Blip.

Looking for a new way of roasting butternut squash, I was just thumbing through this cookbook, which has leapt to the top of my favorite cookbooks, and I read the following excerpt. What a hope this man had, and with what graciousness God allowed him to work by the side of his children's children.
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I am immensely grateful to be part of an intergenerational family farm on which we grow grain, bison, sour cherries, vegetables, rainbow trout, and children. I include children because we are not agribusiness people but rather agriculturalists. And this piece of land along the South Saskatchewan River holds a piece of our identity. We love our children, and we also love this land.

One autumn evening three generations of my family were planting cherry trees. The air was deliciously warm, with a spectacular harvest sunset in the western sky. A great blue heron came soaring lazily over us, gracing us with his presence. A beautiful evening-- hands in the earth, working together, children running about.

I glanced over at my dad and saw tears on his weather-worn face.

"Daddy, what?" I asked.

"This," he said, sweeping the vista, "this is what I have hoped for."

- Eileen Klassen Hamm, Saskatoon, Sask.
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Thank you, Heidi, for this wonderful book.