Old Stone Inn, 1202 3rd Street, Estevan, SK (2026)

08/28/2026

Today is my beautiful Mom’s birthday. ❤️

Anyone who has met Susan, my Mom, knows that loving her is almost unavoidable. She is warm, funny, gracious, endlessly kind & just mischievous enough to keep things interesting. Here at The Old Stone Inn, she is especially adored. Guests arrive as strangers, hear her play the piano, share a little visit with her...and before long, they’re completely smitten.

So, because Mom loves a silly poem…

There once was a lady named Susan,
Whom everyone ended up choosin’—
For laughter & cheer,
A piano tune here,
She leaves every heart she meets cruisin’.

She’s elegant, clever & witty,
She’s charming, delightful & pretty.
The Inn may be stone,
But she helps make it home
And without her, it wouldn’t feel nearly as lovely.

Mom, you mean the absolute world to me. I’m so grateful that I get to share not only my life with you, but this wild Old Stone Inn adventure too. You bring love, music & a little bit of magic everywhere you go.

Happy Birthday to our beloved Susan! Please help me shower this wonderful woman with all the love she so freely gives to everyone else. 🎂🎹❤️

08/28/2026

August, you beautiful little show-off.

What a month.

Cory Mercer & his crew from Oxbow TimberMart installed pavers behind the Inn, creating the beginnings of a lovely little courtyard. My pathetic plastic lawn furniture no longer has to sit forlornly on the gravel looking as though it has been evicted. I’m already plotting a beautiful outdoor space that will someday make guests walk around the corner & say, “Oh, WOW.” Just you wait.

I welcomed guests from all over Canada & the United States, many of whom arrived as reservations on my calendar & left feeling like friends. I swear, when you hug someone goodbye, a tiny part of each of you stays with the other...an energy exchange, a little invisible thread. Whatever it is, I feel incredibly lucky to have collected so many of those threads this summer.

I was especially fortunate to host Robin & Arlene Karpan, the award-winning Saskatchewan travel writers & photographers behind Photo Journeys. They stayed for two nights, giving us time to get to know one another over Saskatoon berry pie while Mom held court with stories of the Souris River Valley & my beloved River Road. We sat out back in the courtyard & shared stories until it grew too dark to see each other. If you don't follow their page, go do that right away.

There were intimate dinners celebrating life’s important moments & larger events...including a Producers’ Dinner that completely blew my mind...which tested every nerve & took every square inch of counter space I possess. Thankfully, I had the very best people beside me: Jolene, Sabreena, Ashley & Stathis from Your Farmers Wife, & Olena, who first came through my doors with her husband Yegor while they were finding a home in Estevan & somehow we decided to continue to let our friendship build through dustpans & dish towels. Justin Marcotte & Solomon Murray also helped make the August producers aces, with helping hands & ingredients that beamed love at me. These beautiful people made August possible, kept me upright & prevented me from crawling under a table clutching a wooden spoon.

My son Jake came to visit, which means two things: my heart gets filled & all the heavy lifting gets done. He made my little fruit-tree patch beautiful with mulch & stones, then we drove into the valley to watch the sun set as the moon rose. We let go of what no longer belonged in our lives & opened our hearts to better things coming.

Every dinner I served this month began with ingredients grown or raised close to home. I’m so proud of the relationships I’m building with the remarkable people who grow our food. Even my tables were locally dressed, thanks to Leah from Field & Bloom—a little ray of sunshine who walks through my door carrying armfuls of blooms & leaves the entire Inn sprinkled with flowers. I love that woman. You might still catch her stand at the Estevan Farmers Market but go early as her bouquets are heaven & everyone wants a slice of it.

So, in August I built a courtyard, fed a small army, hugged half the continent, stood beneath a rising moon, fell in love with Saskatchewan food all over again & worked beside some truly wonderful humans.

Not a bad August ❤️

08/22/2026

MEET THE PRODUCER—YES, RATHER BELATEDLY:
TRINDA JOCELYN
BLUE ARROW ACRES — NORTH OF ESTEVAN, Saskatchewan

The plates have been washed, the dining room has recovered & I have discovered Trinda’s bio still standing in the metaphorical garden, waving both arms at me. So, it's late...but certainly not lesser—meet Trinda Jocelyn of Blue Arrow Acres.

Blue Arrow Acres is a small market garden located just north of Estevan, owned by Trinda & operated alongside her husband, Adam. Gardening was part of both their childhoods, so when they began raising their own family on a small acreage, the tradition naturally followed.

