The Hungry Farmer offers wide selection of natural foods

SIX NATIONS – Located just before Chiefswood Road at 7793 Townline sits the Hungry Farmer, a lovely log cabin full of natural alternatives to regular beef and pork — including several wild meats with the possibility of quail eggs in the future.

Co-owner Doreen Martin explained that the Hungry Farmer hosts a lot of meats that “you just can’t buy at a grocery store.”

“We’re healthier, obviously,” she said with a laugh. “We’re just trying to give a healthy alternative for people to eat better,” she said. “We have our bison, our wild boar -and you can’t just buy that anywhere, right? And our elk,” she explained, not forgetting to mention rabbit, perch and pickerel.

“We raise the wild boar and bison ourselves, so there’s no hormones or anything in there. So we know what’s in the meat, and it’s totally natural,” she said, explaining that the bison are housed on the road across from the Little Buffalo Gas Station.

Along the walls of the shop are wide freezers to hold and maintain the meat, as well as shelves stocked with canned and dried goods. Martin began to explain that the meat is offered in a large selection of cuts and forms.

“We sell the meat in patties, ground bison, different steaks, and we do roast; so we do all different kinds of meat,” she said. “The meats are a little bit more than beef, but they’ll range, for example our ground bison will go for $10.80 a pound,” she said, explaining that the patties are a dollar more. “The only reason we have to charge a little more for the patties is that it [costs] more to get them made up,” she said, further explaining that sometimes beef in grocery stores will cost more than the bison.

For those participating in Healthy Roots, Martin confirmed that the Hungry Farmer hosts over ten items on the list of natural foods to eat; not only including the meats, but also some dried, pickled and canned fruits and veggies preserved by Martin herself.

“Normally in the summer time we carry more of these [Healthy Roots] items,” she said, mentioning that they also carry flavoured maple sap water and natural oils.

Martin explained that the shop is open from Thursday until Sunday, noon – 5:00 p.m., and will be open more in the future.

As for what inspired her to open the shop, Martin explained that she wanted to locally share a part of what she grew up with.

“I have kids and I like to see them eat good, and I’ve grown up on all of the wild game and meats because my dad was a hunter. I just think that it’s nice to help people eat better as well, and rather than driving an hour to go get it, we’re right here,” she said.