Chef, grower form culinary coalition
City restaurateur teams up with Vesta Gardens to put locally grown fruit and veggies on your plate
If you’re in the Alder Room and have the chance to try the lovage ice cream, do so. And when you taste the strawberries, strewn like tiny rubies in the icy bowl, think of Deb Krause.
It was her back-breaking labour that created those bright fruits, along with much of the produce — including herbs, greens and garnishes — that find their way to the plate at the Alder Room, as well as its sister establishment, Alta, both located downtown on Jasper Avenue.
Chef Ben Staley has forged a partnership with Krause and Vesta Gardens in order to support local (the thrust of his two restaurants) and to make it possible to customorder food for his eateries.
“I like being part of the (growing) process because I think it’s really important,” said Staley.
Staley travels to the small farm near Thorhild every week, usually with a restaurant staff member, to see what’s ripe for the picking, pull a few weeds and talk with Krause about vegetables. He gears his restaurant offerings at the Alder Room (which features a tasting menu that changes with each outing) to what’s good in the garden.
Staley, who has a taste for the unusual, uses herbs and other greens you might not see in many other restaurants, from angelica to oyster leaf. With Krause’s cooperation, he’s exploring the use of other exotics such as wild ginger (which Krause has only recently learned can be grown in Alberta). Staley also purchases such workaday products as cabbage, carrots, beets and peas.
Raised on an acreage with a mom who was a devoted gardener, Krause, 30, spent much of her 20s living in Edmonton. She worked as a professional baker for both Vienna Bakery and Cobs Bread Bakery before she and her husband decided to launch their family.
When Londyn, now six, was born, Krause started packing the baby around to farmers markets and farms, and developed an interest in local food. After moving back out to the family property near Thorhild in 2012, Krause began to think about making her living off the land. So she launched Vesta Gardens. It operates on a community-supported agriculture model that sees clients pay $350 up front for a membership, and then receive weekly boxes of fresh produce throughout the season, delivered to Edmonton.
Today, five seasons into her business, Krause has 20 communitysupported agriculture clients and also provides produce to Cafe Linnea. During her busy season, she’s in the garden from dawn till dusk. Krause’s mom, Anita, also works hard on the farm, which occupies roughly two acres. Krause and her husband, Zac Deib, recently purchased 70 acres of farmland nearby and will begin to cultivate four of those acres next growing season.
It’s “hard work, but an easier life,” said Krause.
Far away from city distractions, the most stressful call of the day is deciding which fresh greens to toss in with the baby potatoes for lunch, served with fresh bread and farmcured ham. The sky is blue, and Londyn trails behind her mother with Tickles the kitty tucked under her arm, dispensing wisdom about chives and their place in the onion family.
Of course, there are dreams for the 70 acres. Krause fantasizes about a spring-fed dugout, as well as an orchard of fruit trees. She’d like to have a beautiful slough, planted with cattails for wild crafting (virtually the whole plant is edible). Krause wants to build a passive solar greenhouse, with a root cellar and a commercial kitchen for processing food. Oh yes, there would be milk cows and goats for the pasture.
All this beauty and hard work is in the name of good food, and sharing it with others. At the end of the day, said Krause, “it’s fun to feed people.”