The Prairie Improvement Network (PIN) as it is now known, will cease to exist as of Mar. 31.

Directors agreed last week, during a final annual general meeting held by conference call to create an endowment to fund scholarships for graduate students at the University of Manitoba from the remaining funds in its reserve.

It’s a tough decision but directors believe it’s the right one, said Souris-area farmer Dustin Williams who chairs PIN’s eight-member board.

“There just wasn’t the funding out there that we hoped there would be in the industry to keep us moving forward,” he said.

PIN carried on after 2014, when Ottawa centralized administering the Canadian Agricultural Adaptation Program (CAAP). Until then, 14 regional councils across the country, including MRAC, ran the programs locally.

PIN tried to seek out new partnerships and streams of revenue in innovation programming. Those efforts haven’t yielded the results members had hoped, Williams said.

“Simply put, there aren’t as many available sources of funding available to organizations,” he said. “And there’s less groups interested in funding organizations to work on behalf of them.”

MRAC formed in 1996 and over its 20-year history, supported over 700 projects, distributing just under $29 million towards adaptation and innovation. Working with industry partners, the group was able to leverage an additional investment of $102 million, for a total of over $131 million directed into agricultural advancement in Manitoba and Canada.

Williams said board members decided to cease operations now while the group still has cash in reserve and can create this scholarship fund as a lasting legacy.

But it’s still a sad day, he said.

“Manitoba farms are losing one more tool that they had in trying to support their industry,” Williams said.

Retired farmer Owen McAuley, who helped get it started, agrees.

“What will be missed more than anything is a group that took a broad look at rural issues,” he said. “Without an organization like this you tend to get silos built around the thinking.”

MRAC always aimed to keep the broadest range of needs of all Manitobans front and centre, he added.

PIN can be proud of all it has achieved, McAuley said.

“I think Manitoba has been well served and the whole rural area has been well served,” MacAuley said. “We funded a lot of small projects and a lot of organizations putting together small industries to help the rural communities adapt to the new environment that was being put in place.”

The Assiniboine River Basin Initiative, which PIN got going, is an excellent example of something that will have ongoing and lasting impact across the Prairies, he said.

The full value of the endowment fund will be announced later this year. It will support graduate students at University of Manitoba focusing on research, including social sciences within the faculty of agricultural and food sciences. Each year, beginning in 2018-19, the available annual income and any unspent revenue from the fund will be used to offer one or two scholarships.

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By calling itself the Manitoba Forage and Grassland Association, the group hopes to become better aligned with the goals of the recently formed Canadian Forage & Grassland Association.

“We wanted to be more clear about what we are covering to include the native forage and rangelands, which is a huge chunk of Canada,” said chair Jim Lintott.

In Manitoba, forages and grassland comprise one-third of the total agricultural land in the province, or 5.9 million acres, with nearly half in pasture and the balance in hay production.

Lintott added that MFGA will boost its focus on promoting the environmental and community benefits of forage to prospective partners and the public.

The economic value of the forage and grassland industry in Canada is estimated to be $5.9 billion per year with Manitoba nearing $1 billion.

“We all know the benefit grasslands provide the soil, waterways, air quality, livestock and biodiversity; however, many don’t,” said Lintott.

With that in mind, one year of funding for a potentially multi-year Manitoba Rangeland (Ecosite) Classification project has been secured with assistance from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Nature Conservancy of Canada and the Manitoba Rural Adaptation Council.

Jeff Thorpe, a scientist with the Saskatchewan Research Council, has been hired to create a new ecosite classification tool for extension staff, landowners, and producers to determine potential forage yields, stocking rates for grazing, as well as aid in re-establishment of native species should an area experience flooding or drought.

Thorpe’s work will closely resemble work that he recently completed in Saskatchewan, which created classifications for the different types of native pastures based on region, climate, and soil type, whether it be loam, sand or “wet meadows.”

“For each of those soil types, we will try to come up with an average level of productivity that you could use for pasture planning,” said Thorpe.

