Reading Time: 4 minutes After a whirlwind season, Kristen Raney, owner of Shifting Blooms flower farm in Clavet, Sask., is getting ready to shut down her farm stand and wrap up the 2025 wedding and market season. Thanksgiving weekend and the first frost of the season spell the end for her roadside garden stand and flower gardens, but Christmas […] Read more
Space and grace from season to season
Summer Series: In the final instalment of this five-part series, we find out how Kristen Raney wraps up the busy season at her Saskatchewan flower farm
Flower power, with help from some feathered friends
Summer Series: The pros and cons of chickens on a flower farm
Reading Time: 3 minutes After five years as owner-operator of flower farm Shifting Blooms, Raney’s long-time love of chickens is paying off more than she initially thought. The mix of Ameraucana, Easter Egger, Swedish flower hens, Copper Marans, silkies, an Orpington and a Polish chicken create a rainbow of eggs for her farm stand. But her chickens give so […] Read more
VIDEO: A week in the life of a flower farmer
Summer Series: Operating a business that is at the mercy of the weather means it’s always a gamble whether the hard work will pay off. Sticking to a daily routine helps flower farmer Kristen Raney stay on top of a busy wedding season — and hopefully beat the odds
Reading Time: 4 minutes July sun beats down on Kristen Raney as she works in her Clavet, Sask., flower garden. Weeding and watering are constant this time of year and so, from June to August, this flower farmer, blogger and writer maintains a strict routine to keep up with the demands of weddings, artisanal markets and the farm stand […] Read more
Saskatchewan flower grower experiments with crops to find best bridal bouquets
Summer Series: Part two of our series following Saskatchewan’s Shifting Blooms along their business decision trail throughout the growing season
Reading Time: 3 minutes After four years running a flower farm, Kristen Raney is getting to know her business clientele better each year. Experimenting over the years with the sandy soils of her Clavet, Sask., farm means that she’s feeling confident this summer’s brides and grooms will love what she has to offer. She supplied her first 2025 wedding […] Read more
The butterfly effect of floral planning
Summer Series: Decisions made months before summer arrives affect the seasonal success of this floral business
Reading Time: 3 minutes In the white and grey of a Saskatchewan winter, Kristen Raney was thinking about rich chocolate browns, peaches and soft pink tones. As owner and operator of Shifting Blooms Flower Farm, the flower farmer, blogger and author uses the winter months to prepare for a successful growing season. In December, Raney was looking into wedding […] Read more
Manitoba dairy farmers relocate to Vancouver Island
A Gutsy Move: How do a couple of dairy farmers pick up and move halfway across the country?
Reading Time: 6 minutes Chelsea Enns knew she wanted a different kind of dairy business. Enns and her husband, Albert Gorter, were looking to expand their dairy near Steinbach, Man., by adding their own processing plant to make dairy products. Then the perfect business, Little Qualicum Cheeseworks, a small family-run cheesemaking facility, came up for sale near Parksville, B.C. […] Read more
Balancing the ups and downs of raising sheep
The ups and downs of raising sheep can be balanced by a supportive network and shared knowledge
Reading Time: 7 minutes Carla and Tyrone Borsa had already put a lot of research into their Rosthern, Sask., sheep operation even before the first set of cloven hooves hit the pasture in 2022. Almost three years later, that focus on quality sheep production has netted twenty-five mature Dorset ewes and two Canadian Arcott rams. And although the Borsas […] Read more
At Agribition: Iowa school group looks in on Prairie ag
Media program students, alumni gather participants' stories
Reading Time: 3 minutes Fresh faces and new blood were injected into the usual cadre of journalism veterans this week at Canadian Western Agribition. Students from Iowa’s CAC Media Group ventured to Regina for hands-on agricultural journalism experience. Hannah Grantz, Jake VanderHeiden and Katlin Truelsen, students from high schools across Clinton County in eastern Iowa, interviewed, photographed and videotaped […] Read more
At Agribition: Young dogs debut their new tricks
'These guys show up to work'
Reading Time: 2 minutes Ranchers and livestock producers at a Regina farm show got a demonstration of a potential solution to looming labour shortages: dogs. Dogs and their handlers competed at the seventh annual Cattle Dog Futurity and Maturity competitions and the International Stock Dog Trials held Thursday at Canadian Western Agribition. The futurity event featured dogs born between […] Read more
At Ag in Motion: 3D printer takes aim at food ingredients
Making foods both plant-based and printable the goal
Reading Time: 2 minutes With the development of 3D printing, the age of Star Trek replicators has arrived. For master’s student Rhea Thomas Thommana and PhD student Kashika Sethi, food replication is on the horizon as well. Thomas Thommana and Sethi were at Ag in Motion this week with a 3D printer designed to incorporate plant-based ingredients into food, […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
