Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/253786
20 g o i n g p l a c e s | s p r i n g 2 0 1 4 john boy farms Eat. Sleep. Farm. A city boy digs deep for his roots on a rural heritage tour by Paddy McGee A dmiring my one-year-old as he plays in the sod, I see his moth- er's Slavic eyes and his father's Celtic, Charlie Brown-sized melon. Half of him is me. Half of him is his mom. It dawns on me that my boy is also part farmer. His mother's favourite shirt says, "A little dirt never hurt a prairie girl." His maternal grandfather graduated with an agricultural engineering degree and his maternal great-grandfather was even inducted into the Manitoba Agricultural Hall of Fame in 2012. It's clear that his mother's soul is rooted in the soil. On the other hand, generations of blue-collar coal and engine grease run in his father's veins. High time, I decide, to head off on an agricultural journey to understand my new son's farming roots. I figure the best introduction, to what for me has become a foreign world, is the Univer- sity of Manitoba's Farm and Food Discovery Centre just south of St. Adolphe. I feel like something of an outsider in this rural piece of heaven. However, as I turn down Research Station Road, the contemporary lines of the 2.5-year-old museum's facade welcome this city kid. Inside, the agricultural exhibits are presented in a very cool modern style. It's evi- dent that the lead museum display designer, Michael Plamondon from Ottawa's Origin Studios, put some neat contemporary twists into the rustic content. In the middle of the centre's first exhibit area sits a shiny grain bin. It's small for a grain bin, but nonetheless it dominates this inspir- ing space. As I walk around it, I notice multi- media screens showcasing the university's researchers and their work in the field. After reading some of the material, I'm now a staunch advocate for the honeybee, and I'm very concerned about their dwindling popula- tions. ey not only please Winnie-the-Pooh, they play such a critical role in pollinating and reseeding plants. Losing the bees would be a great sting to our world. Just past the water cycle display, a tractor simulator and video screen are housed inside the grain bin. It's awesome. Inside this exhibit, I discover the price tags of several farming machines. Not so awesome! Operating a modern farm is truly a multi-million-dollar capital invest- ment. Not to mention the sweat equity required. I make my way past the soil, wheat and vegetable growing wall, then through a dark- ened hall of bacteria displays before finding myself in an unexpected space: a true "living museum" offering a look at a genuine working pig farm. In the first display window stands a big, curious Casanova of a boar. He looks like a real charmer. e next set of windows features a motherlode of stalls filled with sows nursing numerous piglets. Lying next to their playful piglets, the sows look absolutely massive and MAde in MAnitobA More than 20 types of vegetables are grown – chemical free – at John Boy Farms. p20-23MadeInManitoba.indd 20 14-01-24 10:53 AM