Steep Hill Has Plenty of Fall Fare!
September 10, 2026
September feels like a second “new year” season with so many activities starting up again after summer vacation! This year Steep Hill is helping students with affordability as they return to classes by offering Steep Hill’s Student Membership for just $10 from now until October 31. You can get this discount by showing your student ID when you join. Thanks to the U of S Students Union for sparking this initiative!
And a reminder - when you join or renew your membership, you are entitled to a 6% discount for the next 30 days when you show your card, and then 3% off for the rest of the year. If you volunteer, you can get the Working Member discount of 6% for the following month following your shift. There are many ways to volunteer, so if you are interested please talk to the staff or email board@steephillfood.ca for more information or to share your volunteering ideas.
Harvesting local fruit and vegetables kicks into high gear in September too! Check out Steep Hill’s produce section for the latest offerings, like heritage tomatoes, colourful carrots, tasty beans, fresh lettuce and more as the harvest progresses. And as we enjoy all this good food, it is fitting that Canada celebrates Organic Month in September as well. Did you know that over 80% of the products Steep Hill sells are organic? That includes all of our bulk bin products! Check out the events and information shared by our friends at the Canadian Organic Trade Association and SaskOrganics.
On September 12th Steep Hill will be helping make the Broadway BID’s Fall Fair a success. There are still a few volunteer spots available if you would like to help out. No matter what, be sure to come out and join the fun from 10 til 4. Later, on September 26, Steep Hill will be offering another cooking class as part of the Community Table event series, also hosted by the BBID. Scroll down for details!
And having completed a successful AGM on August 20th, we are happy to share highlights to the event and welcome new directors to Steep Hill’s board.
It’s Street Fair Time – and We Need You!
For the past 43 years, Broadway Avenue has hosted a late summer street fair, showcasing Broadway businesses, local craftspeople and other vendors, food trucks, entertainers, and family activities. This year’s Broadway Street Fair is on Saturday, September 12 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
As we did for the Spring Fling, Steep Hill is seeking volunteers to support the event. Our volunteers will be deployed on three different teams:
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Dine N Shine Team: ensures that the tables where attendees can enjoy their food are wiped down and tidy, and that anything left on the tables is disposed of in the correct bin.
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Waste Sorting Team: helps attendees sort their refreshment waste into garbage, compost, and recycling bins, as well as collects bottles and cans. These will be returned for a refund, which will go to Steep Hill.
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Street Sweep Team: roams the street fair equipped with a garbage bag and grabber, collecting garbage, compost, and recycling.
We’d love to have 1-3 volunteers for each team, although there’s lots of room for everyone to support this street fair, so the more, the merrier! Each volunteer shift is a minimum of 2 hours, and we’re happy to accommodate anyone able to volunteer for longer.
If you’re interested in volunteering, please email louise.ranger@steephillfood.ca. You’ll be contacted by phone or email to confirm your schedule and team placement, as well as to answer any questions you may have. Volunteering for two hours for this event gives you working member status for the following month, which provides you with the working member discount (6% off the shelf price).
Spice Up Your Food – Locally!
A Saskatchewan hot sauce company?! Yes!
Steep Hill is proud to be a retailer for Pueblo Chili Co., a Regina-based manufacturer of small-batch salsas, chili sauces, and spice mixes. Pueblo is also one of our woman-owned suppliers; Raquel Vigueras and her family have been producing their Chilean and Saskatchewan inspired products since 2019.
The concept that became Pueblo Chili Co. originated as a design and marketing assignment during Raquel’s time at the Vancouver College of Art & Design, long before the first batch of hot sauce was ever made. The products themselves are inspired by her Chilean heritage and created with local flavours and ingredients, making for unique, flavourful, and versatile sauces. Their use is limited only by your imagination! For inspiration, check out the company’s recipe page.
The company offers 5 flavours of ‘Mainstays’ (always available), as well as an extensive rotating collection of sauces. The wide variety can accommodate any level of heat appreciation, ranging from the mainstay Chipotle Lime to rotating collection sauces containing Carolina Reaper, Scorpion, or Ghost peppers. No matter the heat level, each sauce contains only natural ingredients, with no artificial flavours or preservatives.
