Discovering Saskatoon: A Prairie Adventure | Relaxed Reflections Before Sleep

In Discovering Saskatoon: A Prairie Adventure, Marco and Amanda take you on a softly narrated journey to Saskatoon — a prairie city once affectionately described by Bob Dylan as “the Paris of the Prairies.” With their usual unhurried charm, they reflect on strolling down Broadway, admiring the city’s graceful bridges, and taking in the wide-open skies that make Saskatchewan feel expansive and calm.
The conversation drifts through culinary highlights, including a visit to 13 Pies, and lingers on simple pleasures like walking through wheat fields and picking fresh Saskatoon berries on a local farm. They also recall a refreshing swim and other outdoor moments that capture the peaceful rhythm of prairie life.
As always, this calming podcast unfolds at a gentle pace, offering a relaxing conversation designed to help you fall asleep, ease anxiety, or quiet racing thoughts. It’s perfect for background listening while you wind down at bedtime or during a middle-of-the-night wake-up. Let the wide skies and easy travel memories carry you toward rest.

​Discovering Saskatoon_ A Prairie Adventure
(Original airdate: Sept 11, 2024)


Welcome to the Insomnia Project. Sit back, relax and listen as we have a calm, soothing, hopefully salve like conversation so that you can just rest, relax and who knows, maybe even find your way to sleep.

Amanda:I want everyone to imagine that, that they are staring at fields, what we would call amber waves of grain. Sure, as we used to say in our little song that I have to sing in elementary school, a sea of,

Marco:  swaying shafts of wheat, shafts of

Amanda:wheat, hay bales, grain elevators sort of in the middle of fields and, yeah, just tilling the land. Because that is where we were this Weekend.

Marco:  We're taking you there on this particular episode. I'm your host, Marco Timpano.

Amanda:I'm Amanda Barker.

Marco:  And so, Amanda, tell our listeners where we were.

Amanda:We were in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Saskatchewan. Yeah. And, did you see what it says on their license plate? it's really lovely, and it's so apropos.

Marco:  Yeah, I did. And I can't remember, but it's something with the sky. Help me out.

Amanda:So on their license plate, it says land of the living skies. And I thought that was so beautiful. And that is one of those things that might make no sense to someone. And then you go there, and it makes perfect sense. The skies are. It has the most sunlight of anywhere in Canada, which is an amazing thing that I didn't know. And the skies are so full and blue and ever continuous. It is a big sky.

Marco:  Now, we have listeners from Saskatchewan, and we also have listeners from Saskatoon. So I hope you'll enjoy this episode, and please forgive us if we m. Misspeak on your province.


Saskatchewan is known for its large production of wheat and mustard

So Saskatoon, or Saskatchewan, is a prairie province, and it's known because of its large production of wheat, amongst other things. I think it produces the most m. Mustard in.

Amanda:Mustard.

Marco:  Mustard.

Amanda:Lentils. I know a lot of lentils come from Saskatchewan.

Marco:  Pulses. Yeah. And. Yeah, mustard. A lot of mustard that you get from. Where's that place in France that's famous for Dijon? Dijon actually comes, what, from Canada? Yeah. They don't tell you. They don't advertise that when you go there, that's for sure. but it's certainly, an important province, for our country, for anyone who's listening outside. And we have not been to Saskatchewan. And that was the last province for you.

Amanda:I have now been to all of the provinces of Canada, and now it's time for me to get to know the territories that's left and head north.


Did you enjoy Saskatoon? I loved Saskatoon

Marco:  So let me ask you this. Did you enjoy Saskatoon?

Amanda:I loved Saskatoon. I thought it was just a beautiful, charming, vibrant, fun, happy city.

Marco:  Yeah, people were lovely.

Amanda:There's a lot of happiness there. Yeah, it felt like.

Marco:  It certainly felt. It certainly felt like that the people that we encountered.

