The Rural Voice - Feb. 2021

February 2021

Rural Voice

The

THE MAGAZINE OF AGRICULTURAL LIFE ... $2.50 PM 40037593

THE ORANGE BARN Cars line up and down the road in Millbank to add a punch of Vitaman C during the winter

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Contents

28

The

THE MAGAZINE OF AGRICULTURAL LIFE

Published monthly by: The Rural Voice, Box 429, Blyth, Ontario, N0M 1H0 Telephone: 519-523-4311 Fax: 519-523-9140 e-mail: info@northhuron.on.ca

18 34

Columns Lisa B. Pot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 Keith Roulston . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8 Kate Procter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10 Jeffrey Carter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12 Mabel’s Grill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14 Viewpoint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16 Recipes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .34 Gardening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36 Markets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44 Woodlots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46 Agrilaw . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .48

Departments Feedback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Ruralite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 News & Advice . . . . . . . . . . . . . .38 Business Centre . . . . . . . . . . . . .52 Classified . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .54 Advertisers Index . . . . . . . . . . . .63

Newsletters National Farmers Union . . . . . . .58 Perth County Pork . . . . . . . . . . .59 Grey County Federation . . . . . . .60 Bruce County Federation . . . . .61 Perth County Federation . . . . . .62 Huron County Federation . . . . . .64

Rural Voice

Publisher: Deb Sholdice Editor: Lisa B. Pot rveditorlisa@northhuron.on.ca

FEBRUARY 2021 • Cover Photo Duane and Jean Erb Photo by Amanda Brodhagen

• Deadlines: March. Issue

Contributing writers: Keith Roulston, Kate Procter, Jeffrey Carter, Rhea Hamilton Seeger, Arnold Mathers, Donna Lacey, Melisa Luymes, Anne Mann, Nancy Fisher, Dorothy Henderson, Bonnie Sitter, Gary Kenny, Jeff Tribe, Amanda Brodhagen, Bob Reid and Geoff Dale Mailed by: McLaren Press Graphics Bracebridge, ON

– Feb. 9

April Issue – March 9

18 The Orange Barn Even more clients line up for fresh citrus during the pandemic

21 The Future of Dairy Consumers want transparency and dairy farmers need market protection

24 Archer Becomes Bowyer MaxTurczyn creates beautiful traditional bows for hunters and archers

28 Larry Mercey Pens Autobiography Larry Mercey records 60 years of country music memories into one book

Sales representative: Shelley Kroes rvads@northhuron.on.ca Production co-ordinator & Telemarketing: Joan Caldwell Advertising & editorial production: Dianne Josling PUBLICATIONS MAIL AGREEMENT NO. 40037593 RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES TO CIRCULATION DEPT. PO BOX 429 BLYTH ON N0M 1H0 email: info@northhuron.on.ca Subscriptions: $20 (12 issues) $35 (24 issues), includes HST Back copies $2.75 each,U.S. rates, $65.00

30 What a Darling Winery Schatz Winery evolves from a dream to home-grown wines

34 Chocolate, Snow and Roses Chocolate is good for the heart and taste buds at Valentine’s Day

All manuscripts submitted for consideration should be accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope. The publisher cannot accept responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts or photographs, although both are welcome. The opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of the publisher. Editorial content may be reproduced only by permission of the publisher.

The Rural Voice makes every effort to see that advertising copy is correct. However, should an error occur, please notify The Rural Voice office within 30 days of invoicing in order to obtain a billing adjustment.

NH

ORTH URON

PUBLISHING COMPANY INC.

A division of North Huron Publishing Company Inc.

Feedback Letters to the Editor may be sent to The Rural Voice, P.O. Box 429, Blyth, On N0M 1H0

Write your local politician about the benefits of natural habitats The Editor, Thanks very much for the very informative Viewpoint in your January issue of The Rural Voice.

I’ve just finished writing my MP and MPP as well as my local newspaper with information about the benefits to biodiversity of even small areas of natural habitat. I suggested to the politicians that they get things rolling to make this happen here and encouraged readers of the Pickering News Advertiser to spread the word. ◊ Best regards, Bonnie Thomson

Words in Mabel’s Grill are racist and hurtful The Editor, As a farmer living and farming in Grey County for over 10 years, I’ve come to look forward to each issue of The Rural Voice, learning about my community with each article and column. I’ve also been encouraged by how much this magazine has addressed issues of race and racism in rural areas and farming in 2020, especially the heartfelt and sincere column by Mel Luymes. So I was very shocked to read the January 2021 episode of “Mabel’s Grill”.

These words: “Do you even know what they use to make those foods in those foreign restaurants? Remember, they think COVID-19 got started by 2 The Rural Voice

people eating animals we, here, didn’t know existed,” were like a sucker punch to my gut. I am a Canadianborn Chinese woman, and if there’s one kind of microagression which I have experienced my whole life from white people, it’s to do with all the “weird’ food which I eat, and given the advent of COVID-19 in 2020, contempt and racism around this particular point of culture has gotten even worse. I have to admit, at the beginning of the pandemic, I was scared to venture in public, to go to a grocery store, because I wasn’t sure if I would be spit on, or glared at, or physically assaulted, for being Asian.

I was (and am) super thankful that I was already a long-time member of Eat Local Grey Bruce and had access to weekly, delivered, locally-produced food.

Some of your readers may be thinking this is obviously satirical, and what the character George said is meant to show what an ignorant, conspiracy-spouting-old-farmer would say. Which is exactly the point, so my exact point is this: Those words are racist and hurtful. If this is what you believe about other cultures, please educate yourself on the wonders and diversity that are in the world. Your ignorance doesn’t make ‘the other’ bad, wrong, dangerous, and definitely, not less, than you. Your ignorance just makes you small.

I guess if there’s one thing that 2020 has taught me, it is that I have to speak up when I’ve been hurt, or I see something which is wrong. I hope this publication will do more editing in the future and not allow such racist comments, even if meant satirically, to be published. At the very least, please provide a trigger warning so the reader knows that you know, that these words are wrong and hurtful.

I am encouraged that this issue does contain a newsletter from the Perth, Huron, Grey and Bruce County Pork Producers, written by Stewart and Donald Skinner, which shows me that not all rural, white farmers, are like those depicted in “Mabel’s Grill”.

Thank you for calling out Perth County council. I hope 2021 brings about much discussion and change in rural Ontario, to see how much there is a problem of racism, and what can

be done about this. Because without some real reflection and change, rural areas will continue to die out because no black, indigenous, person of colour (BIPOC) people will want to make their homes here. If you want rural Ontario to have services (doctors, hospitals, schools, hairdressers, restaurants), it needs to have people, of all colours. ◊ – Brenda Hsueh, Chatsworth, Grey County

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“

Ruralite

•

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”

No Regrets

is the quintessential food sovereignty system.

