In this dead of winter, we are all about cozy burrowing into our homes. But no burrow is ready for hibernation without yummy local snacks and treats!
Enter Burrow Shop, a one-stop-shop online marketplace for local goods from farmers, restaurants, and small businesses in the Ottawa area. Burrow isn’t customer-facing: All browsing and window shopping happens online. The shop has maintained COVID-safe practices of offering same-day delivery (free on orders over $150 for a limited time) and same-day pickup from their warehouse in Little Italy, prioritizing accessibility.
Patricia Larkin, whom you might know as the human behind Buchipop—a local kombucha brand that quickly took over Ottawa’s hearts, cafés, and restaurants—started the Burrow Shop venture in March 2020. We caught up with Larkin to learn more and to see what her favourite local goods are.
Patricia Larkin (centre) with her team. Photo provided.
When the pandemic started, Buchipop no longer had a place to sell its kombucha, with restaurants and cafés shutting their doors. “On March 24, 2020, I sent an email to people I knew from being a chef to gauge their interest in selling their products online with us,” shares Larkin. “I reached out to friends that I’ve worked in kitchens with that created products like Pascale’s Ice Cream and Top Shelf Preserves, and supplier friends like Mariposa Farms, The Ketchup Project, and Michael’s Dolce.”
On March 25, Larkin decided to build a website. On March 28, Burrow Shop was launched. Bolstered with local connections and a vast network of foodie friends, Larkin established herself in the Ottawa food industry from her years as a chef. A graduate of the Algonquin Culinary Program, she first went out west to Jasper, Alberta before returning to Ottawa for positions at Art-is-In Bakery, Beckta, and Black Cat Bistro, where she took over as chef for five years.
Patricia Larkin. Photo provided.
It’s these connections that helped Burrow Shop get off the ground. “The community response has been really great,” says Larkin. “At the beginning, this was the real answer to a lot of people’s stresses, from consumers to makers. Over time, we still have new people finding us and as we find many new great vendors, we want to keep growing and helping people find their favourite local products at our shop.”
As for Larkin’s own favourites, it’s hard to pick just one: “I am biased, but I love our in-house fermented dill pickles—we make hundreds of pounds of them to survive the entire year and it’s nice to have something from the summer that’s not frozen. I also love prepared meals from The Piggy Market for a lazy dinner or a quick lunch. And the Renew cold-pressed raw juices for something cleansing and refreshing.”
Burrow Shop also offers fresh bread delivered twice a week from Nat’s Bread, plus a healthy supply of frozen bread, and even sourdough starter, which proved popular during the bread-making days of the pandemic. We also loved seeing frozen veggies and berries that were locally grown last summer—can’t we all use a colourful pick-me-up in these cold temperatures?!
Photo provided.
“In the past, when we were selling fresh strawberries, we’d keep what wasn’t sold in the freezers as waste management. This year, we’ve made a conscious effort to freeze products like rhubarb, kale, strawberries, tomatoes, and even corn on the cob that sold out quickly, to share with everyone in the winter,” explains Larkin.
Other products sold at Burrow include flour from Almanac Grain, candles from The Wax Studio, St. Brigid’s Creamery butter, alcohol, pasta, coffee, tea, and SO much more. It all sounds pretty great to us, so we decided to give Apt613 readers an opportunity to try Burrow for free!
Because Burrow now offers a “build-your-own” gift box option, we are giving away two of them on Instagram! The contest is centred around Valentine’s Day, but you can build a custom local goody box for any occasion with the variety of products available.
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“We are trying very hard to make shopping as local as possible and as accessible as possible,” says Larkin.
Apt613 would like to acknowledge our collaboration with Burrow Shop on this project.
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