Nourishing The Community Starts With Quality Food
Food Less Travelled
foodlesstravelled.ca
“We try to raise our animals as naturally as we can,” explains Dave Perry of both Perry Maine-Anjou Farm and the Food Less Travelled store. “We’re not organic, but we don’t use hormones.”
The Perry family knows better than anyone that buying locally produced, and ethically raised produce and livestock has tremendous benefits for a community. And they know consumers are seeking it out.
Together with the help of their kids, Dave and Kim Perry raise a variety of livestock, including prize-winning Maine-Anjou cattle, Berkshire pigs, chickens, turkeys, laying hens, and Muscovy ducks — all without GMOs or hormones, plus sustainably-grown produce without pesticides on their farm in Harrowsmith.
“The benefit of raising meat naturally is that you have control of where it’s processed, and how,” says Kim. “That animal starts with quality [and care], and leaves the butcher with the same quality and care so that people can eat quality food.”
The best place to buy that quality food is their store, Food Less Travelled, just down the road in Verona on the shores of Verona Lake. Their work at the store is about more than making a living; it’s about nourishing their community.
Food Less Travelled carries not only products from the Perry farm but from local farmers across Frontenac County and the region. At their store, Kim makes meals and prepared food from cuts of their all-natural, hormone-free beef, pork, veal, lamb, chicken and turkey. Homemade and old-world favourites like shepherd’s pie and chicken pot pie, hearty soups and seasonally inspired options like potato-leek soup are also offered.
They carefully choose what products to stock and sell at their store — it’s more than making a living; it’s about nourishing their community.
“Community always revolves around food. If you want to be around community, be around food.”
Kim Perry, Food Less Travelled
“We try to stay as local as possible,” explains Kim. “Where it was grown is a priority, and then where it was processed. Whether it is organic, if possible, and whether it is from a family farm or a small family processor.”
“Local family farms,” Dave emphasizes, “as opposed to factory farms.”
“I really believe that communities should feed each other,” says Kim. “That might mean actual food, but also support—social support or emotional support.”
And because of their connections to people across the region, Food Less Travelled has become a hub for this close-knit farming community, as Kim explains. People come to the store for everything from ‘where can I get a safety pin?’ to ‘who’s the guy that can fix this equipment?’
“Community always revolves around food,” says Kim Perry. “If you want to be around community, be around food.”
Besides stopping into Food Less Travelled for a savoury dish, you can find a number of local products on the shelves that our culinary creatives in Kingston swear by.