Amanda:Now, there could be people that are listening. They're like, well, you didn't meet me, or you didn't meet my family or whatever, but, you know, you can only you get the experience you get. And we had a very quick experience, quicker than we even realized it would be. We thought we were going to fly in on a Friday night and then realized when we went to check in the night before we're actually flying in on a Saturday night on a long weekend. So we had the. The tail end of Saturday, all of Sunday, and a good chunk of Monday before we got back on the plane. So not a very long visit, that's for sure. And over a long holiday weekend. So, you know, we didn't have the full experience because a lot of things were closed, but we had an amazing experience nonetheless.

Marco:  Now, I should mention that Saskatoon is known as the Paris of the Prairies.

Amanda:And who coined that phrase?

Marco:  I believe it was Bob Dylan.

Amanda:Bob Dylan.

Marco:  They said, Yeah, that's what they're saying. Yeah. So Bob Dylan once dubbed this pretty little city Paris of the Prairies. No one seems to know exactly why is what it says here on this particular website, but it's really quite a lovely city.

Amanda:Does he know he said that? Like, does he know that he coined that term and everyone's quoting him on it, attributes it to him.

Marco:  I'm sure he does. He seems like the type of person who.

Amanda:I don't know. Sometimes those things happen and they're like, what.

Marco:  What was the. It was also known as the city of bridges. They have beautiful bridges.

Amanda:Bridges everywhere. That gorgeous river. I. What's the name of that river? I don't know.

Marco:  It's an important river. And so I,

Amanda:Better look it up.

Marco:  You best look it up. I will say this. So we ate in some tremendous restaurants, and there were restaurants we couldn't go to because, as Amanda said, we were there on the Labor Day long weekend. And there was two restaurants we wanted to go to that were closed because of the long weekend. But the restaurants we did go in its place were fantastic. One was recommended to us by the person who we rented the car from. You know, when you go to the airport and you rent a car and you deal with that person, well, she couldn't be any more lovely. I think it's safe to say her name. Brittany. Brittany, who was so lovely.

Amanda:From Thrifty. Brittany from Thrifty. By the way, that river is called the South Saskatchewan River.

Marco:  Yeah, of course. so she recommended we go to 13 pies, which was this pizza place that was open till late. So we went. Once we got to our hotel, we went there and we had.

Amanda:We went at midnight and had pizza and.

Marco:  And we had delicious pizza.

Amanda:Oh, my gosh, it was fantastic.

Marco:  And then our waiter recommended a bunch of things for us to do.

Amanda:Her name was Kayla at thirteen Pies. She was amazing.

Marco:  She was wonderful. And then we went to. Oh. And then we went home and we had an amazing.


We stayed at this hotel that was. Um, it was like a convention center hotel

Amanda:So we should, we should talk a little bit about 13 pies. Yeah, let's talk about it because I think it's neat. It's a horror themed pizza, restaurant. So every pizza, every signature pizza of which there are 13 is named after a horror movie.

Marco:  So what did we get? We had the White Walker and it was delicious.

Amanda:Yeah.

Marco:  And then we, the next day we had a full.

Amanda:She gave it. She hooked us up, gave us, on the house, Key lime cheesecake. Key lime pie, which was one of the best key lime pies I've ever had.

Marco:  Truly.

Amanda:It was fantastic.

Marco:  It was incredible.

Amanda:And they do not grow key limes in Saskatoon, I don't think.

Marco:  No, it was out of this world.

Amanda:They do grow amazing berries. And we'll talk about that in a bit.

Marco:  So the next morning we woke up and we had a full day in front of us.

Amanda:We did. Yes. It was my birthday.

Marco:  Yes.

Amanda:Which is why we went. I wanted to go hit my last province before I turned of, age.

Marco:  And where did we go first on the next day when we had the full day to ourselves? We swam.

Amanda:Well, we swam because we had. We stayed at this hotel that was. Should we talk about the hotel?

Marco:  It had an interesting lazy river to

Amanda:it, sort of like a pool that had a bridge. So it was quite an extensive pool. And there was a lot happening at the hotel, you know, and a lot of people.

Marco:  it was like a convention center hotel as well.

Amanda:So, so filled with children and it was lovely. And the breakfast, they had like a brunch. That's right.

Marco:  We were going to go to a fancy schmancy breakfast.

