♪ [Brandy Yanchyk] I'm a journalist, and I'm travelling across my home country, Canada.

On this journey, I'll be visiting the western city of Edmonton in the province of Alberta.

I'll also be traveling to Eastern Quebec to the Base St. Laurent tourist region.

My next adventure begins in Auclair, which is about 311 kilometres, or 194 miles from Quebec City.

♪ ♪ dulcimer [Brandy] I love maple syrup, and I've come to Bas- Saint- Laurent.

It's a region in Quebec that has lots of maple trees.

I'm at Domaine Acer, and I'm with Nathalie Decaigny.

She owns this beautiful place and she makes maple sap wine.

Why did you decide to make this beautiful wine out of maples?

[Nathalie] In fact, it's my husband, partner Vallier Robert who makes, make this wine.

He decided in 1990, the price of maple syrup was very low.

So he wanted to add value to maple syrup.

And at this same time he met some producers of blueberry and honey wines.

So he thought why not with maple?

And he started fermentation and work to produce maple sap wines.

We are going to, to taste the results of his experiments.

Wow, and when people come to Domaine Acer, what can they do?

[Nathalie] When they arrive, they start with a classic tastings.

And then we take the visitors to the cellars.

We explain our processes.

[Brandy] And you also have like a museum here?

[Nathalie] Yes, we are in an Econo museum.

So we have old objects with a history of maple syrup.

[Brandy] So exciting, because I am a big fan of anything maple.

I've always loved the candies.

But I'll tell you I've never tried the wine.

So can we please try some?

Okay!

So the first one is Prémices d'Avril.

[Brandy] April?

April.

Yes.

It looks like white wine.

And it's dry.

[Brandy] Beautiful colour.

[Nathalie] Yeah, yes, you taste a little bit floral, green apple, pear.

Just a few mango and maple just at the end.

And in your mouth it will be the same.

So, cheers.

Cheers.

Wow, it is beautiful.

It's like a surprise just at the end.

[Brandy] I can imagine drinking this on a hot day, relaxing, by the lake.

Yes!

So...

Mousse des Bois.

It's the sparkling, very dry again.

Okay.

Okay.

[Brandy] Is this one sweet?

{nathalie] No, it's very dry.

It's the brut, seven grams of litre, er, of sugar per litre.

That's not a lot.

[Nathalie] No.

That's not a lot.

Oh, I love those bubbles.

[Nathalie] A lot of fine bubbles!

I think this one is the purest, purest expression of the forest.

[Brandy] Why?

Because of the light, wood taste.

It smell, it smell the forest.

[Brandy] Oh, it's so delicious.

Fruity, airy.

[Brandy] It's not sweet!

You keep telling me there's maple sap in here.

But I don't know if I believe you.

No, of course I believe you but it's interesting.

The other ones are very different.

They are sweeter and with more alcohol 16% of alcohol.

This one is Val Ambré.

[Brandy] The colour is fabulous.

It's like gold.

Oh, the smell is wonderful.

[Nathalie] Yellow fruit, cherries and eau de vie.

You know, it is sweeter.

I love this one, a lot!

[Nathalie] Butter, caramel, nuts and maple at the end.

And the last one?

[Nathalie] The last one?

It's Charles-Aimé Robert.

It was the father of Vallier.

[Brandy] Your husband's father?

[Nathalie] Yes.

Mm-hmm.

And the colour is darker.

It's darker because it's made with late-flow sap.

[Brandy] Wow, it smells so good.

Little bit chocolate, lightly smoked.

Yes, I smell the smoke.

Caramel?

Caramel, burnt caramel.

Yes.

Maple Syrup.

(laugh) Maple sap?

Easy, easy.

Dried fruit, prunes, dates.

I smell the dates.

I can't wait to taste this.

Mmm.

It's delicious.

It's like dessert.

Well, I'm so happy that your family decided to be inventive and creative because it's beautiful.

And thank you so much for inviting me here.

[Nathalie] Thank you to taste my product.

[Brandy] Now I know.

I'm very proud!

[Brandy] Yes, I would be.

Now I know what else you can do with maple syrup and maple sap.

Thank you.

Thank you.

♪ ♪ acoustic guitar ♪ To reach my next destination, I drive around ninety kilometres or fifty-six miles northwest.

When you come to Quebec, there are so many wonderful artists you can meet.

And I've come to the village of L'Isle Verte.

It's between Trois-Pistoles and Rivière-du-Loup.

I'm with Cynthia Calusic she makes paper and she's also a poet.

Cynthia, tell me where this idea of making your own paper came from?

Well, when I started publishing books, I was a lot into binding and handmade papers.

And one day my husband gave me a starting kit.

