This is the story of Vickie and Robbie Ripplinger and their four children.

Please introduce your farm family.

“Our family consists of my husband Robbie Ripplinger and myself, Vickie. We have four girls: Nevaeh, age 11; Kelsey, age eight; Avery, age six and Berkley, age three.

“With four outgoing girls, there’s no shortage of future CEOs on our farm,” laughs Vickie.

Where do you farm?

“We farm about 14 kilometres southwest of Montmartre, Sask. We are on the original Ripplinger family farm.”

What do you grow?

“We grow mainly canola, wheat, durum, soybeans and green peas. We have grown coriander and lentils in the past. We also hay about 100 acres to feed our horses.”

“We find that square-bale season builds good character for everyone,” says Vickie, referring to the help the couple receives from their four daughters in order to feed the girls’ horses.

How long have you been farming?

“Neither one of us really ever left our farming roots. I grew up on a mixed farm at Odessa, about a 15-minute drive from here. After high school, I didn’t last long off the farm and quickly returned to my calling.

“Robbie was off the farm for a few years after high school and soon was offered to farm in partnership with his dad. His parents moved to town in 2005 and that’s when we moved to the farm. We were married in 2007 and have been full-time farming since.”

Who do you farm with?

“You’re looking at our crew — it’s Robbie and I — all hands on board. The girls honestly play a huge role too. They each have their responsibility to help make our busy seasons run smoothly.

“Robbie’s dad passed away suddenly in 2011, leaving a huge void on the farm. We are grateful for the tools, resources and knowledge he passed on to us and we still to use his wisdom daily in our operation.”

You could have done anything. Why did you choose farming?

“Ultimately, the year we had to make the decision was in 2011. We both wanted to continue in farming even though we knew raising a family on the farm was going to come with much heartache, frustration and possibly even failure. But we also knew it could come with much happiness, reward, success and, most importantly, a lifestyle that was perfect for raising a family. We jumped in with both feet and bought the farm and equipment from Robbie’s mom in 2011.”

What farming season do you enjoy most?

“Robbie enjoys spring. He’s a true farmer so he always looks forward to getting back to scratching the dirt. I enjoy harvest and always have. I love the feeling of taking the crop off and seeing the reward of pouring our heart and soul into the land throughout the year. The kids also seem to enjoy harvest as everyone loves combine rides and supper in the field. The older ones really like semi ride and are intrigued with all the new gadgets.”

What’s the farm implement you can’t live without?

“We would both agree that our John Deere high-clearance, 120-foot-boom sprayer is our favourite piece of machinery. We have used it in all four seasons. We use it in spring, summer and fall for burn-down and desiccants, but most recently have been using it to apply fertilizer after harvest for the following crop year. Taking care of the fertilizing in November or December means a greater distance to seeding time in spring and not having to stop as often to fill.”

What good decision have you made that turned out well?

“Probably when we purchased a zero-till seeder in 2014. We were seeding with two older and smaller seeders prior to this, which meant two tractors and more labour. We needed to be able to have one person seeding and the other spraying, rolling and keeping the seed-tender trucks full, so we went to one seeder with two tanks and one tractor. The time savings has allowed us to justify the upgrade.”

Have you made a decision on the farm that you regret?

“There hasn’t been anything that we really regret, but when we look back, maybe we could have bought land a little more aggressively when we started out and the prices were cheaper.”

What do you see as the biggest challenge over the next five to 10 years?

“There are many concerns and challengers that we face. Some more important ones that stand out are grain logistics, the passing on of the family farm to the next generation as well as educating the public and keeping an open discussion between farmer and consumer.”

What do you see as the biggest opportunity over the next five to 10 years?

“We look forward to sharing the farm with all of our children. It’s already exciting to hear them making plans for after high school. We are also excited to try new farming practices and to try innovations that may ease the workload. One thing we’ve tried is a mapping system for our sprayer, seeder and combine. It’s beneficial in the off-season to be able to make use of that information and make better decisions because of it.”

What do you like to do for fun or to relax?

“We generally sneak away for two weeks in July to our northern oasis to enjoy some family time fishing and quadding. We also like hunting, snowmobiling and skiing when time allows.

“The kids and I really enjoy ‘horsing around!’ All four of the girls are involved in 4-H and barrel racing. They each have their own horse and have learned what it takes to look after them. We try to do as much together as a family as time just seems to be flying by. Our passion is here and we hope our kids will continue on the same journey.”

