A National Post Best Cookbook of 2021

A celebration of some of the lesser-known berries local to the prairie region, including sea buckthorn, haskap, saskatoons, currants, sour cherries, and chokecherries.

This little cookbook is all about the berries and small fruits grown in prairie gardens, gathered from U-pick farms, and foraged in the wild. Home cook and accomplished gardener Sheryl Normandeau presents 65 recipes for everything from meat, poultry, and fish dishes, vegetable and grain dishes, to desserts, baked goods, beverages, and preserves (including fruit leather). If you’ve ever gathered some of these favourite prairie berries and then wondered what to make, with Normandeau’s help you’ll soon have no trouble putting them to use in easy, fun, and flavourful recipes like:

• Sea Buckthorn Berry and Earl Grey Tea Cocktail
• Pan-Fried Salmon with Sea Buckthorn Berry Sauce
• Saskatoon Berry Cream Puffs
• Currant Meringue Cookies
• Haskap Beet Dark Chocolate Brownies
• Baked Brie with Chokecherry Drizzle
• Chokecherry Rosewater Jelly

Beautifully illustrated, the book also includes instructions for how to make and process jams and jellies, tips for storing and drying berries, and guidelines for successful foraging. Whether you’re new to the prairie region’s flora or have a stockpile of fond roadside berry-picking memories, it’s the perfect go-to and gift.

Sheryl Normandeau is the co-author of the Guides for the Prairie Gardener series and author of The Little Prairie Book of Berries. A life-long gardener, she holds a Prairie Horticulture Certificate and a Sustainable Urban Agriculture Certificate and is a freelance writer specializing in gardening writing with hundreds of articles published. She is a regular contributor The Gardener for Canadian Climates, The Prairie Garden Annual, Herb Quarterly, and many more. She lives in Calgary.

Sheryl Normandeau's profile page

Tree Abraham is a queer Ottawa-born, Brooklyn-based writer, book designer, and maker of things whose design articles have been published in The Author Journal, Literary Hub, Electric Literature, Spine Magazine, and All Lit Up. She has a Bachelor of Social Sciences in International Development and Environmental Sustainability and a Bachelor of Arts in Graphic Design and Illustration. She is a cover designer for publishers across North America, serves as publisher and art director for Canthius, a feminist literary journal, and is an associate art director in-house at Grand Central Publishing. Her authorship experiments with fragmented essays and mixed media visuals. When not working, she can be found travelling to unmarked places, collecting people, and cycling to swimming spots.

Tree Abraham's profile page

Meryl Hulse's profile page

"Her method for preserving these wild berries, which you can use for the big four as well, couldn’t be simpler." —LA Times

"This gorgeous guidebook celebrates berries indigenous to the Canadian prairies. . . it helps identify which varieties to pick if you’re foraging, walks you through the proper processing of syrups, jams and jellies, and inspires with sweet and savoury recipes." —Globe and Mail

"Highly recommended, and a wonderful addition to Canadian culinary lore." —Culinary Historians of Canada

"If you’ve ever wondered about the origins of “seriously juicy” haskap berries . . . this charming and informative book is for you." —National Post

"This is such a special book that will help you cook from your own backyard or farmers' market." —Glass Bookshop

"I love this practical, charmingly-designed, personable book. It’s packed with horticultural knowledge presented in a non-intimidating way... with gorgeous (achievable) recipes which made my mouth water." —Tales From Topographic Kitchens

"A wonderful (and delicious) tour of the lesser-known berries of the Canadian prairies." —Dr. Lenore Newman, author of Lost Feast

"Making the most of our local berries, whether foraged wild or foraged at the farmers’ market, Normandeau’s book is bursting with delicious recipes . . ." —Linda Garson, Editor-In-Chief & Publisher, Culinaire Magazine

“I’m so excited to have a book focused on some of my favourite prairie ingredients—haskaps! Sea buckthorn! Saskatoons! Chokecherries! Sheryl provides direction on how to identify, harvest, store and preserve them all, followed by a plethora of useful recipes, from cakes to cocktails. And I love the illustrations so much I want to tear them out and hang them on my kitchen wall—perhaps I need a second copy!” —Julie Van Rosendaal, cookbook author and food columnist for the Globe & Mail and CBC Radio’s The Calgary Eyeopener