Lemon maple cranberry butter tarts.

Fowl supper? Fall supper?

Whatever you call them, they are a delicious Prairie harvest tradition

We gathered at my parents’ house on a mild autumn evening, clucking over Mom and Dad’s recent renovations, sipping Dad’s homemade wine, letting our appetites build for the fowl supper. Our neighbour Ken commented on the lineup he’d witnessed en route. “Halfway down the street and around the block,” he claimed. I was disinclined to […] Read more

Once harvest was done, it was time to get busy with major fencing project.

Fall projects are off to a good start

The Eppich News: Good progress made with a major fencing job

The end of October brought us some much-needed nice weather. We were able to finish harvest, but it took a lot of fiddling around, trying some here and then trying some there. Finally the crop dried to a moisture level that we could handle. We took every truck and trailer that would hold grain out […] Read more


The museum on the edge of Spiritwood has a large collection of items from the past as seen here.

Rural museums keep history alive

It’s not only the collections they hold but the stories they tell that are preserved

Almost every town has one — sometimes standing alone on the Prairies. In train stations without tracks and fading catalogue homes the treasures lie, but it isn’t just the museums themselves, it’s the tales of another time in that specific place. “Objects are seldom important in and of themselves. Rather, they are like props in […] Read more

The inside of the porchetta.

This pork porchetta is sure to please

First We Eat: Traditionally a whole pig would be roasted on a spit but here’s a smaller oven version

I visited my sister and brother-in-law in the Toronto area for Thanksgiving this year, the first time, perhaps ever, that I wasn’t home to cook the feast for my favourite holiday. But even though I wasn’t in my home kitchen, food played as large a part as usual. “We have errands,” my sister said soon […] Read more


When kids have always received something, whether it is money, assets or help, they can come to expect it.

What if adult farm children don’t behave like adults?

Refuse to interact when you are being talked to in a disrespectful manner

As founders we all want our children to be happy and successful, but when kids have aged into adults we hope they are grateful for opportunity and don’t take advantage of our generosity. When kids have always received something, whether it is money, assets or help, they can come to expect it. A sense of […] Read more

legs older person, Knee Pain, elder osteoarthritis

What’s knee pain all about?

Usually the problem is actually coming from the hips or feet


After seeing an older woman in the clinic a few weeks into her post-knee replacement rehabilitation, her daughter approached me saying she knew she was headed in the same direction as her mom as she was already having knee and hip pain. She wanted to know if there was anything she could do to prevent […] Read more


Horses and some of the cattle gather around the feed trough.

Little improvement in early October weather

The Eppich News: Moving some cattle, and trying not to share too much barley with the geese

There was no combining the end of September. Instead we worked on fencing projects and started hauling some of our bales home. Sept. 28: We brought all of our Landis ditch bales home. It’s nice to have them at home instead of in a snow-filled ditch 20 miles away. Sept. 29: We skinned two of […] Read more

Cooking the foods of our ancestors keeps heritage alive

Cooking the foods of our ancestors keeps heritage alive

First We Eat: And what better way than with a pot of homemade soup?

One of the great truisms about food is that by cooking the foods of our forebears, we maintain or re-establish a link with our heritage. My mother’s antecedents were off-colony Hutterites who arrived in Saskatchewan at the turn of the previous century from a colony in South Dakota. Earlier, my great-greats and their babes had […] Read more


Joseph enjoys a cob of corn from the garden at lunch during harvest.

Harvest slowed by rain and snow

The Eppich News: Time needed to deal with horse injuries and fencing

We found ourselves madly swathing and combining at the end of August. The beginning of September brought a few light showers but we were able to keep trudging onward. We never got started very early thanks to the light showers and the heavy dew, but we were still able to put in some good days. […] Read more

Observations seem to support the lore that rain will follow a hoarfrost.

Following some old-time weather predictors

Does a foggy fall really forecast heavy snows ahead?

Over the last few years we have started to pay a lot more attention to weather lore. In the old days these nuggets of wisdom were all the farmers had to prepare for Prairie winters. Last winter we started recording little things on the calendar to test how dependable they were and we’re surprised at […] Read more