It was a memorable afternoon at the Rose Valley Hutterite Colony for four of us Moose Jaw folk.
School Principal Deanna Saulters had invited us — Denise Helland, Tammy Cozart, my partner Joyce and I — to be guests at the school and see the colony located about 60 miles south of Moose Jaw.
Driving by, I had often wondered about the colony whose early members came from the Baildon Colony.
The school, built by the colony, is a fairly large building with one large class room on the main floor, a smaller one for German school and a fully equipped book binding facility.
The large basement room that day had been converted into Camp She-Gone by the students with four tents made of quilts, sheets and pillows. A fifth was occupied by Michael, a student and camp counsellor.
Eager students showed us their tents and their work which included The Rose Valley Times. The recent issue featured drawings of their fathers and comments on what they like about their fathers.
Students at the colony do double duty. Breakfast is 6:30 a.m., followed by two hours of German study, then English school and two hours of German school after the regular school day.
An eager bright group of students greeted us. One of them, Sandra, is better at math than I ever was. She is doing Grade 12 level math.
Hearing students sing a German hymn and some English songs was a highlight. The voices and harmonizing are awesome — like professional musicians.
The Hutterites are a misunderstood people with a lot of incorrect information about their lifestyle and culture.
They are Christians, pacifists living and sharing in tightly knit communities.
Among the myths about them is a belief that they don’t pay taxes. They pay taxes like any corporate farm family.
Another myth: their farms are too big and ruin small communities. If you measure their land holdings by the number of families, they average only 940 acres per family.
Chatting with some of the adults revealed a modern farm operation with beef cattle, a few dairy cattle; growing: durum, canola, peas, lentils, barley and chickpeas. The vegetable garden sells to Sobeys Safeway, IGA and the Co-op.
Tucked away at one end is a solar panel farm, providing power to the colony. Excess power is sold to the grid.
Modern hog and chicken barns with animals housed loosely are part of the colony. A robot handles the eggs.
“We have the most modern equipment you can find,” said Sam Kleinsasser, Jr.
There are no computers in the school. Students leave school after Grade Eight.
“No technology in school,” said the preacher John Kleinsasser. “They learn hands-on. They pick it up fast.”
The preacher doesn’t write the sermons. Every sermon is exactly like the one given over 400 years ago. The sermons have been passed down through the centuries.
An audio feed links the church to every home, allowing sick or disabled members to hear the service.
Sam is one of the original Rose Valley members, arriving in 1984 to build a batch concrete plant and start construction. Sixty members came from Baildon. Rose Valley has only grown to 86.
“We had a lot of older ones at first,” said Sam, “Look at our cemetery. We’ve had a lot more girls than boys. Some of the boys left for greener pastures.”
Like Sam and his brother “they come back.”
Two of the women who are getting married will move to Alberta, leaving 84.
Sandra explained the wedding process with a good-bye chivaree celebration at the bride’s colony, a welcome chivaree at the groom’s colony and then the wedding. The celebrations involve food and drink. No dancing.
I suspect the greener grass isn’t that green when they have lived in the tightly knit caring community. I think living on a Hutterite Colony would be a peaceful life.
You do your work, keep the faith and your needs are looked after until they put you six feet under.
The colony work is divided by gender. Women do the garden, kitchen and house work. The kitchen and bakery would be the envy of any caterer.
Men do the farm work and construction, currently putting up a 312 foot by 120 foot concrete machine shop.
Meals are communal with men seated on one side of the room, women on the other. Children eat after them.
Students, when asked what they will do over summer responded: babysitting, working in the garden or the barns.
Ron Walter can be reached at ronjoy@sasktel.net
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the position of this publication.
