School is back in, and suddenly it feels like fall.

We’ve had some sunny and warm weather the last two weeks of August around Calgary, but all together it’s been a season with a few areas consistently dry, others with almost too much rain and maybe a bit late, and some with just the right amount of rain and sun.

Perhaps we are simply experiencing an average weather year in Alberta?

Harvest season

It’s early September as I write this. Southern Alberta harvests are well underway, and mostly, the growing project harvests have yielded well. We’re very thankful for what appears to be at least an average, and in some places an above average, crop season.

But there is also plenty of variation across this province: At Medicine Hat, the wheat yield came out at 11 bu, but 80 – 100 people showed up to support the harvest. I’ve been in touch with the Eckville project, where Jim and Ron said they have had almost perfect rain and sun this year, and no hail. Vauxhall, on irrigated land, harvested barley last week at 178 bu.

Granum was the first harvest this year with winter wheat on August 6. Since then, Medicine Hat, Taber, Viterra South, Westfield (Foremost North), Foremost South (part of the High River project), Vauxhall, Coaldale, Picture Butte, and La Crete have all happened, and by the time you read this, there will be others.

We are thankful for it all, for the faithfulness of all supporters, all donors, all businesses, all farmers, all those who pray, and all those who are interested in the mission to end hunger. Your support is making a difference in Sudan, Gaza, DR Congo, Colombia, Venezuela, Yemen, Somalia, Ukraine, Kenya, Ethiopia, and many other places in our world where hunger is a daily reality.

 

 

The Granum Foodgrains sign in front of the harvested field.
Granum after harvest, and a new sign.

A 1960s Cockshutt combine augers the last of the harvest into an older grain truck.
Picture Butte August 27.

A group of people gather to eat lunch in a field.
Medicine Hat lunch August 12.

A group of people standing in front of a row of tractors.
Newell harvest crew on August 26.

People gather in a field for the Coaldale harvest. There are pop up tents in the background.
Coaldale setting up August 27.

A row of combines stopped on a field that has been harvested.
La Crete after a good harvest August 29.

– Abe, Alberta regional representative