Foodie Tootle takes ‘explorers’ throughout southern Alberta

Each summer, chef, cookbook author and vocal champion of Alberta’s burgeoning roster of growers and producers, leads a group of about 40 ‘explorers’ on a Foodie Tootle throughout southern Alberta. These people get to know who our local farmers and ranchers are who produce the good food that ends up on our dinner tables. Hobsbawn-Smith also writes yearly for City Palate on our producers so that, in the seasons of growth and harvest, Calgarians can plan their own Tootles. This selection ran in the July August 2004 City Palate.

Destination: backroads Alberta. It is time once again to gather up the troops, fill the water bottles, find the sun hats, fill the picnic basket, and hit the road. Make sure you have a good map.

Purpose: picking the best of Alberta’s summer produce.
Ground rules: call ahead! Most of the folks on this list have families, and lots of obligations, so please be courteous and let them know when you are coming. Once there, respect their property.
Suggestions: take your cooler to keep your picks cool and fresh on the way home. Leave the pets at home, and mind your children. Wear a hat. Call your mom.

Follow-up: eat your vegetables!

Arrow Gardens
Strathmore | Tel: (403) 934-5796
Arlene Wahl says that her direct sales clients are looking for healthier food, free of growth hormones and antibiotics. “Our meat is pure, it never hits a feedlot.” Word of mouth has fed the biz to the point where the Wahls have erected a small on-farm store, called The Prairie Emporium, stocked with bedding plants, their own beef and pastured poultry, local crafts and seasonal produce.

Canadian Rocky Mountain Ranch
DeWinton | Tel: 1-866-563-2242
www.rockymountaincuisine.com
Canadian Rocky Mountain Resorts has launched a new Home Direct program, selling their farm-raised elk and bison as well as tubs of game stock in a bid to encourage cooks to reproduce their Rocky Mountain restaurant cuisine at home. The ranch is southwest of Calgary, off Highway 22x, and is home to elk, bison, and caribou. Call first to see the herds.

Cranberry Creek Ranch
Ponoka | Tel: (403) 783-2685
www.mckelviefarms.com
Near Ponoka, the ranch is owned by Richard McKelvie, who has opted for direct sales as a means of marketing his natural beef. “You have to get the customer’s confidence, one dollar at a time. It takes about three years at farmer’s markets to get known.”

Buffalo Horn Ranch Natural Meats
Olds | Tel: (403) 556-2567
www.buffalohornranch.ca
Judy and Peter Phaase acquired bison calves in 1994 as a way to change their lives from teacher and photographer. This showplace ranch has hosted Alberta Agriculture and Olds College students, running 190 head of bison on a half section. They sell natural meats, no antibiotics, no growth hormones, grass-fed animals. The Phaase family sells direct from the ranch, attends three farmer’s markets (Hillhurst Sunnyside, Northlands, Cochrane), does home deliveries all winter, and is at Eagle Hill rural co-op. They encourage visitors, but please call ahead.

Highwood Valley Ranch
High River | Tel: (403) 652-7477
Ralph and Jacqueline Nelson raise beef cattle, in particular hormone and antibiotic-free Black Angus, available frozen at the ranch. Call first and to get specific directions.

Poplar Creek Farm
Strathmore | Tel: (403) 533-2150
www.poplarcreekfarm.com
Marie and Antoine Mortreuil have been farming since 1993 and follow the organic way of doing business though they are not certified. They sell their own lamb, beef, poultry, available seasonally and frozen. In addition, they have eggs, peas, carrots, yellow- and white-fleshed potatoes. The Morteuils work off-farm, and accept visitors by appointment only (ask for directions); they offer city delivery with minimum orders.

Bloomin’ Inn
Pincher Creek | Tel: (403) 627-5829
www.bloomin-inn.com
Three kilometres east of Pincher Creek, Colleen and Francis Cyr and daughter Jenny make their living on year-round sales, without the fallback of off-farm income. Their on-site meat store is scheduled to have its grand opening this summer. Look for local crafts, house-grown dried flowers and Christmas arrangements, antiques, kitchen granitewear and farmhouse crocks. The family hosts an art/craft sale on August 8th. They tend seven acres of flower and vegetable gardens, raise natural hormone-free beef, pork, chicken, turkey, lamb and eggs. There is a picnic area, and it is possible to pre-arrange farm tours. There is also a B & B for up to 34 people.

