Energy is generally in high demand and short supply during a challenging season, and 2020 threw one crisis and challenge after another at us.

I was raised in the country, in a red brick Victorian on 2 acres. I was not, however, raised on a farm. To now be a third-generation dairy and cash crop farmer is far beyond, as a girl, what I thought my life would be like.

I am not a farm girl by nature. Although I was raised in the country, I did not live on a farm. I certainly had friends who were farmers, was a member of the local 4-H horse club and even helped our neighbours milk their cows a few times.

“I want to be a teacher when I grow up,” I declared after my first day of kindergarten. I began alphabetizing all of my books on my bookshelf and, just like the school library, I included a check-out card inside the front cover of each book.

Trends continue to snowball with labels about what’s in a food product being expanded to how that food was grown or processed. Gluten-free, antibiotic-free, hormone-free, cage-free, everything-else-free labels are multiplying. It seems almost every day I see a new announcement from a company or a grocery store ad or a label on something I go to buy that has a claim like this.