Canadian chef Lynn Crawford has created a book so approachable and down-to-earth that when you read it, you may be able to take on a recipe that day with items you already have in your fridge, pantry or garden. That’s the first thing I thought as I thumbed through Farm to Chef: Cooking through the […] Read more
Stories by Christalee Froese
Holocaust remembrance compassionate and cruel
In heartbreaking waves of in-conceivable human cruelty, Dr. Edith Eva Eger winds us through her teenage life in Second World War Czechoslovakia. In The Choice: Embrace the Possible, she takes us on a cattle car to her barracks at Auschwitz. We watch as her parents disappear into the gas chambers. We see the smoke rise […] Read more
How a rural background helped shape a doctor’s work
REGINA — Saskatchewan’s family doctor of the year says practising in a small-town is about getting to know people. “You respect their privacy but you learn a lot about their personality and character,” said Dr. Jennifer Kuzmicz, a 45-year-old physician and mother of two. She earned the award from the Saskatchewan College of Family Physicians […] Read more
Soup fundraiser gets kittens spayed
MONTMARTRE, Sask.—Borscht for birth control is the latest business brainchild from the entrepreneurial Chittenden children. These three rural siblings, aged eight to 14, have been coming up with innovative money-making ideas for many years now, financing everything from snowmobile purchases to veterinarian bills. The latest endeavour—initiated by Maria, Grade 6, and her sister Heidi, Grade […] Read more
Farm girl’s writing aspirations bound to kindle memories
Francis, the young heroine in Carol L. MacKay’s new children’s book, Lily in the Loft, is captivatingly charming. Charming also best describes Francis’s journey to be published in the pages of The Western Producer. The colourful book opens with the aspiring writer observing the pastoral scene of her family’s farm from her perch in the […] Read more
Piecing together the story behind tattered treasures
Small town upholstery business gives artist the opportunity to put talents to work while saving items from the landfill
GRENFELL, Sask. — Monica Larson likes to breathe life into broken-down furniture. Larson saves pieces from the garbage heap by using her training and talent for upholstery. The Kootenay School of the Arts graduate spent three years studying textiles and fabrics, which allows her to see art in what others might consider junk. Larson, who […] Read moreHorses take veterinarians for a run
CARNDUFF, Sask. — They jointly run an average of 160 kilometres per week and that doesn’t include running to veterinary calls and chasing after three kids. Dr. Marcel Macfarlane and his wife, Dr. Dawn Pauwelyn, are not only experts on equine colic, feline parasites and bovine prolapse, but they have mastered ultra-marathon running in their […] Read more
Sask. farmers help Ukrainian family put down roots
GLENAVON, Sask. — One Sask-atchewan farmer’s labour shortage opened doors to a brighter future for a Ukrainian immigrant and his young family. This spring, Glenavon grain farmer Dave Iluk counted himself lucky for having had a dedicated hired man for nearly two decades, but that arrangement was coming to an end. “(Tony Sebastian) was in […] Read more
Tragic tales give kids powerful safety lesson
MONTMARTRE, Sask. — Bryant Gaetz was sure he was going to die. In an instant, the 16-year-old farm boy’s life flashed before his eyes. “I thought I was dying right then,” said Gaetz, recounting a harrowing day three years ago when the grain auger he was pulling with a tractor hit an overhead power line […] Read more
Understanding life through death — in an entertaining way
Saskatoon author Yann Martel takes us on a sublime literary journey that is at once deeply sorrowful, yet highly amusing—a feat only a writer of Martel’s abilities could pull off. The author of international best-selling novel, Life of Pi, follows up the smash hit with a bigger swing at literary complexity in his latest release, […] Read more
