Red Door Provisions

Not many cafés can claim to have been founded in a farmer's field – Red Door Provisions, however, is a different story. After being raised in the rolling green Gatineau hills just north of Ottawa, Lauren Power studied food therapy in Montreal, diving deep into holistic cooking and the pursuit of health and wellness through organic and locally grown whole foods. Yet it was while earning her degree in cooking that she stumbled upon a course in market fresh cuisine and tapped into what would become her deep-rooted passion. "This course was about how to develop relationships with farmers, how to cook seasonally and how to avoid the industrial chain of commercial food," she says. "I got into preserving as a hobby because of it and then I moved back home to do an internship on a vegetable farm."

It was on said farm that Lauren's career truly began, taking home all the extra produce that wasn't sold and preserving it so none of it went to waste. With a pantry overflowing with products, Lauren began selling her sweet and savoury seasonal treats to friends, family and small shops. She says, "That's when it started to take over all my time and I thought, maybe I could make a go of this!"