Most of us have heard of hydroponics, a system for growing plants in solution rather than soil, but when Peter VanderZaag, potato breeder from Alliston, Ontario and President of the World Potato Congress, first mentioned aeroponics I did a double-take. “What’s that?” You can’t grow tubers in solution, so hydroponics isn’t an option for crops…
Kigezi region, the highlands of Western Uganda, celebrates potatoes. I’m not kidding. Potatoes are one of the primary identity markers of the Bakiga people who call it home. So it surprised me to learn that potatoes were introduced to the region just over a hundred years ago. Not only that, they were initially met with…
A city kid, Jack dreamed of being a farmer someday. At the age of 21, against the odds, his dream was about to come true. With significant help from his parents and a rare opportunity, he would soon begin a whole new phase of life. He had prayed for change and at just the right…
Dented, squat, aluminum cylinder, with a flat handle / the length of a child’s forearm. It hangs on a nail / beside a five-gallon crock of well water that sits on a shelf / just inside a fly-stippled screen door.
Four Canadian innovations made dryland agriculture feasible on the Canadian prairies and the northern plains of America. In 1886, Angus MacKay of Indian Head, Saskatchewan, invented summer fallow to contend with drought. Charles Saunders of Ottawa developed early ripening Marquis wheat to avoid frost a few years later, in 1904. In 1918, the Koole brothers…
With a tagline of “Harvesting Diversity, Feeding Hope,” the humble potato is being celebrated around the world this month. As the UN General Assembly recently recognized, the hardy potato is positioned to combat hunger and provide food security: it’s “one of humanity’s most important and universally loved staple foods.” Potatoes are also a unique crop…
Almost 40 years ago, by accident or by the hand of God (these can look remarkably similar) we bought a decrepit old house in a very tiny rural town. We bought it only because we needed a place to live in that vicinity, it was available, and it was affordable. Oh, and there was a…
I grew up as a farm kid who helped milk cows and feed chickens before catching the bus to school. It was on the farm that I learned many of the core values that still drive my work in the city, such as no waste, work hard, care for creation. In my parenting years I…
And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed. (Genesis 2:8) I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. (Rev. 21: 2a) The rapid urbanization of much of the world has increased the lament for…
From name to business model, New Jubilee in northeast Edmonton exists to share a uniquely situated bit of creation even beyond the 50-year timeframe for redistribution prescribed in the biblical Jubilee. People come to band birds, hold events in the on-site yurt, tour the forest and participate in two thriving U-pick operations: Lady Flower Gardens…
Sylvia Keesmaat lives on an off-grid permaculture farm in Ontario. She’s writing a book on climate grief. It begins with a simple ask: to go outside and “learn the space where you are, even if it’s an urban environment.” Keesmat remembers canoeing the wetlands as a child, both of her parents pausing to paint and…
When I was a child I dreamed of the day I’d be strong enough to go baling like my brother Willie. Alas, I was Paul Puny. I was older and stronger when I moved to Canada from the States and the “small” square bales were relatively light grass hay, unlike Willie’s 80 pound alfalfa bales….
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