Harvest time in the country

Fall is the perfect time for a drive in the country to gather the fruits of our good farmers’ hard work. Here are four country stores in and around Lacombe where you can buy farm fresh food.

Image: a pick-up full of country pumpkins from Billyco Junction Gardens on Facebook.

Billyco farm store and B&B

Billyco Junction is a working farm, wedding and family picnic venue and year-round B&B  10 minutes SE of Lacombe. The farm’s Community Shared Agriculture program delivers fresh, seasonal produce to Edmonton, Red Deer and the Calgary region and their summer u-pick grows chemical-free berries, rhubarb and apples. Right now, in their country farm store you can stock up on jams, jellies, syrup, honey, pickles and relish.

Of course, if you are staying in the Honeyberry Inn right on the farm, you can wake up to home-cooked breakfast, coffee and your pick of scratch-made jelly on toast from your perch on the sundeck – before a soothing bath in the suite’s deep soaker tub.

Greenhouse veg at Pik-n-Pak

Pik-n-Pak is a distributor for several of the region’s family-owned greenhouse growers. They sell wholesale to your local grocery stores but you can also visit their self-serve corner store year-round for fresh peppers, cucs and tomatoes. The Pik-n-Pak facility and store is located in Gull Lake, less than 15 minutes west of Lacombe along Hwy 12.

Local and farm fresh year-round

The country store at the Brown Eggs and Lamb farm is open year-round with a mission to connect food eaters to food producers. Shop their farm store – just south of Gull Lake – for their own brown eggs, of course, and Alberta lamb, plus home-ground stone-milled flour, yogurt, honey and goat’s milk. They also sell locally-raised meats, including bison, elk, beef, free-range chickens and pork.