Diana Daunheimer
Didsbury | Tel: (403) 829-6405 / (403) 335-4615
O Foods is owned by Diana Daunheimer, just a little west of Didsbury. Her organic greens, legumes, herbs and root vegetables have been certified transitional for 2004 with organic certification in 2005. Diana proudly adds that their land has been chemical-free since 1962. The on-site veggie stand is open Saturday afternoons starting in early July.

Broxburn Vegetables
Lethbridge | Tel: (403) 327-0909
Paul and Hilda deJonge have been farming since 1994, and market gardening since ’95. The DeJonges farm 80 acres with 12 acres in fruit and vegetables, and operate a 70,000 ft. greenhouse. They are blessed with a longer growing season than Calgary due to lower elevation. Expect strawberries — June and ever-bearing — from mid-June to frost; raspberries in mid-summer and fall to freeze-up; black and red currants; Saskatoons. Vegetables available are bell and hot peppers, tomatoes, butter lettuce, long English and gherkin cukes. U-pick/we-pick berries. Their on-site farm store is in its first full year of operation, with a coffee shop/lunch room. Fresh strawberry pie is a big deal. Next year, they hope to add seasonal special events and fund-raisers.

Antelope Creek Road Berry Farm
Brooks | Tel: (403) 362-669
Elizabeth and David Houseman have strawberries from late June to freeze-up, along with raspberries, some Nanking cherries, and the occasionally extra-sweet corn, squash and spuds. Herbicide and pesticide free, Antelope is open Monday through Saturday, and Sundays on request, and offers both u-pick and we-pick. The family can be found at the Brooks farmer’s market.

Paradise Hill Farm
Nanton | Tel: (403) 646-3276
Karen and Tony Legault run school tours through their prolific greenhouse and cattle operation — beef cattle, along with a greenhouse chock-full of tomatoes, cucumber vines, basil plants, and strawberries, all grown without sprays. The tomatoes, pesticide-free and vine-ripened, are sold fresh and dried into chips; the rest is primarily sold in season, from March to December, at the on-site store, along with the family’s beef, local lamb and Hutterite birds.

Bumbleberry Orchard
Strathmore | Tel: (403) 934-2749
10 km. south of Strathmore on Hwy. 817, Elaine and Marvin Gill and their partners Lorraine and Glen Ellingson operate this organic farm. (Their Saskatoons are not organic.) Other berries include strawberries, raspberries and chokecherries, and frozen Saskatoons off-season. Lorraine makes pies and preserves. Kids are welcome. Local berries are a healthy and delicious alternative to imported fruit, and are high in anti-oxidants. Open July and August, u-pick/ we-pick by appointment only. Picnic areas and two gazebos, cold drinks available.

Fresh Farm Produce
Delacoeur | Tel: (403) 590-2010
Len and Tannis Vander Ploeg have strawberries that start early in the season, in June (ever-bearing), and a second run in the fall. Shop for culinary and medicinal herbs, several types of onions, hardy greens, many varieties of squashes and root vegetables. Potato Fest in the fall allows guests to hand-harvest a variety of potatoes. Petting zoo, home-made pies and preserves. The family attends several farmer’s markets (Strathmore, Crossfield, Airdrie, Crossroads), and is organic but not certified, with an on-site store. U-pick/we-pick special orders.

Sun Valley Farm
Drumheller | Tel: (403) 823-9191
12 km. east of Drumheller on Hwy. 10. Rhona McIver has raspberries, Saskatoons and strawberries if the deer don’t eat them! The deer prefer berries to carrots, peas, red Norland and white Superior spuds, cabbage, cauliflower, corn, cukes, zucchini, green and yellow beans. Bedding-out plants, perennials and annuals in the spring. We-pick/u-pick fruits and late-season vegetables.

Freshfield Berry Farm
Balzac | Tel: (403) 226-0056
Kathy and Grant Shuttleworth have lived on this farm since 1958, where Kathy tends two acres of Saskatoons. U-pick/we-pick. Call ahead for directions.