Also, the classifications will list types of vegetation that each will support, and that information could be used by ranchers to assess damage that may have occurred due to various causes, including overgrazing.

“Some of your more productive grasses could be knocked out of the community if it’s hammered too hard over too many years,” said Thorpe, adding that improving management will often result in a spontaneous recovery of valuable species such as big bluestem.

Most of the work in the first year will involve desk work, mainly by overlaying existing data and maps to create a general picture over the whole province. Then, if funding is forthcoming, future years could see fine tuning of the classifications based on field surveys of benchmark areas and clipping sites to measure productivity.

The project also offers a side benefit of raising awareness of the economic value of native pastures with the general public about grassland species diversity and its value as habitat for myriad flora and fauna.

“If you’ve got healthy pasture lands, it’s better for cattle grazing as well as other stuff such as wildlife and watershed protection,” said Thorpe.

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“I’m just planting a seed out there… let’s have a conversation about it and see where it goes,” said PIN executve director Ted Eastley at the close of last week’s meeting in Portage la Prairie.

A water secretariat is just one of several ideas for future projects now on the table as PIN’s job administering federal Canadian Agricultural Adapation Program (CAAP) funding nears its end, Eastley said.

Last April the federal government announced funding for all 14 rural regional adaptation councils in Canada would end, and the program would be centralized in Ottawa after March 2014.

MRAC officially changed its name to PIN last fall, but in many ways is now “returning to its roots,” as it looks for new strategic projects, Eastley said.

MRAC was created to bring Manitobans together around ideas for innovation, he said. Now they’re looking for new projects and directions to take their organization in.

“We are in the process of identifying some strategic projects that will help us put our stake in the ground,” he said.

PIN has one year left in the CAAP program and is currently accepting applications for short-term projects such as feasibility studies or short demonstration projects ending Dec. 31, 2013.

PIN chair Terry Fehr said in an interview that the network will continue to serve as a catalyst for innovation and adaptation in Manitoba.

“We see opportunities in a number of different areas. One would be in water management,” he said. The network, as a non-political organization, is in a good position to bring together the various groups in Manitoba now talking about water issues.

“There are a number of organizations talking about water management,” he said. “Quite frankly, these discussions are dispersed. There doesn’t seem to be communication among them.”

Eastley said they want Manitobans to stay “in the loop” with PIN as it moves ahead to develop and encourages people to contact and talk with PIN directors and staff.

Dustin Williams, a Souris-area farmer has joined the board this spring as a youth director.

“I got involved just out of interest for where the organization is going to go,” he said. “I wholeheartedly support innovation. I’m interested in it and I’m interested to see what ideas are coming forward.”

This group is very well known among farmers under its MRAC name, Williams said.

“I think it’s been an excellent group to have to advocate for change in Manitoba, and, on that merit, I think that PIN will have good traction going forward.”

The PIN’s website, with names and contact information is found at: http://prairienetwork.ca.

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Since its formation in 1996, MRAC has administered Manitoba’s share of federal Canadian Agricultural Adaptation Program (CAAP) funding to jump start adaptation activities among farmers and their communities.

The federal government ended that role this past April for the 14 rural regional adaptation councils across the country, announcing plans to centralize the entire program in Ottawa after March 2014.

Last April’s change merely accelerated efforts and planning to expand MRAC’s mandate and move in new directions, said Ted Eastley, executive director of the new Prairie Improvement Network last week.

“We’d started down this road a couple of years ago,” he said. “We’ve wanted to ensure that if the funds were to disappear, we’d have an alternate route and purpose.”

The Prairie Improvement Network’s job ahead is to expand its focus and advocacy work beyond the singular focus of agriculture and play a larger advocacy role in improving the lives of all rural Manitobans, he said. It wants to be a catalyst for innovation and adaptation in a broader number of ideas beyond agriculture, including health, conservation and the environment, he said.

“We’d like to be in a position to pull together these diverse areas. We see ourselves as sort of a catalyst to bring together those various sectors within the rural sector.”

