Christmas Memories

Farm life when I was young was very much different than it is today for children. We lived in my grandparents original home. It was old. And it was not quaint. It was just old. My room was on the upper floor that had a slanty ceiling. I guess you would call the style 'story and a half'.

I can remember when my father insulated the rooms and added walls and doors. Until then my sister and I slept on the fold out sofa in the living room. When my father was a child he slept upstairs in that uninsulated room. I cannot even imagine how cold it was.

We had the old fashioned windows in the kitchen and one kitchen window had a cracked storm window one winter. The frost from kitchen steam would build up and make it misty to see the moon and stars. On that window sill sat an amarylis. That plant sat there for a couple or more years. It would be almost frozen into the accumulated frost at times. Every winter it would have the most amazingly beautiful bloom. The rest of the year we ignored it and let it die back but every Christmas it would come out of dormancy. We would give it a little water and it would bloom all over again.

I had to buy this bulb just to see if I could grow my own amarylis. Merry Christmas.

An Agricultural Journey was my vacation this year

A few weeks ago I motored from my home in southwestern Saskatchewan to the Okanagan Valley to attend the Slow Food Canada conference. The journey took me through some new and some familiar countrysides. This is a pictoral documentation of my agricultural journey. There were so many more points of interest. I was going to call my Alberta segment 'bison, boar and beans' but I have no pictures. Stopping every half hour becomes inconvenient. In Alberta I only have sugar beets and the wind farm. Each picture has a caption to describe.

Above is a field dedicated to sugar beets. These huge machines harvest the beets.

An irrigation canal south of Medicine Hat close to Taber

Irrigation apparatus near Taber, Alberta.

A wind farm in southern Alberta near Pincher Creek.

Nectarine blossoms near Osoyoos, BC

Nectarine trees near Osoyoos, BC

Mr. Harker of Harker Organics explaining the king flower concept of producing the best fruit.

The Harker Family with the 100 year old apple tree planted by the first Harkers.

Farmers' Market vendor. I bought his chipotle peppers. They smell sooo goood.

Vineyard at Summerhill Wines in Kelowna, BC

Green house made from old irrigation pipes, bent and covered with plastic at Covert Farms, Oliver, BC

Beautiful vineyard outside Oliver, BC overlooking Okanagan Lake at Covert Farms.

In the valley north of Cache Creek is this ginseng farm. They are a major world producer.

Farm Visit - Neville

The Farmers' Market is opening so many doors for me. I am meeting local producers and really getting to know what is available right here. It is so nice to find farms like the one I grew up on.

Bill has a very special farm. It was developed previously by an ardent agriculturist who planted a forest of firs and deciduous. He planted several varieties of apples, acres of carraganas and built a quaint home.

 Now Bill is carrying on the vision and has planted a wide variety of perennials and fruits. He has Jerusalem artichokes, borage, comfrey, black currants, several varieties of garlic, heirloom tomatoes and so much more! I felt that I was constantly taking pictures but when I looked at them, I wish I had taken more.

Borage

Jerusalem Artichoke

The free range chickens will be harvested soon and  needless to say, he has no problem finding a market. He also has free range turkeys. I hope I am one of the lucky ones to taste these amazing birds.

Thanks for spending so much time with us to share your vision. Bill is so creative in so many ways. 

Road Trip to Find Local Food

I would love to offer as many local products at the Farmers' Market as I can.  Over a year ago I discovered the Yorkton Garlic Farm and have from the very beginning wanted to visit and meet the growers.  Finally I made this trip.

Scapes being harvested so the garlic bulb receives all the energy.

Anna and Darrel were gracious hosts while I visited them in the field.  With the heat wave, mornings are precious field times.  They were a little camera shy but I did take a few pictures.

I will be purchasing their garlic to sell at the Swift Current Farmers' Market.  I hope this works well for all of us.

Our next stop was Canora.  We found this adorable flower and gift shop.  She made such great use of farm relics and even decorated her car.

The next stop was at Chautauqua Gardens at Veregin, Sask.  Debbie was the consummate salesperson and enticed us to pick strawberries.  They were so delicious that we picked two baskets.  Thanks, Debbie.  Veregin is only 20 km east of Yorkton (watch for the sign) and a bit north.

Geese on Madge Lake, Saskatchewan

Moving cow/calf pairs.  They all decided they needed a rest in the shade of the trees on this scorching hot day.  Three cowboys and a border collie kept them in order...and waited for them to move on...patiently.

Sea gulls perching on Togo Bridge.  Togo Bridge is over the Assiniboine River and it is wide and slow.  A pelican was cruising for lunch.

Assiniboine River at Togo Bridge.

These shelters are for the leafcutter bees that pollinte the alfalfa.  Click here to find more information on the importance of this bee.  It has made Canada a prime supplier of alfalfa seed.

This little helicopter was crop dusting.  It landed atop this cube van to refill.  It flitted about like a big dragonfly.

Not sure what is growing in that purplish field.  Could it be quinoa?  Not the right colour for flax.

Beautifully cared for Ukranian Orthodox Church on the prairies.

 

And this lesser cared for church was almost across the road.  Each little community had their own little church