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A Family Farm Since 1912
Our family first homesteaded the Alberta land in 1912. In 1939, Donald Smith began a tradition we follow to this day: he left the land in better condition than when he started. By the 1960s, Russel took over farming the original homestead, carrying on a tradition of improving the land. In the mid 1980s, we decided to convert to organic farming.
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In 1985, Russel's son, Dwayne. and his wife, Doreen, began to work the farm alongside Russel. They began to work toward earning the farm its organic certification. Although the farm had never suffered from intensive use of pesticides and herbicides, information about organic grain farming on the prairies was scarce. Those early years were often discouraging, and the field trials taught difficult lessons, perhaps as difficult as those learned by the early homesteaders.
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With hard work and a strong belief in the importantance of the organic approach, Grainworks created a farming system ideally suited for this land. In 1988, we earned our first organic certification and have been certified by at least one and regularly two certification associations ever since. |
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The Move. In 2001, the organic farmland was relocated from Vulcan, Alberta, to southwestern Saskatchewan. This increased our acreage from 2200 acres to over 3500 acres. With this move came the potential to acquire more land base to convert to organic practices.
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The Future. As we increase the size of the farm, Grainworks continues to take a holistic approach to the ecosystem we care for. We embrace positive environmental stewardship, and we practice permaculture activities. We are proud that our method of organic farming serves an example of sustainability and that we are doing our part to protect and provide for the global environment. |
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