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This is the story of Mandy and Jason Manz and their three boys. They farm southeast of Earl Grey, which is 70 km north of Regina, Sask.

Please introduce your farm family.

I’m Mandy Manz and I farm with my husband Jason and our three boys: Daxton, age six; Jayger, age three; and our baby Hayz who is five months old.

Where do you farm?

Our farm, Manz Creek, is located on a fifth-generation homestead southeast of Earl Grey.

What do you grow?

We are raising registered purebred Nubian dairy goats. We have about 20 and I will be milking 11 of them this spring. I use the milk for making homemade goat’s milk products like soaps and lotions, which I sell at farmer’s markets and by word of mouth. Our Manz Creek products are great for pain and inflammation and people also use them when they are suffering from skin conditions like eczema and psoriasis.

How long have you been farming?

Both Jason and I grew up on farms, but we started the goat business in 2015. Jason is a full-time journeyman electrician so he helps me out when he can but I’m basically the one who runs the dairy.

Who do you farm with?

My husband grew up on this farm and we live in the original house, but his dad sold most of the land and my husband works in the Earl Grey area. So it’s basically up to me and the two older boys to get the farm work done. The older boys help with just about everything on the farm from feeding to milking and kidding.

Why did you choose farming?

Who wouldn’t? Raising kids on the farm is so good for them to learn what hard work really is and it shows them discipline. When I started out, I thought of going into the goat meat business, but making the milk products was intriguing to me. There is so much you can do with goat’s milk from skin products to cheeses and more. I also wanted something kid-friendly and something that was safe for my boys to be a part of.

The nice part about working with goats is that you don’t have to worry about the kids going into the pens and getting hurt.

What farming season do you enjoy most?

I love kidding time, which is at end of March and into April. I just love all the little babies running around and I love that my boys can help. Their faces just light up when they see those babies being born and they love them to death.

What’s the farm implement you can’t live without?

My side-by-side because I was tired of carrying pails of water and grain and square bales. We just got it after our third baby and I use it all of the time.

What good decision have you made that turned out well?

Right from the start, I purchased foundation does and bucks from reputable breeders in Ontario and B.C. They came from clean and disease-free farms so I was ensured that my herd was free of the two most common goat diseases: CAE (Caprine Arthritic Encephalitis) and CL (Caseous Lymphadenitis). When I sell breeding stock, some people think my goats are expensive, but I take pride in the fact that they are disease free.

Have you made a decision on the farm that you regret?

I regret not getting into the dairy goat industry earlier because it takes a lot of time to build up your herd. I started with young stock, which means I’m looking at five to seven years before I have a well-established herd. We also regret not purchasing land when it was cheaper which would have allowed us to consider going into the grain farming side.

What do you see as the biggest challenge over the next five to 10 years?

What I’m just worried about is getting my boys rolling in the farming industry because they live and breath farming. I would like to buy some land for them so they have something from us to start out with. You’ve got to start somewhere and if you don’t have any help, it’s tough. If my husband could, he would quit electrical and go farming full time but the challenge is always buying land and equipment.

What do you see as the biggest opportunity over the next five to 10 years?

I’m excited about building up my herd, developing more goat-milk products and also getting into the meat side of things.

What do you like to do for fun or to relax?

Relax, what’s that? Having three boys is not relaxing but the two older boys are playing hockey in Southey and the oldest is in 4-H. We take the boys to the lake in the summer and we go fishing and hunting.

Having a dairy is tough because you can’t really go anywhere without leaving someone behind to milk. I was a competitive barrel racer but once I had kids, that kind of came to an end. But the boys are now showing interest in riding my horses and I think I’ll get back to barrel racing to get some “me time.”

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This is the story of Calvin and Andrea Kotylak. They farm southeast of Regina, Sask. with their children Nate, age nine; Jonathan, seven; and Christopher, two.

Where do you farm?

“Our farm is located three kilometres south of Kendal, Sask., which is 77 km southeast of Regina.”

What do you grow?

“We raise commercial cattle and we also grow some cereal crops and oil seeds. Our crops typically consist of oats, barley, durum and canola.”

How long have you been farming?

“It’s a bit of a long story since both Andrea and I grew up on farms and have been involved with our family farms throughout our lives. We each moved to Regina at separate times — I was employed as a sheet metal worker and Andrea went to university. We became a couple, were married and worked in the city for many years, before deciding to move back to my family’s farm while continuing to commute to our jobs in the Regina.”

