Precision Nutrition's Expert Profile: Forager Foods

A good review from one of our customers, thanks Erin!

Precision Nutrition's Expert Profile: Forager Foods
Erin Weiss-Trainor

Until three years ago, we had always lived in a large city centre where access to large grocery stores, year-round markets, and specialty health food stores was never more than a quick car ride away. Though it may have felt inconvenient to have to go to more than one store to get organic foods or the most local produce, there were lots of options available to do so; in retrospect, getting these items was really not all that inconvenient at all.

When we decided to exchange big city living for a quieter, more community oriented small town on the shores of Lake Huron we knew there would be many perks. We have easy access to the beach and a huge provincial park with seemingly endless trails to hike and a river to paddle. We knew it would be a wonderful place for our kids to grow up.

After the excitement and novelty of small-town living wore off, reality set in. We were now stuck in a town with only 2 small grocery stores, in which organics and locally produced foods did not occupy the shelves. We thought the solution would be regular trips into one of the bigger cities just an hour away to get what we wanted, but after being “storm-stayed” in an even smaller town’s local donut shop for 6 hours one blizzardy afternoon, we realized this was not going to be the most reliable means of meeting our food needs.

When summer arrived, so did the local farmer’s market. For the size of the community, I was thrilled to find such a wide array of local farm-raised meats and veggies. Every Wednesday from mid-May to mid-October I’d fill enough baskets and bags of food to last our family all week. Along with finding all the foods I needed, I was also learning more about the area: Huron County is one of Ontario’s most agriculturally productive areas, and there is an abundance of farmers who supply intensively farmed meats and produce. All right here, under my nose.

But for the next two years, with the end of the fall harvest, the local outdoor market would be done for another season, and I found myself once again out of luck, searching for ways to get quality food for my family. Last year, my luck changed for the better. Sam Gundy, the owner and operator of Forager Foods, came to my rescue.

Sam discovered through his work in the area’s food industry that consumers’ interest was piqued by menu items made from local products, but there was no place where people could find these foods year round. From that spawned the idea that Sam himself would forage for these, and he now hunts down locally farmed foods and gathers them under one roof year-round. Lucky me. Forager Foods is a scant 30 km highway trip away.

To develop this offering of local foods, Sam developed direct relationships with approximately two dozen farmers, whom he calls partners, all within a half-hour drive from Bayfield. He’s personally researched and visited each of the farms, and travels regularly to see them to stock his store, so he knows he’s providing traditional and game foods that are raised and cared for humanely, without the use of drugs or hormones.

Sam’s noticed people are naturally curious about where their meat comes from, and they’re looking for more options for leaner and healthier meats. In part, this stems from an increased awareness of the environment and health, and how our food choices impact these. So, along with the assortment of artisan cheeses, gourmet pantry items, in-season produce, and quality prepared foods, the majority of Forager Foods’ offerings are locally farmed chicken, beef, and pork, and a selection of elk, bison, rabbit, duck and boar. Most of Sam’s customers are seasonal cottagers from the cities who like small-market shopping. The rest are locals like me, who are just looking to do the right thing for their health, the environment, and nearby farmers.

Since I’ve been shopping in his store I’ve been exposed to new and different varieties of the standard fare that used to fill our freezer. Now instead of plain old ground beef burgers, our family has the choice of bison or elk or lamb. If the kids can tell the difference, they aren’t complaining. Though Forager Foods has some delicious variations of pork sausage (the pork and cabbage is one of the best I’ve tasted and I have walked out of there with half a case before!), we can get also get sausage prepared with leaner cuts of bison and venison. Smoked rainbow trout from Lake Huron has become a staple in my weekly meals, and keeps me heading up the highway several times a month.

Although the store carries several organic meat products, most of the meats Sam carries and that we purchase are not labeled as such. His partner producers are so passionate about what they do that they have their own rigorous standards and extensive farming practices. As an example, Sam describes visiting a bison farm just outside of Stratford, and witnessing the sound and energy from the herds of bison as they thundered down the lane on either side. Because bison can be tentative, easily flustered animals, the farmers take extra care to minimize undue stress on the animals. This practice with all game meat makes a difference in the taste – unlike the often fearful, precarious lives of animals in the wild, the relaxed routine for farmed game results in a more tender meat.

This holistic and passionate take on farming inspired this young entrepreneur to take a chance with Forager Foods and to make it his job to “continually source out foods from the best growers” in the region and beyond. It hasn’t even been a year since Sam opened the doors, but already he’s been pleasantly surprised by the response, and is optimistic about the future.

And he has good reason to be. Most recently, Forager Foods announced on its blog that it had acquired Olliffe Fine Meats of Toronto. Even though there is a new aspect to the business, Sam will continue to nurture and develop relationships with farmers in Huron County, and eventually hopes to do the same in other agriculturally rich areas across the province.

From all that I’ve gained for having a Forager Foods close to home, I’ll keep my fingers crossed that one comes to a neighbourhood near you soon.