Buying and Eating Local in Montreal
Fresh and local fruits and vegetables? Sounds good enough to eat!
Buying produce can be expensive. Often, it’s hard to find fresh fruits and vegetables at big grocery chains. It’s even harder to find produce grown in Canada. The good news is that there are affordable, healthy options for feeding and buying and eating local in Montreal for families. Farmers’ basket services bring the farm to you, which means you can enjoy seasonal veggies year-round. And with farms throughout Quebec, it’s easy to enjoy fresh, local produce at home.
Best of all, supporting local farms and buying eating local in Montreal helps to build strong, sustainable food networks and communities. What’s not to like?
Here are four farmers’ basket services with produce worth sampling that make buying and eating local in Montreal incredibly easy.
As the name suggests, Second Life gives ugly vegetables a second chance. Second Life delivers baskets of fruits and vegetables that are too small, too big, oddly coloured, and oddly shaped – but still packed with nutrition. The Family One package (recommended for four) contains 3 lbs of indoor grown tomatoes, 2 organic English cucumbers, 2 lbs of McIntosh apples, 1 lb of Spartan apples, 2 lbs of rainbow carrots, 1 lb of onions, 2 lbs of red potatoes, and 1 lb of yellow potatoes – all for $16.50. Baskets are delivered to various pickup points throughout the city Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. So if you are able to get past the look, make this your place for buying eating local in Montreal.
You can find Lufa Farms on a rooftop right here in Montreal. The rooftop greenhouse grows vegetables year-round and uses hydroponics to conserve water. It’s worth noting that Lufa Farms partners with local farmers and food artisans, which means you can add meat, dairy, eggs, baked goods, and pantry staples to your weekly basket. It’s a one stop shop for buying eating local in Montreal. Each week, Lufa Farms curates a basket of seasonal produce for $30. You can adjust this basket each week, or curate your own basket – the minimum order is $15.
Interested in organic produce? Les Jardins du Petit Tremble grows organic vegetables on the banks of the Richelieu River. Summer basket deliveries begin June 14th and end October 12th, 2016. Pickup points are located in and around Montreal. Basket contents vary, but in late summer, a medium basket can contain 2 cloves of garlic, 1 eggplant, 1 lb of beets, 2 lbs of carrots, 2 field cucumbers, 1 butternut squash, 1 lb of beans, 1 bunch of kale, 1 head of lettuce, 1 bunch of parsley, 2 lbs of tomatoes, 2 zucchini, and 2 lbs of potatoes. The 18-week medium summer basket costs $558.
Ferme Cadet Roussel is an organic, biodynamic farm located in Mont-St-Grégoire. Depending on where you live, summer basket delivery runs from June 21st, 24th or 25th to November 1st, 4th or 5th, with pickup points located in Montreal and the South Shore. An average-sized summer basket can contain 2 eggplants, 0.75 kg of carrots, 2 cucumbers, 1 bunch of herbs, 0.4 kg of fresh beans, 2 heads of lettuce, 1 watermelon, 3 onions, 3 peppers, 1 bunch of radishes, and 6 tomatoes. The 20-week average summer basket costs $676.75.
Mmm… delicious and nutritious but don’t take our word for it…try buying eating local in Montreal this summer for yourself!
