It鈥檚 agriculture month, and the Western Development Museum in Yorkton is spending the month getting people more closely connected to agriculture in the province. Each Sunday there will be a different activity to highlight local agriculture.
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The month is in partnership with Agriculture More Than Ever, and the each Western Development Museum location took part in the month, explains Sarah Wood, education and public programs coordinator of the Western Development Museum.
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Activities, which are still available, include a scavenger hunt and an order challenge, to see if people can get the order right from when a seed is planted to when it hits the table, which also compares the difference between pioneer grain and modern grain.
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鈥淓ven though we鈥檝e made it easier, there are more steps today.鈥�
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The most recent weekend saw films screened, with the Yorkton Film Festival providing agriculture-related films.
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The coming weekends will have more agriculture programming. October 22, there will be a discovery box day, which will allow people to get up close and touch artifacts related to agriculture. October 29 will be an Artifact Guess, challenging people to recognize the different artifacts related to agriculture.
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A month-long focus on agriculture was an easy one for the museum, explains Wood, because they were able to draw from the story that the museum is built around.
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鈥淲e are the story of people, so we are really talking about immigration, we are talking about the people who settled here on farms. It was really easy to use that as the inspiration for creating these things.鈥�
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The Western Development Museum has always celebrated agriculture month, and Wood says that it鈥檚 something that is the core of the museum鈥檚 focus. This year鈥檚 programs have been well received, with Wood noting that children especially respond well to the scavenger hunt.
鈥淲e鈥檙e an agriculture community, so there鈥檚 a connection even for kids who are far removed from the days of a threshing machine. Maybe they鈥檝e seen one on their grandparents鈥� or great-grandparents鈥� farm just sitting out there. There are tons out there in Saskatchewan. It鈥檚 not unfamiliar to them and the concept of farming is not unfamiliar to them. We get more engagement that way.鈥�
