Blue Jeans & Rubber Boots

Growing up on the farm shaped my passion for gardening.

I’ve never thought much about it, but as I get older, I can see how growing up on the farm shaped my childhood and inspired me to continue farming in my adult life.

I can still see my mother sitting at the kitchen table after all the dishes were done, leafing through seed catalogues. She would draw out maps for her flower and vegetable...

Summer holidays! Yippy! How I use to long for those lazy days of summer, staying up late and watching old black and white movies and then sleeping until noon. I would spend the summer reading Nancy Drew mystery novels, suntanning using baby oil and driving my one speed bike over to my friends house for a dip in their field pond. But by mid August I was yearning to go back to school, hang out...

The month of May on the farm meant that the days were warmer and the ground was dry and warm. My dad would be driving rectangles in the field trying to get his crop in, always with one eye on the neighbours, to see who was in the lead. My mother would plant her huge garden, trying to grow enough produce to keep her family of seven fed throughout another calendar year.

And it was also the time...

As it is officially the year of the rabbit, I thought this little story might be appropriate to share.

Springtime on the farm meant my dad would be out in the field, turning over the soil and getting ready to plant his crop. He would sometimes come across a lost little field bunny who had been abandoned. He’d bring home these little varmints, and I would patiently try to return them to...

As a kid, summers on the farm seemed to last forever. The first few weeks of summer holidays were spent with sleepovers at gramma’s house, pyjama parties, late night movies, and sleeping in till noon. There was always endless grass to cut, with push mowers that were hard to start. Once you got them going, you just kept cutting around and around until they ran out of gas.

By mid August I...

Happy Mother’s Day to all the Dear Lovely Ladies out there!

The month of May has always been a special time in my life. Not only is it Mother’s Day but my mother’s birthday is also in May. I am fortunate to still have my mother with us.

As a farm kid, my Saturday ritual was to ride my bike the whole 3.5 miles to town and visit my grampa Schaefer. There I would fill up on cookies, pop...

Spring Memories on the Farm

Spring on the farm always brought a new sense of joy. The long cold and windy days of winter were quickly disappearing into just a memory.

The snow was melting, the birds were chirping and as a little kid, that meant lots and lots of mud. You could jump in it, and play in it letting your inner potter loose. We could re-direct the melting streams of water with...