Evelyn Loewen was sitting on the back of flatbed truck at the Morden Research Station, munching on a Kerr crab apple when she realized agriculture was the world she couldn't live without. It was 1976, and she was only a summer student on her way to make corn silage, but 34 years of work and research later, she calls that station home.

"I was married here," she smiles, "my family said to me, 'You can't be married anywhere else because this station is such a part of you.'"

Loewen was one of dozens of past and present employees and community members who came with their memories to the Morden Research Station's 100th anniversary celebration on Wednesday, proving it's more than the station's research that weaves through the community.

In his speech Morden Mayor Ken Wiebe laughed about being a kid who explored the research centre grounds — which sometimes resulted in being kicked out. Winkler Mayor Martin Harder also mentioned all the wedding photos that happen on the site.

But the research work is not to be underscored. While the 260 hectare site is a home for high school grad photos and summer picnics, Loewen also says the research it produces has made an impact worldwide.

"Initially when I was working here we had the only buckwheat breeding programs," she says, also mentioning Morden's flax and special crops programs as some of their important work. "Our varieties have been grown all over Canada, and in Europe [with] the inbred lines."

The Morden Research Station is also, of course, famous for its hardy Morden roses.

"I have many friends even today that ask me about the roses of Morden, 'Will they grow here? Will they grow there?'" she says. "The station has an impact right around the world, I think."

Dr. Ali Khan was another past employee who came out to 100th anniversary. He worked at the research station for 25 years, specifically in the buckwheat breeding and pulse crops programs.

"I worked on peas, on the production side and the disease resistance and developed a number of varieties of peas, which expanded the acreage of pulse crops in Western Canada," Khan says.

He says, in general, their work in pulse crops helped the whole industry by peaking an interest and developing the market.

When asked about his memories of the research station, he says it was a good place to work.

"We enjoyed staying here, it's a very nice place — although it's a small town," he laughs.

Technically now a small city, Morden may draw a small town crowd to cake-and-coffee anniversary celebration, but it's put a big dot on the map of agricultural research.