Local produce and organic stores

I decided it was time to have a look see at that other venerable market in our area - the WW Boyce Farmers' Market in Fredericton - last Saturday morning and I'm glad I did. It reminded me that not only do I have lots of farm markets to cover (Thursday in St. Andrews, Friday in Sussex, and Saturdays just about everywhere) but I should remind people that you don't have to run all over God's half acre visiting individual farms to get local food: you have the markets, obviously, and you have CSAs (community supported agricultural boxes which are delivered to you or you can pick up once a week - there are a number of those running in NB right now) and, you have your lovely farm market stores which at least carry some local produce and/or organic produce stores.

If you live in the Fredericton area you really have an embarrassment of riches to choose from when it comes to both local and organic sources. Two stores in the downtown serving this need: the True Food Organics store on Charlotte St. (run by and supplied in part by their organic farm in Keswick Ridge and which carries an amazing array of stuff - including organic sunflower and flax oils from NS) and the long-running Aura health food store. *And* at the market I got to talk to the folks running the Apple Bin Farm store which is *dedicated* to NB produce and is just a few minutes outside Fredericton at Keswick Ridge. The Apple Bin carries NB fruits, veggies, meats, eggs, dairy and other things like honey and cider and herbs etc. Really, Freddybeach has no excuses whatsoever. Nonetheless I had an interesting conversation with the Apple Bin folks who are finding it hard to educate people on local food (the "yes we have no bananas" song comes to mind) and have had to cut their hours back to Wed-Friday afternoons (1-6) and Saturday afternoons (1-5). Phone 506-260-2498. We would die to have such stores in Saint John (more on that soon.) People in the Fredericton area can also drop by Joseph's "Urban Organic Garden" in Marysville on Tuesdays between 4 and 7) or he's in the market on Saturdays. Last Saturday he had scads of scapes and sprouts and he assured me that the number of different things available on Tuesdays is much greater as he pools resources from two of his gardens.

In Saint John we have Baleman's in the market which brings in stuff from its farm and other local producers when available and Grand Bay Westfield has the Corn Crib and there's Cochrane's in the Valley.

Towards Sussex, in Berwick just up the #10 highway towards Cambridge Narrows, there's a new one to me: Goddard Farms Shop (433-2544) which sells both animal and vegetable products "no growth hormones, pesticides or sprays" - and that includes pet food. It's open Mon-Sat. "mornings and evenings are best for dropping in, or call ahead."


Moncton not only boasts two very fine markets on Saturdays but has a lovely natural foods store, Sequoia, 114 Highfield St. (http://www.sequoiafoods.ca)

And, if you're going down the highway towards NS, a great stop is the relatively new "Green Pig" farm store at Salisbury - you know where you'd normally turn off to go to the Tim's and the Irving Big Stop. Well, go right, not left, if you're coming from Moncton and you'll immediately see the Green Pig (http://www.greenpigmarket.com) - open every day 9-8 in the summers. The Green Pig (the story behind the name is on their website) is dedicated to local products (including a lot of stuff they grow/raise themselves). They carry Speerville products, local cheeses, Just Us coffee from NS, and they have a great bakery to boot! (You can get organic pumpkin pie there in the fall).

Now if you get all the way into NS and you're headed for Truro or Halifax, just before Truro and again just 2 minutes from the highway, is Masstown Market. A fabulous stop if you're looking for coffee (they serve Just Us) and a snack - they have a whole cafe counter/bakery thing happening - they also have a liquor store, a plant store, a craft store, a deli counter and a grocery store - but most importantly for our purposes they are again dedicated to local products. It's the only place I know where I can buy local (okay south Shore NS) *line-caught* haddock. They're very into supporting sustainable fisheries. But there's also loads of local meat, cheese and produce. So if you're passing through bring a cooler with you so you can stock up...

Okay, so that's what I know at least in the Southern NB region (or nearby). Feel free to add!