Additionally, Prairie Improvement Network’s work will lie with providing insight on how to bridge the rural/urban split and to engage a broader and more diverse group of rural interests in ways to facilitate positive change. The board, which represents a huge range of perspectives and expertise, is particularly excited about what it can do in that area, said Eastley.

With no confirmed funding, the new network must pursue new research and development innovation funding in both the public and private sectors, he said.

Before its transition to PIN, MRAC has funded more than 600 innovative projects, contributing more than $23 million towards adaptation and innovation. By working with numerous industry partners, including producers, producer organizations, private and public corporations and government, it leveraged an investment of more than $70 million in agricultural advancement in Manitoba.

The Prairie Improvement Network website was activated on Monday, November 26.

For more information visit www.prairienetwork.ca.

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This implies an annual growth in agricultural productivity of 2.5 per cent, from the same or less land. Over the past three decades, despite very significant global investment in agricultural research, global productivity gains have averaged between one per cent to 1.4 per cent per annum, despite the fact that the amount of land available increased as rainforests were cut down.

And this has been without the significant challenges that will be created by future changes in our climate, changes that mean countries like Canada will be required to produce significantly more food per acre as regions farther south turn to uncultivable desert.

By 2050, Canada, even without any changing climate, will be one of only a handful of countries that are still net food exporters. These challenges will only be met with a significant increase of investment in research and innovation to develop new environmentally sustainable, but more intensive, agricultural practices, new approaches to combating existing and emerging plant and animal diseases, new ways to reduce waste, and new ways to ensure safety in the food storage and supply chains.

Canada has much to contribute

Canada is a nation that still enjoys the respect of much of the rest of the world, way above its weight in terms of population or global economic impact, because of its espoused and demonstrated commitment to compassion, fairness, decency and human rights.

What more basic human right is there than the right to an adequate, nutritious supply of safe food, and clean water? Without this we die, and all other rights are meaningless.

In human history, from the earliest social congregations to the present day, the fundamental role of government has been to ensure this right, and recent world events such as those in Tunisia have shown us the social and political upheaval that results when governments forget this. Ensuring that the world is adequately fed is morally the right thing to do, and it is in our national DNA to do so.

Canada has much to gain

This is not just an altruistic vision that Canada must help feed the world. There is the hard-nosed economic reality that affects particularly all three Prairie provinces. For example, in Manitoba the cash receipts from farming, food processing and sales are twice those of Hydro and mining combined: 25 per cent of Manitoba’s “manufacturing” output is based on the agriculture and food industries that provide one in four jobs.

Eighty per cent of Canadian agricultural produce is exported. The potential for this to expand as the world demands more and more food and other bioresources, will have a very significant positive impact on economic growth in Canada as a whole.

How to respond?

So how can Canada rise to the challenge of raising agricultural productivity over the next 40 years? It must continue to invest, but at increased levels, in research and innovation on its own and in partnership with industry.

And it must be prepared to consolidate that investment around existing centres of expertise in order to create the critical mass that science needs to be successful.

In Manitoba, we see that the provincial government understands and supports this agenda within the constraints of its limited financial means.

But recent signals from the federal government, such as: the announcement of the closure of the Cereal Research Centre with the loss of about one-third of the staff and the distribution of the remainder to different parts of Manitoba; the sale of six of its research farms across Canada; the divestment of community pastures; the withdrawal of funding from provincial bodies like the Manitoba Rural Adaptation Council, seem to be signals of disinterest and disengagement in this vital agenda.

Why Winnipeg?

Winnipeg has the world’s greatest collections of expertise in cereal grain science research and innovation. Over the last seven years there have been lengthy and inconclusive discussions around the vision of consolidating that expertise into a single Centre of Excellence that will maximize the synergies available through multidisciplinary research and development.

This vision, especially powerful as an aid to assist Canada to provide solutions to the twin challenges of rising world populations and changing climate, is undeniable.

But the provincial government has been unable to commit to this vision on its own. The City of Winnipeg seems oblivious to the vital importance of maintaining this expertise in Winnipeg or even Manitoba. And the federal government apparently abandoned this vision in favour of short-term exigencies, dispersing, not consolidating its expertise.

