Food_Less_Traveled_Verona

Jeff Green | Jun 14, 2007

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Local Family Farms; alternative food store in Veronaby Jeff Green .

Discerning food shoppers who are looking for a healthy, local alternative now have another option in Verona: Local Family Farms, a new store that Kim Perry had opened at the location that was formerly the home of Pam’s Country Bulk.

Kim Perry was one of the founders of the Frontenac Farmers’ Market, which is open every Saturday from February to Christmas at the Verona Lions’ Hall from 8-1, where she can still be found each week with cuts of beef and homemade meat pies and tourtieres.

The new store is open 6 days a week, from 10-6.

“I am trying to source food from within 100 kilometres or our store whenever I can,” Kim Perry said from the store earlier this week.

Most of the cuts of beef for sale come from her and husband Dave’s farm, and the beef is used for beef pies and tourtieres as well. Other meat, pork and lamb (in season) is from regional sources, as is the honey, maple syrup, and many of the dried herbs. In the next couple of weeks, strawberries from Crooked Hills Farm in Clarendon will be available, and fresh bread and rolls from the Rising Bun (Sharbot Lake) are being sold at the store every day.

There are potted plants from a Napanee grower, soaps from Seeley’s Bay, coffee from a roaster in Kingston who sells organic fair trade coffee, and organic grains from an Ottawa Valley mill. Even the tomatoes and cucumbers for sale are produced in a greenhouse in Glenburnie, and as the summer progresses and local produce becomes abundant, it will be available at the store.

In addition to ingredients, Local Family Farms provides prepared meals. Steven Johnston, the owner of the Korner Stone Kastle B&B, located just up the road, has joined the store to prepare take out dishes made with the the freshest ingredients.

This week, using potatoes sourced from an 11 acre farm in Napanee, Steven made a roasted garlic and potato soup. The soup already has a following with patrons of the B&B, and with the employees at the local post office where Steven works sometimes.

Steven said “it’s so convenient for me to be working here, so close to home and my business.”

As the business grows on, more and more local products will be available at Local Family Farms, and for those without time to cook, the produce will be turned into hearty meals in the kitchen at the back of the store.

Local Family Farms joins recent initiatives by the National Farmer’s Union such as Feast of Fields and the Food Down the Road project, along with the Mill Street Cafin Sydenham, the Fall River Pub and Grill in Maberly, and the Verona Farmer’s Market, in bringing eaters and growers together in Frontenac County. ■