President’s Choice #NearYou

Do you ever find yourself in the supermarket in the summer looking at “fresh” peppers that were shipped in from a different continent and wonder what on earth is going on since you know they grow peppers literally 10km away? I know I do, and I’m picky about what produce I will buy. I would much rather pay an extra dollar for something that was grown locally (and is super fresh) versus the same item that was shipped from China who knows how long ago so I love that the Atlantic Superstore is taking the time to showcase items that were baked, aged, picked and raised #NearYou!

A couple weeks ago my friends at President’s Choice dropped off an amazing package of goodies for me to check out

The pickled beets and horseradish weren’t grown locally but were part of a recipe they sent along (more on that in a minute) for me to try.

Can I tell you how excited I was over the Cows Appletree Smoked Cheddar? I’ve had smoked cheddar in the past but never the COWS brand so this was a real treat for this cheese lover! They take extra old cheddar and naturally smoke it over an 8 hour period during which it is wrapped with natural applewood smoke that gives it a full, smokey flavour that compliments the 2 year old cheddar beautifully. And I’m not the only one who thinks so, this cheese was awarded World’s Best in the “Open Class: Smoked Hard Cheeses” category at the World Championship Cheese Contest in Madison, Wisconsin in March 2014, 2nd prize in the “Smoked Cheddar – all milks” category at the American Cheese Society Competition in Madison, Wisconsin in August 2013, and was named Canada’s Best Flavoured Cheese with added non-particulate flavouring in Canada at the Canadian Cheese Grand Prix in Montreal, QC in April 2013.

That, is a lot of awards for a cheese! I can’t finish my talk about COWS without mentioning that I also received a block of COWS Sea Salted Creamery Butter which is sitting in the fridge still waiting to be used. I feel like this butter is crying for some freshly made biscuits to melt on so I’m waiting for a nice cool day to whip up a batch!

Both the cheese and butter were made in Charlottetown, PEI which you can find in the deli section of Atlantic Superstore locations.

Next up was the atlantic Signature Beef flank steak from Atlantic Beef Products, Albany, PEI made from cattle raised in PEI, NB and NS which you can find at the meat counter. I used the steak to make Gourmet Flank Steak Sandwiches

The only change i made was to use sliced pickled beets and horseradish instead of the PC Black Label Beetroot Sandwich Pickle. I included the stock photo above because the sun was setting by the time I finished making supper that night and the only place I could get decent lighting to take a picture was right in an area where a certain grey cat felt she needed to be (mostly because she wanted my sandwich!) so my photo doesn’t do the sandwich justice

It was really, really delicious! This was my first adventure with horseradish and pickled beets and they both were amazing in this recipe. I highly recommend it! Though I’m terrible at slicing steak (probably because I don’t have a decent knife for that sort of thing) so I think if I made it again I would pre-cut the steak into strips, but if you’re a good steak-cutter you probably won’t have an issue!

The very next night I grilled the salmon you saw above which came from True North Salmon Company in Blacks Harbour, NB. I used another PC recipe, this one for Mahogany Glazed Salmon which called for maple syrup and I feel I should tell you the maple syrup I used was also locally made – by my father from trees about 30 feet or so from my house! Can’t get much more local than that!

And of course finding local carrots (these were picked from one of many farms that work with Atlantic Superstore in Atlantic Canada) is never an issue this time of year! We’ve been using these in our meals as we normally do – nothing fancy there!

Normally when I think of local foods I concentrate on the product like I mentioned at the top of this post, but this campaign has me thinking on a larger scale which I love. It’s great to know that you are supporting farmers and companies that live nearby, maybe not only in Nova Scotia but in the atlantic provinces. As a small business owner myself I know how important shopping locally and supporting local businesses is, and I really admire Atlantic Superstore for making this #NearYou campaign to help us realize that shopping locally doesn’t necessarily mean only shopping at farmer’s markets, especially when you live in an area where there is only one day/week when you can shop at a farmer’s market. It’s wonderful to know your local Superstore can help fill your needs while still supporting local businesses!

Disclosure: I was provided the food items above free of charge, all thoughts, opinions and ramblings are 100% my own!