How Prairie Berry Created a One-of-a-Kind Indigenous Culinary Experience

Posted June 18, 2024

As the strawberry picking season approaches, Jennifer and Matthieu Turenne, the Métis and French owners of Prairie Berry Farm, prepare to host their annual award-winning Indigenous culinary tourism experience in late June and early July.

Courtesy of Prairie Berry


Located on Treaty 1 Territory in Glenlea, The Patch is a unique farm-to-table dinner service that celebrates Indigenous and French-Canadian food and chefs. The entire Turenne family is involved in dinner service, and at the end, Jennifer and Matthieu share their story and talk about the farm.

The cherry (or should we say, berry?) on top is that every course features an element of fresh strawberry.

“It’s really rewarding when people come, and as they leave, say this place is beautiful, we love it,” said Matthieu. “And they mention how they love that our children and family are involved.”

Prairie Berry Farm started as a u-pick and pre-pick experience in 2016, but evolved into The Patch when The Economic Development Council for Manitoba Bilingual Municipalities (CDEM) approached Jennifer and Matthieu in the winter of 2019 to do a French-bilingual culinary experience on their farm with local produce and chefs in the summer of 2020.

“It was the perfect way to keep the element of strawberry in our farm, and keep our customer following while we do the crop rotation…we had everything planned and purchased, the marketing was ready, then COVID hit,” said Jennifer. “And we were like, oh my goodness. What are we going to do? We need to continue. And it worked out because we are an outdoor experience…So we pivoted.”

Since starting The Patch, they have reached out to The Manitoba Métis Federation, The Aboriginal School of Dance, other Indigenous businesses and local elders to learn and collaborate. As a result, they’ve been able to share more Indigenous knowledge, culture and traditions with guests.

“Incorporating Elders has been really important. My aunt is an Elder…we get a lot of information from her and she's done the blessing of the food for some of our dinners,” said Matthieu. “Chef Christa, owner of Feast Café Bistro, has been a guest chef for a few years in a row and prepared dishes that included bannock, bison and sweet grass…we’ve also had dancers perform…we wanted to make it an Indigenous experience.”

The Patch at Prairie Berry Farm is an accredited Indigenous tourism experience through The Original Original accreditation program run by the Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada. The farm received an award in 2023 for being an Indigenous tourism leader and creating a new experience during the pandemic at the Indigenous Tourism Awards held during the International Indigenous Tourism Conference.

For Jennifer and Matthieu, it all started because they wanted to keep their culture, language and beliefs alive through their traditions and instill them in their children.

Courtesy of Prairie Berry
Courtesy of Prairie Berry
Courtesy of Prairie Berry

“When Matt and I purchased the farm I grew up on about 11 years ago, we knew we wanted to keep farming…we kind of have the green thumb from our parents and grandparents,” said Jennifer. “We wanted our kids to have the experience of growing up here.”

Originally, they chose to grow strawberries because of high demand for them in Manitoba, but there’s an added layer of cultural significance: Wild strawberries are a native species to Canada and were one of the foods that sustained the Métis People.

“Strawberries were one of the first fruits cultivated in a season… they would dry them up and make tea, medicines and multiple things out of them,” said Jennifer.

Prairie Berry Farms is part of the fast-growing Indigenous tourism industry. In 2019 (Pre-Covid), Canada’s Indigenous tourism contributed nearly $1.9 billion in direct GDP contributions. Indigenous tourism is also one of the biggest employers of Indigenous Peoples in Canada.

Indigenous Tourism Manitoba, an Indigenous-led non-profit organization, helps grow and support the development of operators like Prairie Berry. Holly Courchene, CEO of Indigenous Tourism Manitoba, explained that the organization exists primarily as a resource to uplift Indigenous operators, “whether it's bridging relationships with mainstream tourism organizations or acting as a liaison.”

Credit Taylor Burk courtesy of Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada and Travel Manitoba
Credit Taylor Burk courtesy of Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada and Travel Manitoba

Holly Courchene at Moongate Guest House

“There are standards within the tourism industry we are aiming to meet, but we know there are many barriers to remove for our operators to reach those standards. Some don’t have clean drinking water, for example,” said Courchene.

These businesses are resilient and with the assistance of Indigenous Tourism Manitoba, they are overcoming these barriers and becoming major players within the tourism industry in Manitoba.

Courchene said supporting Indigenous tourism enterprises is a small way to contribute to reconciliation because Indigenous tourism allows these communities to tell their own stories and history and hire their own people.

“The general public is just beginning to comprehend the harm caused by the systematic disempowerment of Indigenous Peoples. As more people become aware of these issues and the impact on Indigenous communities and individuals, there is a greater desire to find ways to support the Indigenous economy,” said Courchene.

“For visitors, they're really looking to understand Indigenous people…we believe that's done through an individual person, telling their story…And when that person tells their story to a non-Indigenous person, it creates more of an understanding of where they are coming from.”

Thanks to the work of Indigenous Tourism Manitoba in partnership with Travel Manitoba, Manitoba now has 170 Indigenous experiences, including The Patch at Prairie Berry Farm.