Artist bakes bread outside the big box in Winnipeg

Gretel's oven (Erika Wiebe)

Friday, October 21, Karen Schlichting -- AKA "Gretel"-- will be taking her four thousand pound oven with glittery glass exterior to the Costco parking lot on St. James.  She hopes she can lure Costco shoppers away from their over-sized shopping carts with her slow, fresh, hand-crafted bread. 

Karen Schlichting is a local artist and activist. Her passion for food security, local food and slow food and the crafts of masonry, glass mosaic and aritsan baking led to her creation of Gretel's Oven.  The name is inspired by the sentiment of the Grimm Brothers' story of Hansel and Gretel. 

"Do you ever get that creepy feeling when you approach those big box stores that there's a little something inside that is pulling you into a house that you know nothing about - and that in the larger sense - can hurt you and your little brothers?" wonders Schlichting. 

Well,  Gretel feels the same way. She put her oven on wheels so she could take her experiential food activism on the road. Using the tactics of the clever witch, Gretel's hoping her glittery glass mosaic oven will capture the attention of shoppers to stop by for a taste of a different rising economy.

She will be offering free freshly-baked bread to one and all (while it lasts) between 1:30 and 3:30.

  
Karen Schlichting AKA Gretel