“Calvin commuted into work and farmed at the same time for almost six years,” said Andrea. “I was working as a habitat stewardship co-ordinator for five years in Regina before giving that up and moving back to the farm to start a family.”

“In 2012, we made the jump to full-time farming,” Calvin said. “I gave up the commuting and Andrea started a job as a financial consultant at the Plainsview Credit Union in Montmartre, Sask. At that time we went from 30 cows to 250 cows in one month and we took on more grain land. That big move allowed our family to be in one place and have both a family life and a life in our community.”

Who do you farm with?

“I have a partnership with my dad on the grain side so he’s out here helping at seeding and harvest. We used to have joint ownership in the cattle as well, but once I quit my city job, I took over the cattle operation and have been running it 100 per cent on my own with Andrea.”

Why did you choose farming?

“I chose him and he chose farming,” laughed Andrea, explaining that she always told her family she would never be a farmer. But when she started dating Calvin, she knew his heart was in farming.

“I like the freedom of it and the fact that you can do what you want when you want and you are your own boss,” said Calvin. “It’s a good way of life. After living in the city where you don’t really know your neighbours or have any sense of community I knew I wanted to move back to a small town where I was a part of the community and people around us were always looking out for me and my family.”

“I value the quality of life it offers us and the fact that we can raise our children on the farm,” said Andrea. “Having grown up on a farm, that lifestyle is ingrained in us and it’s what we enjoy doing whether it’s watching the harvest come off or calves being born.”

What farming season do you enjoy most?

“I personally like the winter,” Calvin said. “Even though it’s cold and sometimes difficult to get out to do chores, it’s more of a relaxing time of year and the stress level is lower than it can be during calving and harvest.”

“I enjoy the spring because of all the new life, especially with all of our animals and the baby goats, pigs, chicks and calves,” said Andrea.

What’s the farm implement you can’t live without?

“My wife,” laughed Calvin, explaining that with three young children, a wide assortment of pets and an active community life, it takes a team to make everything work.

“My tractor is probably my most-used implement. It’s a John Deere 7230 and I use it for pretty much everything from feeding cows to bailing to spraying.”

What decision have you made that turned out well?

“The decision to expand from 30 cows to 250 cows in 2012 turned out really well for us. The timing was good. The first year was scary because prices were not that great but the year after they started coming up so that made up for it. During that first year, I was questioning our decision and thinking that maybe we might be going back to work in Regina but after we made it through that time, it’s been good since. It’s allowed us to have more time with our kids — that’s the biggest thing.

“Moving to the farm was a very good decision for us as it has allowed us to be involved in our community. I’m a Lions member and Andrea is a First Responder and she is on a number of boards and helps out with lots of events and kids activities. By moving back home, we were able to teach our kids that you can repay what was given to us all those years that we were growing up here and had things like sports and activities available to us.”

Have you made a decision on the farm that you regret?

“Sometimes we regret not jumping in earlier and buying more land when it was cheaper. But at the time of lower land prices, we weren’t ready to make that move. It was hard enough to pay for the land we had already purchased. But looking back, it’s not a bad thing because the size of our farm right now is good for us because it still allows for lots of family time and involvement in our community. If we had gotten much bigger, it would have cut into our family time.”

What do you see as the biggest challenge over the next five to 10 years?

“The biggest challenge will be if and how we can bring our children into farming. That’s all our two older boys talk about. When that time comes, we want to take the approach our parents did: you have to go to school or get away from home for a while to make sure that farming is what you really want to do. We had a chance to experience life away from the farm and we want our kids to do that too because there’s a lot out there they don’t even know about yet.”

What do you see as the biggest opportunity over the next five to 10 years?

“In our area, I think it might be the opportunity to rent more land if you wanted to. For us, we would have to decide if that’s what we wanted and it would have to come down to timing.”

What do you like to do for fun or to relax?

“Today we’re going to the waterslides in Regina with family, so that’s something our farming lifestyle has allowed us to do,” Calvin says.

“I have a poker group of area farmers. We get together once a week for a night out at each other’s houses and we’ve been doing it for about eight to 10 years now. It’s not about the money, it’s more about seeing if you can bluff your neighbour.”

Andrea is an avid crafter, building barn board signs and woodwork wall hangings. “The boys are into 4-H beef club — they really like to do that. And now that they’re getting older, they love swimming, fishing, skating and tobogganing too.”