Not in your body but on it... Olivier comes out clean

Okay so this isn't food exactly, but it is stuff that you put on your body and therefore gets absorbed into it. We're talking soaps, shampoos, moisturizers, cosmetics that sort of thing. Now there has been lots of criticism of the cosmetic industry and the stuff they put into "beauty products" like phthalates (plasticizers), but good old US-based Environmental Working Group has a whole database on cosmetic products and the chemicals they contain that is pretty scary. EWG brought this database to my attention again in an email in response to a US Presidential Cancer Panel that admitted that "health officials have grossly underestimated the extent of environmentally induced cancer among the 1.5 million Americans diagnosed with the disease annually". EWG put out its Cancer Prevention Tips - you know, filter your water, avoid things like Teflon and Scotchguard, eat the Clean 15, avoid the Dirty Dozen - but they also pointed to things like avoiding carcinogens in cosmetics (including sunscreen by the way - check out their report on that one!). Well so I checked out their database (you pump in a cosmetic brand name/product and out pops an analysis of just how chemically contaminated the thing is).Well I put in "moisturizer" and what to my wondering eyes should appear on the "clean" list but moisturizer by Olivier soapary as one of the cleanest products they have listed. That's Olivier from right here in New Brunswick. Yup, Bouctouche way for the original soapery but Olivier products are available in Saint John, Moncton and Dieppe markets and they have shops in other spots (they're opening one soon in Riverview across from Moncton, complete with a cafe and local art). And you can order stuff on-line. Anyways, as you can guess from the title the main ingredient of Olivier's stuff is olive oil (obviously not an NB product, but hey, the soaps and moisturizers and shampoos and lip balms etc. etc. are all handcrafted here in NB). So yay for us and Olivier.

Check out EWG's cosmetic database at: http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/?inlist=Y

And Olivier, if you don't know them yet: http://www.oliviersoaps.com/

Fundy Gardeners

Another site of interest is the blog sponsored by Fundy Gardeners, a local group of approximately 125 gardeners who meet monthly to listen to landscapers, expert gardeners of all kinds and specializations, as well as producers, and biologists. These talks are often accompanied by beautiful slide or powerpoint presentations.

During the summer members open their gardens to other members every Wednesday night. The focus tends to ornamentals, shrubs, and flowering plants, but there are many members who have outstanding vegetable gardens as well.

All members receive discounts at a large number of local garden supply stores and nurseries.

http://fundygardeners.blogspot.com/

Peas!

Yes the peas are here now. Beautiful new peas just came in to Baleman's in the Saint John City Market from the Baleman farm. This really does mean that hodge podge (that Maritime treat of fresh garden veggies - peas,carrots, potatoes, beans - drowning in milk and butter) will soon be with us. At the moment I'm happy to eat the peas raw!

Farm gates are opening....

So it looks like things are really starting to happen. There are reports of farm market stalls opening. You can also follows the blogs of a number of organic farms in NB to see what's up and what's in. Here are a few of them....

Kathi Dunphy of Minihorse Farm B&B, which produces organic veggies and berries, has declared that she's putting up her roadside sign to let people know they can now come and get her organic produce in St. Martin's (280 West Quaco Rd, 506-833-6240). She already has mixed salad greens, some broccoli, arugula, onion tops and a variety of herbs. See her blog at: http://www.kathidunphywatercolors.blogspot.com/

You can also check out the goings on at Jemseg River Farms: http//jemsegriver.blogspot.com/
They brought their first harvest in to Boyce's Farmers' Market in Fredericton last Saturday - gorgeous looking greens - and they're offering weekly CSA boxes (still available for sign-up on their blog site) or you can stop by the farm (262 Rte 715 Jemseg; email carr.michael@gmail.com; 506-470-1906)


Another group offering CSAs is:

Dave's Produce Packs:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=121951504487252&ref=ts

Dave is the manager of Kredl's (you see Dave's farm when you come into Hampton, and "Dave's" produce is often featured at Kredl's). See the article on his new "produce packs" weekly delivery idea at: http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/rss/article/1056787
And join the facebook group to join the action.

