Saturday of Manitoba Canola Grower’s “Be Well Camp” was a packed agenda. First stop was in the Binscarth area where we toured the Silver Creek Bison Farm.  In this setting it was not difficult to imagine herds of these majestic animals that once populated our prairie provinces. No wonder our founding politicians chose a bison to be our provincial animal.

Next stop was the Orsak Family Farm where we warmly invited by Paul and Pat, in spite of it being right smack n the middle of harvest. The Orsaks are another fine example of the education, love and commitment that Manitobans have for their land, their crops and the environment.

I am a proud prairie girl and feel right at home in the midst of a grain field.  The beauty of burgeoning land is really stunning in my opinion.

We were treated to anther Lunch in the Field.

I am amazed by what is planned and served using all of the freshest ingredients that the local gardens have to offer.

I would love a cookbook which held all of the tips for getting such delicious hot and cold food out to the field, not knowing when the combine team is going to be able to break.  Hey maybe with more research, I could write one!

We ate our lunch in the shade of the trucks because the day was glorious and warm. Paul shared his passion for farming and made such an impression that our discussion continued around our bonfire that evening.

And then it was back to work. Even though I spent every one of my young summers on a grain farm, I had never been inside a combine and was enthralled by the perspective from the cab.

I have also never been inside a working grain elevator, in spite of the number of them that once stood in a long line marking the south border of Limerick, SK where I spent my summers. I was fascinated by our elevator tours in Russell and Inglis.

I had been inside one of these old trucks though. When my Grandpa’s could no longer be repaired, it sat on the edge of the farm yard and we used to play in it as kids.  We would scare the living daylights out of ourselves when we pressed the old starter button on the dashboard, as it would still try to fire up.  Grandma could hear us from the garden, if she were there picking peas and we would get shooed away.

Kath’s quote: “As a work of art, I know few things more pleasing to the eye, or more capable of affording scope and gratification to a taste for the beautiful, than a well-situated, well cultivated farm.”-Edward Everett

Love-that is all.

 

I was skeptical about sleeping in a “Barn in the Bush” but enthusiastic about our rustic adventure.  My speculations were totally unfounded because the facility is remote but contains every amenity you would desire in a hotel room and more.

The room that I shared with my new found friend Wendy from Vancouver, was cozy and inviting after a considerable amount of bus travel that day.  There was a sleeping loft and another bed nestled under the stairs.  The futon, perfectly positioned for movie watching on the big screen TV, could also accommodate more sleepers.  With a fully equipped convenience kitchen, the place would be perfect for a family reunion or a gang of skiers who wanted to explore the slopes close by.

When we arrived it was in the dark and so we had no idea how beautiful the landscape in the Lake on the Prairie area was.  We discovered that in the morning with a brief early morning walk.

And this was the view of the birches at sunset.

As a departure gift, the entire gang of the Manitoba Canola growers “Be Well” Camp were presented with Bonnie’s (Bonnie and Steve Morrison are the owners) secret recipe for fish seasoning and batter.  We had occasion to use it on pickerel up at the cottage this weekend-yum!  I served the pickerel with Floating Leaf Wild and Brown Rice, and roasted spaghetti squash boats filled with the sweetest of cherry tomatoes, feta, olives and oregano flowers.

The departure treat was appreciated but not necessary, as staying at The Morrison’s delightful guesthouse was gift enough.

Kath’s quote: “The smell of coffee cooking was a reason for growing up, because children were never allowed to have it and nothing haunted the nostrils all the way out to the barn as did the aroma of boiling coffee.”-Edna Lewis

Love that is all.

I will admit it.  I get focused on the things that I care deeply about and then I allow my world to revolve round those things.  The movies and documentaries I watch, the books, both fiction and non that I read, the articles I peruse in magazines and on line, are already filtered through the “everything about Kath” screen.  This is not a bad thing necessarily, just life.  In the mean time I allow the media (and often the more extreme American media) to shape my impressions about certain aspects of today’s world and I create stereo-types about people and things that I do not really know about.  Does this happen to you as well?

Case in point: Before my weekend away with the Manitoba Canola Growers at “Be Well Camp”, I had a very different impression of a Manitoba cattle raising family.  But now I have had the pleasure of meeting Carman and Donna Jackson of the High Bluff Stock Farm.

This was my first visit to the area surrounding Inglis, MB.  The setting is rolling and lush.  We passed the scenic Assiniboine River Valley and the Shell River Valley which join at the Shellmouth Dam to form the Lake of the Prairies, en route to the farm that morning.

Mom Donna and Tomina, the youngest of the five Jackson daughters are absolutely gorgeous! Tall, lean, healthy and glowing (but also stylish and well-coiffed)-they are a testament to country living.  I wonder if I could transform myself if I spent some time on their farm…..

Carman and Donna were perfectly articulate about their farm and the Canadian beef industry.  You can discern in a moment that they are well educated and on top of their business.  When you learn that the rest of the girls are off at various high profile universities and careers, you see the commitment that the family has made to making the most intelligent decisions for their animals and the environment.

