Local Long weekend: Stay local, shop local

While the long weekend might look different this year with less gathering with family and friends and more staying at home with your quarantine crew, we can still make it an awesome long weekend. This year, let’s get excited about staying local—and that can mean shopping local, too!

Support Your Local Businesses

One way to have some fun this long weekend and also make an impact is to support small, local businesses. During these unprecedented times, small businesses are struggling to find ways to still serve their communities while keeping people – customers and staff – safe. Take a break this long weekend and see if you can support a local restaurant or eatery with a takeout meal. If it’s nice weather, take it outside and enjoy it with your family knowing you gave back to your local community. Or if you’re feeling the urge to buy something for yourself or a loved one, there are tons of retail and local boutiques selling online as well.

Speaking of local shopping, did you know Goodness Me! is family owned and Canadian? We’ve been a proud part of our local communities for almost 40 years and part of that partnership means supporting small, local businesses by carrying their products in our stores. Ask our staff for some local goodies in your closest Goodness Me! to help support local!

Give Some Love to Local Farmers

One thing Goodness Me! has always stood behind is sourcing organic produce, dairy, and meat products whenever possible. For produce, our motto is organic first, and local when possible. For meat and dairy, we’re lucky to have so many amazing local farmers in our vicinities to support who follow humane practices and supply us with the highest quality products. Plus, local = lower carbon footprint, which is good for the earth as well!

Who are some of our favourite suppliers? VG meats is a great partner for us in the meat department. They are local and partner with us on our Goodness Me! branded meat—and if you haven’t tried it, this is the weekend to do so! The Victoria Day long weekend is the kick-off weekend to BBQ season, and as long as this May snow goes away in a few days, it’s time to have a grill-fest in your own backyard. Put on some music, enjoy a refreshing bevvie out back, and grill up some VG meats steaks, Goodness Me! ground beef burgers, or local chicken on the BBQ alongside some local, organic vegetables from our produce department. Grilled asparagus, anyone?

As an appetizer to your delicious BBQ meal, why not put together a charcuterie board? We source local and Canadian dairy products like cheese from some awesome partners. L’ancetre is a Quebec company that makes delicious raw cheddars and lactose free cheese varieties, making them the perfect choice for everyone to enjoy. Maple Dale makes all kinds of different cheeses to make a great addition to your cheese board, and closer to home, Woolwich makes the best goat cheese chevre logs around—and what is a charcuterie board without goat cheese?! Complete the board with some crackers, dips, and ferments and you’ve got an appetizer perfect for the long weekend.

Looking for dessert for the long weekend? We partner with local dairy farmers for the best products. Use Hewitt’s whipping cream to make a light dessert of whipped cream with fruit and dark chocolate. Or, enjoy our locally made, small-ingredient-list Goodness Me! Ice Cream that is the BEST ice cream you’ll taste! We have it in a variety of flavours, like Hunka Chunka Berry Love or Gold Rush, and it’s so good you’ll need to buy two containers to keep from running out. A charcuterie board, BBQ and dessert all from local farmers? Sounds like a #livinglocallongweekend dream to me!

Loving Local Snacks

Okay, now for the real goodies—SNACKS! What is a long weekend without snacks?! If we were living the cottage dream, we’d be waking up with coffee and grazing on snacks all day long til our delicious BBQ dinner (mentioned above). Bring the cottage home this year and make a local getaway with the same snacks you’d enjoy by the dock, and do it by supporting local brands at the same time. Let’s dive in!

So any good long weekend morning starts with coffee—and lots of it. Late mornings, sipping on freshly brewed coffee on your back deck or balcony, or cozy on the couch… no one will blink an eye if you have more than 3 cups this weekend. The best choices? Look for Goodness Me! coffee made locally in Kitchener. We have a variety of blends ready-to-brew to suit whatever mood you’re in. Top it off with some local Hewitt’s cream and a touch of Goodness Me! honey (from Carlisle, Ontario) and you have love-local-in-a-cup!

If you’re anything like me, long weekend mornings aren’t complete without some sort of pastry or sweet treat. If you’re looking for savoury, toast up some De La Terre sourdough bread and enjoy with local Goodness Me! eggs and organic avocados for a delish breakfast. Got a sweet tooth in the morning? Live Organics, a company from Toronto, has some NEW Almond Dream Bars, Chocolate Almond Dream Bars, and Hazelnut Dream Bars. Made with almond or hazelnut butter, coconut oil, nuts and seeds, and a touch of sweetness, they’re rich enough to satisfy your sweet cravings and nourishing enough to have for breakfast.

So we’ve made it to lunch, and let the grazing continue! Sunflower Kitchen is a local Scarborough-based company that makes amazing hummus and dip products. Enjoy some of their popular flavours with Live Organic Raw Crackers, some organic veggies from our produce department, or Goodness Me! Tortilla Chips from Aylmer, Ontario. All delicious options for a wholesome and yummy snack! Or make up your charcuterie board with local cheese early, and add some Green Table Kimchi and fermented veggies, like beets, to the board.  I’ll take two, please!

In the afternoon, refresh yourself with Black River Spritzers or Sober Carpenter Craft Non-Alcoholic beer, made in Guelph, Ontario. Finally, a microbrewery dedicated to brewing premium non-alcoholic beer! These non-alcoholic beverages don’t compromise on quality or taste, making it the perfect drink for anyone who loves that beer flavour but doesn’t want the buzz. They have an India Pale Ale option that has floral, tropical, and citrus notes, as well as a Belgian Style Wheat Beer that’s rich and hazy. Enjoy either one or make a delicious mix of Sober Carpenter beer with a Black River Lemonade Spritzer for your very own at-home radler.

Once dinner rolls around, enjoy the delicious meats and BBQ items we mentioned above, and use Good Food for Good Sauces and Condiments to make it even more delicious. From Moncton, Ontario, GFFG are aligned to have no added sugar, are Whole30 approved, Paleo, Vegan, Keto, Organic, and have no preservatives. Spice up your BBQ this season with their Classic BBQ Sauce or Sweet & Spicy flavour, both made with real ingredients and sweetened with dates! Or try their Ketchup – regular or spicy – also sweetened with just 1 date per bottle for 1g net carbs per serving. You can’t go wrong with these delicious sauces!

Top your Goodness Me! Ice Cream with some of our Gluten-Free packaged Goodness Me! Cookies made in Moncton, Ontario. Are you full yet?! I’m excited to dive into this 100% local menu!

Supporting local this long weekend will help you celebrate staying local. If the weather is warm enough, garden outside, bring some games outside with your fam, or just enjoy the sunshine when you can and dream of the beaches we’ll hopefully be back at soon. Until then, support local and enjoy the quietness and calmness this long weekend will bring.