Editor’s Note: This longform piece by Michelle first appeared on 19 April 2017.   There are many reasons I farm. Foremost is the welcome diversity of the work, the many physical and mental challenges – always a new puzzle to take apart and solve. It also involves extended periods ofRead More

Editor’s Note: This column first appeared on 11 April 2018 and you’ll notice the opening the line could have been written today. Told you Michelle’s tips were timeless.     What to do this week Well, perhaps you noticed that it snowed this week, so maybe we have to goRead More

The headline on a 2021 article  from the Nova Scotia Health (NSH) website declares: Cape Breton Regional Hospital’s new energy centre will be cleaner, greener and more efficient What struck me when I first read this was that it didn’t simply say the new energy center will be “clean, greenRead More

If we assume that life is worth living and that man has a right to survive, then we must find an alternative to war. In a day when vehicles hurtle through outer space and guided ballistic missiles carve highways of death through the stratosphere, no nation can claim victory inRead More

Editor’s Note: This column first appeared on 4 April 2018.   What to do this week I took a walk in my back field this week. Now that the snow is pretty well gone, I was able to notice that my raspberry bushes need a bit of tending. This isRead More

Editor’s Note: This column first appeared on 29 March 2017.   What to do this week Garden planning time is the perfect time to think about what is needed for saving your own seeds. Even at the home level you want to do it properly, which means, you want toRead More

One of my first memories is walking hand in hand with a giant down the South Bar sandbar road to the ocean. He wasn’t really a giant, he was my great grandfather, a veteran of the First and Second World Wars and a retired miner who didn’t say much andRead More

Editor’s Note: This column first appeared on 22 March 2017.   It may surprise you, as it surprised me, to find out that farming is a political act. And like other forms of politics, it has opposing sides and competing interests as well as philosophical divisions. Quite a lot ofRead More

Shipping News I have to start with the long-awaited arrival of a container ship at the Port of Sydney. It arrived under tow, carried only 4,200 containers and couldn’t have unloaded here if it had wanted to, but there was a container ship at the Port of Sydney. Port generalRead More

Editor’s Note: This column first appeared on 15 March 2017. (But, like pretty much everything in Michelle Smith’s archive, it’s still relevant.)   What to do this week This week we are going to start our cold weather greens, things that you can start in the house and get intoRead More