The Source (excerpt) by Dee Hobsbawn-Smith
City Palate, Taste, Fall 2003

The food we make and grow in and around Calgary has evolved tremendously over the past 20 years. There has never been a master plan charted by some all-seeing and ever-hopeful Mother Foodie – the changes have been made by individuals, each working independently in his or her own world toward a unique personal goal. Pioneering deeds are not always recognized as such when they begin, of course, not even by the pioneers themselves. They are easier to spot years later, when their influence has become obvious.

These days, it’s not just Calgarians who celebrate the good stuff produced here. Some of our culinary captains have attracted well-earned attention provincially, nationally and even internationally. From a hunter to a gardener, with a brewer, a chocolatier and some fine cheese-makers in between, the folks who built the local food industry are a mixed bag of achievers and believers. Here is a salute to them.

Tony Marshall – Highwood Crossing Farm
Tony Marshall and his family reside on Highwood Crossing farm south of Calgary, where they produce and bottle cold-pressed oils from two indigenous crops –organic canola and flaxseed. The Marshalls think locally and are firmly committed to bio-regionalism. That means Highwood Crossing’s square-shouldered bottles don’t incur high transport costs, but remain fairly close to home: 95 percent of the Marshalls’ business is done in Southern Alberta. In an ingenious vertical integration and marketing move, the cops’ extruded solids are sold as well, as sought-after high protein high omega-3 feed for organically raised poultry and livestock. The solids are popular as fertilizer among organic city gardeners, available at the farm’s gate. A certified-organic processing facility on the farm allows the Marshalls to produce and package organic granola, flaxseed muffin mix and pancake mix and stone-ground flours as well as whole grains and cereals.