Amanda:Well, we didn't know if it was fancy schmancy, but it, to be fair, we thought we were getting in Friday night, as I said. So we had a lot of reservations lined up. So our brunch reservation was, named to some Saskatoon's best restaurant. Although I think that would be a hard title to capture because there's a lot of great restaurants. But anyway, one of them, which is called Hearth, but they weren't open on the Sundays so we didn't have brunch plans. So we actually just after swimming, looked at the brunch at the hotel and it looked amazing.

Marco:  And it was like, they have crap.

Amanda:They, they have, they had crab, shrimp, crab legs and shrimp.

Marco:  Like, mussels and clams.

Amanda:All the seafood, unlimited seafood. And it was fantastic. And it wasn't very expensive. And we were also like, I mean none of that seafood's Local. Like, none of it's local.

Marco:  Right. You're Saskatchewan sandwiched, like.

Amanda:And I did not go there to eat seafood, that's for sure.

Marco:  However, nowhere near.

Amanda:It was really good.

Marco:  Our oceans.

Amanda:No.

Marco:  Is where Saskatchewan is, but I guess

Amanda:it's maybe the one. One of the few places that does it. So anyway.

Marco:  Well, I'll say this. Some of the best seafood I had was in Calgary, too. So once again, not a province that has any body of water like an ocean, or sea.

Amanda:They have lakes and rivers.

Marco:  They have lakes and rivers, but that's not the case.

Amanda:Quite a few lakes and rivers, sure,

Marco:  as Saskatchewan does as well. But this was crab. Like snow. crab and shrimp and other things.

Amanda:Not. This was ocean, not river.

Marco:  Yeah, it was fantastic.

Amanda:Any. It was great and unexpected, and we just. It was also the easiest way to have lunch because we were right there.


Saskatoon has some nice museums, some nice art galleries

So then we changed and went about our day. We walked, along Broadway. A lot of people said, you should walk along Broadway. It's sort of the funky old part of town with some cool shops, and some of them are open. It was lovely. And of course, they were having this big street fair the next weekend, so something to do. Saskatoon.

Marco:  A lovely walk around Broadway. Then we went on a lark to a museum.

Amanda:Yeah. My sister said, oh, both my sister and her partner were like. Their friend Michelle, works at this museum. She's a head curator at this museum. And someone had actually, Brittany Thrifty rental car. Brittany said, you should go to the river. And there's some nice museums, some nice art galleries. She said, right, right. So in my mind, when you say some nice art galleries, I'm thinking art for purchase.

Marco:  Like those kind of places.

Amanda:Yeah. You know, like, oh, this is a cute little place. And, oh, look at this. Oh, look at this. You could buy this. I wasn't thinking of a gorgeous museum of modern art, like, state of the art, huge, massive facility. It was stunning. And I don't know. Do you say Ramai? Is that how it's called?

Marco:  That's how I say it.

Amanda:Ramai Museum of Modern Art, I believe is the name of it in Saskatoon. And that was a. And it was open on a holiday Sunday. And it was fantastic.

Marco:  It was wonderful.

Amanda:Like, wow, what a gorgeous, gorgeous museum. Really stunning.

Marco:  three floors of this museum. It was beautiful. It had views that were stunning.

Amanda:It had, an exhibit we went to, that was comparing the works of Picasso and William Kentridge, and they were phenomenal.

Marco:  Kentridge's work was, for me, more impressive than the Picasso stuff.

Amanda:Well, it was very interesting because it was all on, lithographs. Right. And printmaking. Yeah. anyway, really, really stunning, gorgeous, gorgeous stuff. Lots of interactive sort of pieces. The curation was gorgeous.

Marco:  And then we went to. It was like a blue. Like it was a blue themed art or there's something to do with blue. All the paintings that we saw, including the group of seven, the Lauren Harris.

Amanda:So that was the pink room, was it?

Marco:  The Pink room? Is that what it was called? Yeah, I thought it was blue.

Amanda:There's a whole room dedicated to pink.

Marco:  Not blue?

Amanda:No.

Marco:  Okay.

Amanda:It talked about the pink, the pink of the sun and the skies. But see, isn't that interesting that you remember it being blue, but that Lauren Harris has a lot of blue to it. I don't know if that Lauren Harris was in that room though.