We hope this is just a hiatus in effective communication and that in the very near future we will see the signs of a serious commitment to building upon and consolidating, not reducing and dispersing, existing cereal and grains research and innovation capacity, so that we may rise to both the humanitarian challenge and the socio-economic opportunity.

What do we need?

Despite the outward indications, we are encouraged by suggestions that the federal government is giving serious consideration to putting its support behind the concept of a consolidated Centre of Excellence and we applaud them for it. But we are concerned that without a clear and immediate declaration of that intent, the damage inflicted by these short-term measures will lead to an irreversible loss of this very significant opportunity. If Canada does not rise to the challenge of contributing to the solution of feeding the world’s growing population, no amount of self-congratulatory praise or purchase of overexpensive military hardware will be able to protect its citizens from the chaos and anarchy that will follow global mass hunger and starvation. Tunisia was but a minor perturbation and warning.

Michael Trevan is dean of the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences and a professor of food science at the University of Manitoba.

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The Prairie Fruit Growers Association in Manitoba is launching a new fruit-branding program in a joint venture with growers in Saskatchewan and Alberta.

“It’s the Taste” is the slogan growers in the three Prairie provinces affiliated with these associations can now opt to use in their marketing, with logos available to affix to signs, pails and baskets, even hats or vehicles.

The brand program was developed after the Canadian Prairie Fruit Federation. Growers in the three Prairie provinces secured Advancing Canadian Agriculture and Agri-Food (ACAAF) Program funding in 2011 through the Manitoba Rural Adaptation Council (MRAC) to do market research into new ways to promote Prairie-grown fruit.

The federation had several goals, including increasing direct-to-consumer sales by building a visual identity for Prairie-grown fruit, and increasing awareness of local fruits attributes.

“It’s a way to give yourselves more visibility,” said Anthony Mintenko, Manitoba Agriculture Food and Rural Initiatives’ fruit crops business development specialist during the PFGA annual general meeting earlier this spring.

The “It’s the Taste” slogan of the brand should resonate with consumers. They told market researchers that’s the main reason they buy Prairie-grown fruit. Surveys done by Black Sheep Strategy, the consulting firm hired, found 39 per cent saying they purchased Prairie-grown fruit primarily for its freshness and flavour. Others (28 per cent) said their main reason for buying local fruit is to support local growers while 14 per cent said they buy it because its quality is superior to anything found in stores. Those surveyed included core customers at U-picks and purchasers at farm gates, as well as fruit industry partners.

The Prairie provinces are taking a cue from Eastern Canada where a brand program called Les Fraîches du Québec was launched in 2009 in Quebec. More than 100 growers adopted that program in the first season.

Waldo Thiessen, PFGA secretary said he’s pleased to see the brand program released and anticipates it will benefit fruit growers. He admitted feeling a bit skeptical when the federation first formed but not now, he said. “I think this is a major accomplishment,” he said at the PFGA annual meeting.

Grower members of any of the three participating Prairie associations, including Prairie Fruit Growers Association in Manitoba, the Saskatchewan Fruit Growers Association, and Alberta Farm Fresh Producers Association are all eligible to participate in the brand program.

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The moved was flagged in federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty’s 2012 budget last month, which announced Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada will consolidate delivery of all grants and contribution programs across the department.

National-level CAAP project funding, which is earmarked for adaptation and innovation project development, was delivered by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, while regional funding flowed through the councils.

The move effectively ends a nearly two-decades long relationship between the federal government and 14 regional councils representing every province and territory in Canada, including the Manitoba Rural Adaptation Council, (MRAC) which formed in 1995.

A spokesperson for Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) said the decision to consolidate and centralize the program’s administration was not about councils’ work but to reduce risk of project duplication, while providing greater consistency, monitoring and accountability of projects.

Disappointing

Adaptation council spokespersons across Canada called the move to abandon regional council delivery of future federal funding “disappointing news.”

