A Journey Back to Local

By Karen Anderson

Slowing down is always a good idea. Especially if it involves slowing down to take a journey into all that’s local in Red Deer. There’s a lot to see, do and eat here. Geographically, this city is particularly blessed.  A river runs through it. Soft rolling hills surround it. The cool little towns of Olds and Innisfail and Lacombe and Stettler sit south and north. Sylvan Lake puts a beach within reach. Parkland forests dot the land and Prairie croplands roll flat out to the east.  

Unlike their counterparts in dry eastern and southern Alberta, homesteaders here were blessed with rich, black, fertile soil. The proximity of the Rocky Mountains also meant enough moisture dropped each year to sustain crops. They had the basic elements to make a life. And, make it they did.

Red Deer has become a service center for the agriculture and energy industries. It’s one of Alberta’s prime crop growing regions with wheat, canola, barley, alfalfa and oats among other things. Crops mean farms and Red Deer is home to some of the province’s longest running family farms.

“One of the key values of this region is collaboration,” says Rene Rondeau, the Executive Director of Tourism Red Deer. “There’s a lot of entrepreneurs here who live and breathe what they do. We may have gone through a few years of fascination with big box stores and chain restaurants but now, it’s about getting back to our grassroots.”
 
Given that bison are Alberta’s indigenous species, nothing could be more grassroots than bison ranches like HGB Bison near Olds and YR Ranch just a few minutes east of Red Deer. And nowhere could collaboration and grassroots be clearer than the new Gasoline Alley Farmers’ Market.
 

WHERE TO EAT

Red Deer & Area Participating Establishments

WHERE TO PLAY

Red Deer Local Food & Drink Activities