In a bleak industrial sliver of Minneapolis, near a concrete plant and behind an automotive body parts shop, you can find some of the wildest, most interesting food in the Twin Cities.
Traditional Foods Warehouse, a buying club, sells items you won't find in grocery stores or even at natural-food co-ops. There are racks of small-batch kombucha (a fermented tea) in beautiful indigo blue bottles, kimchi and fermented carrot salsa, freshly churned cream, fresh cottage cheese, kefir, fresh duck eggs, pickled quail eggs, frozen quail, pheasant, buffalo, and free-range pork, beef and bison.
There's your choice of dandelion coffee, raw cocoa nibs, sun-dried zucchini and dried mushrooms. And there are infused salts, herb olive oils and vinegars, and a variety of nonfood items, including hand-spun yarn, organic soap and more. Much more.
It's not a pretty space, all cinderblock and cement floor, but even on a dreary Thursday afternoon, there was a small, steady stream of shoppers checking out products and chatting with the folks who run the place and sell their stuff.
The warehouse opened in 2008 and now boasts 800 members who have paid a lifetime fee of $75 to shop here up to three days a week. The membership helps offset the cost of the space and allows the club to sell products from small purveyors whose wares are unavailable through other outlets.
This enterprise is the brainchild of Dr. Will Winter, who has a holistic veterinary practice and is herd consultant for Thousand Hills Cattle Company of Cannon Falls, Minn. He's also founder of Rescue Animal products, a line of natural and holistic pet vitamins and supplements, and co-owner of Restoration Raw Pet Food.
With his wife, Rebekah Leonhart, who is a chef and baker, Winter's vision for this venture is of a place where people can find and sell foods and products created by traditional methods.
"It's a community," he says. "Here's where people can gather, share information, resources and sources and rediscover the joy and the benefits of eating a nutrient-dense, mineral-rich, full-fibered, naturally ripened, enzyme-laden, vitamin-endowed, fat-healthy, pasture-fed, nontoxic, life-giving and delicious food -- food grown as nature intended."