Another farm to follow is on Kingston Peninsula: Chestnut Acres:http://chestnutacresfarm.blogspot.com/

And near Shediac/Moncton area: Amarosia farms: http://www.amarosia.com/

And rumour has it that the folks at Good Spring Farm in Keswick Ridge (who are die hard local foodies) are also opening a farm gate stand. They're at:
730 Rte 616, Keswick Ridge (they're on the map at http://www.organicdb.ca/)

And the list goes on!

More ways to find organic farms and food in NB

Well there are just no end of resources. See my previous posts labelled "database" for other listings, but I just found three more. A Canadian "map" of organic producers/sellers. Just go to the list of towns for NB click on one and up pops a listing and a map of how to get to them. Marvellous!

Canadian Organic Database

And, oh how could I forget them, there are the amazing folks at Falls Brook Centre - that haven of eco-activity in NB. They have a page dedicated to local foods as well, " the 100 mile challenge" which includes a resource list of NB producers and farm markets.

http://www.fallsbrookcentre.ca/foodmiles/index.htm

And yet another listing for organics in NB from Buy Local Think Global:http://www.buylocalthinkglobal.com/OrganicGrowers_Canada.cfm?local=New_Brunswick

Go to it! (And tell me what you find!)

U-Pick season begins

Since the strawberry season has begun - and therefore we should all be filling our freezers soon - I'm tracking down U-picks in the province. I've found this one listing (and it includes an organic strawberry place I had seen in my travels last year, so I hope it's still around!) If people have more u-pick sources send them on!

http://www.pickyourown.org/canadanb.htm

Cheeses save!

Okay I'll stop with the corny titles soon, but friends and I came up with this one last night (admittedly we had been drinking a lot of wine) over our "Maritime cheese plate." Now admittedly, dairy is one area where we really don't have any problem finding local products. Sussex is of course a dairy capitol and between the two big daries (although Baxter's is owned by the big Italian conglomerate Saputo) in the province and the big cheese and butter producers both there and in PEI (ADL) it isn't too hard. So people, put down that no-name cheddar and reach slightly to your right in the cheese cooler and you'll find Maritime products. Not that hard, not that big a price difference, generally much tastier, they haven't travelled that far and they keep jobs and farms going in the Maritimes etc.

Even better, you can get amazing cheese and dairy products, "naturally produced" (but I'm not sure what that means yet, I'll try to drop in on the farm, but I'm quite sure you're avoiding additives and hormones) from Armadale in Roachville. Armadale's many cheeses are pretty widely available - Saint John City Market, Dieppe Market, Boyce's Farmer's market in Fredericton, Kredl's, Cochrane's, to name a few places. They do great cheddars, goudas, curds, yoghurt, quark, buttermilk, butter - you know your go-to dairy stuff. What I like to think of as everyday cheese - although maybe not everyone consider cumin gouda "everday" - I do however. Armadale is also doing a cow's milk feta (again, an everyday cheese to me). It's a nice dry feta. Great for cheese plates and salads. (For melty, pasta feta I still like Homestead feta from NS - you can actually get it at the Super Store).