Their beautiful, white coated Charolais herd are obviously well loved and not shy around humans. One of them really wanted to get into a family photo.

And so the Jackson family created a 360 impression of a cattle farm family for me.  Thank you Carman and Donna. And to all of the other families who I previously regarded with my high fluting/urbanite glasses on-please forgive me.  I was misinformed but now I have been enlightened!

Does anyone know why I instantaneously fell in love with their horse?

Kath’s quote: “Farmers are the only indispensable people on the face of the earth.”-Li Zhaoxing

Love-that is all.

I would consider my family hospitable people.  By this I mean we take our turn hosting Christmas and dinners at the lake and enjoy going to an extra bit of trouble when we entertain.  We are very intentional and organized when we host.  We divvy up responsibilities and tasks so that the evening will go off without a hitch.

I cannot imagine welcoming a busload of absolute strangers (let alone food writers).

I cannot imagine pulling this off and celebrating my grandson’s birthday in the same evening.

I cannot imagine hosting anything at all after devastating winds have threatened my community and our livelihood.

I cannot imagine doing this without my husband who gets called away at the last minute to answer an alarm as a volunteer fire fighter.

I cannot imagine pulling together any kind of composure and grace under these circumstances.

There is “hospitality” and there is what I call “radical hospitality”.

And yet that is just what Carol Dalgarno did this past Friday evening when Pen-Dale Farms in Newdale, MB was the first stop on Manitoba Canola Grower’s “Be Well” Weekend.

Since Bruce had been called away to fight a field fire in the area, we never actually had the chance to meet him but had the pleasure of becoming acquainted with his family and friends who shared their story. Pen-Dale is a fourth generation farm and they operate a 3000 acre mix of canola, cereals, oilseeds, grasses and pedigree seeds.  All this seems daunting enough but they do so at an elevation approaching 2000 feet which means that the area has one of the shortest growing seasons for agricultural land in Manitoba.

I know that I would have immediately taken to Bruce as my sweet Dad was also a grain farmer who left his land in southern Saskatchewan only because there was a war to be fought but returned every year to help out at harvest time and then sent his eldest sons to do the same, until his parents were too elderly to sustain the land.  “Farming allows Bruce to feel the earth, to smell and watch crops grow.”

We were treated to my first “Supper in the Field”- a term known to most farm families.  During harvest time meals are taken to the field so as to be time efficient for the workers.  Often friends who have other occupations assist at harvest time and so there are many to provide a hearty meal for.  A friend of Carol’s had been recruited to feed us and I will have to get one of my fellow travelers to remind me of her name.

Salads had been prepared from the abundance of freshly picked tomatoes and cucumbers, baby potatoes boiled and mashed,

and beef was sliced to our liking along with hearty baked beans.

A gorgeous pumpkin trifle was our dessert, and even though I shy away from desserts in the city, I enjoyed the first of many sweet tastes of the weekend.

The sun was just setting as we boarded our bus to head to our next destination but I will not ever forget the Dalgarnos and their radical hospitality.

Kath’s quote: “Beans are highly nutritious and satisfying, they can also be delicious if and when properly prepared, and they posses over all vegetables the great advantage of being just as good, if not better, when kept waiting, an advantage in the case of people whose disposition or occupation makes it difficult for them to be punctual at mealtime.”-Andre Simon

Love-that is all.

 

At 50, D is in better shape than he has been in his life.  He goes to the gym three times a week and plays tennis another 1-2 times.  Last night was one of his mid-week tennis dates.  I had the grill all fired up when they guys arrived, D put down his racket and picked up his tongs.

There were three of us for dinner and I had three different steak cuts ready to go.  One was an inside round with very little visible fat or marbling.  The grain of the meat was very compact and dense and so that morning I had prepared a marinade to add some flavour and tenderness.  I had found the recipe on the Canada Beef website in the recipe section and picked up all kinds of other suggestions and tips while on the site.

The steaks that I had purchased varied in price per kg according to the cut.  What proved to be interesting, to those of you managing a grocery budget and thinking that a regular steak dinner might be too extravagant for your family, is that the steak that was the least expensive turned out to be the taste hit of the dinner.  With marination the inside round was certainly as tender as the sirloin and almost as flavourful as the rib steak.  Sometimes, when you are standing in front of the meat section at the grocery store, this is a tricky decision to make, so consult the Canadian Beef website.  The site puts steaks into grilling vs marinating vs simmering categories, so no matter what the cut or how little you spend, you will always be serving up a flavourful and tender steak.

D sliced all the steaks into medallions and we placed a platter on the table.  Beef can hold its own against other robust flavours and so I also served brown and wild rice pilaf, roasted beets, sauteed Swiss chard and pine nuts and a tomato, cucumber and feta salad with a precious stash of pungent olives that I had purchased while in Ireland this spring.

So in spite of the guys working a full day and then playing over two hours of tennis, they had been fortified to take on another day.

Kath’s quote: “People who like to cook like to talk about food….without one cook giving another cook a tip or two, human life might have died out a long time ago.”-Laurie Colwin

Love- that is all.