As their children grew, so did the gardens. Every year brought a little more ground, a little more ambition & presumably several conversations beginning with, “Do you think we could plant just one more row?”

Now that their children are grown & gone, Trinda & Adam have turned the family garden into something much larger. Their acreage spans twenty acres, with one acre currently in production & plans to expand. Every plant begins from seed right on the farm, grown using natural, organic practices rooted in living soil, hard work & genuine respect for the land.

The romantic version of market gardening is all sunshine & wicker baskets filled with carrots obediently leaping from the earth. The real version includes weeds, frost, crop failures, constant problem-solving & vegetables that occasionally become sworn enemies.
In fact, Trinda once publicly declared pickling cucumbers her nemesis. Blue Arrow Acres now sells pickling cucumbers, which tells me everything I need to know about this woman: she does not take defeat from a vegetable lying down.

Their seasonal offerings change with the garden, but may include beans, beets, peppers, carrots, cucumbers, garlic, herbs, melons, potatoes, onions, tomatoes, zucchini & whatever else Saskatchewan weather has agreed not to murder that particular week.

What I love most about Blue Arrow Acres is the simplicity of its purpose: good food, grown close to home, by people you can actually meet. Their bounty carries soil, family history, perseverance & the immense satisfaction of knowing exactly where your supper came from. True Saskatchewanians!

Trinda contributed to this year’s Producers’ Dinner again & helped make my wildly local menu possible with golden beets & perfect Walla Walla onions.

Thank you, Trinda & Adam, for growing good food, sharing it with this community & indulging one chef who somehow managed to cook the harvest before remembering to post your biography.
Blue Arrow Acres can be found at the Estevan Farmers’ Market, online for farm pickup or right at the farm by prior arrangement. Their dogs, Luna & Kenai, take farm security seriously, so please organize your visit first rather than wandering confidently into their jurisdiction.

From their dirt to your table—albeit with this introduction arriving several days late.

https://bluearrowacres.ca

08/12/2026

MEET THE PRODUCERS: BRENDA & BRENT BLACKBURN
WILWYNN CERTIFIED ORGANIC FARM

I’ll be perfectly honest: I don’t know Brenda & Brent Blackburn from a hole in the ground.

Yet.

And that may be one of the loveliest things about this Producers’ Dinner. It brings people through my door whose hands have been quietly feeding this corner of Saskatchewan long before our paths finally cross.

Brenda & Brent have operated Wilwynn Certified Organic Farm for more than 25 years. In 2002, they added a U-pick—not simply as another part of the farm, but as a place where their children could learn how to run a business, meet the community & understand the responsibility of growing something others would carry home to their own tables.

For the people who came to pick, Wilwynn offered more than fresh produce. It gave them the rare pleasure of harvesting food with their own hands, surrounded by the beauty & stillness of the land where it was grown.

But this year is different.

After more than a quarter-century of planting, tending, waiting, worrying, harvesting & beginning all over again, this will be the Blackburn family’s final harvest as retirement approaches.

There is something deeply moving about knowing that an ingredient from that last harvest will cross the threshold of my kitchen & find its way onto our Producers’ Dinner table. Every ingredient carries a story—but this one arrives as the closing page of a story written over twenty-five years.

I know how hard it is to not define your self-worth by your productivity, so that may be something they can also share with the other producers. I've yet to find that balance.

I may not know Brenda & Brent well yet, but I know what it means to pour years of your life into something you believe in. I know that endings can hold pride, relief, sorrow & gratitude all at once.

So I’m honoured to welcome the Blackburns to my table, to celebrate what they built & to give one small piece of their final harvest a place in this wildly local feast.

The August 15 Producers’ Chef’s Table Dinner is officially SOLD OUT. ❤️

08/11/2026

MEET THE PRODUCER: AMBER HAGEL
THE HAGEL FAMILY — ESTEVAN, SASKATCHEWAN

Amber joined us for the inaugural Producers’ Dinner last year, & I’m so proud to have her back at the table. She is incredibly humble about what she does—which is funny, because she does an astonishing amount.

Amber & her husband, Alden, are raising their four children on the land just a few miles from where Alden grew up. Amber took the scenic route to country life: from a small town to the big city, around the world & eventually into a cozy 500-square-foot apartment above their Estevan office, where their family began. Their first two children knew that little apartment as home; the twins have known nothing but country life—and according to Amber, it shows!

