ROUND HILL, ALTA. – The garden patch outside Ann Sherbaniuk’s Round Hill farm home has fed a lot of people since it was dug out of the Alberta prairie in 1901.
Her husband’s great-grandmother had her garden on this spot and Ann continued the tradition for the next 60 years.
While other grandmothers are tempted to seed more grass and less garden, Sherbaniuk’s garden has remained the same size.
“The land is here so I might as well plant a garden,” she said.
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This year, Sherbaniuk planted 600 hills of potatoes, mostly to give to the Protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary Ukrainian Catholic Church in Camrose to be used in perogies.
“Most go to the church. The kids get a few pails. A couple of pails will do me. You can’t have potatoes every day.”
Sherbaniuk had spent the previous day at the church blanching 1,600 pounds of cabbage for cabbage- roll-making work bees during the fall and winter. Next, the church women will process another 1,600 pounds of cabbage for more cabbage rolls and sauerkraut.
Without the women making Ukrainian food to sell for weddings, funerals and church suppers, the church would close its doors, Sherbaniuk said.
“It’s just us old women working.”
Sherbaniuk estimates they can churn out 3,000 perogies on a good day.
