By Luanne Armstrong
Shopping in the Creston Valley is mysterious, interesting, complex, and above all, a treasure hunt with many prizes at the end. I am not a shopper but I do buy food. I used to grow almost all my own food but a bad heart seems to have put an end to that so now I shop for local food. And there is a lot of it. Creston is a food-lover’s paradise but a serious foodie shopper has to be to willing to drive around, read notice boards, listen to the gossip in the coffee shops, and cruise the farmers’ market every weekend in order to find out who is growing and selling what and when.
For newcomers to our area, shopping can be confusing. The downtown is pretty, but also fairly small. After five o’ clock, the town often seems very quiet. Where is everyone? The answer is, many people are very busy, producing stuff, especially food.
Farmers seem to be brilliant at growing food and somewhat bashful about marketing it. They try to tootle their own horns but usually they are too busy working and producing food to be good at selling it, So the trick in Creston, in order to buy food, is to listen, ask around, and be prepared to drive to where the growers actually are – Canyon, West Creston, Wynndel, Lister, almost anywhere.
Some things are harder to find than others: some years someone grows turkeys. Some years, no one does. (Haven’t found any yet this year.) Facebook has a site called Farm the Kootenays which is a great source of information. But of course, it covers the whole Kootenays, not just Creston. The fruitstands are great but check where the food is from – a lot comes in from the Okanagan, so it if is local and organic that you are after, you might have to search a little harder.
Most of the information about who is growing what, when, and where is word of mouth. So when you really want and need to shop for food in Creston, you also need to develop a network of people who are doing the same thing and know what is where. So ask questions.
If it’s not food you are after but other things, Creston has some interesting combinations. It must be very difficult to be a retailer of any kind in Creston because we have this amazing place called Gleaners, the first place my grown kids head for when they come here from Vancouver. Last week, my daughter bought a cross-stitched-by-hand amazing tablecloth, a work of art really, for $1.50. A lot of people use Gleaners as a kind of trade in your old clothes for newish clothes. Which works great for toys as well.
The other astonishing experience of shopping in Creston are the combinations of businesses that people have worked out. One of my favourite places is Wynndel Store, where you can buy pretty much anything you need for a summer vacation, from fishing gear, to local wine, to a solar panel for your RV or (lately) guns and ammunition. You can also get great pizza there if you know who to ask. I do love their sign, which advertises maggots and worms, along with pizza slices.
Farther out, one of my other favourite stops is Stone Cold Ice Cream, where you can buy either a gravestone or an ice cream cone. My grandson Louis and I are always a bit stymied as to which we like better, the soft ice cream from Wynndel Store or the giant waffle cones at Stone Cold Ice Cream.
I once bought everyone in my family the very finest of wool socks at Comfort Welding but I haven’t been there for a bit so I am not sure what they are stocking these days. I should go check.
I once bought a dressage saddle at the hospital. I also love the sheet metal pizza place. I am sure there are secrets and combinations I haven’t found yet. I’m a lazy shopper and not much of a foodie but I do have a lot of fun in the search for buying local. Plus I meet great people. I love the fact that I can get local flour, local honey, local almost anything. Even locally roasted coffee. If I can’t be a grower myself anymore, at least I can support the hard working farmers of our valley.
Creston Valley needs to shout out a bit about what grows here. It should be the food destination for the whole Kootenays, maybe the whole of south-eastern BC. After all, it is the only town in south eastern BC that is a genuine farm town, that started as a farm town and has continued as a farm town. All the other major towns are places that began as mining towns and then grew into residential centres. But Creston has the land, the expertise and the history.
There’s also art, quilts, music, pottery, every kind of handicraft. There’s concerts, theatre, festivals. Almost anything you want is here somewhere, sometime.
And the food. Come and celebrate, then go on your own treasure hunt. Who knows just what you will find. Or where. Or how. Just go – and enjoy.