Steep Hill stocks a number of Pueblo Chili Co.’s mainstay flavours, as well as occasional rotating collection offerings. Give them a try – put some local spice in your diet!
AGM Highlights
On August 20th Steep Hill Food Co-op held our Annual General Meeting with approximately 50 people, including 39 voting members, attending. The Board presented general and financial reports, providing information on the co-op’s development, financial situation, challenges faced, impacts, improvements and accomplishments since our last AGM.
- Membership is now 690.
- We have increased the number of local suppliers - about 33% of our stock is from small Saskatchewan producers, over 48% of our items are from Saskatchewan producers or small Canadian businesses and co-operatives, and over 80% of products sold are organic.
- We received federal summer employment grants for the past two years that subsidizes wages for 9 weeks for the workers hired under the program.
- We received a small community development grant from Affinity Credit Union.
- We belong to Broadway Business Improvement District, The Stand, the Broadway Collective and the Chamber of Commerce. Chamber membership lets us access a better group benefit plan for our eligible staff.
- We are expanding volunteer opportunities for outreach and community engagement to raise Steep Hill’s profile and bring in more new customers and members.
- In May, UFCW 1400 applied for bargaining rights on behalf of our staff, and we look forward to bargaining our first collective agreement over the coming months.
- Two of Canada’s largest organic distributors have restructured, which has affected our ordering patterns, and may require us to develop alternatives.
- We continue to struggle financially, and will need to do some fund-raising and apply our collective wisdom, skills, knowledge and experience to support long-term sustainability.
The proposed bylaw amendment was passed unanimously.
The Board of Directors was acclaimed, with Abtin Safaeian, Nacim Khelifi, Gary Wilson, Louise Ranger, Reuben Kellen, JoAnn Jaffe, and Cathy Holtslander as your in-coming Board. Amy Jo Ehman also let her name stand, but due to personal reasons has had to withdraw.
There is room for up to 12 directors, so if you are interested - or if you have any questions of any kind for the board, please email at board@steephillfood.ca for more information.
Steep Hill is one small but very important example of people building Food Sovereignty. As members, we are not simply consumers: we are active in creating something unique that would not otherwise exist. Thanks again to the volunteers who helped with registration, refreshments, chairing the meeting, set-up and clean-up, and to everyone who came out and participated in our democratic process!
- By Cathy Holtslander, Steep Hill President
Its Organic Month!
Movie Screening: Evolution of Organic
The Canadian Organic Trade Association presents a FREE movie online screening from September 13-19, 2026! EVOLUTION OF ORGANIC brings us the story of organic agriculture, told by those who built the movement. A motley crew of back-to-the-landers, spiritual seekers and farmers’ sons and daughters rejected modern chemical farming and set out to invent organic alternatives. The movement grew from a small band of rebels to a cultural transformation in the way we grow and eat food. By now organic has mainstreamed, become both an industry oriented toward bringing organic to all people, and a movement that has realized a vision of sustainable agriculture.
If you have any questions or technical difficulties, reach out to communications@canada-organic.ca.
Organic Week Webinar - Voices from the Field: Celebrating Women Farmers in Canada
On Wednesday September, 23 from 11 til noon, join the Canada Organic Trade Association for a special 45-minute webinar highlighting women driving the Canadian organic agriculture industry. In recognition of the International Year of the Woman Farmer, this special 45-minute webinar featuring an inspiring panel of women farmers explores their journeys, the challenges they have faced, and the unique contributions women make to the organic farming sector. Carmen Wakeling, CEO and co-owner of Eatmore Sprouts & Greens Ltd., a certified organic farm near Courtenay, British Columbia and Marika Dewar-Norosky, Executive Director of Manitoba Organics, a fourth-generation organic grain farmer, and a passionate advocate for sustainable agriculture will lead the conversation.
Organic Farmers Explain Certification
SaskOrganics is the association of certified organic farmers and processors that advocates for a sustainable and thriving organic community in Saskatchewan, including by educating consumers about organic agriculture on the prairies, and connecting consumers to local producers. Watch Organic Producers video that features Saskatchewan organic farmers Kevin Beach & Donna Bryck-Beach, and Steve & Jadrian Guenther explaining what ‘certified organic’ means when consumers buy their certified organic beef or organic grains – including what’s required to label something certified organic, and why they choose to farm organically.