Marco:  Well, the room that I'm thinking of was the blue was, was, I thought was the blue themed room, but there was a pink.

Amanda:A room that was about pink. It was really like a whitish pink, but it was stunning.

Marco:  Was it upstairs or the middle floor?

Amanda:It was by the Lauren Harris. Anyway, it doesn't matter. No one's listening. In case you landed here by accident, this is not your guided tour of the Ramay Museum.

Marco:  it's just the conversation or Blue room. Right, it's just the conversation.

Amanda:But imagine it was. Sure.

Marco:  Listen. Pink and blue are both relaxing colors that can help you fall asleep, that's for sure. And yeah, it was just a wonderful museum.


Toronto has banned any type of standup scooter. In fact, even for personal use

Then we rented those little, those scooters. Those scooters that you can find in cities all across the world if you're

Amanda:still awake and listening. That's the question of the hour. Does your city have those rental scooters that you rent with an app and people drive along sidewalks and you know the ones, you know the ones, different companies that do them.

Marco:  Well, we rented one and we went along.

Amanda:We rented two.

Marco:  That's right.

Amanda:We've done it before, but not recently.

Marco:  That's true. And we went around along the river.

Marco:  And it was really quite beautiful.

Amanda:I said let's get scooters. And. And because this river is long and vast and sort of spans the city, wouldn't it be fun to just sort of scoot along the river? And we did.

Marco:  And it was wonderful.

Amanda:It was incredible. and that's one of the things I like using those scooters for. But see, our city doesn't have them. Toronto has banned any type of standup scooter. In fact, even for personal use.

Marco:  I Think it would be difficult to maintain those scooters in the city. Like, I think when they're in a large city, it can be a challenge because if they end up in the road or you really got to keep on.

Amanda:I mean, there's lots of reasons to ban them, and I totally understand that. And to be fair, this. Well, no, we rode them in quite large cities and we've ridden them in sort of medium sized city. They're great for a medium sized city, I will say, especially a city that sees tourists like us. now, you know, you have to be safe and et cetera. But, for something like that, to ride a scooter along a river, you know, a river walk kind of thing, that can be quite lovely.

Marco:  I got charged twice for it, so check your credit card so that, you know. Yeah, I got charged twice for the. I noticed that the charge was the same amount twice.

Amanda:Oh, so you can refute that?

Marco:  I did, I did. So there you go.

Amanda:It kind of made us do that.

Marco:  I know, Yeah. I meant to tell you that.

Amanda:Sorry. I usually check it every day, but for some reason I just haven't.


Accounting can really put you to sleep, says Rene Dion

Marco:  we also do accounting on the show.

Amanda:In case you're wondering, this is also the accounting hour.

Marco:  Listen, accounting really put you to sleep. Accounting can really put you to sleep. And I'll tell you, like, sometimes when you're in front of numbers and just using the calculator. We have a calculator that has a roll of paper that we use. And there's something hypnotic about typing in many numbers and just watching that roll, sort of.

Amanda:And every time you type it in, it's like that chugga, chugga, chugga.

Marco:  Yeah, that clickety clack, clickety clack as it comes from the roll. And then you rip the roll and you have that.

Amanda:I like. For me, I like to fall asleep thinking about organizing. It's not necessarily numbers. It can be numbers. But I like to think about, like, organizational things that I can do.

Marco:  Did you ever have a Rolodex?

Amanda:No.

Marco:  So my boss had a Rolodex.

Amanda:I mean, everyone's boss had a Rolodex.

Marco:  And then I got a Rolodex from that same workplace.

Amanda:Like, they gave you a Rolodex. Like, welcome, son, you've been here a year. Here's your Rolodex.

Marco:  Let's just say a Rolodex fell off a truck into my bag.

Amanda:Wait, what?

Marco:  Somehow I ended up with a Rolodex off a truck. Well, let's just say stole a roller. No I don't think I stole it.

Amanda:Somebody's uncle stole a roller.

Marco:  No, what I think happened was because I was working.

Amanda:I mean, they weren't expensive.