However, there are also some artisanal cheese producers in NB and NS doing amazing things. So on our lovely cheese plate last night were some great goat cheeses - fantastic if you have trouble with cow's milk - made in the traditional way that is hard to find even in France these days. In NB, starting with the furthest away is the "Fromagerie au fond des bois" in Rexton, which does amazing goat cheese - beautiful little washed rind, soft goat cheese the like of which I've only since in France and Portugal - oh, and BC. They do ash-rolled soft goat cheese, and hard goat cheese and you name it. Things of beauty and amazing flavour. Now I used to have to go to Dieppe or Moncton to find these cheeses - or you can go to Les Gourmands in Moncton - but now they're being brought in to Kingston's Farmers market (Homestead Cheese Shoppe). Beautiful. And so are some of the cheeses from our incredible fromagerie - Bergerie de 4 vents - which puts out a camembert to die for (La Dune) and other sheep, cow and goat cheeses. Indeed, their first cheese - the semi-pressed, sheep's cheese, Le Sieur de Duplessis - is getting national recognition. See the write up in the Globe and Mail
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/le-sieur-de-duplessis-a-complex-earthy-new-brunswick-cheese/article692688/
(Apparently the Sieur is also available at the new Costco in Saint John)
For more on the Fromagerie au fond des Bois see:
Au fond des bois You can visit them on Tues, Thurs and Sunday afternoons in the summer. So if you're up that way check it out.

Both the Sieur de Duplessis and a "Barbizon" soft goat cheese from au fond des Bois were on our platter last night as well as a camembert from 4 vents and a "gris blue" coming from a fromagerie in Bouctouche (I'll have to find out more on this one) - ash covered, mixed blue and soft goat. Fantastic. However I must admit the salt addicted, high-flavour seeking folks at the table (okay that includes me) couldn't past the Dragon's Breath blue from That Dutchman in Economy, NS. The Dragon's Breath is the Dutchman's (famous for his amazing goudas) favourite cheese, and one can see why. It's a black wax wrapped blue that knocks the socks off you - and you just can't help going back for more. Bring on the Newman's Port (Newfoundlanders will know what I'm talking about). http://www.thatdutchmansfarm.com/
You don't have to go to Lower Economy however - the Dutchman's stuff is usually available at the venerable Masstown Market (just off the Trans Canada before you hit Truro in well, Masstown, 2 mins from the highway - the Masstown Market prides itself on providing local products so it's a good place to check in on your next drive through to Halifax).

Nova Scotia of course has a number of cheese places, Fox Hill Farms in the Annapolis Valley, for example: http://www.foxhillcheesehouse.com/ . But for goat cheese I think NB has it wrapped up. In any case, this is one food group for which there are absolutely no excuses for not buying local.... (okay, maybe parmesan, but I'll get back to you on that...)

Emu-se bouche

Another trip to Kingston market yesterday and another new protein to try. In years past I had driven past the emu farm on the #10 highway just up from Sussex and on the way to Coles Island, but I hadn't checked it out yet. Luckily for me, Carol Milberry, of Silver Shoes Emu Ranch, was at the market and I had the chance to take home an emu steak. It's really quite amazing what variety of local meants and poultry we can find in NB. In fact I had a fascinating conversation with Terry Mireau of Cedar Lanes Farms who is breeding a Tamworth sow he got from Chef Jesse Vergen - who sometimes serves this gorgeous tasty pork at the Saint John Alehouse if you ask nicely - with Terry's Berkshires, which are also very tasty. They have *fat* on them - yes fat! It's fantastic. The Tamworths are one of the oldest pig stocks and were common in Canada until the 1960s when they were replaced by leaner stock in the attempt to reduce saturated fat in the Canadian diet. But there is now some argument, by Michael Pollan and others, that our fat-phobia has gone a bit overboard, leading the introduction of more sugar in the diet for instance, in an attempt to replace the lost flavour of fat. (Besides as Pollan points out many human societies, including Inuit, subsisted on high-fat diets quite nicely for thousands of years, it's only our modern diet that seems to have produced the high rates of heart disease and other complications that we blame on high fat.) In any case, fat does carry flavour. I had the Tamworth chops at the Ale House several months back and they were delicious. And last week I tried out this inch and half thick Berkshire chop - it was enough to feed to people - and again it had that lovely mushroomy flavour that processed pork entirely lacks. (Processed pork, you might also note, is often injected with saline solution - or "seasoning" i.e. salt - to try and give it some flavour. So the sodium content of store bought pork can be way out of whack, and given our tendencies to high blood pressure in Canada one might consider this a problem.)We were both sucking on the bones of the Berkshire pork chops true Tom Jones style (the character from Henry Fielding's novel where there's a lot of succulent eating, not the country singer). Technically to truly follow Tom Jones we should have thrown the bones over our shoulders to the waiting dogs on the floor - but lacking dogs and really not wanting to clean the floor after that we just gnawed away until there was nothing more to be had. Mmmmm....


