Category Archives: Farming

Lessons learned from farming in winter: snow fences work, eventually

Posted on January 4, 2013 by

After a pleasantly mild fall and then a lovely warm week on a beach over Christmas, reality has set in.  There is no longer any doubt about what season this is; the instant piles of snow and very cold temps and wind (-20C/-4F) … Continue reading →

Posted in Farming, Life stories | Tagged , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

How do we know what we’re eating?

Posted on November 6, 2012 by

I do understand that we are better off being able to buy food that comes from farther away than 100 miles.  A 100-mile diet in my neck of the woods could get pretty monotonous in the winter, depending on how … Continue reading →

Posted in Entrepreneurship & Business, Farming | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

The fable of the porcupine and the cows

Posted on September 30, 2012 by

Communication is important; nobody disputes that.  Miscommunication can be as a result of differences in use of language, imprecise use of language, contextual or cultural misunderstandings, interpretation based on false information, hearing impairments, or simply not listening.  Interpretation based on … Continue reading →

Posted in Fables, Farming | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Rats and Alberta: a haiku

Posted on August 18, 2012 by

Be warned: the subject of this post is not suitable for all audiences.  I don’t know about you, but I have an instinctive aversion to rats.  Not the cute little white rats you find in labs and pet stores, but … Continue reading →

Posted in Farming, Odds and Ends | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

The fable of the cabbage moth and the desperate cabbages

Posted on August 4, 2012 by

As everyone knows who has ever grown cabbage or any other member of the cabbage family, cabbage worms will find you.  How do they do that??  There were no cabbages there before we planted them; there are no cabbages anywhere to be … Continue reading →

Posted in Fables, Farming | Tagged , , , , , | 10 Comments

Big-business agriculture versus locavorism: a rebuttal to Margaret Wente

Posted on July 11, 2012 by

This past Saturday, in her Globe and Mail opinion piece entitled “Take the romance out of farming and ditch locavorism”, Margaret Wente’s usual logically formulated arguments failed her. I don’t often agree with her viewpoint, which seems to be constrained … Continue reading →

Posted in Entrepreneurship & Business, Farming | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Lessons from raising pigs

Posted on June 28, 2012 by

During our time in the country, once we expanded our farm inventory to include animals, our menagerie – and annual home-grown supply of food – wouldn’t have been complete without a few pigs.  The spring during which our farm population … Continue reading →

Posted in Farming, Life stories | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments