Deep roots North Kildonan horticultural hub has flourished for nearly half a century By: David Sanderson Posted: 6:00 AM CDT Saturday, Aug. 30, 2025 Last Modified: 9:17 AM CDT Saturday, Aug. 30, 2025 Updates

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This article was published 30/08/2025 (333 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Two hundred and fifty pounds of onions, 450 pounds of cabbage and 500 pounds of cucumbers per day.

Three thousand pounds of potatoes weekly. More than 20,000 cobs of corn a month. All of it grown right here in Manitoba.

Those are some of the sales numbers at Country Roots Market & Garden, a homey hub near the intersection of Henderson Highway and Chief Peguis Trail that has been peddling flowers, bedding plants and local produce under one banner or another since the mid-1970s.

Owner Kathy Plikett says the majority of her clientele dwells in adjacent neighbourhoods such as Elmwood, Rivergrove and North Kildonan, but she also welcomes those who make the trek from a bit further afield to stock up on fresh fruit and veggies.

“Sometimes they stop by from another part of town because their hairdresser or dentist is in the area,” Plikett says, standing in what she laughingly refers to as her “office,” a cramped storage room housing a trio of freezers stocked with, among other commodities, perogies, breakfast sausages and pickerel.

“We also get customers who used to live in the area, who’ve since moved to Charleswood or Transcona. Some even take (public) transit to get here, which is always a compliment to hear because the bus definitely takes a while to get across town.”

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It is estimated the average Canadian can expect to work at 15 separate places over the course of their employment career.

Let’s just say Plikett isn’t your typical Canuck.

The divorced mother of two grown daughters, both of whom presently work alongside her, was 17 years old in the spring of 1978 when her own mother invited her to go shopping at Petrasko Bros. Garden Centre, a seasonal operation on Henderson Highway, just south of Douglas Avenue.

Plikett’s initial response was something along the line of thanks, but no thanks. Her mother persisted, and since Plikett had recently dropped out of high school — she and the three Rs didn’t exactly get along, she says with a wink — she didn’t appear to have anything else on her plate that particular day.

They had been there for five minutes, tops, when Plikett’s mother called out to the owner, Ed Petrasko. She asked him how business was, to which he responded it was so busy lately, he could barely keep up. In that case, she shot back, perhaps he could use some hired help.

Plikett’s first thought was, why on earth would her mother want to work at Petrasko’s? She realized the true intent of their visit seconds later, when her mom declared, “Well, my daughter needs a job.”

“I was upset with her at the time, but in retrospect, it turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to me,” Plikett says.

“I started full-time, Monday to Friday, the next day and basically never left.”

For 31 years, Plikett was content to serve as lead cashier, as well as Petrasko Bros.’ unofficial welcoming committee. Not only did she get to know most of the customers on a first-name basis, she watched a fair number of them grow up, arriving first with their parents when they were nine or 10, only to return years later with their own kids in tow.

Also, her ex-husband was a professional musician, so she stayed busy during the winter months when Petrasko’s was closed by helping him book gigs in addition to handling the stage lighting at live shows.

In 2009, Petrasko informed Plikett that season would be his last. The plan was to sell the business to a group of rural farmers he’d been buying produce from for decades. Except when that failed to pan out, he suggested Plikett purchase it instead.

“Of course I had a good laugh over that, only he said he wasn’t joking,” she says.

“I told him I didn’t know what his asking price was, but even if I did (know), where would I get that kind of money?”

Petrasko countered by stating he’d happily finance Plikett himself, by granting her a prescribed amount of time to pay him back.

“In all my years working for him, he’d never been one for compliments. But I believe his going out of his way to help me take over was his way of saying, ‘You’ve got this, I believe in you.’”

Plikett’s first two years on the job were challenging, to say the least. Not because she didn’t already have a handle on how to deal with suppliers, but rather because 2010 and 2011 were when construction on the Chief Peguis Trail extension, linking Henderson Highway to Lagimodiere Boulevard, was in full swing, severely limiting access to her bordering site.

She recalls running into people at the gas station or bank during that period, when they would apologize profusely for not supporting her lately, simply because accessing her parking lot had become such a challenge. Heck, she’d agree with them — she barely wanted to drive there herself, it had become such a headache.

Thankfully, the roadway was completed in December 2011, she says, and business returned to normal the next spring.

Because she never fathomed being the owner one day, Plikett didn’t give much thought to what she would do differently during her tenure as a cashier. Now that she was running the show, though, she began transforming the enclosed space by supplementing produce, still her bread and butter, with locally made wares such as gourmet mustards, cooking sauces, roasted coffee beans and soup mixes.

“How the place looks now to how it looked when my mom took over is night and day,” says Tiana, Plikett’s daughter and social-media expert. “Mr. Petrasko did a great job here, but there are definitely things Mom has done to move forward and expand the customer base that he never would have undertaken.

“For the first while it was us reaching out to entrepreneurs, telling them we’d love to carry their stuff,” Tiana goes on.

“But pretty soon, they were approaching us, wondering how to get on the shelves here.”

Besides diversifying what was available for purchase, Plikett, who changed the name from Petrasko’s to Country Roots in 2018, also began inviting artisans to share the space, free of charge.

Having shopped there previously, Monica Schubert was aware of that fact, so when she founded Gratitude Grind, a mobile coffee enterprise, in the fall of 2024, Country Roots was one of the first places she hit, to inquire about pop-up opportunities.

“I walked into the shop one day and talked to Kathy and her daughters, explaining that I was new on the scene and was hoping to partner with local markets,” Schubert says over the phone.

“After telling them a bit about my brand, they were totally open to letting me set up in the front entranceway.”

Schubert, who has since been a guest vendor there a half-dozen times, calls the relationship a win-win. She now has repeat customers who only found out about her owing to her presence at Country Roots. Plus the shop has benefitted as well, by receiving people who follow Schubert on social media and head there for a cuppa joe, only to pause to pick up some beets or squash in the process.

“I also reap what they sow,” Schubert chuckles.

“They sell the exact brand of eggs I prefer (Nature’s Farm, out of Steinbach), so I always leave with something under my arm.”

Plikett, who remains open on Saturdays during the winter months to sell milk and other goods, can’t remember the last time she took a summer vacation. So what if she works seven days a week, from the beginning of May to mid-October, she states? She wouldn’t change a thing since that fateful afternoon, 47 years ago.

“This is my summer home — I wouldn’t have it any other way,” she insists.

“I only live two minutes away and even when I’m driving by at night, I always sneak a peek, to see if anybody’s knocking on the door, wondering if we’re open.”

david.sanderson@freepress.mb.ca