“Government was formed to serve a world that no longer

~ Mark Hamel of Dairy Farmers of Ontario, speaking

exists. I would like to see

on a panel at Grey Bruce Farmer’s Week about the future of the dairy industry.

government move from a doer and actor to a facilitator and convenor. ” ~ Megham Hellstern, a teacher interested in challenging ideas, design, systems and processes on “Seeing Differently” a Rural Talks to Rural discussion ~

Well Stated • Beauty Parlour: A place where women curl up and dye • Egotist: Someone who is usually me-deep in conversation • Inflation: Cutting money in half without damaging the paper • Committee: A body that keeps minutes and wastes hours

{ } FEBRUARY INSPIRATION

"The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.” ~Socrates

Homebound families Rediscover how to clear Pandemic boredom ~Lisa Boonstoppel- Pot

•

Q. How do you get a farm girl to like you?

A tractor.

•

February 2021 5

Lisa B. Pot Lisa B. Pot is editor of The Rural Voice and farms in Huron County

Get out the chore chart Facebook posts of young moms struggling with homeschooling, work and life-balance during the pandemic has got me thinking about raising my own little ones.

“It’s the best time of your life,” people would tell me I knew it was so. But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t frustrating and overwhelming.

People think because I have six kids I’m some kind of parenting expert but holy moley, I remember needing help to keep me sane. I read the parenting books and talked with other moms, seeking advice. Now my youngest kids are teenagers and I look back at those “tiny human” years and know that having a barn was a lifesaver! It was a playground and job creator all in one. Work, you see, is the secret to keeping kids occupied and raising them right.

One of the trends I see in today’s parenting methods is letting the kids be on screens while the adults do the laundry, dishes, meal-making while helping kids with homework AND managing their own jobs.

Children need to be taken care of, of course, but they don’t need to be coddled. Praise, kindness, empathy ... all that stuff is necessary, of course!

But not without a huge dose of hard work and responsibility to give childre purpose so they feel part of the team and understand life takes organization and effort. Hard work prepares children to be responsible caretakers of their own home, family, animals and in the bigger scheme of things, society and the planet.

I believe in shared work, independence and teaching children to fly by teaching them to help. I’m not an expert but if experience is worth anything, here is what I would get the kids to do.

6 The Rural Voice

Two to Three Years: • Those little hands are so good at picking things up! Get them to pick up books, garbage and laundry.

• Those little hands are also good at dumping. Dump flour into your baking. Dump feed into pails and put it on another pile. Dump toys and pick them up again.

• Get a little broom and mop and set them to the floors. They won’t clean much but they are “helping” and it’s good.

Four to Six years: • Now those little hands can pick up biggers things such as brooms, forks and shovels to move feed in the barn, bed pens and keep alleyways neat.

• They can sort all sorts of things: socks, laundry and cutlery in the house. They can put away groceries and dishes.

• They can wipe anything: dirty walls, baseboards, toilets, counters and sinks.

• These guys love pets so have them feed and brush the dog. Make them throw a ball to the dog everyday, 10 times in a row.

• Make things neat. They can make beds, clear tables, wipe dust and put away clothes.

Seven to Eleven Years • All of the above to a more refined level, plus: • They can take over the sweeping and vacuuming. Teach them how and make it a daily chore.

• They are old enough to help with meals and make simple ones on their own. Grilled cheese, tomato soup, raw veggies with dip ... teach them to use a knife properly and how to respect hot surfaces. They don’t want to get hurt either so choose your comfort level and theirs, and see what they can make.

• They are old enough to distinguish weeds from plants so they can garden and water your flowers.

• In winter, get them to shovel snow off the steps and clear pathways. It might take a while but they are young and fit.

Teenage Years • Well, the list is limitless now but for sure I’d add mowing the lawn, washing windows, ironing, washing the car, more cooking, washing

floors and cleaning bathrooms.

• They can manage their own laundry from pick-up to washing, to drying and folding. You don’t have to do their laundry any more. Or make their lunches unless you want to. Guidance is needed here.

As to the parents, I have a list of “don’ts” for you.

• Don’t insist on perfection. Their hands are clumsy and they don’t care if the towels are as neat and straight as you do. Teach them the right way and let them grow into perfect corners and straight lines.

• Don’t be stingy with genuine praise and thanks. A good job should be appreciated.

• Don’t be inconsistent. We have to meet our deadlines, right? So do they. If they want to eat lunch, those morning chores better be done. If they want to watch their evening show, the afternoon chores have to be checked off and inspected. Don’t bend. You’ll regret it. Make it a way of life so the children understand to reap rewards, they have to meet deadlines.

• Don’t verbalize the chores – write them down. If I learned anything, it’s the power of a list.

Kids tune us out and its easy for them (and us) to forget what they were supposed to do. A list or chore chart, however, is concrete.

• Don’t be vague. Some kids have a natural sense of the steps/order to accomplish tasks. Others, require a set list of detailed intructions.

Creating it will seem tedious at first but you are teaching them systems and processes that will train their minds to think in steps to accomplish bigger goals.

• Don’t pay allowance for all chores. Allowance is a great teaching tool on how to manage money. But some chores are part of having the privilege of living in a home.

Keeping a neat homs is the responsibility of everyone living there.

These are my ideas. Don’t take them on as a burden. See them as an opportunity to reduce your workload because those kids will grow into capable, independent, helpful adults that you’ll be proud of.

I know I am. ◊

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8 The Rural Voice

Whenever I hear that public health officials are worried that enough people might reject getting the new COVID-19 vaccines that it’s not possible to achieve herd immunity, I think “These are definitely not people who grew up in the 1950s.�

When Dr. Jonas Salk and Dr. Thomas announced in 1955 that their team of researchers had developed a vaccine for poliomyelitis, you wouldn’t have met many people who weren’t ready to roll up their sleeves A poll from the era, showed that next to nuclear war, Americans’ greatest fear was polio.

Though polio has been around since ancient Egyptian times, Ontario didn’t begin to keep records of cases until 1920 when there were 37 cases.

In 1937 there were 2,544 cases.

Unlike the current virus that seems to target adults, polio mostly infected children (70 per cent), and mostly in the summer when they were outside playing. Of those who contracted polio, 2-5 per cent of children died (compared to 15-30 per cent of adults). Many of those who survived were paralyzed.

Living on a farm, isolated from large assemblies of people, I don’t particularly remember fearing polio myself, but someone close to me was infected in the 1951 outbreak when 1,699 cases were recorded in Ontario.

In bad years like that, playgrounds, public swimming pools and movie theatres were closed in areas that were particularly hard hit.

