This section holds first-person accounts, letters, oral histories and personal writings that offer direct windows into agricultural and rural life. These are the lived voices – not summaries, but experiences in people’s own words. They bring texture, nuance and humanity to the broader historical and agricultural record.

Unless otherwise noted, the transcripts below have been taken from interviews conducted and recorded by me. Transcripts may be lightly edited for clarity and have been shared with my conversational partner’s permission. Each interview is preceded by a summary of the subjects we discussed. Enjoy!!

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Dr. Jim Handy, October 2024. A wide-ranging conversation with University of Saskatchewan historian Dr. Jim Handy on peasant farming, land, agricultural history, and how modern Canadian prairie agriculture became what it is.

Other works by Dr. Handy –
“Apostles of Inequality, Rural Poverty, Political Economy, and the Economist 1760-1860″; Dr. Jim Handy, University of Toronto Press, 2022
“Tiny Engines of Abundance A History of Peasant Productivity and Repression”; Dr. Jim Handy, Fernwood Publishing, 2022
You can watch Dr. Handy’s launch of both these books on YouTube.

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Ken Price tells stories about how he got started spending his summers in the remote mountains with flocks of hundreds of sheep. After decades spent contract grazing sheep in some of the most challenging terrain in western Canada, M.ovi (mycoplasma ovipneumoniae) has now greatly reduced the foothill and mountain flocks. Ken tells stories about how he began on this unique career and shares some of his most memorable moments.

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