Blog by krista

I'm sure you've heard of straw bale houses, but did you ever think that you could use your straw and hay storage as insulation for your farm buildings? Straw and Hay makes a great insulator because it is full of air pockets, air being a great thermal break that does not allow heat to be transferred ...

Inevitably when you go home to the farm for any length of time you get recruited to help with chores. Not that I mind, and in many cases it is a way to spend time with my Dad. So during Christmas break I helped with cleaning out the chicken barn. This involves a retrofitted lawn mower with a scraper...

The diagram above illustrates the scale of milk production in Southwestern Ontario. Only 67 processing plants process all the milk in Ontario for delivery to grocery stores and your table. Imagine your neighbour is a farmer, even if this neighbour is just outside of town. Your milk travels at least...

This farm, designed by de Leon & Primmer Architecture Workshop is a great example of modern design, and rural culture coming together. The farm is located in Goshan, Kentucky.  The 2000-acre farm is used for agriculture, conservation, and recreation. The design is LEED Gold ...

I had a dream last night about designing for the minimum distance separations ( MDS) required by OMAFRA and I very quickly realized that distances of 300-500ft are going to cause the extinction of the farmyard. The farmyard is the area between house and barn. It is a sheltered area to work on tract...

A bit of irony...honorable mention for the Emerging Terrain banner competition.

At a recent conference for Sustainable Food Systems in West Lorne 2025"(see post) I was introduced to the work of Dan Needles, a playwright who has self proclaimed the title of keeper of farmer thinking;. Dan describes farmer thinking as three things; absolutely practical, humble in the face if...

They say you can take the girl away from the farm, but you can't take the farm away from the girl.  I left the family farm in 2002 to pursue a career in architecture and came full circle in 2008 when I started my master's thesis on architecture and agriculture: agritecture. A few definitions (t...