Summer is Served…

That was the headline of our summer issue last year, and I can’t think of a better way to sum up this issue too.

We’ve turned our attention to Central Alberta, the area between Edmonton and Calgary that is all too often sadly overlooked, and we felt it was time to remedy that as we know you’ll be looking for good places to visit, eat, and drink, on your road trips and excursions. There's certainly no shortage of good places to stop in at, just about all privately owned, and a very wide choice of local brews in this region too!

It’s by no means exclusive, and there are more than 100 working farms participating in Open Farm Days on August 19 and 20, (2023 is year of the bison, so do check out albertaopenfarmdays.ca/things-to-do/ bison), which we just don’t have room for here, but we hope you’ll take time to visit and learn where our food comes from.

Food Day Canada is August 5, and in this issue, as always, we support local first. We’re looking at the BC wine industry with suggestions of wines to enjoy on your patio and with your BBQs too, as well as suggestions for rosé wine picks for those extended, warm evenings or even for brunch on the deck.

It’s a wonderful time to be outdoors for food and drink lovers, with a multitude of markets around the province to visit as well as seemingly a multitude of festivals, whether food-focused, music, craft, or cultural (my favourite to learn foods that I may not have had chance to enjoy yet!), and other interests, most of which include food and beverages too, and I urge you to explore and discover new producers and new tastes.

We’ll be setting up and running the eleventh edition of our Alberta Beverage Awards, an enormous undertaking in itself, with several thousand pours over three days to bring you the best available in our province, which we can present to you in our October results issue, and soon to be announced tasting events!

Here’s hoping for a warm - but not too warm, dry but not too dry, fun filled (can there be too much fun?) and delicious (‘too delicious’ is not an expression!), couple of months until we meet again, Cheers

Linda, Editor-in-Chief