Cherished Family Recipes

What began with a single acre of strawberries in the Township of Langley is now nearly 200 acres planted with mixed produce. It also includes a bustling marketplace with the bakery, an award-winning winery, an ice cream shop, a barley maze and even a waffle bar. The farm is a destination for locals and tourists alike. During the summer, they easily see more than 3,000 visitors during their busiest days.

“Everything is made fresh and there is abundance,” Krause says. “I hope visitors are seeing everything that represents us, with the berries, the corn, and the asparagus and all the products that we grow and sell.” But more than that, Krause wants people to feel welcomed and inspired.

“Sometimes if you have a minute you can watch people,” she says. “I think that what they experience is wow and then wow again. Sometimes I hear it or I can see it in their expressions.”

Creating memorable experiences on the farm is important to Krause, who says, “As a mother I was always looking for places to take my kids and grandkids. If I could create something that made people feel good when they came here, then that makes me feel good.”

Krause hopes people will feel the same way with her first cookbook: The Krause Berry Farms Cookbook: Sweet and Savoury Recipes from the Fraser Valley’s Famous Farm and Bakery.

“I want to inspire people to cook, to make it their own,” says Krause. “[It’s a] true Fraser Valley farm-to-fork cookbook containing a collection of my most-loved recipes bound together with a glimpse or two into my life on a family operated, working destination farm.”

Krause, who’s admittedly sentimental, has woven personal stories throughout the book, inviting readers into her world by sharing all that matters to her and through the people who make it special, because as she likes to say, “The farm is our family.”

Even the animals on the farm and various pets make an appearance in the book. “I don’t know if you noticed our ‘granddog,’ Oliver, in the background of the photo of the berry upside cake,” Krause says. “He’s a very food motivated dog. We left him in the photo but we have had a few things disappear from off the counter.”

Krause, who learned to bake with her grandmother, intentionally chose an assortment of farm and family favourite recipes that she thought people would enjoy making. She wants people to feel confident and have fun with the process while creating memories with their own families.

Smiling, she mentions that as a family they were, “Always cooking, baking, and doing things together, from the time when they were little. Even the grandkids.” Bending then raising her elbows, Krause demonstrates how she would teach her grandchildren the basics. “How they did it was that they would crack the egg and then lift their wings. They learned how to do it all, step-by-step, even cleaning up, as that is a big part of it.”

Krause is also attached to her collection of aprons, many of which were either homemade by her grandmother, given to her as a gift or purchased on one of her travel adventures. “You put one on and you are transported back in time to whatever that apron means to you,” she says. “I think aprons can also give you confidence.”

The Krause Berry Farms Cookbook features more than 100 recipes that are accessible for all types of cooks. “We wanted to make the book well-rounded and include a few recipes that were a bit more challenging, and then some that were super easy, like the milkshake,” says Krause, who even offers a couple of recipes for dog treats, a family-favourite recipe for baby teething cookies and some tasty cocktail recipes using fruit wine. Through what she calls “winks,” Krause also provides helpful tips and techniques, such as how to clean and store berries properly.

For Krause and her husband (who are also celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary this year), it was important to include recipes that have been in their families for generations. The pierogi dough, for example, came from Alf’s mother (the strawberry pierogi recipe is one of his favourites), and the pie dough recipe is from Sandee’s grandmother and is still the one they use to make their famous pies. “I really value all that came before me,” Krause says, “and I treasure all those memories with my grandmother cooking and baking.”

Alf loves the stuff ed artichoke recipe and continues to grow artichokes, because it turns out he is also sentimental. While they were newly dating, instead of flowers, he brought Sandee a bouquet of artichokes that had blossomed. “They were that beautiful lavender colour inside,” Sandee says, recalling the memory. According to Alf, “She had never seen an artichoke flower; there were about a dozen tall thistles, but she only needed one to convince her.”

Twenty-five years later, Alf and Sandee Krause, together with their blended family, have created a wonderful legacy that will live on through their children and grandchildren and the farm, and now through the cookbook. Krause wants families, like the pony-tailed toddler and her mother, to have their own special moments on the farm and while cooking her recipes. “I guess I am excited about seeing the book in our market and watching people taking it, knowing that it is going from my kitchen into their kitchens, hopefully to inspire them and to take a bit of the farm home.”

Krause Berry Farms and Estate Winery
6179 248 St., Langley Township
krauseberryfarms.com | 604.856.5757 | @krauseberryfarms