And the first time I put my hands in that vat and saw I could make a sheet of paper, I was hooked.

[Brandy] One of the things that fascinates me is that your paper is made from rags and not trees.

How did you even come up with that concept?

Where did that come from?

Well, the rag paper was very important around 1400 in Europe, and in Quebec, it came around 1850.

So that's how we used to do paper before.

[Brandy] So not only do you make paper out of rags, but you also include seaweed, right?

Yeah.

When I started making paper, I was also moving here in the region in Bas-Saint-Laurent and the two just fit perfectly together.

Wonderful.

Okay, well, I want to go into your workshop and make some paper with you.

Can we do that?

Yeah, we'll turn bedsheets into a sheet of paper.

Wow.

Okay.

So Brandy, welcome to the workshop.

And this is what my rag paper looks like.

So you can see there are different colours because it depends of the material I use.

Also, you can see inside the seaweed and the St. Lawrence is about fifty different varieties of seaweed, and they're included in the pulp.

[Brandy] Wonderful, well, I can't wait to jump in and try to learn how to make this paper.

So we're gonna start by tearing up a sheet, take a little piece, and then we shred it into... ...layers.

(ripping) And we want to cut this up into like a square inch.

And just put it in the bucket?

And here, put it in the bucket here.

And then we're going to put it in the Hollander beater to grind it.

I'm going to turn on the machine and you're going to put in that cotton you just cut up.

Wonderful.

(machine noise) [Cynthia] So now that our pulp is ready, we're going to put it into the vat and then we're gonna choose our seaweed.

[Brandy] So fun!

So just dipping this in?

Yeah, I'm gonna make so you get nice seaweed in there.

So you're gonna go this way.

This way?

Yeah.

Like this?

Scooping it up.

Scoop it up.

Scoop it up.

And move it back, back and forth and sideways.

Oh, this is fun.

So you see the thickness of my sheet depends of how much pulp I take out.

I scooped a lot.

You have a cardboard here.

(laughs) So dip it again?

Try again?

No, no, it's okay.

It's perfect.

It depends what you do.

If you're doing a greeting card.

You need a paper that's nice and thick.

So now can you see the sheet I made?

Yes.

So you have to go exactly on top of my sheet.

So you put it, you press on the sides and a little bit in the middle... here.

[Brandy] Whoa, it's there!

[Cynthia] Yeah.

And you're gonna use the ruler to straighten it out.

Okay, perfect.

And then the next step is pressing those sheets of paper.

Okay, so now we're going to open up the press.

The reveal.

The reveal.

Okay, so, you're gonna take your sheets here, and we're gonna hang them to dry.

You see your sheet of paper is pressed.

Still on the felt.

Still on the felt.

Interesting.

Okay, it's been pressed very strongly.

And it stays on the felt.

And then you hang up the felt.

So we're gonna hang this to dry.

Perfect.

And once the paper is dry, so this sheet of paper is not completely dry, but I can show you how you can separate it easily from the felt.

And there you go.

There's your masterpiece.

There's my, there's my sheet of paper.

[Brandy] This is beautiful.

I love the little details of the seaweed.

What can I do with this?

Well, you can write, print, paint, you can do different kinds of art, you can do bookbinding.

I even use my old typewriter on the paper.

Well, it's been so wonderful learning this traditional way of making paper from rags.

Thank you so much, Cynthia.

You're welcome.

To get to my next adventure, I travel around 4,100 kilometres or 2,548 miles northwest to Edmonton, the capital of the province of Alberta.

♪ While I'm here in Edmonton, I really wanted to try the green onion cakes that the city is so well-known for.

So of course I wanted to come and meet Siu To who created green onion cakes here in Edmonton.

I love that you are known as the Green Onion Cake Man.

And tell me, what's a green onion cake?

Green onion cake is a family staple food and as a snack food and people love it.

[Brandy] And where did it come from?

[Siu] It's come from my families.

Our family always do it with my mother and brothers, sisters.

Where did you come from and how long have you lived in Edmonton?

I moved to Edmonton direct from Hong Kong, 1975.

But before that, our hometown is northern China.

A city called Qingdao.

And in Qingdao, do they have green onion cakes?

Oh, in that area, every family know how to make green onion cake.

[Brandy] Wonderful.

Well we're so lucky that you moved to Edmonton because we get this tasty treat.

Can we jump right on in and start making it?

What's the ingredients?

The ingredient is four flour and two cup of the waters and the need, you need a little bit agent like a baking soda and the baking powder.

[Brandy] Wonderful.

[Siu] And the filling ingredient is a green onion and a vegetable shortening, vegetable oil and little bit sea salt to make it taste.

