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HAPPY (AND TASTEY) TRAILS
By CINDA CHAVICH
(Calgary, Alberta) - The city skyline has barely disappeared from my rear view mirror as I turn off Highway 22X to Mac Makenny’s historic Homeplace Ranch.
The road winds down through glades of trembling aspen and tall spruce, past fancy homes with private lakes and million-dollar views, before we bump down the narrow lane to the ranch’s collection of weathered barn red buildings and corrals.
Like the farm families who have lived here for nearly 100 years, the Homeplace is authentic, a guest ranch where the guest is instantly immersed in real cowboy culture. It’s a slice of laid-back country life, happily existing on the fringes of our busy urban world, a mere 20-minute drive from the city’s sprawling suburbs.
This is my first stop on the Cowboy Trail in search of real Alberta ranch food, and it looks like I’ve found it.
It’s cocktail hour at the ranch and, along with a selection of local Big Rock beer, Dawn Albin is serving pemmican - that indigenous concoction of bison and wild saskatoon berries which sustained the earliest prairie First Nations – and poached bison tongue on crostini toasts.
She describes the long process of rendering the buffalo fat that binds her tart and meaty balls of dried berries and bison jerky – the authentic recipe – then proffers some ground bison an berry meat balls with a black currant glaze, a tasty adaptation better suited to modern palates. While I’m initially wary of the very recognizable slices of bison tongue, I remember why it’s long been known as a delicacy as soon as I taste it, rich and creamy as any chef’s pate.
The food here at the Homeplace is always hearty – big country breakfasts, steak and grilled salmon dinners, freshly baked breads and cinnamon buns – but Makenny has added a new package to his roster of ranch holidays, designed to showcase the food produced by his neighbors. Dubbed A Taste of Alberta, it’s a chance to indulge in meals featuring local ingredients, then visit the farms where they’re produced.
So tonight we dine on a truly indigenous menu, from platters of whisky marinated bison flank steak and chili-spiked sweet potatoes, to mixed baby greens drizzled in local black currant vinaigrette and colourful vine-ripened tomatoes stuffed with wild rice, from Canadian Rocky Mountain Ranch, Whiskey Creek Greenhouse, Pepper Heads and Kayben Farms. Then we settle into a dessert wine tasting, featuring the first vintages of mead (honey wine) from nearby Chinook Honey Company.
After some time in the saddle (horseback riding is the top priority here), it’s off down the blacktop trail to discover the source of these great Alberta flavours.
Whiskey Creek Greenhouse sits along Highway 762, surrounded by country estates and rural residential developments. A Mercedes convertible is pulling out of the driveway just as we pull in, the driver has just claimed a bag of Carmen Ditzler’s sweet tomatoes and left his money in the honor box at the self-serve counter just inside the greenhouse. 
“The varieties here are chosen for flavour and we have really good spring water, which makes a big difference,” says Ditzler, combing through the tall rows of fat beefsteak, cherry tomatoes, green zebra and orange romas, the fruit heavy and musky on the trellised vines. While the operation is hydroponic, the greenhouse is pesticide free and the tomatoes are ripened on the vine unlike larger hydroponic operations, she says.
“When you buy our food, you support a commitment to real food, family farms, small scale agriculture, local community and the earth we all live on,” she says. It’s a philosophy that permeates many of these small specialty farms where independent producers are striving to create tastier and healthier local food products.
Heading down the road again we pass Millarville, where The Millarville Market, the granddaddy of Calgary farm markets, offers a wide variety of fresh produce, meat, poultry and other locally-made products, from Spolumbo’s sausages to Highwood Crossing cereals and cold-pressed canola oil. Held every Saturday morning at the race track just east of Highway 22, the market is open summer through fall.
South of here, the road parallels one of the most spectacular mountain views enroute to the towns of Turner Valley and Black Diamond. In Turner Valley, stop at the Route 40 Soup Company for chef Mark Klaudt’s creative take on regional foothills fare. Try his famous hand crafted soups (also available in jars to go) and homemade crackers, wraps (including smoked trout with chili infused Chinook honey or seared bison and wild mushrooms), and dinner entrees like Alberta Wild Paella with venison sausage, pheasant and smoked perch. Or look for fresh fruit pies and home baking at Eloise’s.
Neighboring Black Diamond is also worth a stop, whether you choose to dine at the tiny Wild Horse Bistro or stop at Terra Cotta gallery. Here Yvonne Smulders sells local art, including her own line of colourful pottery, some decorated with historic Alberta cattle brands that are perfect for your next cowboy cookout. You may well run into some real cowboys at the Black Diamond Hotel, too, the place where locals gather for cold beer and live country music.
Families will want to take some extra time for a tour at Chinook Honey Co., high on a bluff overlooking Highway 7 just west of Okotoks. Not only do beekeepers Cherie and Art Andrews produce sweet clover, alfalfa and dandelion honey, they have a charming country store and a honey bee interpretive centre, complete with educational tours and a buzzing glass “observation hive” where you can see the busy worker bees arriving laden with pollen for their queen. The store stocks their own edible honey products, plus a full line of gifts, from beeswax candles and honey teas, to apitherapy - natural medicines derived from honey, bee pollen, royal jelly and the propolis resin bees make to seal their hives.
