Comments on: Heritage wheat movement “godmother” advocates for communities that connect people, plant, and place

By: Ben Ziegler

Ben Ziegler — Sun, 02 May 2010 17:43:33 +0000

Hi Anne,
I asked Sharon Rempel and she wasn’t sure if Red Fife is sold in USA. As she has many wheat/grain contacts in the USA, I suggest you contact her directly for more info (her contact info is listed on the Garden BC website – accessible through my post on Red Fife). Sorry I’m not more helpful! If I become aware of a specific USA distributor/grower I will let you know. Given its a grain, no doubt there are x-border issues. National borders are strange beasts!

By: Anne Schaible

Anne Schaible — Sun, 02 May 2010 05:34:31 +0000

Nice article, very informative. I would like to grow some Red Fife wheat. Can it be in the USA?
Thanks, Anne

By: Ben Ziegler

Ben Ziegler — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 03:31:25 +0000

Sharon, thank you. I’m humbled to think that I’m the first! (Actually, I think you’re being overly generous with that assessment; at the very least Phil Vernon is in the know!). Hopefully, others are acting on your message, as I write, in their own communities. And yes, I will try fit in some fiddling here and there.

Phil, Thanks for connecting here. I’m looking forward to catching your performance (including Red Fife!) later this month in Victoria.

By: sharon rempel

sharon rempel — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 23:56:04 +0000

Ben, you are the first writer to figure out that my work with Red Fife is a social and political statement. The ’system’ that commoditizes people, seeds (eg. ‘wheat’) and land shows no respect for the diversity of life that is the true Abundance around us. When we can put ‘variety’ and ‘farmer’ identification back into food and when communities realize that they must have seeds that are adapted to their bioregions then ‘food security’ and ‘peace’ will be possible.

When we can bring story, song and music back to the seasonal celebrations of life then we will be bringing ‘culture back to agriculture’ and ‘folk back to food’.

Keep playing your fiddle Ben and keep singing those great songs Phil! Sharon

By: Phil

Phil — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 16:01:25 +0000

Nice article, Ben.
Thanks for mentioning the song. When I first heard about Red Fife and David Fife, I knew it was a good story, and was happy to write the song to support the work that Sharon and others are doing to strengthen food security at the (wheat)grassroots level!

By: Ben Ziegler

Ben Ziegler — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 20:53:39 +0000

Kare, thanks for your kind comments, and observations and insight. I like how you identify the potential of diversity, adaption, collaboration… vis-a-vis our “roiling economy and rootless culture”. It makes me think that promoting “community” (albeit in a different form than 19th prairie towns) can really help address both the economy and culture challenges you speak of!

By: kare anderson

kare anderson — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 17:10:37 +0000

What struck me beyond this captivating movement about which I knew nothing is that Red Fife has the trait (“genetic variability in the wheat,
allowing it to adapt to a diversity of growing conditions”)
that us humans would do well to emulate in this roiling economy
and sometimes rootless culture – the capacity to work + play well with people unlike us –
sometime to collaborate to accomplish greater things together
than we could alone –
perhaps the most vital trait, other than one’s top talent,
in this increasingly connected world.
Thank you for this most inspiring and practical post

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Wed, 06 Jan 2010 18:51:35 +0000

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