So when the vaccine became available, the Ontario government quickly organized clinics to immunize as many people as quickly as possible.The federal health minister, Paul Martin Sr., himself a victim of the disease, promised one million children would be vaccinated

by July 1955. (Other famous victims

of the disease were U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt and golfer Jack Nicklaus.

Those of us growing up around Lucknow had a constant reminder of how life-altering polio was. Lorne Reid was a typical young man when he contracted polio. He was left without use of his legs, confined to a wheel chair. But he trained in repairing shoes and worked in the local shoe store. He also sharpened skates, which brought many young people in contact with him.

Polio was just one of the fearsome diseases that terrorized the population in that time that brought the late Lucknow doctor William Victor Johnston to name his memoir Before the Age of Miracles. In 1920, for every 100,000 people, 113 died from tuberculosis. There were special sanitariums set up to for people whose lungs had been damaged by this disease. By 1960, thanks to chest X-rays to discover the infection and widespread availability of penicillin, the death toll was a mere fraction of those numbers, and soon the sanitariums were unnecessary.

Breakthroughs in drug treatments also slashed the deaths from measles, whooping cough, diphtheria and other feared diseases.

So those of us who lived through that time feel a debt to scientists who have added years to the life expectancy of the average Canadian.

The speed at which researchers were able to develop the new vaccine to combat the COVID-19 virus which has killed 1.9 million people around the world and made 86.6 million ill, is another of those miracles.

But people often get so used to the benefits of science that they take them for granted and begin to concentrate on possible flaws. So there are some people who won’t get the shot, whether they be those who worry the vaccines were developed so rapidly that some short-cuts may have been taken, people who don’t trust any vaccine or the crazies who think vaccines are part of a plot by Bill Gates to take over the world.

Me, I’ll be there with my sleeve rolled up whenever it’s my turn.

Science has improved my generation’s lives. Why start looking a gift horse in the mouth now? ◊

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10 The Rural Voice

Kate Procter Kate farms, hikes, canoes, and plays guitar in Huron County.

Share your last wishes in a will In most areas of life, there are at least two ways to do things – the easy way, and the hard way. In my experience, the hard way is usually accompanied by those pesky things you don’t know you don’t know.

This was brought to mind recently as I reviewed the speaker lineup for one of the many educational opportunities available to farmers in the winter.

You’d be hard pressed to find a year where there wasn’t at least one chance to listen to someone really stress upon you the importance of having a will and keeping it up to date. There is good reason for this.

As soon as you hit an age where your parents are no longer responsible for your well-being and you have something or someone that you care about, you need a will. Without a will, the something or someone that you care about is at the mercy of the world. It’s a no-brainer, right? You don’t need to waste that time slot listening to someone tell you that.

Most people heed this advice and get it done. Usually you also look after setting up a Power of Attorney (POA) for Finance, and one for Personal Care at the same time.

Depending on your personal values, the importance of these people could be of bigger importance than the will itself. While you are still alive, the person you’ve entrusted to make decisions on your behalf regarding whether you live or die, and what treatments are administered, well, they have a pretty important job.

Covid has made that job just a little more complicated.

Maybe you’re sitting there, smugly thinking you’re proactive, you have that all taken care of. Like I was. “Yeah, yeah, yeah,” you might be saying. “ I’ve heard it all before

and taken care of it, signed the will, POAs, and they are safely with the lawyer.” What I didn’t know I didn’t know is that you need to physically take a copy of your POA for Personal Care and give it to that person and to your doctor. Do not neglect this step!

You can sign all the documents in the world – but if the right people do not have them, you might as well whistle in the wind.

Signing a POA but not giving a copy to this person is kind of like getting your car serviced for a long trip but neglecting to put fuel in the tank. On the sunny day when you are singing a happy tune as you leave your newly signed documents with your lawyer, make sure you have a copy in your hand and deliver it to your POA, preferably before you stop for ice cream. You may get legal advice saying this is not important.

Medical staff will tell you otherwise.

If you are the POA for someone else, that may be all they tell you.

One constant in life is change.

That is why you should review your will regularly. How often do you think of who you have entrusted to make life and death decisions on your behalf? How are the people you have named changing in their own lives? Are they still willing and able to do this for you? Even people who should know better have left their exspouse on as POA for Personal Care because they just didn’t bother to change it and wound up unconscious with vital decisions required of that person. It happens.

Even if you have done everything legally, making sure the doctor and their staff know your most current wishes is vital to making sure they actually happen. Doctors and lawyers do not have a conference call to review this information and make sure it is up to date. No matter what anyone else tells you, I can assure you that your medical information will be given to the last person on file with the doctor. It is too late once you are lying unconscious to make sure that the person calling the shots is not someone you named 20 years ago who you had a falling out with 10 years ago.

Another way to save yourself some grief is to make a copy of your important identification. Keep it in a

Kate Procter safe place and make sure you update it as it changes. In a different time, when I used to do a little travelling, I was always careful to have a copy of all of my identification on my person and in a safe file at home. What I failed to do, though, was copy the front and back of that identification.

The number on the back of both Ontario Health Card and Ontario Drivers Licence is important, and impossible to get from anyone if that card goes missing. God help you if you lose an expired card.

If you don’t have access to photocopier, or a camera, write down these numbers, keep them together, and keep them in a safe place where they can be accessed in the case of an emergency. If you get hauled off to the hospital – you need to take your health card for admission and during lockdowns, no one can go with you to advocate on your behalf and no one can visit. No one is going to take care of this until you are able to take care of it yourself. Take the extra step and make sure that your

identification numbers are copied, up to date, and in a safe file.

I try not to use this column to throw a lot of advice around – we all know there is no shortage of it. But to avoid doing two things the hard way, make sure you have a copy of your POA on file with your doctor’s office and with the person you have chosen, and copy the fronts and backs of all your identification.

Unless you really like listening to the on-hold musical selection of medical, legal, and government offices. ◊

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February 2021 11

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Sourdough bread has a great deal of mystique. Bakers who specialize in the product typically speak with reverence for their particular starter, the collection of wild yeasts used for their breadmaking.

I’ve heard of starters having been secretly imported to Canada from Europe or bakeries that claim to have been using the same selection of yeasts for decades.

While these claims may indeed have merit, yeast exists all around us, including in the flours used for breadmaking. Consequentially, any particular starter is adulterated each time its used, with new yeast species added and, I suspect, some are eliminated as well.

After all, there are now about 1,500 yeast species that have been identified worldwide and assumably many others are yet unknown.

My sourdough experience began one autumn with a recipe reliant upon the natural yeasts that are present in whole wheat flour, a good source. I happened to use flour from the water-powered mill located just north of London along Highway 4 at the hamlet of Arva.

The Arva Flour Mill process is an early example of what is essentially used by today’s industrial mills but on a far smaller scale and with an important difference. A lowtemperature grind is involved which helps retain the nutrients in the products that are produced.