“A lot of our fun revolves around the kids and the farm. This summer we turned our backyard into a slip and slide area one afternoon and even the adults and grandparents got into it. We were supposed to be combining that day but nobody worried about it, we just enjoyed that Sunday off and spent all afternoon in the back yard with the sprinkler on.”

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“We truly care about our cattle working out for the next guy and the great thing about being in about 80 customer yards once a year is that I learn so much and I’m inspired by what others are doing,” said Andrew Johnson, 38, who operates Johnson Livestock with his parents, David and Anne Johnson, and his wife Laurie and their four children.

Even though hundreds of bred cows and bulls are sold from this large 700-head operation annually, Laurie, 37, said her goal is to keep the contact with customers as personal as possible.

“People relate to you when you have the personal touch,” said Laurie, pointing to the fact that all four of her daughters are part of the operation and that Johnson Livestock is focused on being a family business.

“This is our family, this is our lifestyle and this is why we do what we do,” said Laurie.

Growing up on what was originally a dairy farm, Andrew knew early on that his passion for livestock would become a career. When the dairy was sold in 1993, Andrew and his dad began amassing both land and cattle to coincide with Andrew’s growing interest in becoming a purebred Angus cattle farmer.

“Dad allowed me to make decisions and make mistakes that taught me to be really interested in raising the best cattle,” said Andrew, who was the only one of his three siblings to stay on the farm.

While David and Anne are still part of the operation, living in the same yard as their son and daughter-in-law, Andrew said his goal is to make the farming experience for his parents less physical and more retirement focused. Hence the building of an 8,500-sq.-ft. state-of-the-art sale barn and storage shed, complete with a heated sale ring, seating areas and kitchen facility.

Andrew said the new building was not so much out of necessity as it was a nice perk for his mom and dad who spent many years in colder and humbler conditions getting the Angus breeding business off the ground. The former sale building has now been converted into an indoor cattle chute area where Andrew and his older three daughters administer shots, dewormer and general cattle care to as many as 70 or so cattle a day during the busy season.

Andrew focuses his time and energy working directly with the cattle, taking care of pregnancy checks, insemination and breeding while his full-time hired hand handles the day-to-day feeding and some of the field work.

A large land base allows the Johnsons to grow all of their own feed, which includes corn, alfalfa and barley silage as well as grain and hay. On any given day 17-year-old Brielle can be found baling or putting up silage; 14-year-old Maya might be bottle feeding an orphaned calf and 12-year-old Desta could be administering dewormer or halter breaking the girls’ 4-H calves.

“On sale day, it’s basically the girls and their friends who put the cattle through the ring on their own. I give them a two-minute pep talk ahead of time and then I’m busy with customers and they take care of moving all the cattle through,” said Andrew, adding that his youngest daughter, three-year-old Indy, likes to tag along and emulate her three big sisters.

The Johnsons host two large sales a year — the purebred female sale in December where 350 to 400 bred cows are sold and a bull sale in March featuring 150 males. The size of the sale allows customers to come from as far as Alberta and Ontario to buy up to 60 or 70 head at one time.

With Andrew and the kids focusing on the outside work, Laurie concentrates on the marketing end of the business, photographing and laying out the sale catalogues and taking care of the farm’s social media presence. With a passion for design, the Saskatoon-raised matriarch of the family has developed a black and white Johnson Livestock brand that extends from their new black-sided home with white interior to the Johnson logo and the black and white T-shirts and sweatshirts the family sports.

Laurie and Andrew have also developed a Johnson Livestock blog, Facebook feed and Instagram account that highlights their purebred cattle and their rural lifestyle.

“The farming lifestyle is really en vogue right now and people are interested in it. When I grew up you were embarrassed to say you were from a farm family but today it’s become a cool thing,” said Andrew.

Spending 90 per cent of their time on the farm, the Johnsons put family first both while working with the cattle and in the farmhouse.

“It’s fun to all be working together to put a meal together in the kitchen,” said Laurie who helped design a state-of-the-art area for her girls to prepare their garden- and beef-centred menus.

“The girls are extremely competent in the kitchen… one day I came home and Maya had made salsa and canned it all on her own,” said Laurie.

The Johnsons are the new face of cattle farming, one that is rooted in old-fashioned family values and personalized customer service, but has embraced technology and large-scale farming as the way of the future.

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When the sun rises, so do the cowboys and cowgirls who are up early to feed, water and groom their horses in preparation for the full-day trail ride.