Every year, the Hagels add something new. First came the garden, then chickens, turkeys & now pigs. Somewhere among all of that, Amber & Alden homeschool four children, run their own business, coach, volunteer with the kids’ sports & continue dreaming up projects as though sleep is merely a suggestion.

Amber bakes their bread, makes yogurt, jams, jellies, syrups, dressings & spreads, preserves what comes from the garden & helps turn the family’s fall harvest into sausages, ground meat & food for the freezer. This is homesteading in its truest form—not as a pretty online trend, but as the daily work of feeding a family, teaching children useful skills & building a life together with muddy boots firmly planted on the ground.

The entrepreneurial spirit has found its way into the children, too. Each has created a little business of their own: Thoren has Thor Snacks jerky, Hardy makes Hardy Boy Pickles, Quella creates Bloom Fruit Leather & Vallyn runs Prairie Sense. Their recent porch pop-up market was such a success that they’re already planning another one.

What I admire most about Amber isn’t simply how much she accomplishes. It’s why she does it. She & Alden are giving their children an extraordinary education in where food comes from, how to work for what they have & how capable they can become when they learn to use their own hands.

Their life may not be the easiest way to do things. There are early mornings, endless chores, muddy clothes, demanding animals & days when adding one more project seems completely bonkers. But there is also a full pantry, a busy garden, children who know how to grow food & a family building something meaningful together.

Amber may modestly call this “just how we live.” I call it remarkable—and I couldn’t be prouder to have her at my Producers’ Dinner table again.

She sent me so many wonderful pictures, I couldn’t help buy grin from ear to ear swiping through them all!

The August 15 Producers’ Chef’s Table Dinner is officially SOLD OUT. ❤️

08/11/2026

MEET THE PRODUCER:
BRAYDEN HIRSCH
GARDENER, FISHERMAN & SERIOUS STUDENT OF GOOD FOOD — ESTEVAN, SASKATCHEWAN

Brayden has attended several Chef’s Table dinners since I’ve started doing them, & although he’s usually really quiet, I always notice how completely engaged he is with the food.

He isn’t simply sitting at the table to appease the people he came with. He pays attention. He studies what lands in front of him, listens to the story behind it & genuinely wants to understand what he’s eating. As a chef, you notice people like that.

When Brayden reached out about joining the Producers’ Dinner, I could sense a little trepidation. He isn’t a professional producer. He doesn’t have a fancy farm name or a product line—but the more he talked, the more his excitement came tumbling out. I knew immediately that he belonged at this table.

Brayden spent his earliest years on a farm south of Lampman with his mom & grandparents before moving to Estevan. The farm never quite left him. He grew up obsessed with tractors & machinery, then began helping his grandpa around 2012—and that childhood fascination turned into a full-blown love of farming, planting & watching things grow.

His gardening adventure began with tomatoes in five-gallon pails. Tomatoes happen to be one of his top-five favourite foods, so naturally, one plant became several, the pails became wooden planter boxes & the garden has continued expanding every year. He loves experimenting with different vegetables & growing several varieties of the same thing just to discover which tastes best & which thrives.

Brayden also has a deep love of fishing, born during an incredibly meaningful chapter of his life. After his uncle was diagnosed with cancer, Brayden spent his uncle’s final two summers fishing Rafferty & Alameda Dam with him & his best friend, Heath. Those days became treasured memories, & Brayden continues to fish with Heath today. He especially loves taking out people who rarely—or have never—fished & helping them experience the thrill of catching one. I’m going to hold him to that!

He loves summer, being outdoors, chasing adventures & hunting down the best restaurants whenever he travels. Basically, Brayden is curious about food from every direction: growing it, catching it, cooking it, tasting it & learning the story behind it.

That curiosity is exactly what the Producers’ Dinner is about. You don’t need a storefront, a commercial operation or the word “professional” attached to your name. You simply need to care deeply about good food & what it takes to bring it to the table.

Brayden absolutely does—and I’m thrilled he’ll be sitting at mine.

The August 15 Producers’ Chef’s Table Dinner is officially SOLD OUT. ❤️

08/10/2026

MEET THE PRODUCER: CALLYE GILLESPIE
GROWER, PRESERVER & VEGETABLE VISIONARY — NORTH OF ESTEVAN

Callye Gillespie is freaking me out a little—in the very best way.

