Whelan Organic Farms, located south of Moose Jaw, was featured on the CityTV Saskatchewan docu-series Flat Out Food. 

Each episode is a “field to plate” journey that takes Saskatchewan-grown ingredients to chefs using those ingredients. Each episode focuses on a different ingredient. 

“We usually have a feature with the food artisan in the middle, perhaps someone doing a value-added product or just something really unique with the ingredient and then we always end at an independent restaurant with that chef telling his or her story and then doing a beautiful meal using that ingredient as well,” said show host and co-producer Jenn Sharp. 

Season four episode four focused on chickpeas. The episode visits Whelan Organic Farms to look at the farm’s intercropping and biodynamic practices. It also looks at the supply chain as the farm sells chickpeas at the Wandering Market in Moose Jaw. 

Later in the episode, chefs from Nightjar Diner in Swift Current prepare food featuring chickpeas. 

For Christie Whelan, owner of Whelan Organic Farms, when he and his wife took over the in-laws' family farm he wanted to do things holistically but was unsure where to begin. 

The turning point came after attending a soil conference where he found the basis of the whole terrestrial eco-system comes from the soil. 

“As soon as I did found out about that, I basically found my second calling, if you will,” Whelan said. 

From that moment on, Whelan decided he wanted to rejuvenate the soil and use restorative practices to bring the soil back to what it was like before it was farmed. 

Whelan grows multi-species crops that reflect more of what Mother Nature grows. He said he has one or two cash crops and three or four other cover crops and weeds. 

“I may end up with eight, 10, 12, 15 different types of plants growing on my land, which all contribute towards the rejuvenation of the soil,” Whelan said. 

He added that his father-in-law was a conventional farmer and he used to help but didn’t like the smell or the idea of chemicals. He said his wife came up with the idea to look at doing organics. 

This isn’t the first time that a Moose Jaw farmer or business has been featured on Flat Out Food. Sharp said Moose Jaw holds a special place in her heart and when she was writing her book Flat Out Delicious, she felt the food scene in the city often went unnoticed. 

“The things that were going on in the local food scene and with food artisans were a bit underground,” Sharp said. 

“It wasn’t super out there and people didn’t know about it. People in the know knew. They knew where to go to get really good food. The farmers’ market was bustling. There was this local food supply chain and this was like 2018. I just thought it was so fascinating that this smaller city was just so well connected and knew a lot of their farmers and growers and producers.” 

Season one’s episode on honey featured Prairie Bee Meadery and season two’s milk episode featured the Cornerstone Grill. 

You can watch the Flat Out Food episodes online here.