Want to learn more? Visit SaskOrganics’ Consumer Resources for links to fact sheets, videos, recipes and more!
Harvest Recipe: Vinegret Salad
Potatoes, carrots, pickles, beets. What could be more Saskatchewan!? Vinegret is a traditional, home-grown salad originating in Eastern Europe. It’s an old-school favourite in Ukraine and other countries of the former Soviet Block from Estonia to Kazakhstan. Immigrants brought their love of vinegret to Saskatchewan in the 19th and early 20th centuries, but it didn’t catch on like perogies and cabbage rolls. And that’s a shame!
You may think a salad called vinegret would have vinegar in the list of ingredients. Not this one. According to vinegret folklore, the name comes from the French word vinaigrette and originally included vinegar in the dressing. Over time, country cooks dropped the vinegar and replaced it with the tart acidity of pickles and sauerkraut.
This basic recipe varies from region to region as home cooks add their own twist. Some add green peas or white beans to the mix. Some prefer sauerkraut to pickles. Some add garden herbs such as dill or cilantro. Along the Baltic coast it is common to use pickled herring in place of pickles. Some use mayonnaise instead of vegetable oil. Experiment!
Note that each root vegetable is cooked separately so as not to turn everything the colour of beets. The vegetables are mixed after they are cooked and diced. Dice the vegetables to a uniform size of a big pea or a bean. Since garden vegetables vary in size, aim to have about the same amount of each one.
Vinegret Salad
- 2 potatoes
- 3 carrots
- 2 beets
- 2-3 pickles
- 1/4 cup chopped onion
- 1 tbsp. sunflower or other vegetable oil
- Salt
- pepper
- Peel the potatoes and carrots. Do not peel the beets.
- Cook the potatoes, carrots and beets separately in fresh boiling water until they can be pierced with a knife. Remove from water and cool. Peel the beets by rubbing them under running water.
- Dice the vegetables to a uniform size. Cut the pickles to the same size as the vegetables.
- Mix everything together, adding salt and pepper to taste. Refrigerate at least two hours before serving so the flavours meld and infuse the salad. Serve cold.
Come to the Broadway Community Table - September 26
What is the Community Table all about? Let the Broadway BID tell you:
“A healthy local economy is about more than what happens at the till. On Broadway, it is also built in all the little ways people show up for each other.
It can look like a business donating food to a community event, a volunteer giving up a Saturday afternoon, an organization lending tables or equipment, an artist bringing something unexpected to the district, or a neighbour simply making room for someone else at the table.
Not every kind of value comes with a receipt. Sometimes value looks like a conversation between strangers. Sometimes it is a meal shared with someone who might not otherwise have one. Sometimes it is a local business saying, “We can help with that.” Sometimes it is people choosing to spend their time, energy and money close to home. That sense of reciprocity is part of what makes Broadway feel like Broadway.
We are proud to be a business district full of independent shops, restaurants, artists, organizations, gathering spaces, patios, performances and people who care deeply about this neighbourhood. Supporting a strong local economy means supporting all of those connections too.
The Broadway Community Table is one small example of that in action.
Businesses, community organizations, volunteers and neighbours contribute in different ways, and everyone is invited to come together over a shared meal. There is no requirement to buy anything, bring anything or give anything back. Just come as you are and take a seat. The next Broadway Community Table is September 26 at Grace-Westminster United Church. Because sometimes building a stronger business district starts with something as simple as sharing a table.”
Steep Hill will again offer the cooking class where people will learn cooking techniques and food facts while preparing a meal to share with each other and folks who come to the Community Table event. To register for the cooking class, email gracewest@sasktel.net and pay the $20 registration fee via e-transfer to the same address or drop off a cheque at the Grace Westminster church office on the corner of 10th Street and Eastlake Ave.
We Want to Hear From You!
For information about products and the store, email us at hello@steephillfood.ca or call 306-664-4455.
To contact the Board of Directors with ideas, feedback, concerns or questions, email board@steephillfood.ca or fill out a “How did we do today” card when you are in the store.
Thanks to Amielle Christopherson, Adam Douglas, Amy Jo Ehman, Cathy Holtslander, and Maryann Scott for contributing to this Newsletter! If you would like to join the newsletter crew, just send an email to board@steephillfood.ca.
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