But back to the the emu. I tried out Carol's recipe for "Honey Mustard Emu Steaks" for dinner tonight - with more lovely NB beet greens and some admittedly non-NB quinoa (although organic quinoa can be sourced from Speerville). It's is a very rich, tasty meat. Reminds me of kangaroo (which is probably no coincidence since emu is a big number ofr the aborigines of Australia) - a dark, dense, very low-fat meat, but also very mild. It's not like game meat, just very rich steaky flavour. It's also a great source of iron (four times more than beef). It needs to be cooked "low and slow" as all lean meats do (or this is what Dave Bunnet taught me). It would probably do really well is a simmering dish like a stew or a "emu' Wellington or some such thing. I'll check with the local chefs and see what they would do. But add this one to your list of local protein sources people. It's available at the Kingston Market, at the farm on Route 10 and at Goddard Farms in Berwick (also on Route 10 - a shop which carries no-hormone meats of other kinds and local veggies "with no pesticides or sprays"). And if people know of other places, let me know!

Strawberries!!!!

I kid you not, New Brunswick strawberries. I saw them yesterday at Kredl's in Hampton and couldn't quite believe my eyes. Thought I must have misread the sign. So I went back again today and there they were. Strawberries. Beautiful, new, real strawberries. From here! Okay, so they're $6 a quart. But at this stage who wouldn't cough up the $6! So get ready, summer is here!

Kingston Market

I finally made it to Kingston Market this a.m. and of course all sorts of goodies were to be found...

First off, I did find fresh lettuce from Cedar Lane Farms. And great sunflower and pea sprouts from Homesteader Farms. The salads in this house will be fabulous this week.

And I got some of the Cedar Lane pork chops - will try those later.

Most exciting was a chat with Fred Decker, who was the first to point me in the direction of NB cheeses a few years back. He's now running Bounty of New Brunswick catering (http://bountynb.ca/) which is focused on "local, seasonal and regional cuisine." And he's cooking at the Kingston Farmers' Market this summer. He made me a fabulous "Maple Peppercorn Egg and Cheese Sandwich" (Cedar Lane Farm eggs, Sussex cheese) and Decker's own Maple Peppercorn Bacon. He also reminded me to check out Mott's Winery near Cambridge Narrows(which I shall surely do) and gestured over to the marketer carrying those fabulous NB cheese. (A man after my own heart, wine and cheese as the key ingredients to anything.)
More on the cheese later...

But the Deckers also had marvellous breads and, be still my beating heart, Belgian waffles. Tomorrow morning I have a date with those Begian waffles, some NB organic maple syrup a friend gave me, Armadale's Balkan yoghurt and last year's Pennfield blueberries turned into a compote...

I also met Cynthia Liberty of Cynfully Delicious Who had gorgeous looking baked goods - using Speerville products of course - including her very cute bagels. If I didn't already have waffles in hand I'd have to get the bagels. I made off with some focaccia bread however and she has quite a raft of other things she makes.

There's always more than one can take in at the Kingston Market - there were the organic herb plants I picked up for my balcony garden from Northern Arrow for example. But more on that later, I have some cheese to taste...

Local Food Resources

Check it out: here some other resources for finding local food:

The NB Conservation Council has its Local Food page with a search engine much like ACORN's:
http://conservationcouncil.ca/Local-Food/

AND: Check *this* out: a friend pointed me to this new site:
http://smarteat.tv/
Apparently it's a "web-tv", social network site, 13 episodes (coming soon) dedicated to NB food producers. Cool yes? Will explore more and keep you posted...

