Out in the country

Some friends invited me to tag along while they did a driving tour of destinations south of Calgary in the Okotoks area. The tour was actually part of the Harvest Festival, but these places are open every weekend anyway.

First stop was the Millarville Farmer's Market, which sets up at the Millarville Race Track. A twoonie to get in and I have to say it's probably one of the best markets in the area, if not the best. I picked up some polish baking, rocky road fudge, some home-made bread and butter pickles, Hutterite butter tarts and some bison jerky.

Then it was off to the Chinook Honey Company, just west of Okotoks. We got to see a live hive from the safety of a screened tent. We asked all kinds of questions and the woman running the place had some fascinating insight on the operation of a commercial hive. Some things I did not know:

• Bees can kill wasps by clustering around them and over-heating them.
• Bees survive the winter in a manner similar to penguins, they cluster around each other to keep warm. The inside of the hive can be 20C even while it's minus stupid outside.
• The biggest problem with keeping the hives safe is skunks.
• Smoke seemingly calms the bees down because they think there's a fire approaching and they go into the hive to gorge on honey in case their food supply gets destroyed.
• Among the things killing bees in North America - disease due to a less balanced diet, thanks to the new agricultural mono-culture (not enough diversity of crops in fields)
  

Next stop was a nice little restaurant in Okotoks called Divine. Proud of the locally sourced food they serve, they cooked up a nice bison burger for yours truly. It was awesome. I've never ventured east into Okotoks down Elizabeth Street / North railway and it's a quaint country-style downtown area. Some of the shops are surprisingly big inside and stores sneak up on you with their location. I saw an ice cream shop in a regular looking house, nestled right in the midst of plain old ordinary residential homes.

My last stop was the berry winery south of Strathmore, Field Stone Fruit Wines. The make scrumptious berry wines. I got to try them all and escaped with a bottle of raspberry dessert wine.

All in all, a fun, informative, treat filled day with great friends. Thanks guys.