This is the scene in the tiny Saskatchewan village of Roche Percee (pop. 149) as riders from Saskatchewan and Manitoba gather for the historic three-day Roche Percee Trail Ride.

This year’s annual ride marks the 21st time that riders have gathered in this very spot to commune with their equines and fellow horse lovers and to discover the diverse landscape that defines the coal-rich area of southeastern Saskatchewan.

“Ninety-nine per cent of people don’t know that this landscape exists,” says 72-year-old Art Brandsgard of Pilot Butte, Sask. who has attended 18 of the last 21 Roche Percee rides with his Belgian team and wagon.

The flower-encrusted grasslands, sandstone outcroppings and sprawling green coulees are juxtaposed next to dragline-scarred hills and pumping oil rigs. At times the ride travels only a few metres from the American-Canadian border and at other times, First Nations sandstone writings and teepee rings can be observed.

“There are lots of places we ride that you’d never know were there,” says trail boss Dallas Spencer, who scouted out the 65-kilometre route in advance. “If you’ve never seen draglines or things like that, it’s unique to ride alongside them for an afternoon.”

Brandsgard, who attends around 14 different trail rides annually, says he continues to attend the Roche Percee ride yearly because of the badlands-type of landscape and the physical workout it gives his Belgian team.

“It’s one of the best rides because it really challenges your horses,” says Brandsgard, explaining that he conditions his horses in advance and also rests them strategically along the ride so they can handle all of the inclines and valleys.

“It’s a demanding ride because you can’t just sit there in the wagon and go, you actually have to drive because if you don’t, you won’t make it up the hills.”

Brandsgard is joined annually by his 79-year-old brother, Harlan, who takes turns driving the team and covered wagon.

“As you get older, family becomes more important so the ride gives us time together,” says the younger Brandsgard, who often hands the reins over to his older brother Harlan.

“All the bickering you did when you were younger, you don’t do that anymore because time is too important now.”

Renate Selinger is at the Roche Percee Trail Ride for the first time with her horse, Cooper. The social worker camps for three days with two friends and their horses.

“It’s like a retreat because you’re away for three days and all you have to do is take care of yourself and your horse,” says the mother of three as she tents right beside her eight-year-old buckskin gelding who is pastured in a temporary electric fence.

“You wake up with your horse and go to bed with your horse — it’s an incredible experience.”

Trail boss Spencer, who rides alongside his wife, Carrie, and six-year-old daughter, Arizona, says he is hopeful the Roche Percee Trail Ride will have a future as long as its 21-year history.

“She (Arizona) has a friend her age with a mule that she rides with, so that is a really good thing. That’s the kind of thing that makes you want to keep the ride going.”

For information on the 2017 Roche Percee Trail Ride, contact Dallas and Carrie Spencer at luckydollar@yahoo.ca or (306) 421-5944.

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He’s not sure what possessed him to take hundreds of photos of abandoned and derelict farm sites over his 28-year career as a municipal administrator. What he does know for sure is that he’s thankful he has taken photos over the years because many buildings, from two-storey brick houses to L-shaped barns, have disappeared from the modern-day landscape.

“It’s a funny thing to think that our younger generation will not know what has happened here 100 years ago,” said Miller, pointing to the fact that larger farming practices and oil activity have obliterated many former farmyards.

The 70-year-old retired administrator began taking the photos on a hunch in 1988.

“I would be out driving around the municipality anyway, checking the roads and oil activity, and I thought I should take some photos just in case someone calls the office or writes in wanting to know some history,” said Miller, of the RM of Mount Pleasant located in the Carnduff area of southeast Saskatchewan.

The more photos he took, the more he noticed the landscape in his RM transforming over the years.

“When I compare the photos I’ve taken over the years, you can see the houses and barns gradually deteriorating,” said Miller.

He has posted his vast collection of photos on the Vintage Carnduff website where the public can access them. His photos are all sorted by land location, as Miller never goes anywhere without his municipal map, or his camera.

On this day, he fishes the map out from behind a truck seat and proceeds to sort through several large albums of photos to find the particular yard we have arrived at. The elegant brick house in his original photo, with its banks of windows and bright-red roof, has deteriorated remarkably since the photo was taken in the 1980s. The bricks are now falling down, the exposed wood beneath is rotting, the roof has lost its shingles and the foundation is collapsing. Miller’s photo has frozen the house in time while the elements have ravaged it in real life.

Occasionally a family member will seek out information about a farm site and Miller is able to retrieve one or more photos that show what the site looked like in the last 30 years. He will send pictures by email and will often dig up whatever information he can out of the Carnduff history book as well.