She isn’t simply growing food; she is experimenting with how to preserve the bounty far into the future, combining the traditional knowledge passed down by her mom & grandma with technology they could never have imagined using in their kitchens.

Callye grew up on a ranch 26 miles south of Mankota, Saskatchewan—population 350—where childhood meant checking cattle on horseback, raising 4-H calves & learning how to can, freeze & cold-store the food her family grew. After attending Olds College, she built a career in banking that eventually brought her to Estevan, where she still works today.

In 2023, Callye & her soon-to-be husband found their dream acreage north of town. For someone with a lifelong love of land, gardening & feeding people, it was the beginning of something wonderful.

They are particularly obsessed with growing what Callye calls “pretty vegetables.” She searches the internet for the most beautiful, unusual seeds she can find, starts everything from scratch in late February & inevitably plants waaaaay too much. Friends, family & neighbours rarely leave the acreage without extra seedlings tucked under their arms—which is a fairly delightful problem to have. This is a girl you want to be friends with & not just for the chance to grab a seedling, but also to learn from her.

Her mom & grandma preserved food using the dependable methods generations relied upon. Callye still honours those skills, but she has added some serious future-forward wizardry of her own. Freeze-drying has become a particular favourite, allowing her to preserve the colour, flavour & nutrition of the harvest in ways that feel almost like putting summer into suspended animation.

Callye says they don’t sell what they grow, so she isn’t certain they fit the traditional definition of “producers.”

I disagree completely.

Producing food isn’t defined by whether money changes hands. It is planting seeds, tending the soil, preserving the harvest & feeding the people around you. Callye grows because she loves it, preserves because she respects the bounty & shares because that is simply what good food people do.

That makes her exactly the kind of producer I want sitting at this table.

The August 15 Producers’ Chef’s Table Dinner is officially SOLD OUT, & I’m absolutely thrilled to have Callye Gillespie joining this wildly local gathering.

08/09/2026

MEET THE PRODUCER:
JUSTIN MARCOTTE
MARCOTTE FARMS — TORQUAY, SASKATCHEWAN

Before The Old Stone Inn was finished renovations & I was up to my ears in workmen & dust, Into that chaos walked Justin Marcotte, carrying a cooler full of pork, introducing himself & telling me what he was raising at Marcotte Farms.

He didn’t wait until The Inn was polished or proven. He simply showed up, offered something exceptional from his farm & became one of the first producers to believe there might be a place for his food in my kitchen.

Justin has always been a farm boy. He grew up near Torquay on a mixed-grain, farrow-to-finish pig farm, eating food raised by his own family. He didn’t realize what a privilege that was until he grew older & discovered that knowing exactly where your food came from wasn’t everyone’s normal.

His entrepreneurial streak started early. At fourteen, Justin was already growing gladioli & vegetables to sell at the local farmers’ market. Today, he operates a 2,200-acre certified organic grain farm alongside a commercial cow herd.

He also raises pork the old-fashioned way: outdoors, free-ranging & fed with grains and forages grown on the farm. Each April, he offers pork by the half or whole—but only once a year. His preorder list fills quickly because people understand that food raised this carefully is worth planning ahead for.

I consider Justin a friend—not because we spend our weekends hanging out, but because I trust him. After a dinner at The Inn, he will tell me honestly what he thought. If I write something that strikes him, he’ll say so. He offers the kind of straightforward, thoughtful feedback that only comes from someone who genuinely wants you to succeed.

Justin is the quintessential community supporter. He has hosted several dinners at The Inn, supported what I am building from its dusty beginnings & returned to sit at the inaugural Producers’ Dinner last year. I couldn’t be more thrilled to have him at my table again.

Supporting Justin is easy because he is everything you could want in a producer: knowledgeable, hardworking, honest, deeply connected to his land & proud to feed his community well. He doesn’t merely talk about supporting local—he quietly shows up & does it.

The August 15 Producers’ Chef’s Table Dinner is officially SOLD OUT, but watch for Marcotte Farms’ annual pork preorder each spring. Get your name on Justin’s list early because, just like the best dinners, it sells out.

08/07/2026

MEET THE PRODUCERS: YVONNE & CURTIS DOUGLAS
SOURIS FLATS RANCH — GLEN EWEN, SASKATCHEWAN

Some producer relationships begin with placing an order. This one began with live music, a night away from the kids & a conversation that refused to end.