I’ve had success in making sourdough starter relying upon Arva whole wheat flour. However, flourbased starters are like the throw of the dice – you’re never quite sure what you’re getting.

Wine grapes, I found, can provide a better source of yeast and the quality, for breadmaking, is proven

through the fermentation process in making wine.

I’ve used Californian grapes before but I began my best, wild yeast, sourdough starter last fall.

Our friends who operate a small apple orchard just outside Thamesville also have a few vines of grapes, a bushel of which they unexpectedly delivered to my doorstep in late September.

The flour content of this particular loaf includes about 75 per cent whole wheat. The deep brown colour was achieved by including honey.

I crushed the grapes and relied on the natural yeast on the fruit for fermentation. To my surprise, it took only 12 hours for fermentation to reach a point known as full-boil in the wine world. Two or three days later, it was even fit to drink, with a final alcohol content of roughly nine per cent.

To make bread using the yeast from those grapes, I siphoned the finished wine from the lees. The lees, the material left on the bottom of your fermentation vessel, is mostly yeast.

I added some to a half cup of warm water and enough whole wheat flour – white unbleached flour should also work – to form a small ball of dough. Then I rolled it in a bit of olive oil, put it in a bowl and covered

Jeff Carter it with a piece of cellophane and left it to rise overnight.

The next morning, it was visually evident that the dough had risen to the point that my first loaf of bread could be produced. I added a cup of warm water, a pinch of salt, and more flour to form a second ball of dough and again rolled it in oil and waited until noon for the second rise.

The dough was then punched down, rounded up, kneaded for a few minutes and formed into a round loaf, covered with a clean tea towel and placed in a warm spot for the third and final rise. I also reserved some of the dough, about three quarters of a cup, putting it in a container for storage in the refrigerator for the next loaf.

After about four hours, it was time to bake. The resulting bread had a soft, chewy consistency, a fine texture and the distinctive – but not overpowering – sourdough aroma and taste.

Here’s a few tips for success: • I use either a little loaf tin from my grandmother or, if making a round, a small pie-plate from one of my aunts. Whatever the case, the baking utensil should be lightly greased.

• A half hour before baking, the surface of the dough should be scored with an extremely sharp knife.

A single slash will suffice but other configurations can work. Bake in pre-heated oven at 450 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 to 40 minutes – ovens do vary. Tap the loaf with a flick of your finger; if there’s a hollow sound, it’s done.

• Your starter, when covered with cellophane, should remain viable in the refrigerator for at least four days or even longer though I’ve found the more often sourdough bread is made, the better the results. Consequently, I’ve been making smaller breads more often and I also use the dough for pizza making.

I also like to mix it up, using various combinations of unbleached white and whole wheat flours, along with rye and other flours.

• It’s important to pull off the cap from your starter and discard it before making a loaf. The cap is the small portion that has been exposed

to air. Underneath, the dough should have a bubbly appearance.

Once you have your starter and a bit of experience, breadmaking isn’t an especially time-consuming process. It takes about 10 minutes or so to form the first round of dough, another 15 to make the second round the next morning and another 10 minutes to form the loaf for baking.

The speed at which I managed to make my first bread this past fall was exceptional. It can take longer. If

your selection of yeast isn’t particularly active, leave your initial starter mixture for two or three days in a warm spot, remove the cap and replenish with water and flour and wait another day or two.

Above all, once you have your starter, remember to save a bit of dough from each loaf. Otherwise, you’ll be starting from scratch and that may mean waiting until fall, the best time in my experience to start sourdough starters. ◊

February 2021 13

Mabel’s Grill The world’s problems are solved daily ’round the table at Mabel’s Grill.

“How’s Mabel doing?” George asked Cliff Murray when he carried takeout food from Mabel’s Grill into Dave Winston’s heated garage the other morning.

“She seemed kinda down, to me,” said Cliff. “She’s wondering if she can keep going until we get back to some sort of pre-COVID-19 normality.”

“Lucky for her she’s also married to a contractor,” said Dave. “I called Herbie the other day to see if I could get him to build an addition to the machinery shed to make more room for the bigger combine I just ordered, but he’s booked up until this time next year.”

“Whoa! What’s that?” George asked Cliff as he placed a big styrofoam container beside him.

“Yeah, well, when I saw the Grill

14 THE RURAL VOICE

so empty and lonely looking, I couldn’t bring myself to just get a coffee so I got a toasted western and a cherry Danish too,” said Cliff.

“You can’t support her business all by yourself or you’ll be waddling in to pick up your take out,” said George.

“Yeah, as well as all the money you’re spending at Mabel’s, you’ll have to buy one of those exercise machines they’re advertising on TV all the time,” “I will not!” said Cliff. “I saw this story on the news the other day that this woman had laid down $3,500 for one of the deluxe models.”

“Good grief! I remember when you could buy a new car for that much,” said George.

“What would that be, a Model-T? Dave wondered. “It’s really good that we’ve still got a few oldtimers around who can remember ancient times.”

“It wasn’t just that this woman was laying out so much money for this machine, but when she did she was told she wouldn’t get it for months because they couldn’t build them fast enough to keep up with

demand,” said Cliff.

George shook his head. “Seems like there are a lot of people out there who are a bear for punishment. I mean you spend all this money, then you have the agony of getting the exercise.”

“You know there are actually people out there who like to exercise,” said Cliff. “I hear you can’t find cross-country skis anywhere – just like last summer when you couldn’t find a bike to buy.”

“Humph, I wonder what my great grandfather would say if he saw the world today,” said George. “He was so impressed with the first cars he saw because he’d spent so much time walking over the years.”

“Seems like some people have saved money because of all the things they couldn’t do over the last 11 months and now it’s burning a hole in their pockets,” said Dave.

“Yeah, I hear that pandemic puppies are a big thing right now,” said Cliff.

“Now a puppy I might be able to handle,” said George.

“I don’t know,” said Dave. “My wife has been hinting about a puppy for Valentine’s Day but I’m not sure I’m up to being a good dog owner, the way the rules have changed. I mean when I was growing up we set up a nice comfortable bed for the dog in the mudroom. These days is seems the dog is supposed to sleep in your bedroom if not in your bed.”

“Soon it will be the owners who sleep in the mudroom so the dog can have the bed to himself,” growled George.

“At least if you change your mind there should be plenty of demand for a dog,” said Cliff. “Not like this case I saw on TV about this shelter that cares for farm animals rescued from us cruel farmers. They were looking for donations – said it cost them $1,000 to keep a chicken.”

“A $1,000 chicken!’ exploded George.

“Imagine if Swiss Chalet had to pay $1,000 a chicken?” chuckled Cliff.