“Last time I had a request it was from someone doing a family tree. Sometimes it’s a distant relative, like maybe an uncle. Typically they’re from out of province.”

One of Miller’s latest posts on the Vintage Carnduff Facebook page features photos of the former home of Pete Carnduff. A comment under the photo says, “I can’t get enough of these pictures! I better take Dad on a road trip.” (Grant Carnduff)

Miller photographs all of the outbuildings in farm sites as well. He has captured many barns and wooden granaries which have since fallen down.

“Lots of sites are totally worked over. You wouldn’t even know anything was ever there. Often it happens when land changes ownership and some people don’t like to see that decay around so they just clean it all up.”

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“When we started 16 years ago we were local before local was a buzzword and now more attention to food and where it comes from is creating opportunities for restaurants and chefs and for us,” said Melanie.

Their beef, pork, poultry, lamb, specialty meats and eggs are prized by Saskatoon chefs, including Nathan Guggenheimer of the highly acclaimed Ayden Kitchen and Bar.

Guggenheimer knows that without an outstanding base product, dishes at his restaurant would not be in a class that set them apart.

“You can taste the difference when you have an all-natural meat versus something that has been mass produced. I think it has more of a game flavour from the grass.”

The Boldt farm is located on the site settled by Kevin’s great-grandparents in 1901. Kevin is the fourth generation in his family to farm the land and raise animals here. In 1998, Kevin and Melanie established Pine View Farms to diversify their existing grain and cattle operation.

• More from Grainews: Branded beef pros and cons

In order to get their ethically raised products to a wider audience, they opened Souleio Foods, a market bistro, in downtown Saskatoon in 2009. With the farming couple and their two sons immersing themselves in two of the most time-consuming careers, they eventually knew something had to give.

That’s when “Top Chef” winner Dale MacKay of Saskatoon connected with the Boldts and decided to turn Souleio into one of Canada’s top restaurants while sourcing meat from Pine View Farms.

“What I want people to know is that food isn’t just fuel to get you through the next things in your day. There are lots of pleasures in this world and food is one of them,” said Melanie.

“Food is so essential to our culture and in our rat race of life, we forget what it can give to you and the beauty it brings.”

The food at the Ayden Kitchen and Bar highlights the Boldts’ philosophy. The sausage platter, made with Pine View Farm’s pork, is a testament to the culinary value of using locally raised, all-natural meat that comes from farmers who Guggenheimer now considers friends. Adorned with hand-made mustards, slaws and crackers, the ordinary-looking sausage is transformed into a smoky explosion of textured goodness in flavours of Thai, Mexican and Polish.

The Boldts are thrilled to have their pork and poultry on the Ayden Kitchen and Bar menu and they are ecstatic to supply a restaurant that shares their food and farm philosophy.

“Kevin and I are really firm believers in preserving the art of farming and the art of creating good food and those two things are somewhat dying arts and we really need to preserve that and pass it on,” said Melanie.

Pine View Farms meats and products, including deli sausages, are available online, at their on-farm store and at various stores in Saskatoon, Regina and Moose Jaw. For a full listing of stores and products, visit the Pine View Farms website.

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Betty Forbes, who operates the first booth at the market, will then likely tell you that if you travelled to Saskatoon by vehicle, you’ve probably passed numerous seabuckthorn bushes without even knowing it.

This bush was a federal shelterbelt experiment in the 1950s when Indian Head, Saskatchewan’s Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration (PFRA) began a breeding program with shrubs imported from Germany and Siberia.

In 1998, Betty Forbes’ father planted 15 acres of the hardy trees and tried to market the berry for human consumption based on its high vitamin C content.

“The market in this part of the world wasn’t quite ready so it was a really tough go,” said Forbes, owner of Northern Vigor Berries Inc., a company that now produces and sells a wide variety of seabuckthorn products.

In 2006, Forbes was working as a teacher for Saskatchewan Institute of Applied Science and Technology (SIAST) when her family discussed the possibility of getting rid of the seabuckthorn orchard that had been sitting dormant on the family farm in Veregren, Sask.

“I said, ‘You know what, give me a chance because it’s too good of a crop to get rid of,’” said Forbes.

She eventually quit her teaching job and began devoting her life to the harvesting and marketing of the seabuckthorn berry. Her company, which goes by the retail name nvigorate, first began selling the berries to restaurants and then branched out to create products such as seabuckthorn gelato, chocolates, tea, syrup, jam and even soap.

