Member Profile: Gumboot Gourmet
Posted: December 8, 2012
Categories: Food in the News / GoodFoodBites / Member Profiles / News from Sustain Members
By Laurie Michael
Gayl Creutzberg has developed a deep understanding for the importance of healthy rural communities and is motivated to writing about farm viability and collaborating on food and farming initiatives. After managing a flock of sheep for six years, she redirected her focus to researching models for accessing and distributing local food in 2006. Since then, she has owned and operated a local food shop and gourmet deli, coordinated training for direct market farmers, worked with rural local food organizations, and launched a local food brand.
Now, she is taking that experience and building Gumboot Gourmet, an online farmers’ market where farmers go online to market product to an expanding consumer base looking for nutrient dense food direct from the farmer. With her experiences as a farmer, she identified the lack of successful agricultural marketing for the farmer as a significant gap in the food system.
Along with Ross Dobie (the head of Operations), Gumboot Gourmet’s vision is to put the farmer at the center of rural and urban food systems and create a true field to fork initiative. The farmers she works with are described as innovative people who care about their community, practice restorative farming techniques and pursue quality of life while striking a fair and effective balance of quality and cost in order to remain viable in the agricultural industry.
As a 2013 Nuffield Scholar, Gayl is studying whether traditional food growing practices can help restore the health of Canadian communities through re-balancing our diets, strengthening local economies, building relationship between food and culture, and creating quality jobs on the land and in the kitchen. Gayl anticipates that the information and experiences she will gather will strengthen the community building aspect of her business.
Gayl is also the author of a blog on farm viability – http://farmviability.wordpress.com and continues to build Gumboot Gourmet for it’s official launch. Check out their website for more information on ordering, their ongoing work and other useful links/resources – http://www.gumbootgourmet.com!