“Well if I owned that chicken, I’d rename it Dumpling – cause that’s it would be long before I spent $1,000 on it,” said Dave. ◊

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February 2021 15

Mel Luymes Mel Luymes works in agriculture and conservation and blogs at headlands.ca

Great thinkers create a third option: Option C We kind of saw it coming, didn’t we? On January 6, hundreds of protesters entered the US Capitol building in Washington; five people died and over 100 people have been convicted.

The photos will surely go down in history, but in 50 years, what will our history books say about the day?

Brave patriots made a failed attempt to protest an illegal election?

Misguided Trump followers attacked democracy? Riot staged to increase legitimacy of the Democrats?

I’m struggling to wrap my head around it and how we got to this point.

Also running through my head these days are the thoughts of worldrenowned business thinker and author, Roger Martin. Readers might know him as the son of Wallenstein Feed & Supply founder, Lloyd Martin, but the rest of the world knows him as the long-time Dean of University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management. Martin will be giving a Keynote Conversation (with me!) at a free online event for the Midwest Cover Crops Council Conference on February 24.

(Shameless plug, and you’re all welcome to join!)

His latest book, When More is Not Better, suggests that democratic capitalism is in danger because it is no longer working for most Americans. While he believes democratic capitalism has been a tremendous force of good in the world and lifted average incomes and 16 The Rural Voice

standards of living steadily until the 1980s or so, more and more people have been struggling over the last few decades. The rich are getting richer, the poor poorer and the middle class is slowly disappearing.

This inequality makes our current system very fragile. In his research, Martin found that the majority of those getting the short end of the stick of capitalism were also disengaged from politics. But if these people would engage in politics, they might vote for an option that is not capitalism or not even democracy for that matter.

Martin argues that this inequality and fragility is the result of our obsession with efficiency, by the way we see the economy and measure outcomes. He makes a business case for why (and how) we need to save democratic capitalism from itself.

But I’m also intrigued by his previous books written about integrative thinking. Just as we need opposable thumbs, he argues that we also need an “opposable mind”. He begins The Opposable Mind with a quote from F. Scott Fitzgerald (1945): “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.”

Two ideas!? Some days, I’m lucky just to have just one! I don’t know how I got the idea, and I often think it’s the only possible idea to have. I defend it as “common sense.”

I call people with the same ideas “friends” and opposing ideas I call “fake news”. It’s not just me. This is called confirmation bias and we all have it.

But great thinkers transcend their inherited ideas, Martin argues. A choice between A or B that involves trade-offs and compromise is doomed. But great thinkers create a third option, an Option C. In his more recent book with Jennifer Riel, Creating Great Choices, he writes that integrative thinking requires three things: 1) metacognition, the ability to see one’s own way of seeing (ie. bias), 2) empathy, the ability to appreciate another’s way of

seeing and 3) creativity, the ability to produce a new way of seeing.

This is a huge leap. If a person has a different way of seeing the world than us, we can’t help but think they are either stupid or evil. Very rarely do we ask ourselves, “what is this person seeing that I’m not seeing?’

And if I’m honest with myself, even after years of practicing what I’m preaching here, considering other people’s ideas still makes me uncomfortable.

Yet, integrative thinking starts with this tension. Martin says that Option C will be possible only after we “fall in love” with both options: A and B. And by falling in love, he means seeing only the good in it.

None of the faults, none of the buts.

Not a pro-con list, but a pro-pro list.

So, this would mean making a thorough list of the good things of the Republican platform and all the good things of the Democrat platform. Or for a farm family, listing all the good things about mom and dad’s way and all the good things about your way.

This reminds me of the principle of mediation in Non-Violent CommunicationTM. Only after both parties can understand and say the feelings and needs of each other will a solution present itself. Anything short of that means compromise and more hard feelings.

Goodness, it sounds painful. But from my own experience, I can tell you that this really is the sweet spot.

This place of curiosity and openness to others is where we find freedom.

Integrative thinking is what we need now, isn’t it? And not just to heal the political polarity in the U.S., but also to restore our own relationships with in-laws, siblings, children, exes, etc. The (selfproclaimed) patriots that entered the Capitol building may have thought they were fighting for their freedom, but they were only tightening the chains of bias.

The Oxford dictionary defines a patriot as “a person who loves their country and who is ready to defend it against an enemy.” The way I see it, the enemy here is division itself. So, let’s rethink and find an Option C. ◊

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February 2021 17

Fruits

Line-ups at The Orange Barn A popular fruit sale barn near Millbank switches to drive-thru pickup during COVID-19

C

itrus fruits like oranges and grapefruit offer a punch of Vitamin C when we need it most – in the winter months when they taste best.

The Erb family has gone to great lengths for the past 42 years to bring the sweetest fruits from citrus growing regions in the United States for purchase to their business in Perth County. Duane and Jean Erb, both in their sixties, are proud owners of The Orange Barn located in the little hamlet of Millbank. Like many businesses which have had to develop a new way to sell products, the Erbs had to come up with a new strategy.

Pre-COVID-19, it was tradition for people to line up, sometimes for hours, to purchase 20 or 40-pound boxes of fruit. To meet social distancing requirements, this year the Erbs got permission from the Township of Perth East to close down streets to offer a drive-through pick up at their location. It hasn’t been without its challenges. On the first day of fruit pickup in December, cars ended up waiting for four hours or more Consequently, the Erbs tweaked their strategy for the second day of the sale by hiring more staff to increase efficiency which reduced wait times to approximately one hour. Patrons have posted on The Orange Barn’s Facebook page showing gratitude to the Erbs for adapting their business model. “Wonderful experience and amazing citrus! Very well organized. Thank you,” wrote Janice Murray Kyle of Ayr on the company’s Facebook page.

Another happy customer, Jenn Neumann of Niagara-onthe-Lake wrote, “the oranges were like eating candy.”

When the Erbs started The Orange Barn it was before Anna Mae’s Restaurant was founded and it gave their children something to do in the winter months when jobs were scarce. Today, their grandchildren (aged 10-16) are part of the family’s successful seasonal business.

“People come as far as Toronto, London and Owen Sound to buy our oranges,” said Duane Erb. “In a typical season, we sell seven to ten thousand cases,” he added.

What’s the secret behind Erb’s California sourced citrus freshness?

“They’re picked when they’re ripe, packed and put on a truck and we get them within a week of picking give or take a few days,” he explained. “Store fruit on the other hand often sits in terminals and warehouses for a period of time before reaching grocery store shelves.”

While speedy delivery is a factor contributing to the taste, where the fruit is grown is equally important. After many years of sourcing fruit from Florida growers, the Erb’s had to switch to California-grown oranges after the citrus greening disease decimated Florida’s growing

18 The Rural Voice

region. The worst part – there’s no cure, which has discouraged many growers from replanting.