Heather Broughton, chair of the Agriculture and Food Council of Alberta (AFC), said the government’s decision “will end an almost 20-year relationship between AFC and the federal government.” John Kikkert, chair of Ontario”s Agricultural Adaptation Council, said in a news release that regional adaptation councils have served the diversity of needs in agricultural and agri-food sectors across the country extremely well.

“Canada is a very large country with a very diverse agricultural industry from coast to coast,” Kikkert said. “Its regions and their agricultural and agri-food sectors across the country have very different needs.”

MRAC executive director Ted Eastley also expressed disappointment, saying there had been some indication change was coming, but the board never anticipated the move to centralize funding delivery.

“We’re disappointed that they would go that route,” he said. “And there is a definite impact. We’ve been able to react regionally and that’s been an integral part of the success that we’ve had.”

However, while this leaves MRAC and all other adaptation councils without CAAP funds to administer after March 2014, it most certainly does not spell the end of their regional council, Eastley said.

“It’s the end of CAAP funding as we know it,” he said. “It’s not the end of the council.”

Eastley said the challenge now is to move even more quickly on MRAC’s expanded mandate, which was announced at its March 22 annual general meeting. That includes plans to pursue other pockets of innovation funding beyond the agricultural portfolio.

There may also be opportunities to work more directly with industry to manage some of their innovation-directed funding, Eastley said.

“We’ve got two years to work on this and we’re thankful for that,” he said.

Since its inception MRAC has administered almost $30 million in funding towards about 700 innovation projects, approving funding for projects ranging from development of a soil spreader which operates similar to a snow blower for soil, to catalyzing advances in manure management, as well as riparian projects for sustainable management of waterways.

Meanwhile, the CAAP program remains open for two more years, with all current CAAP projects, project timelines and funding allocations unchanged up until March 2014.

Applications are still being accepted with the requirement that all approved projects be completed by October 2013.

Other regional councils affected include the Investment Agriculture Foundation of B.C., Agriculture Council of Saskatchewan, Quebec’s Conseil pour le developpement de l’agriculture du Quebec and Fonds de developpement de la transformation alimentaire, the New Brunswick Agricultural Council, Agri-Futures Nova Scotia, the P.E.I. ADAPT Council, the Newfoundland and Labrador Agri-Adapt Council, the Territorial Farmers Association, Yukon Agricultural Association and Nunavut Harvesters’ Association.

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“We’re looking at delivering ALUS (Alternate Land Use Services) to eight new communities, four of which will be in Ontario and four in the West,” said Jim Fisher, Delta Waterfowl Foundation’s director of conservation policy. “It’s quite possible that we would do one of those in Manitoba.

“We’ve talked to a number of communities in Manitoba over time and we will continue to do that.”

The Weston foundation recently gave Delta Waterfowl two grants totalling $3 million to help expand ALUS (pronounced Alice), a farmer-designed, community-led program that pays farmers for providing ecological benefits, such as protecting riparian areas or ecologically sensitive land. Portage la Prairie farmer Ian Wishart came up with the idea in 1999 and the Keystone Agricultural Producers and Delta Waterfowl have championed it ever since.

The first ALUS pilot project ran in Manitoba’s RM of Blanchard for three years starting in 2006. The pilot cost $2.1 million, with government funding supplemented by the RM of Blanshard, Delta Waterfowl, and the Manitoba Rural Adaptation Council.

The project ended when the funds did, but it fulfilled one of its goals — sparking interest. There are now projects in Prince Edward Island, Norfolk County in southern Ontario, and Vermillion River County in east-central Alberta, Fisher said.

In P.E.I., ALUS is funded largely by government but elsewhere it relies on community support, with Delta Waterfowl working with a “partnership advisory committee” made up of local farmers, municipal councillors, and conservation and agriculture groups.

“They’re heavily engaged,” Fisher said. “We want those communities to run ALUS.

“We don’t want to be running ALUS across the country. We like to see ALUS run at the local level.”