Granola Girls

So it may not be seasonal but before I forget I wanted to mention a lovely local food product in Saint John that people may or may not be aware of. A mother-daugher team here is producing homemade granola bars - the kind without all that scary stuff like high fructose corn syrup, the stuff that Michael Pollan warns is everywhere and contributes massively to our obesity and diabetes crises. Even as I sit here now I have pulled two tired "granola bars" from my briefcase - they are handy things in a hunger crisis - and see that they definitely would not pass Pollan's tests for "real" food. They have many more ingredients than five (his rule of thumb); and one contains many unpronounceable ingredients and high maltose corn syrup (not sure how this differs from high fructose corn syrup). What ticks me off about things like commercial "granola bars" is how we quite innocently assume that they're good for us - they contain good things like nuts and seeds and dried fruit. Oh but the things that are done to those nuts and seeds and dried fruits when they become part of what is loosely called a "granola bar" (or now increasingly "cereal bar"). It makes me crazy how people's efforts to eat well have been used and abused by the food industry. In any case, there is help at hand. The Granola Girls are now selling actual granola bars i.e. organic oats, raw nuts and seeds and dried fruit (and a little dark chocolate). I can attest to their excellence. They're making their bars available by order through their website http://www.granolagirls.ca as well as at Feel Good Store, Ambience Spa and the Kingston Farmers' Market.

Beet Greens are in!

They're here! Okay spring is definitely full on now, and summer is around the corner. Popped by Baleman's in the Saint John City Market this afternoon and ta-da! Rob Baleman's brother had just brought in some gorgeous beet greens. These are those lovely tender baby beet greens that are only around at the beginning of the season when the beets are being thinned. Steam them up and add a little butter and maybe even a bit of vinegar and they are lovely. Only debate around here is baby beets on or off. I like them on, others find them stringy and gritty. I like them on because the beets (tiny as they are at this stage) are so good for you (as are the greens, lots of calcium and Vit C in those babies according to my Laurel's Kitchen). The beets themselves, once they come around, are loaded with goodies. I'm determined to cook beets regularly this summer now that I'm not so scared of dealing with them. At a cooking course in Australia they just made me peel them while they were raw and then steam them and I realized this was actually easier than the whole steaming process where the skins are supposed to just "slip off" and never do.


So, the green season is upon us. Glad I froze some fiddleheads before they disappeared (I'll let you know this fall how that worked out). Rob Baleman tells me that the peas on their farm are already in blossom - that means peas should be here in a couple of weeks, as will the first potatoes. There are visions of hodge podge dancing through my head.

Now I'm on the hunt for more sources of local baby salad greens....

How to find organic in Atlantic Canada

So, a basic resource that you'll want for finding organic food in the Maritimes is the marvellous ACORN site. ACORN is the Atlantic Canadian Organic Regional Network - i.e. the association of organic producers and sellers in Atlantic Canada. Their head office is right here in NB in that hotbed of food activism: Sackville (I am dying to get to the Sackville market this summer). ACORN, bless them, has this marvellous on-line directory of organic sources in the Maritimes where you can just pump in "Blueberries" and up pops all the organic blueberry producers, sellers, u-picks, u-name-its in the region. You can also search by province or narrow it down to a producer or a market or a CSA. ACORN's fantastic site is here:

ACORN

And, doubly bless them, they now have a map of organics in the region on their homepage. You can also sign up to their Facebook page and receive newsletters and updates. It's really the best resource we have for at least finding those folks registered with ACORN. So check it out - you'll be amazed at what you find!

Two other sources you should know about:

The Conservation Council of NB's Find Local Food page - which also has a database for NB:
Find Local Food
Here you can pick your region and get a list of all the farms, farm stands, markets etc. in that region. Great if you're doing some touring this summer!