“Switching states has also limited the variety of fruit,” said Erb. “People would fight to get these little ugly oranges that had sweet juice from front to back. They were just amazing,” he added. Erb was referring to Page oranges, which are about half the size of a navel orange

• By Amanda Brodhagen •

Twila Erb gets the day rolling at The Orange Barn shipping out boxes of citrus to customers lining the roads in Millbank where the the Erb family has been selling produce for over 40 years.

and are said to have the finest flavour of any citrus, a heritage variety of orange. The Erbs tried to source the variety last year, but ended up with inferior fruit.

In the early days of The Orange Barn, the Erbs would buy direct from the growers, then over the years growers began to consolidate and use packing houses for efficiency. When

Top: Duane and Jean Erb have been selling citrus for over 40 years and now rely on Booth Ranches in California to supply top-quality fruit. Middle: Lineups are common on pick-up day. Bottom: Duane and Jean Erb’s son-in-law, Robert Martin, works alongside his four children to distribute and load citrus on delivery day at The Orange Barn in Millbank.

this shift happened, the Erbs hired a broker to manage the purchasing.

He’s the one who had contacts in California. After trying a few different growers, the Erbs found one that they really liked near Orange Cove California – Booth Ranches – grown and packed by the Booth Family, established in 1957. Erb told his broker, “this is the grower that I want to use period,” noting the excellent quality and taste.

Someday the Erbs hope to go visit the Booth family, but due to COVID19 a trip wasn’t possible this year.

“They’re a family business, modern with all the fruit packed by machine not handled by humans any more,” he said.

I was able to tour the Millbank warehouse, and the walls featured orange boxes from all the growers they’ve purchased oranges from over the years. The first one was “Victory Groves” , stamped with the wording: “Florida’s finest Indian River Citrus.”

In addition to offering citrus fruits, the Erbs also sell fresh nuts purchased from a family business in Georgia.

What has set the Erbs apart from other businesses bringing in citrus fruits and nuts from the U.S. is samples – something that they were unable to offer this year due to the pandemic. Jean Erb recalls people being hesitant to try walnuts because of their bitter taste, she would say, “try these ones, they’re not bitter.”

While not all the nuts are grown in Georgia, all of them are roasted there and brought to Millbank to sell alongside the citrus fruits.

Throughout the years, the Erbs have developed a reputation for exceptional customer service and quality fruit. They gained this reputation mainly through word of mouth, but have also run radio ads with several different radio stations, area newspapers and this year, through targeted Facebook and Instagram sponsored posts.

The next shipment of fresh citrus fruit for drive-through pick up will take place February 12 and 13. .

“We are really looking forward to the time when we can once again connect more personally with our customers,” the Erbs said. ◊ February 2021 19

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Dairy

The future of dairy is...

The Canadian dairy industry needs some long-range reconnaissance to thrive but will survive, believe panelists

Panelists are brave to share opinions and get their photo taken unawares in screenschots during the COVID-19 pandemic. Panelists (clockwise) Christoph Wand (moderator), Vern Osborne of the University of Guelph, Bruce Muirhead of University of Western Ontario, Michael Barrett of Gay Lea Foods and Mark Hamel of Dairy Farmers of Ontario discussed the future of Canada’s dairy industry at Grey Bruce Farmer’s Week.

T

here is a lack of long-range reconnaissance on the survival of the Canadian dairy industry and if dairy farmers, processors and retailers want to see a thriving economy for rural Ontario, they need to remember that the only thought we all share across the planet is “what am I going to eat today?”

So says Vern Osborne, a professor at the University of Guelph who was a member of a five-person panel discussing the future of the Canadian dairy industry at Dairy Day held online at Grey Bruce Farmer’s Week on January 7.

“That is the universal thought – what will I eat today,” repeated Osborne. Dairy farmers are excellent providers of food as well as being caretakers of the planet. “You guys are guardians of the biosphere!” All this, says Osborne, should be marketed as part of a strategic plan to maintain consumer respect and commitment to Canadian dairy.

Bruce Muirhead, associate vice-president of Research Oversight and Analysis at the University of Western Ontario agreed, adding that farmers need to do a better job explaining what supply management is and why it benefits its rural areas. “I think supply management is a brilliant system overall … for both dairy farmers and consumers,”

said Muirhead. “But there is ideological disagreement from places like the Fraser Institute and the Globe and Mail that is based on ideologies; not data and not facts.” If those voices gain traction, it could signal the end of supply management. Which is why Muirhead urges anyone involved in the dairy industry to “make the case” for supply management. “It’s not enough for your organizations to make the case. Dairy farmers themselves need to buttonhole their local MPs and MPPs and make the case for supply management.”

Marketing was a theme among all five of the panelists with Michael Barrett, president and CEO of Gay Lea explaining that consumers are changing the face of farming. “They demand a greater amount of knowledge and information which ranges from things done right on your farm into practices within processing facilities,” said Barrett. Consumers demand transparency.

Consumers are also very focused on the environment said Mark Hamel, second vice-chair of Dairy Farmers of Ontario. Differentiating products while improving quality and production methods to support a sustainable

• By Lisa Boonstoppel-Pot • February 2021 21

environment is a continuing process.

He also added a point to the supply management discussion saying supply management is a Canadian system that serves Canadian purposes. It aligns with the renewed interest in food sovereignty which has arisen during the pandemic. “This system is the quintessential food sovereignty system,” said Hamel.

All five panelists believe the dairy industry and supply management has traction. When asked what is the most positive thing each of them have heard about dairy that gives it “runway” in the future, each had a powerful insight to share; Barrett: “COVID-19 has been a crisis and has greatly impacted our lives. But we have seen a rediscovery of food security. People are cooking at home and desire the element of having control over their food. There is a recognition that dairy is something to be celebrated around the dinner table. For the first time in decades, fluid milk sales have gone up and that is a result of COVID-19.

People are seeing that cooking at home is important and that dairy is critical and foundational.”

Hamel: “Consumers really value what is grown locally and we (dairy farmers) have an opportunity here.

Our producers are ready and willing.

We just need demand and milk will flow.”

Osborne: “What really sticks out to me is when the Premier announced that he wanted everything to be made in Ontario. There is huge potential for this province to be a bread basket to the world.”

Muirhead: “Canadians still support the dairy industry. Statistics reveal over 60 per cent of Canadians do and that even with all the negative voices. I agree there is more emphasis on food security than in the past and this a really good development because it sets the path for the future.” ther points made during the discussion about the future of the dairy industry included: Trade: There is a need for one dairy voice and an integrated supply chain to face changes in trade. There will be continued challenges in trade and access to markets and while the

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22 The Rural Voice

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government did create a compensation package for dairy farmers for market loss from the last trade deal, compensation is not a long-term solution. – Barrett.