• From Country Guide: Vanilla Spice Pear Butter? Sundae in a Jar? Sounds like a jam of a business

With Dr. Oz (from the television show of the same name) endorsing the nutritional value of the omega 3- and omega 6-packed berry and with consumers seeking healthier food options, Forbes was able to convert all of her crop into product and then began having other farmers ship their crops to her as well.

Nvigorate products are now carried in Saskatoon at Sangsters Organic Market and in Regina at Dad’s Organic Market.

The most difficult part of the process, said Forbes, is still harvesting the berries themselves. Because the seabuckthorn branches are thorny and brittle, hand picking and machine harvesting are not options. The only way to harvest the berries is to cut off fruit-bearing branches in September, freeze them overnight in a -30 C refrigerator truck and then knock the berries off by hand.

Forbes finds that once people stop at her farmers’ market booth for a taste of her products, they discover that the berries aren’t just good for you, they’re good tasting too.

“They have a tropical and a tangy flavour so for Saskatchewan people to get that right at home, they’re always very surprised,” said Forbes.

The growing popularity of the seabuckthorn berries has created a well-paying full-time job for Forbes and she expects her business and the market for seabuckthorn berries to continue to grow.

“In other parts of the world people have incorporated seabuckthorn into everything they do so it’s just a matter of people becoming aware that we have this super-fruit here.”

For more information, visit the Nvigorate website.

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The former German dairy farmer has used his connections in his home country to attract workers to help him deal with a labour shortage that is plaguing southeast Saskatchewan.

Michaelsen, and his parents Otto and Christiane, have been using their ties in Germany to find immigrant labourers for their grain farm and the farms of many neighbours in the Lampman area.

“Our first worker was a friend of mine who had a farm with his parents in Germany and he offered to come over and help for a season just for the experience,” said Ole.

That first immigrant worker application in 2008 has led to 20 or 30 similar applications each year, as Ole has become an expert at securing student and summer labourers for several farm operations in the area.

The workers usually come to Canada in two groups — one from April to October and a second group of university students comes during the school break, from July to mid-October.

The Michaelsens agree that they could not have grown their grain operation to its current size of 9,000 acres without the help of international workers who come from Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The state of the labour market when Ole immigrated in 2007 (followed by his parents in 2008) was such that farm workers were nearly impossible to find.

• From Country Guide: Help wanted

“The oilfield in this area draws people away because the money is better and the work schedule is better,” said Ole.

Many European university students and farmhands are eager to come to Canada to work as the jobs here pay up to three times the hourly rate of that in their homelands and working in Canada offers a unique agricultural experience. The Michaelsens pay their employees $2,200 a month, in addition to supplying room and board, a cellphone, use of a vehicle and often they’ll pay for flights as well.

Ole does all of the immigration paperwork, providing his services for free. In exchange, his neighbours will share workers with the Michaelsens. Christiane said the give-and-take atmosphere in Canada is something the family had to get used to.

“In Germany, you would never do that. In Canada we find people more welcoming and friendly and neighbours are happy to work together and help each other out,” said Christiane.

The Michaelsens came to Canada because of a land shortage in Germany that resulted in them not being able to expand their dairy herd beyond 300 cattle. After intensively shopping for land here and considering 68 farms, they decided that the Lampman area offered the best opportunity for farm expansion.

“In 2007 we bought 3,000 acres. The package included the buildings and the equipment,” said Ole, adding that the farmer he purchased from provided advice and the original hired man agreed to stay on for one year to help with the transition.

Now that immigrant workers are an integral part of the operation, the Michaelsens have moved a double apartment trailer onto their yard. It consists of living space for four workers, complete with four bedrooms, two bathrooms and two living rooms.

The students are easy to find because word of mouth creates more than enough applications for the 20 to 30 positions filled in the area each season. A number of them need to complete a six-month practicum on a working farm, and since Ole has his master in agriculture from the University of Berlin, he can grant the students their practicum certificates.

The only problem is that provincial legislation has made it more difficult to bring immigrant workers into Saskatchewan.

“Three years ago the visa application was one page and now it’s a 30-page application and you have to go through a lot of stages, so it makes it really difficult,” said Ole.

The Michaelsens intend to continue to use foreign workers and Ole believes the demand in the area will only increase. Lampman mixed farmer Mark Walter hopes they will be able to continue to obtain working visas, as he currently employs two German workers and regularly employs one or two more students during seeding and harvest. He said he hates to even think about what it would be like without the work the Michaelsens do to attract European labourers.

