Live Here, Shop Here is a Maple Ridge Pitt Meadows News campaign that spans the holiday season to spotlight the value of shopping local.
Whether you will be having the whole extended family over or just a small, quiet Christmas dinner, sourcing local foods has never been easier for the perfect holiday meal.
Meridian Farm Market in Maple Ridge and Hopcott Farms in Pitt Meadows are family-owned and run businesses that make it their mission to source their goods from B.C. farms and producers.
Kevin Penner, whose family owns and operates Meridian Farm Market, said sourcing local is what they have based their business on since they opened their first location in Port Coquitlam in 1989, along with building long-term relationships with farmers.
Like the farm in Yarrow where they get their free-range turkeys. Penner said their relationship with the supplier at that family-owned and operated farm goes back 30 years.
They source their hams from a farm in northern B.C.
“These hams are the absolute best,” he said.
And this year, they have even sourced a festive-flavoured sausage from a farm in Surrey.
“When you taste it, it reminds you of the smells of Christmas,” he described.
Sourcing local is also part of the Hopcott Farms identity, said Jenn Hopcott, one of the owners of the family-run butcher, market, and bistro in Pitt Meadows.
By supporting local growers, farmers, and artisans, they are providing fresher and higher quality ingredients for their customers, they are supporting B.C. agriculture, they are keeping money circulating within the community, and they are shortening the supply chains for better food transparency and sustainability, explained Hopcott.
“We feel that our business thrives because our community chooses to support family-owned farms, independent makers, and small businesses. When customers pick Hopcott Farms over a big-box store, they’re helping to keep local jobs strong, local agriculture viable, and local food culture alive,” she said.
“People want to know where their food comes from, who raised it, and how it was grown. That trust is something we don’t take for granted,” added Hopcott.
Some of Hopcott’s unique offerings this holiday season include: turducken, prime rib roasts, and ready-to-heat sides that are all made in-house. They also have grazing platters and charcuterie items where all the deli meats are cured in house and most of the artisan cheeses are sourced from within the province.
Hopcott Farms, like Meridian Farm Market, source its produce from farms across the Lower Mainland. They also have stuffing mixes, cranberry sauces, broths, and spices, all from local small-batch producers and fresh breads, buns, and desserts from local artisan bakeries.
Hopcott Farms also has an assortment of curated gift baskets.
Something that is gaining in popularity at Meridian Farm Market, is their turkey breast roasts, which they make in-house and can customize for the customer if they want white or dark meat, or for the roast to be stuffed.
To complement the meal, the folks at Meridian have created two in-house cranberry sauces, made from locally grown berries.
For dessert Meridian has a cheesecake sampler, featuring four different flavours, to satisfy everybody at the table.
And, if you don’t want to experience the crush of holiday shopping, the entire meal can be ordered online at Meridian Farm Market and delivered right to your front door.
For more information go to: https://meridianfarmmarket.ca/, or: https://hopcottfarms.ca/.
There are plenty of other options available in both communities, to accent that feast. That can include straight from the farm options like Sunshine Meadow Farms, or Golden Ears Cheesecrafters – which makes its own cheese and also carries goods sourced from local producers. And the holiday meal could also feature some craft beer from local breweries such as Ridge Brewing Company or The Patch Brewery.
• Check out upcoming Maple Ridge Pitt Meadows News editions for more stories in our Live Here, Shop Here series.