When the Roving Locavore is pressed for time and simply cannot produce a delicious pie out of her own oven, she heads to a bakery where they make pie the good old-fashioned way from scratch.... just like her. At Winroe Gardens in Winterbourne, Your Pie Enthusiast is able to find pies made with local apples, raspberries, peaches, strawberries and rhubarb mixed up with sugar, flour and spices to make Real Pies, Real Good! Owner Verna Gingrich picks her own fruit or obtains it from Niagara, freezes it for the winter in their big, walk-in freezer, and pulls it out as necessary to bake pies on Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays throughout the winter. No big, plastic pails of sticky, starchy, goopy pie filling are trucked into this bakery, ladled into pie shells and sold as Winroe Pie!

And for those amongst us with more of a savoury tooth, Verna and her team of bakers also produce a variety of meat pies made with beef and pork from neighbouring families. Come to think of it, Winroe Gardens is your one stop shopping destination. The freezers are packed with local chicken, beef, hams, sausage and pork. A deli counter provides a variety of sandwich meats and cheese to accompany the freshly baked breads. The market also stocks Barrie Bros. pasta and sauces, as well as Kountry Kitchen preserves. At this time of year, the Roving Locavore was also able to purchase red and green cabbage, turnips, onions, squash, potatoes, and garlic from this family-run market.

It’s a blessing to end each day with a locally based meal, but Winroe Gardens makes it easy to begin each day with a hearty local breakfast: with home-baked granola using Wintermar oats and wheat flakes, some Winterbourne honey or apple butter on toast, or even some Gingrich Farm maple syrup for the pancakes made with OK Egg Farm eggs! Whew....

The grocery stores in town may lead you to believe that much of our winter food supply needs to be imported into this country. Each visit to Winroe Gardens reassures the Roving Locavore that local food is still abundantly available and still being transformed into a variety of baked goods according to old-fashioned principles: use real ingredients grown nearby, add your own flavourings and bake in your own oven....just like the Roving Locavore when she’s not pressed for time.