It’s Our First Birthday!
Fresh Food For Thought – May 2009
Derek and I cannot believe we have been open for a year! Thanks to all of you for helping us survive that crucial first year of business.
Fraberts Celebrates One Year of Fresh Food
We welcome you to join us in our weekend long birthday celebration from Friday, May 29 through to Sunday, May 31. From 11am till 4pm each day we’ll have free samples of Chef Derek’s summer menu and birthday cake! We’ll be officially launching our new fresh meat counter – lots of great treats for your BBQ. A birthday party isn’t complete without free goodies and a chance to win free groceries!
Mother’s Day – Sunday May 10
Treat your mom to a homemade meal that you have proudly made – with or without Chef Derek’s help. As always, he can help with anything from delicious lasagnas, quiche, salads, meats – you name it, he can help.
We will be selling flowers for your mom – cut or in planters – grown locally by the good folks from the Elmira Produce Auction Cooperative.
Our Own Baking
If you haven’t tried our new bread or Derek’s yummy pies, now is the time! Bread is baked fresh every day.
Fraberts Fresh Meat Counter
We’ve got all the local meat you need for your BBQ – steaks, chicken (whole or breasts), pork, sausages, kebabs, and the best hot dogs you will ever taste.
Local Produce This Month
We already have our famous “tunnel tomatoes” – local hothouse tomatoes grown in soil – what flavour! Ontario asparagus and local rhubarb will start early May and local asparagus and spinach will soon follow.
Easter Food Drive
Thanks to everyone for their generosity – we raised nearly $150 for the Centre Wellington Food Bank. Fraberts will again match this to provide $300 worth of fresh produce to the food bank this spring and summer.
Grand Taste
Fraberts participated in this year’s Grand Taste event at the Grand River Raceway to raise money for the Groves Hospital Foundation CT Plus Campaign. It appeared to be a big success – Chef Derek’s pulled pork sandwiches and duck confit spring rolls were a hit and he ran out of samples quickly!
Tourism on the Grand River
Fraberts was thrilled to be asked to provide local culinary flavours to a reception held in Toronto for tourism writers to promote tourism along the Grand River. Culinary tourism is a fast growing industry and goes well with everything else we have to offer in beautiful Centre Wellington.
Launch of Recipes to Experience
Speaking of great tourism promotions – if you haven’t seen the new “Recipes to Experience” booklet, go to www.recipestoexperience.com. This gorgeous publication was launched in April and will be widely promoted – including an insert in the Globe and Mail during the May long weekend! Congratulations to all of the tourism partners, especially the Fergus Elora Bed and Breakfast Association for the tireless work on this award winning project.
Chamber of Commerce Awards of Excellence
Fraberts was excited to be amongst an outstanding group of nominees for “Small Business of the Year”. We congratulate the winner of this category, Mach One Communications. Having heard their accomplishments, we were very flattered to be considered amongst such prestigious company!
Fraberts Family Profile – Jackie Fraser
Jackie Fraser, Chef Derek’s much better half (benefits of newsletter editorship) is the “local food forager” for Fraberts Fresh Food. Jackie grew up on a dairy farm in Huttonville, just west of Brampton. As a teen, she worked for a local fruit and veggie farm and two different farm markets, where she learned the produce business and gained a passion for local food.
After graduating from the University of Guelph with an agricultural science degree and a Master’s in Land Resources Management, she worked as an environmental consultant for a variety of industries, and eventually found her way back to agriculture, working as the Executive Director of “Agricultural Groups Concerned About Resources and the Environment” (AGCare). This continues to be her “paying job”, and she returns to it part time when her maternity leave ends in June.
Jackie’s main role at Fraberts is the produce section. She goes to the Ontario Food Terminal bright and early every Thursday morning to collect any imported produce we need, as well as Ontario produce from areas such as the Holland Marsh, Niagara region, and the hothouses of the Leamington area. These are sold at the outdoor farmers’ market section of the terminal.
The Elmira Produce Auction has just begun, and she attends it once a week to get most of the local produce that Fraberts offers, such as our famous “tunnel tomatoes”. Over the past year we have developed relationships with specific farmers in the area who we buy directly from such as Paul Collins’ spinach, Floralane’s grape tomatoes, Jeff Wilson’s asparagus, and Van Tols’ sweet corn.