Columns
"I'll just have toast and coffee," Cliff Murray said when Molly Whiteside was taking their orders one morning after Christmas at Mabel's Grill.
"I think I'll have pancakes and maple syrup this morning," Dave Winston said as he placed his order for breakfast at Mabel's Grill the other morning...
"The true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable." While the origins of this quote are disputed, the sentiment holds true across cultures and history...
Sometimes we get so enveloped in the problems of today that we don't see how fortunate we are to live in 2025...
This month's issue is all about hay -- big and small hay -- growing, baling, drying, and shipping hay. Well, at least on the surface it is. But I was struck by an underlying thread in all of February's stories: the theme of relationships...
Maybe it won't seem like it, but I have never spent more time and involved more people in an article than I did for this month's story about South Bruce in the wake of its DGR debate...
For me, the turn of the year is often a time for reflection. The long, dark days, the damp weather, and the end of our cropping season all help to bring on sense of taking stock of the past year -- the gains, the losses, the lessons, and...
Recently, looking through one of the other farm publications, I was fascinated to read an article on how scientists in the United Kingdom have learned that soil micro-organisms can be used to generate electricity for a soil-powered battery...
"Do we really need the Christmas music playing already?" Dave Winston asked Molly Whiteside when she delivered the menus the other morning at Mabel's Grill...
A few weeks back, the missus and I made a short trip from Dresden to Thamesville, passed over the Thames and made a sharp right turn...
Talk to anyone who thinks about such things and you will probably hear that the autumn of 2024 has been unprecedented. The sun just never stopped shining. Instead of fighting mud, frost, and engines that need to be plugged in for the night...
It's so easy for us to think we are well-read and knowledgeable about other parts of the world and suddenly we can understand that we know so little...
As you would have read in the last issue, Lisa Boonstoppel-Pot has said a fond farewell, and decided to retire from editing the Rural Voice...
"I hate to see all the beautiful leaves fall from the trees," Cliff Murray said the other morning as the guys gathered at Mabel's Grill. "Soon they'll lose their colour for another year." ...
I'm late to the game, I know. By the time you read this, the date for South Bruce's referendum on hosting a Deep Geological Repository (DGR) for spent nuclear fuel will have passed....
I recently attended a meeting with all the Community Forest Managers of Ontario. This group gets together once a year to listen to speakers, tour a few sites, and discuss issues that have or may arise. This year we met in Aurora and toured some of ...
If we are to have honest governance in Canada it must necessarily begin at the municipal level. If we cannot manage to positively influence municipally-elected officials, how can we impact affairs within the province, nation, or even dream of...
Determining which season is more stressful - planting or harvest -has been a discussion topic over the years. For me, this changed when we improved our grain handling system, which has made harvest much less stressful. But there is one day, every year...
As I write this column, our neighbours to the south are approaching their presidential election in November with analysts suggesting it's too close to call...
What is a farmer, really?
That's a question I've been exploring the past 10 years as editor of The Rural Voice...
You get these moments as a journalist when you see the real heart and soul of people.
A connection is made, you're in deep with the questions, fascinated by their knowledge/ experience/ personality and they forget you're a reporter...
Though this is for the October issue, it is written weeks previously, with the soybeans still ripening in the fields around our house, and the corn still green. Still, as I look ahead to October, I think of Thanksgiving.
This summer has provided several interesting history lessons for me, right in my own backyard. Most recently, seeing the play at the Blyth Festival, Onion Skins and Peach Fuzz, helped provide greater understanding about the Farmerettes and other ...
A list of most influential women in the world of English literature in Canada would not be complete without the names of Margaret Laurence, Alice Munro, and Margaret Atwood.
Manitoba-born Laurence is best known for her 1964 novel, The Stone Angel and ...