAFRI's Buy Manitoba
• Bison meat in MB (MAFRI)

U-pick Produce

MAFRI's U-pick vegetable availability chart

• Prairie Fruit Growers Association U-pick search engine.
• Call Marg's Strawberry Patch & Organics Plus farm (702 Dawson Rd., Lorette, MB; phone 204-878-4353) for a U-pick appointment. Pick strawberries, and/or buy vegetables, rhubarb and honey.
• MAFRI's (Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives) on-line U-Pick search engine.

Food Security & Gardening

Winnipeg gardening resources

During the summer, Sage Garden Herbs nursery (3410 St. Mary's Rd.) hosts affordable classes on indoor & outdoor gardening. They sell Eco Tea fertilizer and Eco-lawn grass seed. It's a pleasant, small, organic nursery to visit. They don't sell trees.

Urban Eatin' Gardeners' Co-op (phone 204-770-2204) can provide gardening assistance or full gardening service--planning, constructing, gardening.

Red Wriggler Haven (204-275-0253) provides vermicomposting (indoor worm composting) expertise. The proprietors, Marilyn & Bruce, suggest that for cold climates, vermicomposting is the most appropriate approach to household waste reduction. In April, they offer a class at Sage Garden Herbs as well.

MAFRI's vegetable availability chart.

For information on how to complement your garden with plants that involve Manitoba nature (including benefical insects) see the book Naturescape Manitoba (available at McNally Robinson) by the Manitoba Naturalist Society.

See also the city's Living Prairie Museum, 2795 Ness Ave., free, open 10am - 5 pm in the summer.

Hwy 59 Food Road Trip

Dish, the magazine they give away at the MLCC liquor mart, delivered a Highway 59 food-based road trip itinerary in its spring 2010 edition.

Dish is actually a more alluring magazine than most of this region's "lifestyle" magazines, and here I'm counting the insular, dull GLove, and those horrible, Ontario-based, one-trick-pony home decor magazines--Decor mantra of each and every month?: "Slap a coat of white paint on it, especially if it's wood." Time for a new editor. (However, there was in summer 2009 a fascinating edition of the Manitoba Historical Society's Manitoba History magazine, on the Winnipeg General Strike.)

The downside to Dish is that it has a cutesy but absolutely infuriating, retrograde archiving method on its website. So, assuming you don't have an hour or two to spend on disinterring a fuzzy, eyeball-seizure-inducing, one-page article, I'll spare you the hassle and just transcribe (ow! my eyeball!) the Hwy 59 itinerary here:

Foodie Road Trip

Southern Manitoba Hwy 59

Prairie Farms

1)    Fruit: Two white BC fruit trucks are parked off Hwy 59: near Spring Hill and in the parking lot of the Fifty-Niner Motel close to Birds Hill Park.

2)    Vegetables: Windmill Potatoes & Vegetables, near the Hwy 4 turnoff. Windmill is operated by Cliff & Liz Waytiuk, selling organic vegetables from a store adjacent to their home, 29048 Road 79N. 204-482-5302.

3)    Vegetables: Chorney’s Vegetables & Fruit, corner of Hwy 59 and Road 80, near the Hwy 4 turnoff. Doug Chorney offers vegetables, berries, painted Easter eggs, perogies, and garden flower bouquets. 204-482-8538.

4)    Honey: The Honey House, operated by Bob & Lorraine Check out of their house at the junction of 508. 204-482-5198.

5)    U-pick Raspberries: Devil’s Creek Herb and Berry Farm, 12 km north of Selkirk. Besides U-pick raspberries, Robert & Wendy Shearer sell vegetables and raspberry leaf herbal tea. 204-766-2669.

Boreal Forest

6)    Berries and shrooms: Wooded areas produce wild blueberries (often on top of granite hills), strawberries, Saskatoon berries and raspberries. Gathering adventures are fun and delicious. (I need to spend the upcoming years locating chantrelle and morel stashes. But when I do, I’ll never write about it, of course.)

7)    Pie: Idle Thyme Restaurant, at Traverse Bay Corner, corner of Hwy 59 and Hwy 11. See also: the Plum Creek Gift Shop.

8)    Smoked pickerel: Near Traverse Bay Road, local fishermen put out signs and sell smoked walleye.

9)    Coffee & take-out picnic sandwiches: Saffie’s Store in Albert Beach.

10) Vegetables: Greg’s Organic Produce, truck parked between Albert and Victoria Beaches.

11) Bakery: Enfield’s Bakery, on Birch Avenue in Victoria Beach. The bakery is a short walk from the community parking lot.