“It would be a struggle, that’s for sure. We’d have to try to get older farmers, I guess, because it’s really hard down here in the southeast as the oilfield draws away so many young people,” said Walter.

The Michaelsens love their new farming life in Canada, but they can’t imagine being successful without their ability to attract workers from their home country.

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With three generations and multiple families working together as a unit, everyone wants to know what the secret is to keeping three farms operating like one.

For 85-year-old Mike Weichel and his wife Babe, 80, the secret lies in the history of the farm, which was founded by Mike’s father in 1928.

“I’m from the old school and I always say, ‘land is land and it should stay in the family,’” said Mike.

Mike Sr. and Babe were fortunate to have both of their children choose farming as careers. The eldest son, Harvey, took up farming right out of high school, creating a separate farmyard and home just a half-mile down the road from his dad’s mixed farm.

The youngest son, Barry, eventually took over his parents’ farmyard, working alongside his dad and brother to build up their cattle herds and land base. According to the Weichel brothers, some of the good chemistry lies in the genetics of the situation as Harvey and Barry married sisters, Patty and Kathy Haines.

Kathy knows that the ability to work together like one big happy family comes, in part, from the fact that she and her sister married brothers and raised their children just down the road from each other.

“I feel like Harvey and Patty’s kids are mine,” said Kathy, who has two children of her own. “Even though they call me Aunty Kathy, I really have four kids instead of two.”

Operating as one big family, both in business and in play, has allowed the Weichels to reap benefits on many different levels, from sharing input costs to dividing the labour.

“We all have our jobs. Harvey does the spraying, Barry hauls the grain, Mike still drives the combine and about eight to 10 times a year, we all sit around the table to figure out how things are going to work,” said Kathy.

The next generation is now involved in the operation, with Kathy and Barry’s son, Michael, taking over the home quarter. Barry and Kathy established another farmyard and built a brand new house just metres from their son’s home.

While the bookkeeping isn’t as easy to do as it used to be when Mike was the sole operator of the farm, Kathy and Patty don’t shy away from keeping all the accounts in order. The wives spend countless hours together going through financial statements and dividing both the expenses and the profits between the families.

“If we get down to the point where a few hundred bucks is outstanding, we just split the difference and call it even,” said Patty.

In terms of being the next generation to join the operation, 22-year-old Michael said he is proud to follow in his father’s, uncle’s and grandfather’s footsteps.

From the Alberta Farmer Express website: UN declares 2014 International Year of Family Farming

“It’s a crazy thing for me to think back to the time that Grandpa had the farm and made a living on just half a section and now we have quarters all over the place.”

With 4,200 acres of cultivated land now part of the Weichel land base, Mike Sr. said the system of operating has changed dramatically. While he remembers plowing the land with a team of horses, he now regularly drives a combine with a GPS system that allows him to take his hands off the wheel.

“I remember the days when we’d plow with a team of eight horses and we’d start plowing when there was still snow on the ground so we could get it all worked in time for seeding,” said Mike Sr.

While the days of horses and plows presented lots of physical labour, Mike Sr. said the inputs were extremely low which always helped with the bottom line. In today’s agricultural climate, with high input costs, the Weichels agree that they are fortunate to be in operation together as it has enabled them to invest in new machinery and technology.

“I joke that we have to get along because if we had split up a long time ago, the new machinery we have now would be old,” said Harvey.

As of three years ago, the Weichels got out of cattle completely, feeling that the expanding grain operation was providing enough work on its own. Barry and Kathy’s daughter, Sara, and her husband, Nevin Czerwonka, purchased the cattle and now rent the Weichel pasture land.

The Weichels maintain three immaculate farmyards which are their pride and joy. With ponds, fountains, trees, flowers, gardens, decorative lampposts, pathways and lawns that are spectacular in both complexity and scale, yard maintenance is an important part of the Weichel operation.

“We put a lot of effort into it and when you do that, you get a lot of joy and beauty out of it,” said Patty who has pickled about 90 quarts of cucumbers and pro-cessed 30 quarts of tomatoes.

With about 100 dozen annuals, 600 trees, numerous hedges and an acre of garden space between the three yards, the Weichels consider landscaping one of their favourite hobbies.

“We take pride in all we do,” said Patty.

And perhaps that’s the greatest secret of all for this close-knit Saskatchewan farm family.

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