By Cinda Chavich

CALGARY, ALTA. — From Saturday's Globe and Mail

Published on Friday, Jul. 16, 2010 12:06PM EDT

The small towns of southern Alberta may not always be the most stylish spots when it comes to cuisine, but oh my, there's pie.

Along the Cowboy Trail, a pretty route that skirts the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains, there's a lot of cowboy cuisine on the menu. But what's particularly plentiful on this Prairie road trip is pie – saskatoon berry pie, famous apple custard pies, tart prairie berry pies and sweet potato pies, served up at farm-gate cafés, historic houses and small town bakeries. I'm hankering to taste them all.

There's something about the wide, rolling landscape here that draws you down the back roads into serious cowboy country. Pie is the dessert of choice in these parts and has been ever since the first cowpokes trailed their rangy longhorns up across the U.S. border into the wide, unfenced swathes of Alberta ranchland in the 1880s.

The first sweet offering I try is a hand-held pie – dubbed Dead Fly Pie – a version of the British Eccles cake, and a throwback to the campfire “fried pies” once served on the range. I find it in Black Diamond, a sleepy old coal town next to Turner Valley, where they first struck oil in 1914. The gushers are gone and the populace is a quirky collection of artists, musicians and urban escapees. The Dead Fly Pie, from the Black Diamond Bakery, tastes considerably better than advertised, with layers of crisp puffed pastry studded with sweet dried currants and encrusted with sugar. It goes down well with a dark roast from Ian Tyson's Navajo Mug coffee shop.

Cinda Chavich for The Globe and Mail

Marv Garriott of Marv's Classic Soda Shop performs a decent version of the King's That's All RIght, Mama when you order the Elvis Burger.

We make the obligatory stop at Marv's Classic Soda Shop for a root beer soda – hand-muddled by Marv himself – and snoop through his collection of old-fashioned candy. While we twirl on the stools and sip our sodas, someone in a pink vinyl booth in the back orders the Elvis Burger and, as advertised, Marv doffs his soda jerk cap, grabs his guitar and launches into a surprisingly decent rendition of the King's That's All Right, Mama.

If the pie and coffee and ice cream aren't enough to keep you going, you can always stop in Longview for the famous beef (and now bison or elk) jerky, dried to chewy perfection in a converted baker's oven by the Kirk family at the Longview Jerky Shop.

At the Twin Butte general store, a lone prairie watering hole and post office, we share a plate of perfect nachos, and tip a frosty margarita at a picnic table outside, while a local rancher describes his favourite beef jerky, from the butcher in nearby Cowley.

Cinda Chavich for The Globe and Mail

The wide open landscape of Alberta's Cowboy Trail draws you down the back roads to small-town bakeries and farm-gate cafes.

Still, you'll never go hungry out here. Menus are filled with hearty fare – organic beef, bison, smoked trout, even buffalo-milk mozzarella – much of it sourced from a growing number of artisan producers clustered in this corner of southern Alberta.

Broxburn Vegetables is one such spot, much loved by the best city chefs, where the De Jonge family grows tasty tomatoes, slender beans and sweet peppers, and has a market garden store and café.

As we loop around to head back north on the Trail we stop at Broxburn's shop, a restored barn on a rural road south of Lethbridge for the famous red pepper soup. It's swirled with sweet local cream as artfully as any big-city barista. We're saving room for the “Broxberry” pie and it doesn't disappoint, a tart mélange of saskatoons, strawberries and currants, piled high in a perfect, hand-rolled crust.

While the “keep your fork, there's pie” phrase – pokes fun at the lack of sophistication in rural environs, today even small-town cooks make fresh, local ingredients a priority.

At Divine in Okotoks, chefs Darren Nixon and Adrienne Penny source the best local products for their menu. Before our next pie stop, we're trying the meaty burgers, an Olson's High Country Bison burger studded with bits of spicy chorizo sausage, and a local Driview Farms lamb burger.

Continuing our quest for the best pie, we head next door to a converted Baptist church. Calgary's popular Heartland Café has expanded here, and today's menu includes sweet potato, lemon custard with blueberry, and coconut cream – three of the 30 different pies they make. Baker Beverly Pell admits to using vegetable shortening for her fragile, flakey crust, though cowboy cooks of old would have used rendered pork lard for pastry.

Cinda Chavich for The Globe and Mail

Grandma Judy's famous apple pie at JoJo?s Caf? outside Okotoks is pie perfection.

Still debating the merits of shortening versus lard, we pull into our final stop, JoJo's Café at Kayben Farms just outside town. Kayben specializes in blackcurrants and other prairie berries. Claude and Judy Kolk and their three daughters run the pick-your-own berry farm and greenhouse, this year opening the café where their chef, daughter Stephanie, cooks up blackcurrant swirl cheesecake and house-roasted local turkey and brie paninis with blackcurrant compote.

Stephanie talks about this dry, windy, prairie environment, where, whenever they got an inch of rain (a godsend in these parts), her grandmother celebrated by baking an apple pie.

Maybe it's the story – or maybe it's the tart apples and cinnamon and the delicious butter in the crust – but the slice of Judy's famous apple pie is truly memorable, the perfect way to close our tasty loop around the Cowboy Trail.

Special to The Globe and Mail

HIT THE TRAIL

The Cowboy Trail follows Highway 22 through Alberta’s historic cowboy country, from Mayerthorpe to Cardston, with more than 20 small communities and 100 different western attractions, from restaurants to ranch vacations. For more information about cowboy culture along the Eastern Slopes, read The Cowboy Trail by D. Larraine Andrews.

WHERE TO STAY

Homeplace Ranch, Priddis; (877) 931-3245; all-inclusive packages (including riding) start at $866/person; www.homeplaceranch.com.

Cobblestone Manor, 173 7 Ave. W., Cardston; (866) 653-2701; $85 (includes breakfast); www.thecobblestonemanor.com.

The Norland Bed and Breakfast, 5801 1st Ave. S. (Highway 512), Lethbridge; (403) 317-1447, from $145 (includes breakfast); www.thenorland.com.

WHERE TO EAT

Marv’s Classic Soda Shop, 121 Centre Ave. W., Black Diamond; (403) 933-7001; marvsclassics.ca.

Black Diamond Bakery, 119 Centre Ave. W., Black Diamond; (403) 933-4503; www.thecowboytrail.com/bdbakery.html.

Ian Tyson’s Navajo Mug, 140 Morrison Rd., Longview; (403) 558-2272; thenavajomug.com.

Longview Jerky Shop, 148 Morrison Rd., Longview; (403) 558-3960; longviewjerkyshop.com.

Twin Butte General Store, Twin Butte; (866) 976-7378; www.twinbuttestore.ca.

Cobblestone Manor, 173 7th Ave. W., Cardston; (866) 653-2701; www.thecobblestonemanor.com.

Broxburn Vegetables and Café, Highway 512 and Broxburn Road, Lethbridge; (403) 327-0909; www.broxburn-vegetables.com.

360 Inspired Cuisine, 100 5 St. S., Lethbridge; (403) 329-3609; www.chooselethbridge.ca/conventionevents/360.php.

Divine, 42 McRae St., Okotoks; (403) 938-0000; divinefood.ca.

Heartland Café, 46 McRae St., Okotoks; (403) 995-4623; www.heartlandcafe.ca.

JoJo’s Café, Kayben Farms, 314064 32nd St. E, Okotoks; (403) 938-2857; www.kayben.com.

C.C.

©Cinda Chavich 2010

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