[Brandy] Okay, well let's jump right on in.

You put two baking powder and a touch of the baking soda, mix well.

And then you make put this water in there.

And you cover with the towel and about a half hour later it will become a dough ball like this.

[Brandy] This looks amazing.

So, on this dough ball we are starting, so you just try to make it larger almost like the same procedure with like people make a cinnamon roll and just keep rolling them double fold it.

[Brandy] And how many onion cakes will you get from this one?

[Siu] This one will be make a eight green onion cake right from here.

Eight!?

Yeah.

Wow.

This is much larger than before, right?

A little bit flour on there.

So we rolling them.

That's how family doing in the winter, cold winter time.

And the kids no place to play and they, they starting to helping mama to make the green onion cake.

So then we spread the filling here.

Okay.

Now we have to using, using our hand.

Wow, it's a messy job here Siu.

Ah, that's a good.

The kids like a messy thing.

[Brandy] Yeah.

Can I put my hands in here?

[Siu] Oh, yes.

(both laugh) The feeling is nice.

(laughing) It's cold and mushy Siu.

(laughing) Okay, now we have to do rolling like this one.

Okay?

Stretch and pull.

Wow.

Stretch and pull.

Stretch and pull, stretch and pull, stretch and pull.

Okay.

[Brandy] Am I going too fast?

[Siu] No, no, no, you're doing fine.

Good.

You see.

That's stretched the same.

Okay, that's very good.

So this is a one thing.

And the thing.

Okay?

And now... You take a very big knife.

Big knife.

So we're gonna cut into eight pieces.

Three, four, five, six, seven and eight.

Okay.

And now we do it this way.

What are you doing here?

It would squish on the both hand like meatball and the press this one.

[Brandy] I don't think I'm doing a good job.

[Siu] Yeah, no.

[Brandy] I'm learning.

How many years have you been doing this?

[Siu] Ah, many, many, many years.

[Brandy] How old are you now?

[Siu] I'm eighty-two.

Eighty-two(!)

and you've been doing this since you were how old?

Oh, I think probably four or five years old.

Well yeah.

So I think you've got a few years on me.

I'm not even close to eighty.

(laughs) I'm half your age.

[Siu] So okay.

And the next step that we will be need this ball to rest a little bit about twenty more minutes to be soft enough to press down.

And after we press down, we can press right onto the grill to make a green onion cake.

Wow.

Okay, let's go.

I want to see this grill.

Okay, let's do it.

Now this is the last final moment.

Exciting moment!

I am excited.

So first, we have to put some oil.

Lots of oil on the grill.

Right?

And then I give you one.

Okay.

Try to make it bigger.

Oh, cold.

Yeah.

Okay.

And don't touch the grill.

Okay?

Okay.

I'm scared to touch it here.

[Siu] Yeah, yeah, okay.

Just like that?

Yeah.

[Brandy] You're not scared of this grill.

I am.

[Siu] No, you try one more.

[Brandy] Okay.

And it looks so good.

I can see the onions in it and everything.

[Siu] Yeah.

[Brandy] It looks amazing Siu.

[Siu] Yes, it is.

Put a little bit of oil on the top.

Okay, and what kind of oil is this?

[Siu] Canola oil.

[Brandy] Cooking fast.

[Siu] Yes, this is good grill.

We just wait for another minute and a half to make sure they are completely cooked.

And then we get to taste.

And how many do you think you've sold in one day?

What's the most green onion cakes you sold in your life and one day?

[Siu] I remember our record high is when we do the Taste of Edmonton.

[Brandy] Big festival.

[Siu] Big festival.

We selling about ten thousand green onion cake in one day.

Ten thousand green onion cakes!

Yes, very much sold.

You must have been exhausted!

Yes, very much.

That's wonderful though.

[Siu] Now is the time for truth.

The green onion cake is done.

Let's cut it and taste it.

Yes Siu I want to!

So you cut it.

You hear that?

Oh, that sound is lovely.

You hear that?

Oh ya.

Crunchy, crunchy!

You take a piece, it's hot.

Oh, it's too hot.

Oh.

Very, very hot.

(Both) OH AH!

OH!

Are you going to try it?

Mmm.

That is really good.

Yeah.

Beautiful.

It's really hot.

I have to say, but I love the green onions.

Mmm.

And it's so crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.

What do you think?

Great!

Marvellous.

Well, I can understand why ten thousand people bought your green onion cakes in one day!

Thank you so much Siu for showing me this incredible recipe.

I'm going to have to go home and try to make it.

All right.

[Brandy] Thank you.

[Siu] This is all done.

[Brandy] Mmmmmm.

