Local Food Champions

The Red Apron works with 20 to 30 suppliers on a regular basis and another 50 on an occasional basis. They see farmers come and go: Recently they lost a blueberry supplier whose entire crop was wiped out one year and who chose to quit farming. Heagle then tells the tale of a shiitake mushroom farmer, brought down by the collapse of Metcalfe's Continental Mushroom Farm in 2014.

“We live the ups and the downs of our farmers,” Heagle says. “The year of the drought, we ordered 50 turkeys for Thanksgiving. When they arrived they were 10-pound turkeys, not 20-pound turkeys, which caused a panic.”

Heagle is often asked, “isn’t it just easier to buy commercial?” To which her answer is “sure, but we really try not to buy commercial meat.”

One of her smaller suppliers is Pickle Patch Farm in Dalkeith, Ontario. “We have a long-standing relationship with [owner] Aartje [den Boer],” Heagle says, “but she’s a small-scale producer of Tamworth pigs, so she calls us when she has enough meat to satisfy a menu — say 100 kilograms of a certain cut.”

During an average week, The Red Apron will prepare and sell 1,000 meals. Between 200 and 350 of these are its Dinner to your Door delivery meals. Summer is the slowest season for delivery and numbers rise in the autumn, especially during the harvest season. For three weeks in October, Thursday’s Dinner's in the Bag is created from ingredients sourced solely from farmers located within 100 miles of the store. That means no lemon, no rice, no olive oil, no sugar, no chocolate. Need I go on?

On a late October Thursday last year, a cooler filled with a heavenly feast for a large family landed on my doorstep. Roast organic Pickle Patch pork with Beau’s beer gravy with a side of oven-roasted potatoes with St. Albert Cheese curds and zucchini, Brussels sprouts and organic Le Coprin mushrooms, led to fluffy potato biscuits and a Rideau Pines raspberry sour cream cake; all of it creamy, rich, warming and totally delicious.

“A lot of what we do is 100 mile anyway,” Heagle explains, “but in the fall for these menus it is all 100 mile.” And some of it comes from Red Apron’s own backyard. Two years ago, they installed a green wall behind the building. “The idea was to explore greening the parking lot to make it nicer, but also to grow some of our own herbs and edible flowers.” Using a robust planting system that includes removable planter pots and a drip watering system, they harvest every couple of weeks.

Green is part of the Red Apron mantra and minimal garbage is an important part of being green. “For years we’ve been saving all of our compostable materials for pigs; for the last two years it’s been going to Mariposa Farms,” Heagle says. “And since we prepare all our food from scratch and buy most things in bulk, we really don’t produce a lot of garbage.”

Minimal garbage, a green wall, what else? In March of 2018, Red Apron bought two fully electric Chevrolet Bolt cars. “It just made sense. The cost of deliveries was significant in terms of resources for fuels and repairs, so we thought, ‘let’s go to something a little greener.’” They installed two high-speed charging stations at the store as the cars take about 12 hours to fully charge, but it’s been worth the cost. “We’ve been surprised by the capacity of the cars and frankly never had so much fun with a vehicle.”

While Dinner to the Door is a huge part of Red Apron’s business, the store also stocks everything you could possibly need for a gourmet kitchen. From in-house made pies, pickles, dips, spreads, granola, spiced nuts and jams, to locally made charcuterie, ice cream, cheeses and soup mixes. It’s a treasure trove of goodness with a conscience. It also offers the perfect excuse not to cook dinner.

And as if consistently cheerleading for local farmers wasn’t quite enough, The Red Apron is deeply involved in other community support work in Ottawa. The business donates to Mealshare (3,500 to date this year) and every two weeks, it provides an evening meal for the residents of Harmony House, the only second-stage women’s shelter in Ottawa.

The owners also support the Parkdale Food Centre in numerous ways, both through the purchase of a garden tower for the Growing Futures project, placed in the Grade 4 classroom at Connaught Public School and by offering nutritional education and cooking classes at the food centre. They have also brought local farmers on board and introduced them to the food centre, while simultaneously donating food for its cupboards.

But it’s The Red Apron Candlelight Dinner Program that is its primary charitable focus. This program offers comfort and food to families in the region facing their own battle with childhood cancer. The goal is to provide healthy, nutritious and convenient foods to families under duress. To date, The Red Apron has provided $14,000 worth in meals and has also supplied countless Christmas dinners to the oncology ward at CHEO.

“We are residents of our community and active participants in our local economy,” says The Red Apron website. “We value the connection between food, human health and the wellness of our community.”

The Red Apron
564 Gladstone St., Ottawa, Ont.
redapron.ca | 613.695.0417 | @redapronyummm