Farm Happenings and Husky the Musky

Hello from Kenora!

The PEDAL crew got into town yesterday afternoon and are taking our first day off in a week before we cross the border into Manitoba. In fact, we've just hit the 2000 km mark in our journey! Only 14 000 km left.

The past few days have been filled with cycling through the gorgeous landscape leading up to the Lake of the Woods area. After a few flatter riding days, the hills have reappeared for one last hurrah. They aren't as challenging as the ones encountered in Lake Superior Provincial Park, but they sure will make the prairies seem easy.

It's refreshing to find fresh food readily available after a few days scavenging for canned food in gas stations. Our recycling pile has been building up, and we will finally be parting with it in Kenora. We never expected it would be so difficult to recycle once we left Southern Ontario, but we are determined not to throw away valuable resources... even if that means hulking bags of cans and cardboard precariously perched on our bikes.

Despite the lack of supermarkets bursting with food, we have found a couple of wonderful farms along our route. Both were demonstrating sustainable practices in some sense and welcomed us warmly.

The first, located in Oxdrift, is Wall's Pork Shop. Bob Wall is very informed about a variety of food issues, including genetically modified crops and the negative repercussions of dependence on artificial fertilizers. He is also a passionate advocate for small, local slaughterhouses like his own. If you're in the area and interested in local meat products, give him a call. He sells direct from the farm. (807) 937-4357.


Honey Mill Farm, located in Vermillion Bay, is a diverse family farm operation. We were impressed with their greenhouses, where crops are grown vertically on climbing ropes to maximize space. There are also a number of animals on the farm, which adds to the farm atmosphere. While they are not organic, the farm uses no pesticides, due to their toxicity and customer concern. They can be found at farmers markets in the Dryden area.

We're approaching the Manitoba boarder with a great sense of excitement and anticipation! Our first official stop at Prairie's Edge Ecovilliage is coming up in a couple of days. Soon we will be sharing all that we learn there with you, so be sure to keep checking the blog!