The committee sets the prices farmers will receive for the ecological services provided — usually tied to land rentals — and decides which farms get funded. Delta Waterfowl, via the Weston foundation, supplies seed money, which is used to leverage additional funding, said Fisher, noting the Norfolk project is supported by 16 organizations. Farmers also contribute to projects on their own property.

“They’ve got skin in the game too,” Fisher said. “That tells you a lot. They want to pass their farms on to their kids and grandkids in better shape than they found it.”

Two of the four new western Canadian ALUS locations have been selected. One will include four rural municipalities east of Regina — Indian Head, Lajord, South Qu’Appelle and Francis. The other is Parkland County east of Edmonton.

There’s still lots of support for ALUS in the RM of Blanchard, Fisher said.

“The passion for it is there,” he said. “People in the community really want to get it going again. There are a lot of champions for it there.

“We learned a great deal from that. We’ve advanced ALUS on many fronts. Now we’re at the stage of demonstrating it.”

As with anything, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. When other communities, farmers and potential funders see ALUS working, the program gains supporters, Fisher said.

“This is a grassroots, community-led, farmers-delivered process,” he said. “At the end of the day we’d like this for all agricultural Canada and available to all producers in each province.”

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“Manitoba has a real opportunity to be a global biomaterial centre,” said Simon Potter, sector manager for product innovations at the Composites Innovation Centre (CIC) in Winnipeg.

“No one has ever done this for the composites industry before. It’s really going to give us the leap ahead of the global competition in the production of biocomposite materials.”

This is actually two interrelated projects underway at the composites centre — one involves a new way of bonding hemp and flax fibres to produce a super-strong biocomposite material and the other would use such material to make structural components for a soon-to-be-launched electric vehicle. Potter outlined the research at the recent Manitoba Rural Adaptation Council (MRAC) annual general meeting.

Biocomposites are already used in the auto industry for things such as interior panels and dashboards. But they aren’t used for exteriors because they are not strong enough. In theory, natural fibres have similar properties to fibreglass, but not enough is known about their chemistry and structure in order to understand what bonds them together best, Potter said.

But CIC researchers believe they are close to figuring that out, he said. They have used a syncrotron, which generates extremely brilliant light, in order to view the microstructure of the fibres.

“The fancy way of putting this is we’re trying to develop 3D maps of the chemistry of the surface of flax and hemp fibres,” said Potter.

This will allow the design of polymers, glues and resins that best stick to these types of fibres.

“If we can do that, we can start to overcome some of the weakness and problems we’re having with the materials,” he said.

“What we actually want to move towards is the capability to rationally design materials based on the chemistry of the fibres.”

Researchers have produced a series of composite materials of different strength properties and some are  “extremely promising,” said Potter, adding final results are expected to be released in June.

The work is being funded by MRAC, as is a project aimed at finding uses for biocomposites using hemp fibre. The CIC is working with a Canadian business consortium, Project Eve, to develop biocomposite components for Kestrel, a fully electric vehicle built by Calgary-based Motive Industries and expected to go on sale later this year.

The lightweight, four-passenger vehicle would have its left- and right-side panels and roof sheet made from hemp composites. Another Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada-funded project has seen the completion of fenders and the car hood, which is on display at the CIC.

The project is a leap forward for biocomposite materials, Potter said.

“We’re actually tackling the structural components of the vehicle and the exterior of the vehicle itself,” he said.

Biofibre is attracting considerable attention for automobile manufacturers, he added. Potter and other composite centre officials recently returned from Detroit where officials with Hyundai and Ford have told them they are “very keen” on  CIC’s innovation with biofibre car components and are considering undertaking research themselves. Cars made from biocomposite materials are more fuel efficient because they’re lighter, and are impact resistant because they have a “bounce back” quality unlike steel, said Potter.

Big automotive makers are looking to Manitoba right now “because we are the only credible source of these materials that they’ve actually ever found to date,” he said.

“There’s a colossal opportunity here for us,” he said.

“If we can start to get these materials up to the specifications of what the automotive industry needs, then it’s a fairly small step from there to what the aerospace industry needs and medical device industry.”

