Kyra Taylor – Contributor 

A common struggle students face when living alone for the first time is grocery shopping, specifically for vegetables or really anything green. It can be so boring, expensive and hard to know the best types of vegetables to buy. At home, vegetables always seem to just appear in the fridge, and since living alone, it’s been hard to know what to buy and when. There are always recipes that I see with vegetables in them, but often when I go to the grocery store, the veggies look picked over or not ripe enough to eat yet. What I’ve found is the best way to get the highest quality of veggies is to look local, something Les Hôtes Épinettes brings to campus weekly. 

Photo courtesy of Les Hôtes Épinettes

One of the best things about Bishop’s and what comes up repeatedly is how rural our community is, and how we benefit from our surroundings. While Bishop’s has its own campus farm, the Sustainable Development Office has also made an effort to expose students to locally run farms and small businesses that provide students with healthy and fresh food. 

Running every Thursday now until Oct. 31 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., freshly grown produce will be sold at a kiosk by a local farm called Les Hôtes Épinettes. This farm is located less than 25km away from Bishop’s and offers a solution to the concern of produce quality at grocery stores. 

For those who are avid vegetable eaters (especially if you’re a vegetarian), Les Hôtes Épinettes offers baskets of organic and freshly grown produce that are delivered weekly. This family farm began delivering its first baskets back in 2017, and it has become increasingly popular over the years. 

The farm produces over fifty types of vegetables, herbs and even offers eggs that are available for purchase. Some of their vegetables include (but are not limited to): carrots, beetroots, English cucumbers, pumpkins, onions, green onions, cherry tomatoes and more. 

Les Hôtes Épinettes adopted a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) model, which is based upon a farm-citizen partnership that helps to connect locals and improve the local economy. A helpful part of this model is that it ensures that prices stay affordable, which is something that students typically place a huge emphasis on. 

Buying your produce at the kiosk allows you to know your food and where it came from, while supporting the local community. If you’re interested in purchasing a membership to receive weekly baskets, whether it be for the entire year or just the fall season, make sure to visit their website, the link will be available on The Campus website.