(Innisfail Growers)

By Sheldon Spackman

Finding A Way

Drive-thru market in Gasoline Alley a hit with locals

Apr 20, 2020 | 4:33 PM

Central Albertans have been capitalizing in big numbers on their chance to purchase fresh, locally sourced produce for their dinner tables during the COVID-19 pandemic.

For the past four weeks, Innisfail Growers has been hosting its Red Deer Winter Market in a temporary new location at 179 Leva Avenue in Gasoline Alley, just north of Turple Bros, every Saturday from 10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.

Normally held at the Eastview Estates Community Hall, which is closed through June 30, the pandemic forced Innisfail Growers to find another location.

Members of Innisfail Growers include Beck Farms, Edgar Farms, The Jungle Farm, Upper Green Farms, and Hillside Greenhouses – all offering a wide variety of vegetables, as well as other foods and ingredients.

Shelley Bradshaw from Beck Farms says their new location has been a great success thus far.

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“We didn’t want to leave our customers in the lurch. So we started looking for options and ended up finding this location in Gasoline Alley,” she explains, noting their current location is a strip mall where businesses are currently closed down.

“On-site you drive up with your car and roll your window down part-way and tell us what it is you want. We have one staff member that gathers up your produce and puts it in a bag. They’re all wearing gloves, then that one member will gather up what your order is, you pop your trunk, they put it in the trunk for you, and then another staff member who doesn’t handle any product, they just take the payment with tap debit.”

Staff working the drive-thru market are all wearing gloves and masks, Bradshaw notes.

Innisfail Growers typically sells at a number of indoor and outdoor markets throughout the year in communities such as Innisfail, Red Deer, Lacombe, Sylvan Lake, Olds, Bentley, Airdrie, Calgary, and Cochrane among others. Some of them are anticipated to open as summer approaches, but Bradshaw admits it will be up to each individual market to make their own decisions based on health regulations.

In the meantime, Bradshaw notes they will continue to hold their drive-thru market while still looking for other potential locations when the time does come for them to move.

“We still have a bit of vegetables coming out of storage, but also our greenhouse product is coming on,” she exclaims. “We’re just starting to get all new crop coming, which is kind of exciting to have fresh new product coming online. Sounds like a lot of the local markets that we normally attend won’t be opening up until probably July 1 if they’re allowed.”