♪ Just outside the city of Edmonton, I travel around 48 kilometres or 30 miles to reconnect with my grandparents' Ukrainian culture.

While I'm here in Edmonton, I decided to visit the Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village.

And this living history museum looks at the stories of the settlers who came from Ukraine to the province of Alberta.

And this is really interesting to me because my ancestry, on my father's side, is Ukrainian.

My grandparents moved from Ukraine to Canada.

And I'm with Trevor Sliwkanich, and he is playing the role of a blacksmith.

He's a senior interpreter here.

Tell me a little bit about what a blacksmith is?

So a Smith is someone who works with metal, you've probably heard of a goldsmith, they work with gold, a blacksmith works with iron and steel, and uses the coal forge or, in today a propane forge to heat up the steel and work it on their anvil.

And when people come to this village, what are they going to learn?

What are they going to see?

[Trevor] So what we tell about at the museum here is the history of Ukrainians who came to east central Alberta, this area northeast of Edmonton, and the communities and farms that they had up until 1930.

And when I'm walking through the village, I can see lots of different types of buildings, houses, and but it seems like it's through a progression of time?

[Trevor] That's right, so we have a few different zones here at the museum.

We start off in the farmstead zone with a temporary dugout shelter, a Burdei, that many families built as they were first arriving on their homesteads before they could build their first home.

We also have a few other farmsteads that show very traditional Ukrainian architecture that was being built in Canada.

And then we continue on as they developed into the 1920's into rural communities as well as rural railway town sites.

[Brandy] Wonderful, so what are we going to do?

So, we are going to do one of my favourite demonstrations, which is making a miniature horseshoe.

So I'm going to have you put on some glasses.

Safety first.

Safety is "no accident."

The first thing we're going to do is bend to the the shape of the horseshoe.

So we're going to do that on the horn of the anvil.

I'll put the steel over here and I'll get you to hit it and curve it around the horn.

[Brandsy] Okay, ready?

[Trevor] I'm ready.

(metal pings) [Brandy] How'm I doing?

[Trevor] Pretty good.

So I can even put it this way you can, you can...

There you go.

So to finish off the shaping, what I'll get you to do is to hit it here so it curves around just a little bit more.

Great.

And now comes the part where you need to use most of your strength.

We need to flatten it.

Okay.

So starting here, I'll get you to flatten it by just striking it right on top.

[Brandy] Like this?

[Trevor] Yep, just like that.

(metal tapping) [Trevor] So the next step is the holes that blacksmith use, farriers used to attach the horseshoe to the horse's hoof.

So I'm going to give you this little punch here.

[Brandy] Okay.

[Trevor] So I'll get you to start right here.

Now this is pretty hot still.

So you have your gloves.

Yes.

[Trevor] I'll get you to line up that punch right on the end there and give it one good strike.

(tapping) Try that again.

(tapping) All right, so I'll take these; you hold that.

(tapping) And there we have the hole.

So the next thing to do is to cut it.

(ping) Mark in so it doesn't move around.

And I'll let you finish that off.

[Brandy] Okay.

(tapping) [Trevor] Okay, hold it right there.

We don't want it to go flying.

Grab it.

[Brandy] Wow.

How satisfying, I understand why you like your job.

Yeah, so the, what we need to do now is cool it down.

And so we have a tub of water right over here.

And just that fast.

It's nice and cool.

So what we're going to do now is take away some of these sharp edges from using the cutting tool.

And so I'm going to do that with a file here.

(rasping) Now I don't have all day to really make it nice so I started one earlier.

So here we have one all cleaned up on the edge.

And one last thing to make it look really nice is we can use a wire brush to clean up where it was in the fire.

You see some of this black colours where blacksmith, the name comes from.

[Brandy] Wow, I didn't know that.

[Trevor] On the metal here.

So I have a wire brush.

And it's just light, light brushing.

[Brandy] Can I do that?

[Trevor] Absolutely.

[Brandy] This looks like something that I have the tools to do.

(laughs) I hope this brings me luck.

I'm gonna hang this in a very specific place in my house, because they say horseshoes bring luck, right?

[Trevor] Well, it must.

So we have tons of horseshoes here hanging in the shop.

And this blacksmith was able to stay in business for forty years after he moved to town into the 1960's.

[Brandy] And what was his name?

[Trevor] So his name was John Demchuk, [Brandy] And where was he from?

[Trevor] So his, his shop that we're in right now was in the town of Myrnam and he built this shop in the late 20's after moving from his farm.

[Brandy] Wow, so interesting.

Well, thank you, Trevor, for teaching me about being a blacksmith and the history of the Ukrainian immigrants that came to Alberta.

It's just fascinating.

Well, thank you for coming and visiting.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