In the future, you will also be able to buy the Andrews’ mead – fermented honey wine – direct from their new on-farm meadery.
From here we head through Okotoks, a busy suburban town with an historic centre. Reserve a table at tiny Bistro Provence for chef Thierry Meret’s exceptional French bistro cuisine before heading on to Kayben Farms. Here the Kolk family produces U-pick prairie fruit – from black currants to raspberries and strawberries – alongside their flower-filled garden centre and tree nursery. Be sure to try the black currant punch base, pure black currant juice to mix with soda water for a refreshing and healthy drink.
Finally, we drive north to the Canadian Rocky Mountain Ranch, where Terry Church raises bison, elk and other game for the Canadian Rocky Mountain (CRM) group of restaurants and hotels (including Emerald Lake Lodge, Buffalo Mountain Lodge, Cilantro, Divino and The Ranche). Not only do we see elk and wobbly baby reindeer grazing behind the tall fences, it’s a chance to sample smoky bison and elk sausages and find out how Church prepared the tender bison tongue for our appetizer.
While much of the game meat they produce here is destined for the CRM chefs, there’s a retail operation, too. You can order the bison burgers, roasts and venison products on line, and have it delivered (frozen, along with recipes and cooking instructions) anywhere in the country.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, it’s time for another big meal and another western yarn .
Makenny grew up in the dude ranching world – his parents were outfitters in the 1940s in Jasper – and it’s instantly obvious that this is more than a spot for city slickers to straddle a pony for the day. Whether you’re trotting off into the foothills, helping the hands groom the family’s string of 50 happy horses, or learning to make cinnamon buns with the ranch cooks, it’s the perfect place to immerse yourself in authentic western life.
Sitting in the original 1912 ranch house, next to his mother’s sepia portrait and the fancy leather chaps and gauntlets his parents exchanged as wedding gifts, Makenny seems content to live and share the cowboy life. Stay awhile, and you’ll discover even more about Alberta’s farm families and the tasty local foods they produce around his communal table.
IF YOU GO:
RECLINE AT A RANCH:
The Homeplace Ranch is a place where horses are important and you’ll get a solid foundation in riding skills whether you’re an expert or a rank beginner. Stay in the original ranch house (in the heritage room filled with an eclectic collection of family heirlooms) or in the Makenny’s former home (he’s since built another next door) with it’s comfortable upstairs and downstairs suites. Four-day packages start at $747 or book the Taste of Alberta week (Sept. 29-Oct. 6; $1,288 pp). www.homeplaceranch.com, 403-931-3245
If you’re traveling with your own horse, consider the Hilltop Ranch B&B (403-931-2639) where Gary and Barbara Zorn have three guest rooms and a Horse Motel with eight new box stalls.
THE ROUTE: Travel Alberta has dubbed Highway 22 The Cowboy Trail and the most scenic way to access it from Calgary is via Cochrane and Bragg Creek, both cool places to stop for breakfast, coffee, art and antique shopping.
To find the Homeplace Ranch, head south from Bragg Creek on Highway 762 then turn east on 22X and look for signs on the south side of the road (you can also head south out of town and west on 22X past Priddis to reach the ranch).
You’ll findWhiskey Creek Greenhouse, (www.whiskeycreekgreenhouse.net. 403-931-4891) further south on 762. Stop in for their selection of tasty vine-ripened tomatoes, live lettuces and herbs. There’s a scale to weigh your purchase and an honor box just inside the front doors of the greenhouse building.
From there, drive south and head east on Highway 549 toward Millarville. If it’s Saturday morning, take a detour into the Millarville Farmer’s Market for an amazing array of locally-produced foods and crafts.
Or, at the corner of Highway 22, turn south passing through Turner Valley for lunch at Route 40 Soup Co. (www.route40sc.ca, 403-933-7676) and on to neighboring Black Diamond. After a pit stop and a snoop through the galleries and antique stores, take Highway 7 east toward Okotoks, where you’ll see the sign for Chinook Honey Co. about 3 km past the “Big Rock”, namesake of our famous local brewery (www.chinookhoney.com, 403-995-0830).
Kayben Farms is on the northeast side of Okotoks, take 32nd St. E until you see the sign (Kayben Farms, www.kayben.com, 403-938-2857).
From here, you can take the back roads to Canadian Rocky Mountain Ranch, (www.rockymountaincuisine.com, 1-866-563-2242) or simply head north on Highway 2, then west on 22X (the ranch is just south on 69th Street).
The Cowboy Trail runs through the Alberta foothills for 700 km. Check it out at www.thecowboytrail.com or call 1-800-661-1678 for information on annual events like rodeos and pow wows, and participating ranch vacations, bed and breakfasts, lodges, restaurants, shops and tour operators.
(This story ran in Avenue magazine in September, 2006).
©Cinda Chavich 2007
FOOD TOURISM: LOCAL fLAVOUR in cowboy country
Find locally-grown foods, from berries and tomatoes to wild game along the Cowboy Trail.
