Edible flower gardening

Edible flower gardening

Flowers not only look good in the garden, lots of them make great eating

Some people prefer to grow flowers and some people prefer to grow good things to eat, but me, I like to do both at once. Edible flower gardening. Here are good reasons to eat flowers: Flowers taste good. Think of peppery nasturtiums, tangy tangerine marigolds, sweet red clover and the blossoms of herbs. Flowers are […] Read more

Captivator is a nearly thornless gooseberry. Fruit becomes dark red and sweet as berries ripen.

Inspiration from a centenarian — grow gooseberries

Plus, info on blight and Ted shares reader’s opinion on earthworms

Now what’s Ted up to on this occasion you ask? Here’s a clue. Remember that handwritten letter from Alberta I mentioned last column? Read on and learn what the next mini-story is about. Also, more on late blight-resistant tomatoes. I’m including gooseberries for the very first time and my inspiration is a centenarian. Time for […] Read more


Mexican pork carnitas

Mexican pork carnitas

There’s lots of oranges and limes available now so this is a perfect time to make this

I remember the first time I picked an orange. Not from the produce section. Not from a fruit bowl. Not from the recesses of my Christmas stocking. Picked an orange from a real orange tree. I remembered it today because I just picked an orange and the smell took me back to the first time […] Read more

Swiss Rosti (see recipe at bottom).

The mysterious potato

Once thought of as toxic, it's now the most consumed vegetable in North America

One summer day I was picking potato bugs in my little patch of community garden when a young mother came along with a babe in a stroller and another on the way. She asked what I was doing and a conversation ensued: Her: “Where do you get the potatoes?” Me: “I got these potatoes from […] Read more


Successful woman handing out Canadian dollars. Female entrepreneur doing business in Canada. Giving or donating money. Female success in a multicultural society

Ready to share your wealth with employees?

An Employee Share Ownership Plan may be a good option for your farm

If you’ve had a tough year with poor crops and low prices and are feeling financially short, regardless of how it turned out, you’ll likely always need labour support to get the job done. One of the biggest fears of founders that I coach is the fact that they may lose loyal, hard-working employees after […] Read more

When Sarah Schultz married her farmer she left her familiar city life for life on a grain farm.

My struggles as a farmwife

I wouldn’t change my life for anything but I didn’t truly know what I was getting into

In marriage we leave our parents and become one with our spouse. As women, we more often than not take their last names and join their families — especially so in the farming communities. In my case, I left behind a life in the city of Edmonton that I really loved, a job in the […] Read more


Boys on hay bale

Is the farm a healthier place to grow up on?

Prairie Palate: Get Well Soon Meat Loaf

As we head into the winter cold season, I am feeling quite smug. I rarely get colds. I have no allergies and a stomach as impervious as a cast iron pan. I attribute the healthy state of my immune system to growing up on a farm. Mucking about in the garden, eating bugs and dirt, […] Read more

Choose a good cut of beef such as tenderloin or flat iron steak (see recipe further down).

Well done, medium, rare or… raw?

Prairie Palate: Steak Carpaccio

My friend Joanne said she would not eat raw lamb, and that was fine with me. So while everyone else at the table made adventurous forays to try the lamb, she watched bemused. When they liked it, she looked puzzled. And when the bowl was almost empty, she finally picked up a piece of pita […] Read more


Alison Anderson, the director of Succession Matching.

How to find a successor for your farm

If you don’t have anyone interested in taking over the farm 
Succession Matching may be able to help

It often happens at my succession communication seminars that a weary farmer approaches me with a problem. “Elaine, we don’t have a successor for our farm.” The look of worry and wear on their face makes me want to just sit and listen to their story. When I spoke in Biggar, Saskatchewan a few years […] Read more

Breakfast is the best!

Breakfast is the best!

Prairie Palate: A morning muesli recipe

Breakfast is my favourite meal of the day. This may come as a surprise, given my penchant for experimenting in the kitchen. I love a good, multi-course, try-something-new, dirty-all-the-dishes dinner now and then, but the satisfaction of such a herculean effort is elevated by the simple unworried recovery of breakfast. Just one dirty bowl at […] Read more