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…
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…
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…
I asked a Christian Reformed church member about the size of his former dairy farm, what the land was like – if there was any forest on it? He said that he kept trees in a piece because, well, “we did a lot of clearing and it seemed good to leave a little in forest.”…
On one of my first days out looking for adult coho salmon on the Upper Bulkley River near Houston, B.C., I was taught how to notch a beaver dam. We carefully pulled sticks out of the dam to create a one-metre-wide opening so that salmon could migrate upstream, leaving the beaver habitat relatively unaffected. Some…
Not too far away from my home, logging companies have plans to log the headwaters and mid-reaches of several small creeks. According to laws, they must do a survey to determine if the creeks and rills are fish-bearing. If there are sections of the creeks that don’t have fish, dry up in summer or are…
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…
My week usually begins with three children being delivered to our farm for piano lessons. Each gets about a fifteen-minute lesson. The other two do outdoor chores with Betsey as the payment for their lesson. This particular week didn’t follow the pattern. Due to a prior commitment of mine with some mallard ducks, the lessons…
“Something new and strange has happened in Canada,” the voiceover says gravely, “something we haven’t seen before. An entire generation of youth now say they will never be able to afford a home. This is not normal for Canada.” It’s Housing Hell: How We Got Here and How We Get Out with host Pierre Poilievre…
“How was your summer?” is a common enough autumnal question. For the residents of Kelowna, B.C. or Yellowknife, N.W.T the answer might well be “Horrific!” People as far afield as northern Quebec, Greece, Spain, Hawaii or the southern parts of the United States could be expected to reply in similar ways. Wildfires appear to be…
“Ugh, waiter, there’s a fly in my soup!” This classic joke turns on a universally acknowledged truth in the Western world – that insects are disgusting. And that anything they touch is likewise contaminated. If insects in our food are a problem, imagine our reaction if insects were the food. Would you eat a grasshopper…
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