Marco:  No, I think they were expensive back then.

Amanda:A Rolodex.

Marco:  A Rolodex. Back in the day. Look up how much a rolodex was in 1940. we did that last episode. So let me just tell my Rolodex situation.

Amanda:Ah.

Marco:  So my boss had a Rolodex with a lot of important numbers on it. And he. And this was a television station. And so somehow I had a Rolodex. I think I had. I think it was. I had a Rolodex on my desk at work.

Amanda:You're. You're right. They're not cheap. I don't like $75 on Amazon right now.

Marco:  Right. Imagine 1940.

Amanda:You didn't work in 1940.

Marco:  I didn't work in 1940. But last week we were looking at the price of turkeys in 1940. So, I had this Rolodex, and one time, oftentimes I would have to go through his Rolodex. He'd be like, go on my Rolodex and find. So I'd go through the number.

Amanda:You have to flip through and find the number. Isn't that amazing?

Marco:  Yeah. Well, I found Rene Angelil's number in his Rolodex. No, I'm not. So I saved it onto my phone and I put it in my Rolodex just in case.

Amanda:On your phone? What year was this?

Marco:  No, no, I guess I didn't. I put it in my Rolodex.

Amanda:I was gonna say you didn't have a phone. That's the thing. We needed Rolodexes because we didn't have cell phones.

Marco:  I had it in my address book. I put it in. You know how you'd have an address book with phone numbers? So I put Renee Angelils.

Amanda:He wrote it down, folks. Old schools.

Marco:  So I had it both in my Rolodex and in my phone. And for the longest time, I didn't want to throw away the Rolodex because I had Rene Angelil's private cell phone number.

Amanda:And did you call him? No.

Marco:  I wanted to, but I never had occasion to. And I felt like I shouldn't have the number because I took it from my boss's Rolodex.

Amanda:I mean, now it wouldn't matter.

Marco:  Now it wouldn't matter. But in case you're wondering who Rene

Amanda:angel is, do you regret. Is that one of life's? Regrets that you didn't call Rene Angelil. And. Yeah, there's a lot of people going, who the hell is Rene Angelil?

Marco:  Rene Angelil was Celine, Dion's first husband and.

Amanda:First husband.

Marco:  Yeah, well, her husband.


Are you hooking her up? No. I don't think she's. Who knows? She might have another husband

Amanda:Are you hooking her up? No.

Marco:  Okay. Her only husband.

Amanda:I don't think she's. Yes.

Marco:  People will listen to this in the future. Who knows? She might have another husband. Right.

Amanda:And we hope she does. We hope you're listening in the future going, isn't that sweet?

Marco:  If you haven't seen the documentary on her. I think it's on Netflix.

Amanda:It's fantastic.

Marco:  Well, in Canada, it's on Prime.

Amanda:Yeah. Who knows what it's on?

Marco:  Check your Netflix. So I will say this. I'm proud that I had his number. I'm proud that I didn't call him, because I don't know what I would have said to him.

Amanda:I mean, I don't think he would have picked up, but. Okay.

Marco:  If I called for my boss's phone, maybe.

Amanda:Okay, sure.

Marco:  I was just happy to have his phone number in my role.

Amanda:That's fine. The end.

Marco:  The end.


Back to Saskatchewan. So we went to a lovely dinner that evening at a restaurant

Back to Saskatchewan. So then. So then that we took a detour. We took a little Celine Dion detour, like you do. P.S. if you're listening to this and you're not from Canada, I just want to make sure you are aware that Celine Dion is not for. From Saskatchewan. She's from Quebec. So we went to a lovely dinner that evening at a beautiful restaurant. And I can't remember its name.

Amanda:Odd La Odla. It is a restaurant that owns a farm. And everything there. Most things there are from its farm.

Marco:  Farm to table.

Amanda:It's true. Farm to table. And it was phenomenal. pharma. So good.

Marco:  We did the tasting menu, and they accommodated the.


Both of us have allergies that give us hives

Amanda:Our list of weird displeasures. not displeasures, but we have allergies. We have. I would group them into three things. We have allergies that are legitimate, that will give us hives. Both of us do. Now, both of our allergies are really weird.

