Prairie Market offers local fair including fresh and frozen meals

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Businesses and non-profit organizations regularly open and move in Saskatoon. Today, the StarPhoenix talks to Dani Genest who opened Skip a Beet eight years ago and moved to a new location on Millar Avenue last April where she opened Prairie Market.

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Dani and her staff prepare nutritious fresh and frozen Skip a Beet meals on a daily basis and then sell them at Prairie Market, along with a number of other products from local and Canadian producers. Dani shares a space with Carson’s Q, a brisket and barbeque pickup restaurant, which was featured last September in a New Faces, New Places column.

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Q: What do you sell at Skip a Beet and Prairie Market?

A: Prairie Market is a partnership between Ron Carson (who owns Carson’s Q) and myself. His sandwich window is right inside the market. I sell within our market, mostly locally-made products and some specialty health products. We do have a bit of a focus on female producers and people of colour. I have my own products and other locally prepared products in the market.

A part of what we sell in the market is the Skip a Beet prepared products. We do mostly frozen meals, but we also do fresh prep and we do catering. Skip a Beet is the online ordering platform and Prairie Market is our storefront presence.

Q: Who are some producers featured at Prairie Market?

A: Prairie Market has our own freezer meals and we have several other producers. We have perogies from In a Pinch Perogies. We work with Wildflour Vegan Wholefoods. All of their products are organic and vegan and gluten free. We carry Mama’s Spudnuts, which are fantastic.

We have duck eggs (from My Bonny Farms). We’re carrying the pizza dough and pancake mix from Sixteen Grains. We have coffee roasted by Prairie Bean Roastery. We carry teas, spices and mushrooms from Boreal Heartland, which is based out of LaRonge. We have our Nikihk cleaning product lineup and personal care lineup. Rebel Foods is a company out of Vancouver that does vegan and gluten free. We work with Ahavah Tallow as well for her skin care products and lip balm.

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Q: What are the prices like at Prairie Market?

A: We’re trying to select really beautiful products made by local people and we’re really trying to price them around what you would buy them for in the grocery store. When we’re pricing products, we’re looking at what Superstore is and Walmart and independent grocers, and trying to hit the same price point for retail that they are. Sometimes we’re even coming in a little bit lower. We’re bringing in these really high quality products that are grown locally, produced locally and packaged locally. A lot of people would think we’re more of a boutique market, but we try to be really cost comparative to the bigger chains.

Q: How do you prepare your food?

A: My grandmother was born in 1918 and she came to the prairies in about 1961. She opened a little place in a small town and made everything from scratch. I learned how to bake bread and cinnamon buns with my grandma and watching her make many things growing up. I got an appreciation for starting from scratch, and taking a little bit of extra time to make something that’s really quite fabulous.

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A lot of our products are slow processes that are starting with local beef. We’re working with Gavelin Farms right now. We’ll take two days to prepare meals out of the beef and then package it into little freezer meals. You can pop them out and put them in the microwave and have that sort of farm to table, mom-made dinner out of your microwave in two minutes.

Q: What are some of your popular items?

A: We make thousands and thousands of litres of chicken lemon rice soup. We just seem to not be able to keep lemon rice soup in stock. We sell a lot of lasagna and shepherd’s pie and salads. We have a parmesan chicken with lemon dill and green beans, that also flies off the shelf. We have taco bowls and all kinds of different rice bowls. We do a sloppy Joes bowl with cheesy mashed potatoes and bacon fried cabbage. Lots of health food. We kind of have it all.

The freezer in the back is actually bigger than our market front. We have a wall with, like, a thousand freezer meals in it at any given time. We prepare them all day, every day. We’re doing direct delivery to homes every Monday, but we also have the store front and people can come in and shop.

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Q: Do you have children’s meals?

A: We have kid’s meals that are like $7 or $8, and they have 25 grams of protein. We thought these would be great for when you’re on the way between school and other things. They’ve got a lid and you can microwave it, and kids can eat half of it and then put the lid on and eat half later. What I’m finding is adults are loving them. Adults are putting them in the freezer at work or throwing one in their bag when they leave and then they can heat it up and have this really quick lunch in-between meetings.

Q: Do you cater to different diets?

A: We do focus on dietary restrictions. We’re able to do that because we start from scratch and we know all of the ingredients, and we’re not pulling things out of packages that were made in big factories. We’re working with a lot of people’s dietary sensitivities or different ways of eating, like vegan, gluten free, dairy free. We have something for everyone. A lot of our market products are safe for people with allergies as well.

Q: What sets your store apart?

A: The quality of ingredients that we use is incredibly high. We are not using pre-packed meats or things like that. We are using really nice cuts. I’m buying the most beautiful produce that I can afford. I don’t want to serve food that I wouldn’t feed to my children. It’s really important that it tastes good and it’s interesting and it varies, and it’s not super high in sodium or filled with trans fats. It has to be good for the body. We’re adding nourishment at every step. There are no shortcuts. We’re looking at what’s going to be the most delicious, the most nourishing.

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The second thing is the time we take to prepare things. We’re not rushing through it. I always say to my staff, don’t be cheap. If they’re filling up dishes and I walk over and it doesn’t look really full and really delicious, I say don’t be cheap and add more food in there. We care enough to cook it for two days for you, and then all it takes is two minutes in the microwave and you’re eating with that much care and attention and that many nutrients.

And also, our team is so good. I can’t speak highly enough of my team. We’re bringing back that Mom and Pop Shop feel, where you and your kids are welcome here and we care about your story. Our relationship to customers is so important. You can’t buy that. We try real hard to be real people.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

Prairie Market

Owner: Dani Genest
Address: 3027B Millar Avenue
Hours: Monday to Thursday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Friday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.; Closed Weekends.
Phone: 306-954-8422
Check: Instagram, Facebook

Skip a Beet

Owner: Dani Genest
Address: 3027B Millar Avenue
Hours: Monday, 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; Tuesday to Thursday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Friday, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; Closed Weekends.
Phone: 306-221-9177
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.skipabeet.ca
Check: Facebook, Instagram

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