Two New Calgary-area Retailers for The Edible Prairie Journal...Part One Forage Foods

Wow, we had a great weekend in Calgary. In brief, we're very excited about our two new retail locations for The Edible Prairie Journal. They're both brand new and completely exciting places that everyone needs to know about and visit: Forage Foods in Calgary and Charro! in Black Diamond. Read on for our adventures to both places.

Forage: Farm to Fork Foods to Go


Our big weekend in Calgary started last Friday (almost a week ago!) with a tour of Forage, a brave new foods-to-go commissary in the Marda Loop neighbourhood. It's an extension of chef Wade Sirois' and his business partner Jaclyn Labchuk's (above) philosophy that the best food comes from the amazing array of local products that we have in our backyard. For years, Wade and Jacklyn have been supporting local producers by showcasing the best of the best on their amazing Infuse Catering menus as THE CATERERS in town. Now Calgarians can just whip into Forage on the way home from work and grab an incredible dinner-to-go (specials change daily), a loaf of Forage's incredible bread, a few hand-picked local specialty foods (organic cold-pressed Highwood Crossing canola oil, Edgar Farm's pickled asparagus tips, Chinook Honey honeycomb, etc.), housemade treats (Herbes de Provence crackers, cookies, Gull Valley canned tomato salsa, Gull Valley canned tomato sauce) and some frozen Forage treats (Berkshire Pork potstickers, Cunningham's smoked trout and potato perogies...do we really need to go on?) to stash in the freezer for later. Yes, this is the place where label-reading is encouraged. In fact, we love how the various specialty products all have their "Farm to Forage" food-miles posted right on the signs!

The to-go menu changes weekly, and you can sign up to receive an email of the week's daily specials. The entrees are incredible things like Hoven Farms organic beef, kidney beans, black beans, white beans, onion, garlic, chili spice served with Tres Marias tortillas or grilled chicken Caesar salad made from organic romaine lettuce from Lund’s, grilled Sunworks Farm chicken breast, Forage Caesar dressing, Sylvan Star gouda, crouton made from their signature breads. Yum. And now, Forage also carries The Edible Prairie Journal, both current issues and back-issue-3-packs.

And when we were there, Jaclyn treated us to an incredible housemade raspberry lemonade that was the pure epitome of summer. It was also a lifesaver as the temperature in Calgary that day was a searing 35 degrees Celsius!

Stop in, buy some great food, and grab a copy of The Edible Prairie Journal.




Forage: Farm to Fork, Foods to Go

3508 19th Street SW, Calgary
Phone: 403-269-6551
Note: They are closed Saturday to Monday for the August long weekend!

A reader asks...about Leoni-Grana cheese in Alberta

We recently got an email from an Edible Prairie Journal subscriber that might be of interest to everyone. The reader was looking for Leoni-Grana cheese, a wonderful Grana (Parmesan) cheese that was made until recently in Camrose (AB).

We're posting our response:

Sorry about the delay, but we have bad news! Leoni Grana is no longer being produced. She shut down her operation about a year ago. We're not sure what the reason was but it seems that she has moved out to BC.

It seems to be the way these days, specialty producers come and go. Some like Whiskey Creek Tomatoes (we wrote about them just two issues ago -- No. 8) say that consumers are still buying on price, not on taste and quality, and smaller niche producers just can't compete with the bulk import prices. Others just burn out with the fact that they have to be producers, sales people, marketers, accountants and several other jobs all rolled into a 24-hour day.

Another reason to go a bit out of our way to support good quality local products...because if we don't, they'll be gone next time we look.