Marco:  We've talked about them on the show.

Amanda:Then we also have, I would say, intolerances, which you and I have the same intolerance. And I think it's because we don't eat them that we have an intolerance.

Marco:  It's really quite fortunate that we have an intolerance to bell peppers that we both don't eat them.

Amanda:Yeah. And I think if we ate them, if we liked them, we wouldn't have an intolerance. To them. That's what I think.

Marco:  Let me ask you this. You don't eat what I'm allergic to, which is passion fruit. do you miss not eating passion fruit?

Amanda:No, but I do miss not eating goat cheese.

Marco:  Okay.

Amanda:Which is a preference.

Marco:  It's a preference, yeah.

Amanda:So that would be the other group. Goat cheese for him. Goat cheese. Anything lamb or sheep related for me. Truffle.

Marco:  Yes, that's right.

Amanda:Anything truffle related I don't want anything to do with.

Marco:  Which now I feel like I don't like truffle Oreo. I'm building an intolerance to it because I never get to have it.

Amanda:This is what happens, folks. marriage.

Marco:  Have you ever gone truffle hunting?

Amanda:No. See, I think I like actual truffles, and I think I would like truffle hunting. It's the oil. Because usually it's not. They're putting truffles on things. Usually it's. They're dousing things with oil. And that's what I don't want.

Marco:  Fair enough.


Saskatoon has a food item that neither of us are allergic to

Anyways, let's get back to Saskatchewan.

Amanda:We're never going to.

Marco:  We have to get to Saskatoon in particular. While they don't have truffles, they do have a food item that is fantastic that neither of us are allergic to. And that's the Saskatoon berry.

Amanda:Delicious. so delicious.

Marco:  I was like, I really want a Saskatoon berry. And I really want to see a wheat field in Saskatchewan.

Amanda:And so we spent Saturday, walking along Broadway, which was lovely, and eating at Oddlaw. And what else did we do? We did something else.

Marco:  Oh, I took you to that, ice cream place. That was a bit of a bust.

Amanda:It was a. But they had really cool flavors. But yeah, it was like creamed corn, ice cream, things like that. And you're like, that's gonna be so good. And then it just tasted like, meh.

Marco:  It wasn't the best place. So we won't mention where it is, but we. Then the next day I was like, I really want some Saskatoon berries. And I really want to see a wheat field. So we drove outside of Saskatoon. Just outside. To a place called the Berry Farm. Barn.

Amanda:Yeah, the Saskatoon Berry Barn, I believe it's called. Or the Berry Barn.

Marco:  Oh. So is it still in Saskatoon? I feel like we. We drove a bit.

Amanda:It's like 15 minutes outside of Saskatoon.

Marco:  24, actually.

Amanda:Oh, wow.

Marco:  Cuz I was like, that was far. Because everywhere we would go was about 12 minutes away at the furthest.

Amanda:and it was lovely. I'm glad we went and we had

Marco:  all the Saskatoon berry you could want and more.

Amanda:Let's list what we had. I had wings, chicken wings in Saskatoon berry barbecue sauce.

Marco:  I had pierogies, which were fantastic.

Amanda:And we should mention there's a strong, Ukrainian population out there.

Marco:  That's right. And so I knew they would know how to make pierogies. Well. And then I had the meatballs in a dill white gravy and they were fantastic.

Amanda:M. And I think a strong Polish population there too, but I think very strong Ukrainian population. I had Saskatoon berry filled pierogies, deep fried, dusted with like cinnamon sugar, and some whipped cream. They were fantastic.

Marco:  And I had a Saskatoon berry pie.

Amanda:Yeah, you did.

Marco:  Which was excellent.

Amanda:And there are, as you said, very toothsome. The Saskatoon berry because they look kind

Marco:  of like a rounder blueberry. If you haven't encountered.

Amanda:They always look like a holly berry or a chokecherry.

Marco:  but if you haven't encountered either of those, it looks like a round blueberry.

Amanda:You know, like a red berry. so you think it's going to be like a blueberry because it's in pies and things, but it has a little bit more to it than like a blueberry. Kind of, dissolves as soon as you bite it. It kind of even a really plump one.

