Grand Forks and Christina Lake has had many vegetarian influences over the years with the Doukhobor influence in the area, but not vegan.
The Noren family has changed that; they opened a new vegan takeaway café/bakery on Saturday, Ravenous, at 1875 Highway Street, Christina Lake, just before the Butcher Block.
“We have been vegan for many years,” said Sharyn Noren, as she points to her daughter and business partner Tess. “We can never find anywhere to eat and particularly in this area here, it’s been vegetarian for a long time with the Russian heritage but nothing vegan available really.”
Wanting to bring a vegan (people whom refrain meat, fish and also eggs, dairy products and other animal-derived substances) option into the valley, Sharyn, Tess and their husbands bought the space last winter, which had been previously operated as a bakery for the last 35 years. They had a vision of making tasty, healthy, mostly organic and local vegan food available to everyone.
“We have got an array of sweet stuff, such as a European sweet bread, cakes, coffee cakes, energy balls, cookies, apple tarts, stuffed pitas and vegan sausage rolls, flatbread pizzas, pasties, pies (and) salads,” said Tess.
Sharyn added that her daughter makes a “killer” gluten-free baked doughnut. “It doesn’t have all that fat and yuck – it’s beautiful,” she said.
While Ravenos is a vegan establishment, Tess said that a lot of non-vegans have shown interest in her food.
“I sold stuff at the Farmers’ Market a couple of years ago and it went so well,” she said.
“I didn’t really have so many vegans that actually came there, just a lot of people who really liked the food.”
Tess won’t be the only one cooking and baking, her sister Millicent and brother Pelle are also helping out over the summer months and Sharyn said that all four of them will be doing the cooking and baking.
The mother thinks the family venture will create a great work dynamic.
“Our kids have been gardening and cooking since they were knee high to a grasshopper and we have just always cooked together and gardened together. We do everything as a family,” she said.
Tess said they have loads of experience working together, producing mass amounts of food.
“We did the food for my wedding; we have done large karate parties (Tess’s father Doug is the sensei for the local karate club),” she said. “We work really well as a team.”
Ravenos is also trying to make a good footprint by supporting local as much as they can and creating as little waste as possible.
“We are mostly organic, we have gone out of our way to get very high quality ingredients, organic, fair trade, all that sort of thing,” said Sharyn. “Our packaging is biodegradable, no plastic, no Styrofoam. We (will) work with a couple of local farms in town, try to reach out and make it local as much as possible.”
The family has been working hard since April to get the place in tip-top shape for opening day.
“We are going to run it from (Saturday) right through 'til September, then reduce hours three days a week,” said Sharyn.
The hours for June will be 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., Thursday to Monday and then in July they will introduce an evening menu as well.