Experts say an all-Canadian Thanksgiving feast is achievable on a budget

Experts say an all-Canadian Thanksgiving meal on a budget is achievable by focusing on the abundance of the harvest season and simple recipes.

"Thanksgiving is really a harvest feast or harvest festival and coincides with peak agricultural production in Canada," said Paul van der Werf, adjunct professor at Ivey Business School at Western University in London, Ont.

"Canada produces lots of turkey, lots of potatoes. It’s the world’s second-biggest producer of cranberries," he said.

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Ontario alone produced 45 per cent of the country’s turkey in 2025, according to Statistics Canada.

The country hit an all-time high in potato production in 2024, the agency said in a separate report.

Van der Werf said a classic Thanksgiving meal is Canadian through and through.

"We’ve always had this real abundance of Canadian agricultural products of world-class quality," he said.

Renewed trade tensions with the United States have many shoppers once again examining labels for information about their origin and production.

But defining what’s Canadian is not always easy with North America’s intertwined food supply chains.

For example, U.S.-based co-op Ocean Spray processes some Canadian cranberries into a jelly sauce.

Knowing what labels mean is important when zeroing in on Canadian-made items, whether that’s based on the origin of ingredients, manufacturing plants or who owns the brand, said Jeff Stewart, executive director of non-profit Food Day Canada.

He said convenience is often why people go for boxed or prepared foods, such as stuffing or a box of store-bought mashed potatoes.

Stewart suggested working backwards with a holiday menu to keep it local and within budget by walking around the grocery store or farmers market to see what’s in season.

"Whatever is in abundance is what you’re going to find the best prices on," said Stewart, who is also a chef in Elora, Ont.

Farmers usually harvest a wide array of fresh produce in the fall, pumpkins, squash, potatoes, apples and pears.

The menu would also look different, based on where you live, mirroring what the region has to offer.

For Stewart, an Ontario celebration would mean a homegrown turkey.

"(But) if I was in British Columbia with my brothers, probably there’d be some kind of fish."

But pantry items can thwart attempts to serve a 100-per-cent-Canadian meal.

A pumpkin or apple pie without a tinge of cinnamon or nutmeg may not feel quite right, for example, but Canada doesn’t grow spices such as cinnamon and black pepper or produce olive oil.

"Cinnamon probably makes up 0.1 per cent of the pie, so maybe that’s OK," van der Werf said.

Sugar is produced with imported sugar cane, and some brands such as Redpath are owned by American multinationals.

But there are some substitutions to make it truly local, such as sugar beets that are grown in southern Alberta and processed at the Rogers factory in Taber, Alta., he said.

Stewart said grounding the menu in simpler recipes can also make the journey easier.

"I remember back to meals with my grandparents and the effort that was put into things a long time ago, when there weren’t options for this kind of convenience," he said.

Serving a truly Canadian meal can take effort, Stewart said.

"If you choose to go 100 per cent Canadian, then you’ll find that you’ll get there, even if it’s a little bit difficult at first," he said.

"If you make the commitment, then over time, it gets easier and easier."

With files from The Canadian Press and BNN Bloomberg