Local Product Foraging in St. Louis

From our road trip journal: Last night we spent some time at a beautiful Whole Foods store in St. Louis learning how they find their local products.

After our long day of driving and our hard time finding good food along the way, you can imagine how happy we were that our next stop was at a Whole Foods market just outside of St. Louis. We were invited by the store “forager,” Krista Durlas. She has had the fun job of searching for local food producers near her store- here in Missouri they consider 250 miles to be local. She is also in the middle of opening a new store about 10 miles away (at the new store her focus is consumer education and marketing), and she so kindly took the time to meet with us, give us a tour of the local products in the store and sit down for a bite to eat too.

This Brentwood Whole Foods store has been a local food pioneer for the company, starting local grower meetings and hiring a full-time person dedicated to finding local producers. Krista works closely with growers and artisans educating them to become “retail-ready.” She helps with all issues related to selling – from insurance to packaging, which also helps the producers to expand their sales to other retailers.

The store is full of very clear signs for local products and Krista is working on an online shopping list of local, seasonal items to help customers be more prepared when they get to the store. She has been able to source a diverse variety of products locally- produce, wine & beer, cheese, pasta, cleaning products and more! They are very proud of their 100% grass fed beef- from a farm who has their own processing plant- a rarity these days. And all of the pork they sell is from Missouri. To fill the store with as many local items as possible, Krista has to be flexible, understanding the limitations of local products – such as the current problematic weather. It will definitely influence what will be happening in the stores this season.

The new store will be opening on June 25th and they will have 13 local producers in the store on June 29th from 1-4. Stop by and check it out… and say HI to Krista for us!