Maker's Malt

07/25/2025

The Station is back! Great food and great local beverage lineup. Oh and it's Art Night...

07/07/2025

Did you know that Saskatchewan agricultural production is pretty much the most sustainable in the world? Our environment has shaped our growing practices and we understood early that water is our most meaningful input. The innovation of "no-till" farming and all of the equipment and agronomic practices and farmer "know-how", have evolved to put us literally at the very top of sustainable food production world-wide.

This GIFS work was put out there for canola, wheat, peas and lentils last year and finally today we have one for barley and oats.

06/03/2025

We left Tokyo and travelled to Takayama a Beautiful smaller town tucked in the Japanese Alps. We stayed at a traditional (but posh) Ryokan and had a multiple course meal and a nice Onsen afterwards. Hida is known for its beef - note that amazing marbling! We spent most of the day walking, starting with the morning market along the beautiful river walk. This was followed by "Old Town" with shops and restaurants all around and then over to a traditional Hida village. The area was also know for its wood and carpentry as well as silk production. Lots of modern furniture being made to this day. A very nice town to visit if you're ever in Japan.

06/01/2025

Tokyo for 3 nights. Katie's had to present at the World Physiotherapy Conference. A couple of follow up meetings and lots of sights!

06/01/2025

Canadian barley is made into unique products all over the world. Most interesting here was an industrialized version of a traditional practice of roasting barley within hot sand. I understood this was typical on coastal areas and some customers still want the outcomes it provides. They've created a line to roast barley within sand, sift the sand out and reuse it in a continuous loop. Pretty cool!

05/31/2025

Domestic barley production in the Shigu prefecture. They rotate barley and rice here. These small trucks come by with 1 MT totes to unload the combines.

05/30/2025

Japan Day 2
Visit to Kinkakujicho-ji temple built in 1397. Video shows me hitting the coin shot for good luck! Followed by a tour of barley fields and processing facility in the Shiga prefecture. Followed by a walk up a giant hill to Hikone castle. Massive intact walls from 1622, a moat, places to hide and shoot and secret hiding spots show this was built expecting to be attacked! From the top views of Lake Biwa.

05/30/2025

Day 1 in Japan was in the Kyoto and Nara region. The detailed architecture was impressive and the massive scale of these temples built in the 700's was even more stunning.
We had fantastic local ramen for lunch where Shotaro thought we were probably first Canadians ever to that shop

First pic and one of our hosts Keita-san at the Todai-ji temple and grounds.

05/09/2025

05/09/2025

Our first seeded wheat is popping up nicely.
Seeded April 25th
1st picture is from May 3rd when we saw the start of emergence
2nd pic is from today May 8th.
Looking good!

Photo

05/02/2025

1 week into and we're still excited every time the seeder pulls up!!

Henrik's loving any chance to help Dad and Grandpa this year.

We're getting great conditions to roll reasonably hard and with a 29 C day today, great to have over half of the wheat and lentils in the ground.

04/25/2025

Plant 2025 is rolling!!
Starting with the Hard Red Spring Wheat that makes Saskatchewan known to millers around the world!