“The coming Biden administration has made it clear they do not want to revisit existing trade agreements,” said Muirhead. There aren’t many trade agreements on the horizon but for sure, the United States will “continue their assault” on the Canadian market.

Innovation: Some might think of innovation in terms of flavours and packaging but Barrett said it needs to be seen from a broader perspective.

“It's about making sure consumers get the elements they need which involves innovation in delivery models, what happens on the farm and in processing plants.”

Specifically, Gay Lea is looking to incorporate more technology to replace labour as labourers are very hard to find. Along with that, technologies are required to produce a consistent, quality product which markets are demanding more and more.

In terms of technology, Osborne follows dairy technology closely and said the most impressive thing he has seen is the Omni Processor funded by Bill and Melinda Gates, working on farms in Texas and Washington. “It basically processes 100 per cent of the manure into water, electricity, nitrogen and phosphorus allowing farmers to spread it directly on the field with 100 per cent carbon collection,” explained Osborne.

Environment: Having already called farmers “the guardians of the biosphere” Osborne did caution that water usage is still the number one issue. He wonders why farmers are pumping potable water to clean alleyways and parlours when they could be using rainwater and rainwater technology. Still, despite being huge water users, farmers should get credit for the plants they grow and especially for dairy farmers, who use a forage rotation that benefits the soil. “Every farmer has the capacity to be a carbon farmer and should be given carbon credits,” he said. ◊

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February 2021 23

Hunting

Patience and practice makes the archer

Archery is a skill that takes time to acquire but the simplicity of the weapon and thrill of the hunt are worth it, says bowyer Max Turczyn

By Lisa Boonstoppel-Pot 24 The Rural Voice

Max Turczyn, a hunter and bowyer (person who makes bows) sights his target with one of his Saratoga Custom Bows. He has taken his passion for archery and created a new business designing custom traditional bows for hunters and archers.

W

hen Maz Turczyn was just a teenager, he went out hunting with a recurve bow borrowed from a friend. He admired the purity and perfection of the weapon which, to him, also seemed like an art form.

“I fell in love with the simplicity of the bow,” recalls Turczyn. “That, and how instinctive it is to shoot with a bow.” Now in his mid-thirties, Turczyn has combined his love of hunting with his family’s heritage of art and become a bowyer, designing artisanal longbows out of his Goderich garage.

Though he hunts with a gun during his “cheat week” to put meat on the table and has also hunted with crossbows, it’s the longbow that is his weapon of choice when it comes to hunting deer, taking the family to traditional archery events, or just enjoying quiet moments in the bush reflecting on life.

“It’s not as intense as a compound

bow. It’s light … like carrying a walking stick through the woods,” says Turczyn, who works full-time as an arborist with Hydro One forestry services. The bowmaking hobby turned business is taking off and one day, he hopes, Saratoga Custom Bows will become his full-time job.

He’s a busy guy but Turczyn still makes time to hunt. Archery season runs from October 1 to December 31 and within that time frame are two weeks for the gun hunt.

“A lot of guys take up archery because it extends the hunting season but most people are inclined to get a crossbow. It’s easier to get started with a crossbow because it has a scope and you can generally get one and be hunting in an hour. Longbows take skill and lots of practice,” explains Turczyn.

Longbows are tall and allow archers a long draw. Turczyn’s Saratoga Bows are

narrow and D-shaped, and vary in draw weights depending on what the owner uses it for. For instance, if a person wants a bow for target practice, then a 35-pound draw weight is pleasurable to use. If, however, a buyer purchases a bow to hunt deer, the draw weight needs to be at least 40 pounds as per hunting rules. To hunt moose or bear, the draw weight needs to be 50 pounds.

The range for longbows is generally 20 yards (compared to 150 for shotguns and more for rifles), so hunters need to have excellent woodsmanship skills to get close to the animals.

“There are a lot of products being sold out there to reduce scent and all that. But what it comes down to is knowing the land, playing the wind and being quiet,” says Turczyn. It’s also about trusting your instincts.

Years of practice give a hunter heightened awareness in his peripheral vision and a sixth sense that prey is near.

“It might be that a flock of birds has taken off, or you hear a faint twig crack or you catch a scent … the clues can be subtle but you feel something is coming,” says Turczyn.

Knowing how difficult it is to “read” the air, he says he has tremendous respect for deer and their brilliance at patiently scoping an area then slipping away if something isn’t quite right.

To hunt with a longbow requires some of that instinct. For years, Turczyn has attended traditional archery expos held mostly in the U.S. where archery is a popular pastime.

“You can take a bow off the rack and shoot for hours at these events,” he says.

He did a lot of reading and “asking and learning” before attempting his first bow. The process is actually more sculptural in process than woodworking, explains Turczyn. It involves laminating and gluing layers of fibreglass, carbon and wood veneers before shaping/sculpting the layers using a homemade form and heat box. The process does, however, involve woodworking skills to piece together the spliced risers. Turczyn’s father, a watercolour painter and photographer, is also into

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February 2021 25

woodworking and being neighbours, they decided to purchase woodworking machines together.

Artistry runs in the family -Turczyn’s mother and one sister are silversmiths while another sister works as a graphic designer.

“I was never really into art but this is sculptural and being a hunter, it fits together,” says Turcyn. The bows are gorgeous. Spliced veneers meet in flowing and powerful patterns, mixing colours and designs according to Turczyn, or the buyer’s, vision. A golden bow on display in the shop features Karelian birch, a tree grown in Russian and Finland that appears to have a fire-like pattern.

While most bowyers apprentice with an accomplished bow maker, Turczyn didn’t have that option because archery isn’t as popular in Canada. He had to learn on his own, something he is proud of. The first bow he made was for his daughter.

Dry spots in a bow being a bowyer

no-no, he slathered the layers with epoxy.

“That bow was swimming in epoxy,” he laughs. “It was slipping and sliding everywhere and I was so frustrated. But I managed to make it work.” He has fine-turned his process over the years and now makes three models: • The Swift: a reflex/deflex longbow that is nimble and responsive, measuring 58 to 60 inches long • The Venari: a longer reflex/deflex longbow 62 to 64 inches long that makes for a long, smooth draw.

• The Redtail: a one-piece recurve bow offered in 58 to 60 inch lengths.

He also makes take-down models for hunters who travel.

Bows are designed to have a heavier handle and lighter limbs.

Heavy limbs create shock in the hands. He is using more and more carbon fibre in the layering of the bows for its strength and lightness.

“It isn’t exactly traditional but it’s a lot lighter than fibreglass so there is less vibration in the limbs.”

Bows, Turczyn says, are meant to be used. Shaking hands leads to sore hands, so the lighter the better. That’s why he also encourages buyers to really consider the draw weight when purchasing. “Some guys come in all big and tough and ask for a large poundage but it’s actually more fun to shoot with a lower poundage bow,” he says. Turczyn’s wife shoots a 35 pound bow and his young children are also proficient marksmen.

