Eat Alberta First: A Year of Local Recipes from where the Prairies Meet the Mountains

by Karen Anderson

Equal parts cookbook and manifesto, this beautifully photographed collection is the ultimate guide to local eating in Alberta all through the year. Eat Alberta First presents 90 tried and true recipes in celebration of Alberta’s farmers, ranchers, and food artisans. Alberta Food Tours founder and enthusiastic locavore Karen Anderson’s love of her province is enriched with the experience gained during her extensive global travels. Organized around uniquely Alberta seasons (including “Cabin Fever” and “Harvest Hurry Up”), with mini workshops on sourdough, foraging, and canning, gorgeous food and landscape photography, and an Alberta food sourcing list, the book is designed to help the home cook build reliance on their skills and on the province’s food producers. Beginning with detailed lists of pantry essentials and an introduction to the skill levels each recipe is organized by, Karen then takes readers through the seasons, from the depths of winter (when the tough get baking), through always dicey springs, full-on summer, harvest, and batch prepping for a busy fall. The book concludes with a chapter dedicated to hosting a diversity of feasts all year round. Learn to make Morel Mushroom Cheese Spread, Never the Same Way Twice Coleslaw, Slow-Cooked Alberta Bison, Long Life Noodles with Greens, the ultimate charcuterie board, Festive Vegetable Biryani, Summer’s Every Fruit Cake, and many many more. We think you’ll find Karen’s gusto and belief in the power of local truly inspiring.

Genres: Cookbooks

384 pages, Paperback

Published May 16, 2023

About the author

Founder and owner at Alberta Food Tours. Taste Canada, IPPY and World Gourmand winning cookbook and travel writer.

Reviews

[Debbie W. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Why I chose to read/use this cookbook:
1. GR friend, Brandi, who also hails from Alberta, reviewed this fascinating cookbook, leading me to sign out a copy from my local library; and,
2. July 2023 is my "O' Canada Month"!

Praises:
1. it's more than your average cookbook! Besides recipes featuring local ingredients, author Karen Anderson includes information about sourcing these ingredients, cooking through the four seasons, recognizing a diversity of cultures, and listing food artisans across Alberta. My favorite section focuses on foraging, something my mother would actively do, and that I somewhat still carry on with to this day. Mom would make a variety of dishes, preserves, and even homemade wine from the wide range of berries, leaves, and mushrooms she would find on our land;
2. gorgeous full-color photos accompany each recipe with some scenic ones showcasing Alberta's natural beauty;
3. I especially want to try out recipes calling for morel mushrooms. "Morel Mushroom Cheese Spread" looks tasty! When aspen leaves start appearing in early May, my daughters and I like to hunt for these elusive delicacies while tromping through the bush. Depending on the amount of snow melt and rainfall received in early spring, we can find a bumper crop or, sadly, nothing at all; and,
4. recently, I picked some saskatoon berries which are indigenous to the Prairie Provinces and baked them in "Prairie Berry Squares" and "Saskatoon and Apple Crumbly Crisp". Both were absolutely delicious!

Overall Thoughts:
Of course, our world-famous "Alberta Beef" is featured in this cookbook, but I was pleasantly surprised to see a huge variety of locally-grown as well as foraged food stuffs hold their own in these pages.
A great gift for the cook(s) in your life!

[Brandi Gray · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is so much more than a cookbook!

I consider myself a competent cook, thanks to my two amazing grandmothers, and reading this book brought back fond memories of them. The hours spent picking cranberries and saskatoons, foraging for mushrooms, and shelling pail upon pail of peas from the garden. In the kitchen they patiently taught me how to make bread, pickle veggies, can fruit, and bake the perfect rhubarb/strawberry pie. So, this book was a trip down memory lane and inspired me to get back to the kitchen with tried-and-true recipes from my childhood, enjoying all the spoils Alberta has to offer.

There are so many things I love about this book. I love the sections on canning and preserving, making your own stock, and foraging 101. I love how the recipes are simple and well presented so any level of cook can easily follow them. There are no overly obscure ingredients that nobody has ever heard of.

I teared up a little seeing the recipe for Chokecherry Syrup. As kids, Sunday was special at my Grandparents house, the one day of the week my Grampa would cook. He would make us his special pancakes with his homemade chokecherry syrup. I can close my eyes and be right back there at the kitchen table laughing together and enjoying breakfast with my loving grandparents.

I was pleased to see the Ukrainian recipes in the book, again bringing back fond memories of rolling out dough and making big batches of perogies with my Gramma. I am excited to see a Nalysnyky recipe also. It is different than the one I have made over the years, and I am eager to try it.

There are so many good things to say about this book! It speaks to my heart and my love of Alberta and the local artisans that I have come to rely on. How perfect that the book also includes an extensive list of local Alberta vendors!

Thanks to my local library for putting this beautiful book on my radar! I will be buying it for my own collection asap. It would also make a wonderful Christmas or Birthday gift. This is a book every Alberta kitchen should have!

Recipes we tried so far:

Trail’s End Classic Beef Stew
Hot Pepper Cornbread
Big Batch Burritos

All were excellent! Up next:

Red Lentil and Sun-Dried Tomato Hummus
Chipotle Bison Chili
Colton's Bannock
Aunty M's Farmhouse Carrot Cake

[Cheryl Strachan · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great read! For this masterpiece, @albertafoodtours founder Karen Anderson gathered recipes and cooking tips to help home cooks enjoy more locally produced Alberta food, although much of it could be adapted for other regions. It's beautifully photographed, and will open your eyes to the bounty of food produced here in Alberta.

She creatively divides the year into six seasons:
1. The Long, Dark, and Deep Winter - focuses on stocking the pantry
2. Cabin Fever Season - various ways to use sourdough starter
3. Neither Here Nor There - tips and recipes for foraging for food in Alberta
4. Full-On Summer - recipes for long, hot days
5. Harvest Hurry-up - tips and recipes for canning and preserving
6. Fall Back - recipes for batch cooking and freezing
She finishes with a glorious chapter called Celebrations, Feasting, and Entertaining Throughout the Year, which features recipes for holidays from Easter and Passover to Eid and Diwali.

Many of the recipes are more of an investment of time and love, but she gives a generous estimate for each recipe so there are no surprises.

If you want to start your holiday shopping early, this is a great gift for Alberta cooks who are aiming to eat more locally produced food. @eatalbertafirst #eatalbertafirst

(This is not a sponsored post, but I was graciously gifted a copy of this beautiful book by the author.)

[Bridget Fairbank · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some nice staples.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this cookbook. I hope to buy it one day, but until then, I will borrow it from the library on repeat. 😃

[Jenelle Lesmeister · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very informative. Read as an ebook and would actually purchase to have on hand. I feel like this would be a good a resource for utilizing produce around us and available season to season.