Marco:  Right.

Amanda:You know, this will this.

Marco:  You need teeth to bite into it.

Amanda:Yeah, a little bit more.

Marco:  Yeah. So. And it's neither sour nor sweet, it's kind of in between. But tasty. Leans more towards sweetness for sure. But it was delectable to me.

Amanda:It was most like in a way, the chokecherry. But you can't properly eat a chokecherry because the pits are poison. You have to boil chokecherries, which a lot of people don't, but I love doing that. You boil the choke cherries. It's a type of bush.

Marco:  I'll be honest with you, before I met you, I didn't know what a chokecherry was.

Amanda:Okay, well now you know. Now our listeners know, if you didn't already. You boil the chokecherries and you get all the pits out of the chokecherries. You strain all the pits, damned to pits. And then you get kind of like a syrup out of it. And then you can just use the syrup or you can make a jelly out of it. And that's what I used to do. I used to take all the choke cherries from our land in New Brunswick. Not all because there's tons of them, but quite a bit bushels of them. And then I'd make choke cherry jelly. But it does have, I don't know how to put it. Almost like a berry meets a red pepper.

Marco:  Oh.

Amanda:Kind of taste.


Everybody wants to give me crab apple stuff. Even my grandmother used to make crabapple jam

Sure you didn't love chokecherries?

Marco:  No, I didn't.

Amanda:And the jelly that I made,

Marco:  and I'm not a fan of crabapple.

Amanda:Okay.

Marco:  Stuff.

Amanda:That's fair.

Marco:  Everybody wants to give me crab apple stuff. Even my grandmother used to make crabapple jam. Like, I don't like this crab apple stuff.

Amanda:You know why? Because people. Crab apple is something that's there, and there's plenty. They're plentiful. So people are trying to do something fun with it. All right.

Marco:  Do it on your own time, with your own dime.

Amanda:That's what I did with chokecherries. Anyway. so I think a Saskatoon berry taste is actually similar to a chokecherry personally.


This episode is a Saskatchewan episode, so thank you, Saskatoon

Marco:  And then to close this episode, we'll just tell you what we did after the Berry Barn before we went to the Back to the airport.

Amanda:I'm trying to remember.

Marco:  We went to go see Amber's house.

Amanda:That's gonna make the podcast.

Marco:  Yes, of course.

Amanda:My friend grew up in Saskatoon, and so she gave me the address of her house, and I went and took a picture, and she happened to be in my hometown, but she didn't get the address of my house. the problem is the address of my old house in New Brunswick. They kept changing the address because it used to not have an address. It would just be our name and RR1. That was our address for years. And then finally someone was like, I

Marco:  feel like you're trying to strong arm this episode to New Brunswick when it's a Saskatchewan episode. Careful with your laughs. Into the mic.

Amanda:Sorry. Anyway, so I had to look up the address of my old house because they've changed it. The government has changed it.

Marco:  Anyway, have you sent this picture to Amber of you in front of her house?

Amanda:I have.

Marco:  And what was her response?

Amanda:She's like, there's my forever home. And I said, what you can't hear is that we were blasting the Northern Pikes, which is a Saskatoon band, in the background. And she was like, northern Pikes. That's amazing.

Marco:  And, yeah, I should mention that when we drove to the Berry Barn, I saw wheat fields. Beautiful, golden wheat in a field that went on forever.

Amanda:And it was beautiful under the living skies.

Marco:  It was. And you know, Amanda, from our hotel room, you could just see, like, when you look left or right, you could just see horizon forever.

Amanda:That's what they say that you can just see. It's easy. People would used to always joke that when your dog runs away, you see it leaving you for days. For days. Because you could just see how far everything goes.

Marco:  Yeah, it was beautiful. I loved. I loved Saskatoon. I loved Saskatchewan. I loved what I saw.

Amanda:It was beautiful.

Marco:  I had a great time. Time. So thank you.

Amanda:Thank you, Saskatoon.

Marco:  And for our listeners from there, we say a special hello. And for everyone else, we say we hope you were able to listen and sleep.