Paul de Jonge’s Broxburn Farm is famed in Southern Alberta for the produce it supplies to leading restaurants. (Adrian Brijbassi file photo for Vacay.ca)
Everyone can buy a strawberry, but not just anyone can grow one.
Before he purchased 80 acres of land just east of Lethbridge 30 years ago, Paul de Jonge was an accountant. A good one. Good enough to convince bankers that he could make farming into a profitable business.
“I knew how to make charts and show numbers to the people who were at the bank,” he says. “A lot of what I’ve learned has been on the job.”
He jokes that farming is so profitable, he has a Ferrari. “It’s not a car. It’s a a planting machine that plants every week and the idea is to have continuous production but it never works that way.”
Broxburn Farm has a greenhouse for tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers. Outside there’s a U-pick strawberry field.
Peppers at Broxburn Farm in Alberta are harvested in August. (Petti Fong photo for Vacay.ca)
One of his biggest jobs, says de Jonge, is to tell people where their food is coming from. At some point, everyone has the same question: Where does the food that’s on my plate originate and what’s the cost of it.
In more recent times, that question has come with another: Why does it cost so much to get the food we consume?
Canada’s Food Price Report for 2024, which is reported by Dalhousie University, University of British Columbia, University of Guelph, and the University of Saskatchewan, forecasts that overall food prices will increase by 2.5% to 4.5%. Fruit (1% to 3%) will see below average price appreciation while vegetables (5% to 7%) will be painfully more expensive.
Ripe Growing Conditions in Alberta
In the farmland around Lethbridge, where the growing season is some of the best in Canada, it’s hard to think of what isn’t being produced. When I saw a map of all the producers visitors to Southern Alberta can visit, I felt I was looking at the living embodiment of a charcuterie board. At Little Gem Winery, there’s wine made from haskap berries, down the road at Broek Pork Acres, you can pick up kolbassa and summer sausage and close by at Crystal Spring Cheese, there’s curds, gouda, and feta to round out your board.
Food Tour stops in the Lethbridge area of Southern Alberta include a variety of farms and dining experiences. (Image supplied by Lethbridge Tourism)
The ideal growing condition of the region, as a major centre for cattle and livestock farming, and the fertile soil for crops including wheat, sugar beets, canola, and barley, have benefitted from irrigation systems, feedlots, and indoor facilities.
MORE: Food Tourism in Lethbridge
Lethbridge is a key agricultural hub in Canada, located 211 kilometres (131 miles) or about about a two-hour drive south of Calgary. On the radio, an ad for a local realtor tells listeners there’s a difference between condos and cornfields and to pick the right realtor who knows the area. Another ad showcases the new artisan bakery at the farmers’ market.
Sarah Amies, executive director of Downtown Lethbridge, said food is grown within 100 miles of Lethbridge and many of the producers bring them directly to the farmers’ market to a space called Festival Square in the city’s core.
“We are so blessed to have this space where people can engage 200 days out of 365 days of the year. That’s easy to do in the summer when we have the market and events. When there’s good old winter, we have an ice skating rink set up,” said Amies. “We’re weather dependent here but we do activities to entice folks out to join their neighbours.”
The Truth of Where You Get Your Food
Some of the neighbours come from around Alberta, but also an increasing number of American visitors. Montana is just 45 minutes south of Lethbridge and as Southern Alberta’s farm-to-table culture expands with a small but growing wine industry and craft breweries, local producers are attuned to visitors and their interests.
Prairie Hill Farms owner Rex Vandenberg, who first planted haskap berries in 2011, and now processes them from different growers in Alberta and Saskatchewan into BBQ sauces, spreads, syrups, and juice, said the region has always been known as the place where farmers are innovating and trying new things.
Haskap berries, which are elongated about the size of peanuts, are grown and processed at Prairie Hills Farms. (Petti Fong photo for Vacay.ca)
“Even all that, it’s not enough. We also process,” he said. “We also need volume, a certain amount to get it out there.”
Producers here, with 4,500 farms and 11,000 businesses, collectively form one of Canada’s premier food corridors, from their land to your plate.
MORE ABOUT VISITING LETBHRIDGE
The Nikka Yuko Japanese Garden is among the leading attractions in Lethbridge. (Adrian Brijbassi file photo for Vacay.ca)
How to Spend a Day: The charcuterie board that is Lethbridge takes you from farm-to-table with stops at Little Gem Winery , Broek Pork Acres, and Crystal Springs Cheese.
At the Nikka Yuko Japanese Gardens, you will find yourself lost and mesmerized. Located right in the city, it can seem like another country. The garden was part of Canada’s Centennial in 1967 and built to recognize contributions made by citizens of Japanese ancestry. Lethbridge is home to the third-largest Japanese population in Canada behind Toronto and Vancouver.
Where to Dine: Bourbon and Butter is a small and intimate restaurant showcasing the best of what is being produced in the region inspired by the bigger world. On the menu recently, which changes according to what’s fresh, there was brûlée bone marrow with chimichurri and bulgogi beef skewers with pear glaze and kimchi. The Conscious Cafe takes a breather from the beef and offers thoughtful, tasty vegetarian fare, including the Ruby Reuben Revival and Pastrami Whammy, plant-based sandwiches.
Tourism Info: Visit Tourism Lethbridge has additional sites and events for your fall and winter travel plans. The region has several U-pick farms where visitors can harvest their own fresh produce such as berries and vegetables.
A Map Showing Locations to Visit in Lethbridge
