Going To Market: Primal Soup Company Finds Its Home
by ELIZABETH CHORNEY-BOOTH photography by INGRID KUENZEL
If you happen to spy Margaret Nemeth at one of her Primal Soup Company booths at the Crossroads Market or the Market on MacLeod, you’ll immediately see that the energetic atmosphere of a Farmers’ Market suits her.
Margaret Nemeth
As Nemeth chats with customers, other vendors, and friends who stop by, her enthusiastic greetings and joyous laughter are hard to ignore — this is a woman who clearly likes people. In fact, she loves them. Warm, hearty, and full of surprises, the words used to describe Nemeth’s personality can just as easily be used to describe her soup.
Kingsland Farmers’ Market) in 2011 — but Nemeth is not new to the food and beverage game.
The Primal Soup Co. is a fairly new entity — the frozen containers of soup, with flavours like Mango Butternut Squash; Spinach, Artichoke and Feta; and Thai Coconut Chicken, first showed up at the Market on MacLeod (then the
Long-time Calgarians may recognize the Primal name and the taste of Nemeth’s homemade soups from the now defunct Primal Grounds Cappuccino Bar and Eatery in Killarney, which Nemeth owned and ran from 1996 through to 2010.
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“When you’re in a market, you have to give people reasons to stop”
Nemeth opened that business after a career in oil and gas, and the stand-alone café was a solid success for her. Not only did it serve up great coffee, Nemeth quickly made a name for herself with her homemade soup creations. All homemade and gluten-free (due to Nemeth’s own dietary restrictions), Primal Grounds was catering to people with gluten intolerances long before it became fashionable. “We were pioneers and it was so much fun,” Nemeth says. “There were lots of ups and downs, but it was a good life.”