These Saskatchewan businesses are keeping harvest close to home

As Chinese tariffs are impacting Canada's canola industry – local businesses are making sure to utilize Sask. crops to aid farmers. Fruzsina De Cloedt reports.

Amid tariffs that drive up costs and squeeze producers, many local processors are keeping crops close to home — turning harvest into food and beverages that sustain local customers.

“In general, I try to support local, like we’re a small-town business, who ask people to support local,” Aaron Grandguillot, owner and head brewer at Skout Brewing Co., said.

“So, it’s only fair if we also support local ourselves.”

He stood in the middle of his brewery in Moosomin, Sask. A handful of large fermenters surrounded him — working away on a new batch of craft beer.

Nearby, a labeller sits ready to add a touch of flair to the aluminum cans.

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Grandguillot and his wife are originally from Moosomin, but life took them to Ontario. When the pandemic hit, like many others, they experienced homesickness. He gave up his job, completed brewing school and back to Moosomin they went.

“They’ve always been very supportive. I don’t know what they thought privately, how crazy we were,” Grandguillot laughed. “I think they were just happy we were deciding to move back to Moosomin.”

The brewer said they received a lot of support from his wife’s family, including what is the backbone of their business: hops.

“They didn’t farm it for grains anymore. They didn’t have any cattle. But they wanted it to still be producing something,” Grandguillot told CTV News. “So, Justin [Grandguillot’s brother-in-law] had the idea of trying to grow some hops.”

He said it grew very well. Quite literally building on the hop farm’s success, and with help from his father-in-law, the pair created Skout Brewing Co.

“We’re the only brewery between Brandon, Manitoba and Regina, Saskatchewan.”

It’s local beer, made from local ingredients.

“As much as I am able to, I buy Saskatchewan malted barley, and I use the hops grown at the hops farm,” he said. “So, most of the beer that comes out of here is almost entirely Saskatchewan ingredients.”

The only thing that’s sourced from abroad is the cans.

Grandguillot said the community welcomed them, and the feeling is mutual.

The pair says they make an effort to be valuable members, including opening up the guest area for events.

Two hours north of Moosomin, a Yorkton staple is also serving its community with locally sourced, ready-to-eat product, albeit on a larger scale.

“We go through a thousand or 1,500 tonnes a month. So, it requires a lot of different farms, but we try to really grab our flax locally, or as local as we can,” Evan Johnson, sales manager at TA Foods, told CTV News.

“We do grab from Manitoba and Alberta, especially for organic crops.”

Johnson said TA Foods chooses Canadian ingredients because of their high quality, and because the growers are ethically responsible.

“Some of the farmers we’ve worked with for 15 years, we keep buying their flax every year, every other year, depending how it works in the rotation,” he explained. “We just trust that what they’re bringing in here is high quality and grading.”

‘Support local all the time’

According to Johnson, Yorktonians love their flax products, which are available in grocery chains and packaging-free stores.

“As soon as it runs out in a store, we’re getting emails about TA Food’s milled flax products. So, our local customers love our product.”

Johnson guided CTV News across one of their manufacturing areas, located on Yorkton’s Broadway Street. At that time, machines and people were busy getting some flour ready to be packaged and shipped off to a major retailer.

He said TA Foods employs about 48 people, all from Yorkton and its surrounding area.

“We never really have a challenge in hiring,” he added. “We have a really good, family community here within food.”

While tariffs continue to raise concerns for our crops and producers, this harvest is still a time to celebrate the bounty grown and processed locally.

As Grandguillot says: “Support local all the time, and that goes for beer, too.”