Semester review: course goals PLUS 3 rural cooperative models from this term

I guess a good thing to do is take a look at what we've learned over the semester and what I set out to do in week 1. My initial post for this course details, first of all, the books that initially taught me about rural. The initial list was: Anne of Green Gables, the...

ArtPost: St. Jacobs Quilt Festival

A gathering of amazing quilters from Waterloo Region and Beyond. Happening the weekend of May 23.

A Reflection on Field Time

Our class recently made a visit to St. Jacobs and Millbank, Ontario. Each of us led a part of a Jane’s Walk in each location, each focusing on a distinct theme. Our Janes Walk as a whole led us to look at schools, landscapes and interesting businesses in each location, and to discuss rural identity...

Rural Community-based…. Internet Providers?

When searching for news relating to this blog, I sometimes do a News search on google. Today my google search was…. “rural industry site: cbc.ca” and “rural industry site: globeandmail.ca” ...meaning the search would turn up CBC articles with the keywords “Rural AND Industry.” So the CBC search led to these hits…   And this...

Re: Community in the City

“In this community, poverty and chronic exclusion breed a need for an interconnectedness that creates resilience and allows us to stretch our meager resources.”                                     -Rania el Mugammar talking about her St. James Town community I was just reading an essay yesterday by Rania el Mugammar at CBC and it made me think back to...

ArtPost: a barn quilt experiment

A followup to the Barn Quilts post of a few weeks ago…. Inspired by the barn quilts I learned about at Barnquittrails.ca, I decided to make my own over the break last week.   Slow progress...   I realized, while looking for my own quilt pattern to follow, that barn quilts are actually found in...

We could do with more immigration to rural Canada

"We need to continue to build public support for immigration as an essential part of  nation-building"  -Ratna Omidvar, Canadian Senator (2017) "What we want is population... Let them all come in. There is work for all. Every two or three men that come to Canada and do a day's work create new work for someone...

Art Post: Part Lot 18, Concession 6

Part Lot 18 "...a skeleton on which fragments of history and figments of imagination hang." -Susie Osler, creator of Part Lot 18   This is a thoughtful and striking installation by artist Susie Osler. Constructed in 2012, the barn frame provides an artistic history of Lanark County. Travellers can explore the structure and discover texts,...

Why one ag research project requires the expertise of many

  The Rural Development and Planning Symposium took place here in Guelph this past Tuesday. I was thrilled to attend a poster viewing of a few rural research projects taking place, and to view a research presentation about milk iodine content by a U of Guelph research scientist,  Courtney Rogerson, MSc. Quick research summary Rogerson...

Is barter exchange filling a void for urbanites?

Rural is not Agriculture. But agriculture is still the first lens through which I understand the discussions of rural geography.  A few questions for readers today... Do you know about Community Shared Agriculture? This page helps to explain the CSA model of food purchasing, if that’s something of interest to anyone. A snippet from their...