My tour guide’s shirt said it all, “Hard to spell, easy to draw.”
As a young Vancouverite never having visited our western provincial appendage, this was mostly the extent of my Saskatchewanian knowledge — a yellow province hemmed with exceptionally simple border lines. I was thankfully and exceedingly mistaken.
In fact, when I arrived in Saskatoon, it was blissfully green. I can only guess to attribute this to the tornado (yes, tornado) season that was upon us. It is called the Land of the Living Skies for a reason. And, boy, were they particularly lively — and livid — that day. Stormy, dark clouds came and went, prompting my group to change plans and head for refuge indoors for the day at the Western Development Museum, which tracks the province’s pioneer history from 1910 to 1980. Although, if you have better luck than I do, less stormy days can give way to fantastical views of the Northern Lights.
The South Saskatchewan River flows through the heart of the city and is a token to, and constant reminder of, the province’s interconnected urban sprawl and pastoral landscape. The river flows through some of Saskatoon’s 47 neighbourhoods, including downtown’s Central Business District, the up-and-coming Riversdale area and Nutana, home to the budding “hipster” locale, Broadway.
Given my bottomless enthusiasm for local artisans, downtown buskers and people-watching, (like a good-hearted, typical Millennial fulfilling most stereotypes) I was naturally drawn to Broadway.
Hosting the street theatre and local art fair, the Fringe Festival, is just one of many projections of Broadway as a bastion of local support. In addition to the week-long art fest, the certified cultural hub is home to the iconic Broadway Theatre, several music venues, locally owned shops, galleries, juice shops and quality thrift stores. And I do mean quality.
According to the farm-centric magazine, The Real Dirt on Farming, Saskatchewan makes up more than 40 per cent of the country’s farmland, so you’re not wrong for thinking that Saskatchewan is chock full of farmers. It is. However, it also has a fledgling entrepreneurial industry for particularly young business tycoons.
Aviva Kohen, our tour guide, dubbed it the youngest province in the nation. In fact, it has one of the youngest median ages in Canada. Given the generally young and growing population, Kohen explained, many young entrepreneurs find success here, since Saskatoon is an up-and-coming city. Though it is the largest city in Saskatchewan with a population of more than 222,000, Saskatoon still has a charming small-town vibe and everyone seems to know everyone. Seriously. (Saskatchewan’s average median age is 37.6. This is considerably lower than British Columbia’s 41.4 median age. It also has the largest proportion of young people aged 0-14 in the country, according to the 2012 Statistics Canada population survey.)
With such a homey, community-based energy and access to farmland a stone’s throw away, it’s no wonder Saskatoon has a positively fetishistic appreciation for local ingredients that transcends seemingly humble origins.
Most ingredients from renowned, hyper-local restaurants including Christie Peters and Kyle Michael’s The Hollows, and Top Chef Canada winner Dale MacKay and Nathan Guggenheim’s Ayden Kitchen and Bar are from small farmers. With that, you get the taste and feel of the individuality of the area from which it is grown. It is a testament to the unknown, unrealized and underappreciated diversity and quality of Saskatchewan.
As a province, Saskatchewan has about 100,000 lakes teeming with several varieties of tasty fish, including Walleye, Northern Pike and Rainbow Trout, to name a few.
Escaping the aspen parkland to a boreal forest, we met calm waters chasing the shoreline and puffy Simpsons-theme-song-like clouds at Waskesiu Lake in Prince Albert National Park. With 3,875 square kilometres of protected park, hiking trails, rivers, lakes and white sandy beaches, and cross-country skiing, Prince Albert National Park is the epitome of both the adventurous, carefree summer and the cozy winter vacation.
It’s easy to understand why Saskatchewanians are obsessively local when you get the chance to leave the city to explore the golden fields, seemingly endless landscape and feel the constant breeze rolling through your hair. With almost half of Canada’s farmland within reach, it’s obvious why locals take pride in the prairies.
