November 2021—Canada has just under 90 million acres of cropland, according to the census*, and the Prairies account for most of them. That sounds like a lot, but we are small potatoes. The global cropland area is 3.8 billion acres, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). About 1.5 billion acres...
Read More September 2021—Grasshoppers are eating everything in sight. Let’s party! That was the conclusion of community leaders in my home town of Hartney, Manitoba in 1987. I was a teenager on the farm in the 1980s. The decade started with high interest rates and farm foreclosures and ended with dry conditions and grasshoppers. “It wasn’t much fun,”...
Read More March 2021—I made vegan burgers for the first time ever. I’m not vegan, I’m not vegetarian, but these vegan burgers were right up my alley. They had wheat, oats, lentils and mushrooms – all of which were sourced from Western Canadian farms – and I wanted to try something different. I eat a diverse diet that...
Read More January 2021—My great uncle Clint Whetter farmed a mile up the back road from our farm in southwest Manitoba. He was the youngest of four sons, a U of M Aggie and World War II veteran. He was on a bomber crew that flew 58 operations over Germany. Having to protect his stuff from three older...
Read More November 2020—We must respond posthaste. Must we? The word posthaste, a synonym for urgently, has its origins in communications. It literally means to send a letter quickly. It stems from a time when letters were delivered by foot or horse, and truly urgent messages were labeled “posthaste”. Now all of our posts are haste. Email, Facebook...
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