Three business owners find synergy and community through shared commitments to local sourcing, cutting down on waste and the Good Goods Market.
by Mary Bailey with photos by Curtis Comeau Photography
Nina Karpoff, Buck Up Buckwheat and Flax Waffle and Pancake mix
“I have a huge passion for food and connectivity,” says Nina Karpoff, owner of Buck Up Mix. “Whenever you have a gathering, food offers connections, increased appreciation and awareness of dietary restrictions.”
Buck Up mix came from a family desire to eat healthier.
“My family has a lot of celiacs, my brother is lactose intolerant, I’m gluten intolerant and my husband is allergic to pulses. We thought he just didn’t like them but he would have a terrible reaction just smelling my cooking. My mom spent a lot of time making wholesome meals, food was a priority for her. What can you make that’s nutritious that everybody can eat? Who doesn’t like waffles? My mother’s idea eventually became Buck up Mix. It’s delicious and wholesome, wheat free and uses spices not sugar. That’s how I met Aga. We try to support each other, and Herbologie’s value statement is one I align with.
“We source everything from Canadian suppliers. The buckwheat comes from a family-owned mill in Quebec, the flax from Nova Scotia.”
Candyce Morris, Paula Shyba, Nicole Bhar, Kind Ice Cream
“We talked about it for years,” says Candyce Morris, co-owner of Kind Ice Cream along with her sister Nicole Bhar and sister-in-law Paula Shyba. “Would an ice cream shop work in Edmonton?”
“Nicole and I travel quite a bit and we’d see people from all walks of life out for ice cream, rain or shine. We’d go to Calgary, lots of great ice cream shops there, like Village Ice Cream. We decided to make it official in 2018,” says Paula.
“What we all do well is planning. We had a big vision. Nicole and I had worked with Chael (chef Chael MacDonald) at Elm Catering and it was so apparent how talented he was, but he couldn’t come on full time until later. We knew we could attempt to make the ice cream but from the initial concept we wanted to get a really amazing chef on board.
“We did all of the testing together. It was really difficult, we had to eat a lot of ice cream,” says Candyce.
“It did exceed our expectations,” says Candyce. “Incredibly overwhelming, positive, yet, what have we got ourselves into? We outgrew the space, had to hire so many more staff, we didn’t have a big enough kitchen space at the shop in Ritchie. Last summer we weren’t able to open for seven days a week for a while. Now, we have off-site kitchen space so we can make more ice cream,” she says.
“The effect of Covid-19? Where to start. For weeks we were having Zoom meetings daily. Every day we were reorganizing how we ran the biz. We were reimagining our business model in an already stressful time. It’s hard to put so much time into something that isn’t setting you up for the future of your business, not something we’ll go forward with; taking as much effort for half the results,” says Paula
“We had just hired summer staff two weeks before,” says Candyce. “Now we had to tell them, sorry we can’t hire you. We kept our existing staff employed and we changed shifts so there were no more than two people at a time. We have a great relationship with most other ice cream shops, so we’d talk, what is everyone else doing? Then we were able to hire a couple of people. We don’t know what a normal spring would have looked like.
“We were cautiously planning the next location pre-Covid. We had hoped to open this summer, but we will do pop-ups, sell pints and individual cups, no cones, right next door to Bodega in the Highlands.”
“Kind is a community hub gathering place, says Nicole. “That feels like success.”
“As stressful as it is, it’s been so incredible seeing the community support local businesses, making a point of it, a conscious effort,” says Paula. “I hope and I think it will be an enduring thing.”
Aga Wajda-Plytta, Herbologie
Aga Wajda-Plytta is a chartered herbologist with a diploma from the Dominion Herbal College.
“I had a BSc but I wanted to learn more about how plants and herbs work with the body and how to integrate herbs and spices into a healthy lifestyle,” she says. “This led to an interest in the intersection of wellness and culinary.”
She started a company selling single-sourced herbs and spices under the brand Herbologie.
“All the things I loved came together, the importance to eat well, when you eat nutritionally dense foods, you don’t need to supplement. As I searched for quality suppliers I learned about the depth of knowledge of herbs and spices in places like Zanzibar, Turkey, India, Tanzania.
“I wanted to take this into kitchens and work with chefs, building signature spice blends.”
Aga approached Culina with spices, then wondered, could we do something like their Culina dressing? Develop a blend for them?
Culina provided some guidance on the flavour profile, then Aga developed a playful take on za’atar. It’s a fragrant blend of sumac, oregano and black nigella seeds, with well-balanced warm flavours.
She would love to collaborate with brewers on beer and with chocolatiers and we think these spices need to be in every home kitchen. Another delicious blend is the Solstice with Alberta dill, silk chili and Icelandic kelp—a savoury blend for potatoes or popcorn.
Candyce and Aga met when Kind was looking for good quality spices.
“My family had started a journey to be low waste/no waste and Aga and I had a conversation about the lack of refill options. So, we planned the Good Goods Market, a place where people could buy and sell in a less waste way. The first market was November, the second was to be in March.”
Nina met Candyce at the first Good Goods market. The three women started to work together on the March market. With its cancellation due to the pandemic, they decided to take Good Goods online and expand it to local products.
“It’s become a space for small local businesses to have a presence in the marketplace and ship together to cut down on delivery charges to people’s homes. It’s not about refill right now,” says Candyce.
During Covid the market has morphed into an online space to find locally-made handicrafts, masks, cosmetics, food (bread; cookie dough; tortilla chips and sauces; preserves; tea and coffee; mixes, spices; fresh fruit and veg), flowers and seeds.
For Aga, Nina and Candyce, it’s about supporting community and other business owners.
“Hopefully something that sticks around after Covid is Edmontonians for Edmontonians,” says Aga. “If this situation has taught us anything, your home base is most important; small-and medium-sized businesses are key and most vulnerable to change. It’s our collective success that matters in the long run.”
Find Buck Up at Meuwly’s, Hardcore Bikes and goodgoodsco.ca. Find Herbologie at Culina, Awn Kitchen, Meuwly’s, goodgoodsco.ca and herbologie.ca. Kind Ice Cream, 9551 76 Avenue and kindicecream.ca.