Annual demand for composite materials is about $500 billion and it’s projected that 20 to 30 per cent of that market could be taken up by biocomposite materials, Potter said.

MRAC funding for the two CIC projects includes $103,000 for the fibre investigation research and another $234,815 for the development of the components for the Kestrel EV platform.

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It won’t be long now before we’ll start to see a welcome sight — honeybees hovering around spring’s buffet of early-flowering trees and plants.

Bees were the buzz at Manitoba Rural Adaptation Council’s recent annual meeting, where Rob Currie, department head of entomology at the University of Manitoba gave a presentation on behalf of Manitoba Beekeepers’ Association, talking about important research MRAC is helping fund to figure out what’s killing our bees and how to save them.

He also gave his audience a taste of the beekeeping industry across Canada and why it’s so important.

If we can’t resolve the problems bees have been having, clearly it won’t just be honey producers affected. Many of the crops grown on the Canadian Prairies require the use of pollinators, making the bee’s labour worth as much as $1 billion a year. Local crops such as canola, alfalfa and sunflower benefit immensely from the use of our honeybees as pollinators, as do, of course, many trees and flowering plants.

Next time you’re dribbling a dollop of honey on your toast or into your tea, consider it brought to you by a critical partner in both our ecosystem and the agricultural systems depending on them.

And choose “Product of Canada” when you buy honey. Doing so, we play our own part in supporting local agriculture and the natural ecosystem.

Honey Joes

• 1/4 c. chopped onions1/4 c. chopped celery1/4 c. grated carrots2 tbsp. vegetable oil1 lb. ground turkey or beef1/2 c. tomato paste1/4 c. honey3 tbsp. water1 tbsp. vinegar2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce1-1/2 tsp. chili powder4 hamburger bunsSalt and pepper to taste

Honey Carrot Soup

• 1 lb. carrots, peeled and thinly sliced *1 onion, chopped2 c. reduced-sodium chicken broth1/4 c. Bee Maid liquid honey1 c. 2 per cent low-fat milkGround nutmegMinced chives* Substitute 1 (20-oz.) package of frozen sliced carrots, if desired

Dutch Style Green Beans

• 1 pkg. frozen green beans (10 oz., 283 grams)2 tbsp. butter1/2 c. chopped onions2 tbsp. flour1/2 tsp. salt1/4 tsp. pepper1/4 c. vinegar2 tbsp. Bee Maid Liquid honey3/4 c. bean liquid and water

Cook beans following package directions. Drain, saving liquid. Meanwhile, melt butter in a small saucepan; add onion and cook until soft but not brown. Stir in flour, salt and pepper. Add vinegar and honey and gradually stir in bean liquid. Cook over low heat stirring until smooth and thickened. Remove from heat and gently fold cooked beans into the sauce. Source: Canadian Honey Council

Pumpkin Muffinswith Cream Cheese

• 2 c. all-purpose flour1-1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon1 tsp. baking soda1/2 tsp. salt1/2 c. chopped walnuts1 c. solid-pack pumpkin1 c. honey1/4 c. vegetable oil2 eggs at room temperature, slightly beaten1/4 c. low-fat buttermilk1 tsp. vanilla extract

In a large bowl, stir together flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt. Stir in walnuts. In a separate bowl, blend pumpkin, honey, oil, eggs, buttermilk and vanilla until smooth. Pour pumpkin mixture over dry ingredients. Stir just until mixed. Spoon batter into paper-lined muffin cups, filling each to just below the rim. Bake at 350 F for about 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the centre of muffins comes out clean. Let pan cool on rack for five minutes. Remove muffins from pan and let cool on rack completely. Frost with Cream Cheese Frosting, if desired.

Cream Cheese Frosting: In a small bowl, with electric mixer, beat eight ounces cream cheese (softened to room temperature) with 1/3 cup honey, until fluffy. Makes 12 muffins.

Frosting is optional on these muffins. Without it, they are ideal for breakfast; with it, they become a sweet afternoon snack.

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