Some of my fondest memories as a young woman are of helping my Aunt Kate Basel and Uncle Josh Vetter in the colony garden
As long as the earth remains, there will be planting and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night.” — Genesis 8:22 On a Hutterite colony, typically one couple is in charge of the vegetable garden. They’re the ones who decide what will be planted, when the garden needs weeding or produce is […] Read more
When my sister makes maple syrup every spring, she also recreates treasured memories from my childhood
Every spring a corner of our backyard is transformed into a scene that could be from Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House books. Two columns of bricks create a makeshift stove, over which giant rectangular pans sit atop a steel table-like structure. Barrels of scrap hardwood, collected throughout winter at our carpenter shop especially for this, […] Read more
A Manitoba Hutterite Colony takes on the challenge of ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’
“I think I’ll be counting bags in my sleep tonight,” a seventh-grader chuckled. A group of us were on the floor in my classroom, around a mountain of plastic bags we were counting for the Bag Up Manitoba program. Since getting involved in this program some years ago, the most our school ever collected was […] Read more
The disturbing news that our provincial government had decided to breach the Hoop ‘n’ Holler bend in order to take pressure off the weakening Assiniboine River dikes raised mixed feelings. “Why do we have to be the scapegoats?” one area resident protested. Another wondered, “How can they decide to sacrifice my land to spare others’ […] Read more
It was well after midnight on Oct. 20, 2010 when a woman looked out the window, and saw flames at the Millwork shop. Minutes later most members of Elm River Colony were at the site, trying to extinguish the blaze or watching in disbelief as years of investments and building up burned to a mound […] Read more
Trucks are waiting! Everybody welcome. Thank you!” The crisp message rings from the public address system, inviting colony members to a shift of picking weeds and lumps of dirt out of newly harvested potatoes travelling by conveyor into the shed. “This is a recorded announcement!” one of the young women deadpans. Grabbing gloves and a […] Read more
Lorena wrote a letter outlining the project to other colonies, asking for donated homemade items. The call to my sister Lorena from Dora Maendel at Fairholme Colony came last spring. “I hope you’re wearing your Good Samaritan hat today, because I have a job for you!” Andrea Firth, the conference co-ordinator with Hospice & Palliative […] Read more
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