Yvonne & Curtis booked a room at The Old Stone Inn for a little sans-kids getaway on a night when I had a band playing. After they made their way upstairs & got a beverage, Yvonne & I started talking about what they were building at Souris Flats Ranch, what I was building at The Inn & all the ways our two worlds might work together. Somewhere in that first conversation, we simply recognized each other. She has been my soul-sister ever since.

Curtis & Yvonne met in high school, married young & raised seven children, each of whom now contributes time, talent or livestock to the family farm. Yvonne grew up as a small-town kid who lived for visits to her maternal grandparents’ dairy farm—milking time in the barn, riding horses during summer holidays & stacking square bales in the loft for winter. Curtis grew up on the land his great-grandfather George homesteaded in 1908, driving tractors, hauling grain & working cattle as farm kids do.

In the early 2000s, they began learning about holistic management. They were fascinated by the possibility that moving cattle with electric fencing could improve the soil while allowing the land to support more livestock. Planned grazing eventually led them to add sheep in 2020, using multi-species grazing to control invasive plants & bring tired, marginal pasture back to life. Each year, they have watched the grass grow stronger & the land become more productive.

Direct marketing their homegrown beef & lamb was a natural extension of everything they believe about land, livestock & community: local food for local folks.

When I was first getting The Old Stone Inn off the ground, Yvonne & Curtis were among the earliest people to arrive at my door with beautiful beef, lamb, encouragement & genuine belief in what I was trying to create. Their meat now appears regularly in my kitchen, we promote one another whenever we can & our two logos even share space on our collaborative Boss Water bottles. Our businesses became friends because we did first.

Yvonne is one of those people who walks through the door & somehow brings more oxygen into the room. She is smart, beautiful, supportive, curious & an absolute go-getter—a force of nature wrapped in sunshine. Curtis is her steady, capable counterpart, quietly turning ideas into working systems. Together, they make me feel hopeful about local food, rural Saskatchewan & the future of farming.

The Producers’ Chef’s Table Dinner is officially SOLD OUT, but Souris Flats Ranch is not a once-a-year presence at The Inn. I use their exceptional meat in many of the dinners I cook here, so if you book a private dinner, chances are something from their ranch will find its way onto your plate.

You can purchase Souris Flats Ranch products through their ranch store, online, at Michael’s Coffee Shop here in Estevan or through community freezers around the region. If you would love to see their products available in your town, reach out to Yvonne. She is precisely the sort of woman who can—& probably will—make it happen.

Check out their website & also this video that, in Yvonne's own words, best describes their operation.

www.sourisflatsranch.com

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1552764252639980

08/06/2026

MEET THE PRODUCER: SOLOMON
12-YEAR-OLD GROWER, ENTREPRENEUR & ALL-AROUND COOL KID

I'm so happy Solomon is returning to the Producers Chef's Table Dinner again this year. He attended the inaugural Producers’ Dinner last year & I’m absolutely tickled to have him back at the table. This dinner is about established farmers, adventurous growers & the people shaping the future of local food—and sometimes, that future is an ambitious twelve-year-old who already knows more about gardening than most of us ever will.

Solomon planted his first garden at five years old with every intention of selling what he grew. Unfortunately, the only thing that truly thrived was his lentils—and lentils are apparently not the hottest seller on the kindergarten farm-market circuit.

His first season was not exactly a financial triumph. So, Solomon regrouped.

At six, he planted again, tended his garden with considerably more diligence & began selling peas in June, followed by whatever ripened next. Each year, his garden grew larger, his vegetable list became longer & his little pop-up produce stands started appearing around Estevan.

Some days, his only customers were Grandma & Grandpa. Other days, he sold every vegetable he brought. Either way, he learned something.

Now he's twelve, & Solomon grows cucumbers, peas, beans, potatoes, carrots, beets, radishes, squash, onions, tomatoes & corn. He has even built up a group of regular customers who place orders, then collect their vegetables shortly after he harvests them. When there is extra, he still sets up one of his original little stands. This year, Sol is growing most of what I'm serving here at The Church.

Honestly, plenty of adults abandon a business idea after one unsuccessful year. Solomon survived the Great Lentil Disappointment of Age Five & dug in to build himself a loyal customer base instead.

Solomon’s family understandably keeps his online presence private, so there will be no phone number, ordering link or personal information posted here. If you happen to spot his produce stand around Estevan, stop by, buy a cucumber & support one exceptionally cool kid.

The August 15 Producers’ Chef’s Table Dinner is officially SOLD OUT!

Old Stone Inn

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