Happy Birthday, Generation Green!

Our friends at Generation Green just marked their 2nd anniversary at The Forks Market – they celebrated with cupcakes for all from Hello Cupcake – baking that is gluten-, dairy-, nut-, soy-, and egg-free!

At The Forks we are always looking to be environmentally sustainable and strive towards Target Zero, so we’re happy to share our space with an eco-conscious business with a huge emphasis on selling and supporting locally made, sustainable products.

It’s important to Sherry Sobey, the growing shop’s owner, too.

“I appreciate being a part of an organization that also recognizes this importance, specifically with the Target Zero Initiative,” she says. “As a local and tourist destination, it's very important that we set a good example here.”

The shop has grown more quickly than she imagined it would over the last two years. Customers have responded enthusiastically to the shop and its premise.

Generation Green carries everything from kitchen utensils, makeup, soap and skincare to dog treats, giftware, supplements and grocery items – all produced sustainably, eco-consciously, and largely locally.

“It's really important that we all do our part to ensure the health of our planet, and for our own personal health benefits,” says Sherry. “We talk a lot about prevention here at Generation Green, our focus has to be on preventing problems and disease, not on waiting and fixing them once they becomes problematic.”

If you come into the shop in the next little while, expect to find the recently added line of Canadian natural supplements with a focus on immunity strengthening, as well as the complete Lorna Vanderhaeghe line for women’s health.

Soon all of Generation Green’s products will be available through their online store so they can continue offering these products to tourist customers.

“We have such a focus on locally made products that everyone ends up loving and wanting,” says Sherry.

Also be on the lookout for some unique gift baskets as the holidays approach.

What does she love about being at The Forks?

“That’s easy,” Sherry says. “The people and my neighbours! I've always loved the vibe, the people, and the fact that you could always find something unique.”

Visit Generation Green in The Forks Market and online at generationgreenonline.com

Farmers Market at The Forks

Farmer’s Market season is upon us, and we can tell how anxious people are to fill their fridges and fruit bowls with some homegrown, homemade, unique goodness.

We been holding our Farmers Market each Sunday since mid-May, and people have been coming out – despite a few raindrops here and there – to delve into our vendors’ offerings.

Since it’s early in the season, many of the products on the tables have included jellies, jams, pickles and preserves, baked goods, and handmade jewellery and other pretty things.

Perennial plants and potted herbs are perfect reminders that summer is in fact on its way, and with that, the promise of delicious locally-grown produce like carrots, kale, peas, beans, cucumbers, zucchini, swiss chard, cauliflower, squash, beets, gourds and radishes.

Here are just some of the vendors we’re excited to have in our Farmer’s Market ranks:

Beach Glass – Linda Haugen

Like the name would indicate, Linda makes beautiful jewellery out of bits of weathered beach glass, washed up on the shores of Lake Winnipeg. 

Flora & Farmer

This gal offers variety of eclectic jam flavours – think strawberry beet & vanilla, strawberry, ginger & orange, or my personal favourite, maple, ginger & blueberry, which I think would be just as good on a slice of multigrain in the morning as it would be a pork tenderloin marinade for dinner. Bonus: no sugar added.

Generation Green

One of our favourite vendors from inside The Forks Market gets outside for the Farmer’s Market. They’re selling all kinds of local favourite food items like birch syrup, the award-winning Jamore blueberry jam by the makers of Thrive Bars, and bee pollen. Who knew our honey bees could provide us with sweet, sweet honey, AND a huge B-vitamin kick in the form of pollen?

Anandha

What’s going to shake up your hot dog at your next backyard BBQ? Beet ketchup, that’s what. This guy knows his beets – he sells everything from beet juice, to beet puree, shredded beets, beet bread, and yes, beet ketchup.

Freshly Baked Bread

Signy Christianson bakes beautiful white and whole-wheat bread, hotdog and hamburger buns, dinner rolls, cinnamon-raisin bread, and croutons as well as some delectable sweet treats like Nanaimo bars, butter tarts, lemon tarts and matrimonial bars.

Farmery

You’ve probably seen this orange-labeled beer at the LC and in restaurants, but maybe you haven’t tried it yet. It’s brewed right here in Russell, MB and the Farmery guys will be hanging out at our Farmer’s Market with samples and stories about becoming brew masters. Come say hi!

Loved Shorts

You will love these shorts. These girls are experts at making old jeans into the perfect pair of cut-offs, and jazzing them up so your perfect pair of shorts is totally unique.

The Bannock Factory

Bannock in a Box? Ok! These guys make delicious bannock, freeze it, box it up, and make it easy as 1-2-3 for you to have a bannock breakfast or side dish anytime you want! Just heat it up for 45-seconds in the microwave and it’s bannock time.

Wildfire Farms

Serving up all cuts of locally and sustainably raised pork and beef, including tenderloin, rib eye, roasts, ground beef, sausage, soup bones and lard, as well as free-roaming chickens, ready for you to take home and fire up on the BBQ.

See you Sundays at The Forks in the Plaza Parking Lot from 11 a.m. – 4 p.m. for Farmer’s Market goodness all season-long!

Five ways you can be eco-friendlier on your next Forks visit

In honour of Earth Day, we’ve put together a list of eco-friendly things you can do next time you visit The Forks:

Bring a reusable coffee cup or water bottle

The Forks is headed towards having entirely compostable takeaway containers from all vendors on the site, but we’re not there just yet. Whether you’d like a coffee-to-go to keep you warm on the Red River Mutual Trail in the winter or a smoothie to keep you cool while you browse the shops in the summer, why not take your drink to-go in a reusable mug or bottle?

Purchase organic and sustainable products

A number of vendors sell organic and/or sustainably sourced items. For example, Grass Roots Prairie Kitchen is dedicated to cooking delicious take-away meals including perogies, lamb meatballs, and cabbage rolls as well as jams and pickles using organic, sustainably sourced and locally farmed meats and produce. Hempyrean sells organic hemp clothing – a durable alternative to cotton – and other organic hemp products. Generation Green sells a variety of eco-friendly products – from soaps and lotions to household cleaning products – and they offer refill program where anyone who brings in an empty bottle to be refilled receives $1 off.

BYOB (Bring your own bag)

We’ve all heard the terrible stat: plastic bags will take 1000 years to break down in the landfill. If you’re going to be making some purchases at The Forks, come prepared with your own bag to tote your goods around.

Park your car – at home

The Forks is centrally located and well-connected to several bike paths, sidewalks, bus routes, and two major waterways – the transportation options are endless! We offer ample bike parking and even bike valet on busy days like Canada Day, as well as free 3-hour boat docking all summer.

One person’s trash…

Next time you’re in the Johnston Terminal, take a peek downstairs at the Johnston Terminal Antique Mall and see how some of the pre-loved furniture pieces and other items could be upcycled into your living space.

The Forks is dedicated to the planet today and everyday with Target Zero – our mission to have zero garbage, zero waste and zero carbon emissions. Here’s how:

Biocomposting

Eighty percent of our “garbage” on the site is compostable. That’s why we started working with an industrial in-vessel composter called BIOVATORTM to compost waste from our five full-service restaurants, 15 fast food merchants, seven fresh food producers, the hotel and all of the yard trimming from the site. We use the nutrient-rich compost in our gardens.

Biofuel

Our Zamboni runs on the oil that cooked the French fries you ate here last month. That’s pretty cool. We filter the used vegetable oil using a centrifuge, and we’ve adapted the diesel engines on our site truck, three gators, refrigerated reefer and our Zamboni so they can be fuelled by the wasted vegetable oil.

Geothermal Heat Pump System

When we needed to replace our old HVAC system, we realized it was an opportunity to reduce our carbon footprint by installing a geothermal system that uses energy stored in the earth, the river, and ground water, and also recycles the energy produced in The Forks Market. Energy is collected from three separate wells. The largest well is located across the Assiniboine River at South Point where 168 closed vertical loops were drilled 300-feet into the ground. There are two large radiators sitting at the bottom of the Assiniboine River, and an open loop right underneath the South West corner of the Market collecting energy from the ground water.

Click here to see more on how we’re loving our Earth everyday.

By The Forks communications intern Larissa Peck

Easter at Tall Grass Prairie Bread Company

The Christopsomo bread at Tall Grass Prairie Bread Company is the only bread Tabitha Langel knows that will melt in your mouth – and she knows bread.

Tabitha is one of the founders of the bakery, which opened at The Forks in 2002, 12 years after the original Wolseley location opened and became instantly popular. The bakery functions with a huge emphasis on supporting local, organic, sustainable farming, and the community.

The traditional Greek Orthodox Christopsomo sweet bread, which Tabitha says is made up of butter, sugar, eggs and as little flour to hold it together as possible, is flavoured with anise. She says it will make your whole house smell amazing when you toast it.

But that’s not the only Easter treat the bakers at Tall Grass are prepping for the special holiday on Sunday.

Hot cross buns were coming out of the oven smelling spicy and delicious as I was touring through the bakery, where they mill the grain on the same day they bake with it.

Tabitha says often the spices in hot cross buns are dumbed down, but she’s a big fan of flavour, so her hot cross buns are spicy and full of fruit. They are an ancient British tradition and were later adopted into the Christian faith – hence the cross. The buns, along with prayer, were intended to protect families from fire, rats, accidents and shipwreck – all the more reason to invest in some this Easter.

Louis, one of the head bakers, was egg-washing the beautifully braided Easter saffron bread while I was there. The combination of organic flour, rum-soaked raisins, saffron and a little hint of orange makes this lovely bread taste as good as it looks.

One extra-special addition to your Easter basket could be one of Tall Grass’s butter lambs. Leni, an employee from The Netherlands graciously offered up the use of an artifact that has been in her family for over 100 years – a wooden butter press that makes adorable, lamb-shaped butter sculptures. The lambs are $4.75.

Tabitha believes there is no greater miracle than the Earth, and she is doing her part to preserve it by supporting sustainable farming in Manitoba, and she’s offering another little miracle for Easter for each customer – a little satchel of organic grain to plant in time to have a little sprout on your Easter table on Sunday – this one was just planted yesterday:

The Forks Market is open 9:30 a.m. – 6:30 p.m. all weekend, including Good Friday. Place your order for Easter treats at the bakery counter, or by calling 204-957-5097 and be sure to check out the Easter specials at Grass Roots Prairie Kitchen, across the way from Tall Grass, including lamb stew, lamb meatballs and saffron rice pilaf.

By The Forks communications intern, Larissa Peck