And, the Really Local Harvest Coop/ Recoltez de chez nous, which provides all sorts of resources on local, environmentally friendly producers in the Southeast region of NB:
Really Local Harvest
The Really Local Harvest folks came up with the "eco-logik" label that you'll see on some farms in south-eastern NB. The label is reserved for those producers who reduce their chemical inputs through more sustainable farming methods.

The Dirty Dozen and Clean 15

So since the local agricultural season is upon us I thought it might be useful to have this handy guide from the Environmental Working Group in the US that lays out the best and worst of fruits and veggies in terms of pesticides. Now I know it's American but given how many of our fruits and veggies are imported from there it's useful for Canadian too. The EWG is trying to keep things simple by going the practical route of dividing up those things you really should buy organic if at all possible and those where more traditional production methods are less problematic. I like their style. If anything, discovering local and organic foods should be fun, you don't have to be a puritan, but why not do it if you can? The EWG list helps you make some practical choices. I figure everyone has their own ethical guidelines, and those guidelines should be flexible. (Sometimes just getting people fed can take precedence I would say. Making fresh produce of any source available to people living in poverty is preferable to no fresh produce. However there's often little reason good why that produce can't be local. ... but I digress. More on that later). In any case, my guidelines run something like: organic and local is the best, but local still beats shipping over long distances and it supports a local sustainable economy, so I'll still go for local even if it's not organic. If I need something from a distance I'll try for at least organic and fair trade if it's coming from the global South. But that still won't cover everything so EWG's list of the clean 15 help me judge I don't have to worry about too much if it's coming from the States. Rules of thumb really. Not written in stone. Depends on the season and all that.

Anyways, for your personal shopping pleasure, here is link to the EWG's pocket guide on the "Dirty Dozen" (and the "Clean 15" as well). They've even got an I-phone app... So take it with you when you shop. And in any case, let me know where you're finding local and especially local and organic in NB!

The Dirty Dozen

Beef, Wild Boar and Buffalo

So while we await the appearance of more NB/Maritime veggies we should also note the growing availability of free range/grass fed meats in NB. Now while I'm cutting down on meat and agree that industrial meat production is a huge burden on the planet, what mean I do eat now I'm trying to make not only local but grass fed/free range/ sustainable etc. It's surpisingly not that hard to find in NB. I'm a big fan of Dave Bunnett's organic, grass fed beef. He's raising cattle in Havelock (where you can stop by to pick up your meat) but his beef is also available both at the Dieppe Market and the Kingston Peninsula Market. And you can order these terrific freezer packs from him which frankly I think are competetively priced with your generic grocery store beef. Check out his website: Bunnet Family Farm
The beef is excellent - way more flavour than grocery store beef and leaner too - so cook with care. Dave gives excellent advice on this.

There are other more esoteric options in NB however
One I found on my way through the old (890) highway from Sussex to Petitcodiac - Brabant's wild boar meat in Newtown/Knightville. Wild boar is very lean and tastier than pork. I had some lovely chops the other night - they need to be cooked slow and low to retain their moisture. It's very low in saturated fat, lower than pork, and only slightly higher than chicken. Brabants

The other night I cooked up their also very tasty and lean sausages along with sauerkraut from Lewis Mountain (outside Moncton)that I also picked up at the Dieppe Market. Apparently there's an organic Lewis Mountain sauerkraut as well.

And in the same trip, I picked up some buffalo meat at the Dieppe market from SeaWind Buffalo Ranch in Bouctouche. Fabulous hot Italian sausages from them. Again very lean and the sausages had a marvellous fennel flavour. Highly recommended if you like Hot Italian. The Buffalo at Seawind are grass fed - avoiding all the problems of grain fed meat.
Seawind Buffalo Farm

There are other sources I'm sure, in fact I'll check it out on the ACORN site....which I will introduce in the next post.