Serviceberry Farms
Strathmore | Tel: (403) 934-2412
www.serviceberryfarms.com
This farm, owned and operated by Grace Fedak and Elvin Saruk since 1984, is a family-run business which enjoyed its first serious strawberry harvest in 1988. Serviceberry Farms is involved in conservation practices such as IPM (integrated pest management), which are environmentally friendly. Initially, shelterbelts were planted, and, gradually, the existing hay fields were converted into strawberry fields. Four fields are used for rotation and each year there is a planting field, a picking field and two fallow fields. U-pick. Phone for directions.

Little Red Garden Market
Sundre | Tel: (403) 556-8809
www.littleredmarket.com
Jim and Linda Dickson have been farming for nine years, operating a market garden for eight years. Expect to u-pick white and red spuds, peas, green and yellow beans, carrots, cylindrical beets, spinach, chard, leeks, raspberries, squash (acorn and spaghetti), zucchini, kohlrabi, rutabagas and turnips, parsnips, dill. From the greenhouse, look for tomatoes (beefsteak, roma, yellow, yellow cherry, cherry sweet million) and basil. The Dickson’s bring in Drumheller corn and cukes. This lovely setting on the Little Red River has golf carts for pickers as needed. The farm is unsprayed, and there are no chemicals on the property. Kids welcome, with parental supervision. Call ahead.

The Berry Patch
Ponoka | Tel: (403) 783-6636
Five km. south of Ponoka on Hwy. 2A. Gayle and Lloyd Birney have been farming for their lifetime, and have operated a market garden for 20 years. “We enjoy people and working with the soil,” says Gayle They grow Saskatoons, chokecherries, black currants, raspberries, strawberries. U-pick/we-pick. Kids welcome with supervision. Open July and August. Call ahead for pre-picked and to confirm that someone is home.

Twisted Willow Berry Farm
Red Deer | Tel: (403) 749-2026
Marion and Ed Sandershave been growing berries since 1990, and are planting raspberries this year. In addition, they grow strawberries, rhubarb, black currants. Vegetables include carrots, bean, peas and spuds. U-pick, we-pick. This is a farm set in gently rolling country that is entering its 4th year “in the drought zone.” Picnic area and horseshoe pitches.

Robinpick Berry Farm
Coalhurst | Tel: (403) 381-3775
www.lethbridgecornmaze.com
12 km. north of Coalhurst, Theo and Esther Slingerland operate a corn maze from mid-August to October. They grow Saskatoons and strawberries, and have recently planted an educational “pizza farm.” Two-thirds of an acre is sliced and fenced, then supports the ingredients that make up a pizza. One wedge has a few dairy cows, another supports several beef cattle, chicken and pigs operate the next two arcs, then wheat, canola, peppers and tomatoes grow on the remaining slices. The farm hosts tours by schools and youth groups. Berries are u-pick/ we-pick; corn is we-pick only. The farm has a concession with refreshments.

Room to Grow
Glenwood | Tel: (403) 626-3223
www.nhdsimm-rm2grow.com
Heather and Norman Dodd are lifelong farmers and members of Alberta Alpine Herb, growing medicinal herbs. As well, they raise Simmental cattle, and sell beef cut and wrapped (frozen). Vegetables include cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots, peas, beans, squash, pumpkins. Shop for berries and flowers, jams and pickles, on-site or at several farmers markets (Pincher Creek, Ft. Macleod Claresholm, Baynes Lake, west of Fernie). Produce is available as we- pick/u-pick, and the farm is open daily from mid-May to the end of October, but call ahead. Put a hat on, grin and bear the wind.

Adventure Alpacas
Blackie | Tel: (403) 684-3482
Alice and Lloyd Groeneveld’s workshop and retail area is filled with skeins and balls of fibres in hand-dyed and natural hues from bright to austere, felting fibre, and woolen garments from socks to capes. The herd of 90 alpacas is a drop in Alberta’s bucket – the total provincial alpaca population numbers 4,500. Alpacas are raised for wool, not food.

You can get a copy of “Come to our Farms,” which lists on a map where to find Alberta berry and vegetable farms, from the Alberta Market Gardener’s Association, 1-800-661-2642, or go to www.amga.ab.ca