After purchasing a bow, which can cost between $700 and $1,200, clients are urged to practise, practise, practise. “I actually discourage hunting with a longbow until you are proficient with it,” says Turczyn. He recommends target practice until you can put nine out of 10 arrows into a pie plate at 10 or more yards. Then walk through the bush, shoot at leaves and clumps of dirt. Walk

Max Turczyn hunts with own bows, designed and created in the basement of his Goderich home. Each traditional Saratoga Custom Bow has a pull weight custom-designed for the buyer depending on the purpose of the bow.

26 The Rural Voice

uphill and downhill. Practise using back muscles, not arm muscles, because that’s where the strength to draw and hold the draw comes from.

Six years as a bowyer and Turczyn is starting to make money with his hobby/business. The process requires significant investment of time and material. His goal is to become a full-time bowyer and set up his own booth at traditional archery expos. He’d also like to encourage and grow the skill of archery in Ontario and Canada, perhaps by starting his own archery club.

He considers his clients friends, because they share a respect for skill and appreciation of the hunt.

“Hunting deer is the most organic, drug-free meat that comes from a sustainable source, thanks to the tag system,” says Turczyn. With the meat come trophy antlers, many of which are hanging in Turzyn’s home.

“When I see that antler, it reminds me of every detail of that hunt,” he says.

Saratoga Bows can be found on Facebook and Instagram. ◊

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Country

Juno-winning country artist pens book

Larry Mercey looks over a scrapbook his mother kept as her three sons – Larry, Ray and Lloyd – went on to become famous as The Mercey Brothers, a country music band with seven Juno awards to their credit.

Larry Mercey morphed scrapbook memories into an autobiography of The Mercey Brothers band • By Lisa Boonstoppel-Pot •

E

arly on in his career, Larry Mercey remembers singing Don’t be Cruel by Elvis Presley in Grey County and the place went nuts.

“The kids at the barn dance were screaming at me like I was Elvis,” remembers Mercey, just a young man then.

Mercey would go from singing covers to writing his own songs to earning his own fame with brothers Ray and Lloyd earning seven Juno awards for Top Country Group as well as earning a Gold album for the record Comin’ on Stronger.

The awards are hanging in the basement of his home, on a quiet street in the Vintage Green retirement community north of London, where all the homes are neat and tidy and life is good. It’s a far cry from the motels he and his brothers would stay in during their years touring as the Mercey Brothers from coast to coast.

What hasn’t changed is his love of performing and even at 81, he’s a keen performer. Pre-COVID-19, he had over a 100 people in the park for a two-hour concert he gave at the village clubhouse. He spent most of his life performing 28 The Rural Voice

after all and he is proud of the career he had as lead singer of the Mercey Brothers, which put out 22 albums during their decades-long career.

Mercey has been reflecting on that time in a new, selfpublished autobiography called Have Mercey: My First 60 Years of Making Music. Boxes of the book are in the basement near his his favourite guitars which are set up on stands. Photos from the book can be seen on the walls, revealing funky 1970s costumes and famous faces such as Anne Murray and Stompin’ Tom Connors.

What he shows me, though, is an old scrapbook his mother kept while Mercey was growing up. She was a scribe, recording her memories and the successes of her sons. She left a legacy for Mercey that he kept up through his lifetime. The shelf beside that treasured keepsake is filled with his own scrapbooks of life memories.

“I looked at those and realized I had enough information to write a book,” says Mercey. He wrote it primarily for his grandchildren and generations to come but quickly realized he could share these stories with Mercey Brothers fans.

Highlights of the book and his life include pride in growing up in Hanover. The family lived near the flats and in fall, he remembers cutting down bulrushes and in winter making ice rinks to play hockey. “It was a great place to grow up,” he says.

There was a lot of music in the family home. His dad played guitar and his mom the piano. “We were brought up on music. Back then that’s what people did – listened to music,” remembers Mercey.

Having the drive to become performers, Mercey and his brother Ray would stand in front of a mirror and sing

together to improve their look and sound. “It paid off because when we started to record, we sounded pretty good!”

In 1960, the pair won second place on a CBC talent show called Talent Caravan. “That really opened doors for us,” remembers Mercey.

They began performing in large Canadian cities from Winnipeg to Halifax, gaining popularity. Being on television gave them more exposure than a year performing in bars and led to concerts in Finland, England, Holland, Sweden and the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville.

This was a taste of international success but breaking into the United States was going to be a huge hurdle.

“We felt we could be a big fish in a small pond so we decided to stay in Canada,” he said.

There were many awards. The Junos and Gold record, as mentioned.

Mercey played guitar using a Martin guitar and says a career highlight was winning the Martin Guitar Award for lifetime achievement in 1986.

The journey wasn’t easy. It was a lot of hard work travelling to cities, playing in different venues and bars every night. The brothers were their own roadies, responsible for setting up and taking down their equipment and transporting themselves from one venue to the next. The band committed to putting out a single every four to five months so there were also a lot of recording sessions.

“We felt it was important to be consistent and we put out records like pulling a handle on a machine,” admits Mercey.

Travelling with brothers took some balance because in their working years, Mercey spent more time with his brothers Ray, the bass player and Lloyd, singer and drummer, than he did his wife, June.

However, he is still happily married!

June came down the basement to chat and said Larry has written a good book but it ain’t no tell-all! “That’s the book I would write,” she jokes.

Humour likely stood her in good stead all the years the Mercey Brothers were on the road but she admits she hated to see the long weekend looming on the calendar, knowing he’d be gone. They talked on the phone often, catching up on

little things. He asked what she and kids (two of them) were having for supper and she’d say hotdogs and he’d say he was having lobster. It felt to June as if they were worlds apart but June says you just had to get on with it and be an independent person.

Larry butts in and says he was able to do it because he had someone he loved to support him. “He is very lucky,” laughs June. It was a fun part of the interview, watching this longtime married couple interact and I’d encourage June to write that book!

The Mercey Brothers disbanded in 1989 when Larry was 60 and he went on to work as a landscaper, picture salesman and tour guide for Hanover Holidays. He also ran a recording studio for a time. He enjoyed all of the above because he enjoys people.

People are what he has missed most since leaving the music industry. It’s why he still performs for fans who have followed him and The Mercey Brothers since the 1960s. Huron County fans will remember he sang on the CKNX

Barn Dance in 1956. A personable fellow, Mercey has deep fondness for some country music legends he met while in the business. His favourite was Charley Pride.

“Charlie was a nice man,” says Mercey. He was also a funny man.

When posing for a picture between Larry and a friend, also a white man, Charlie joked they had created a reverse Oreo cookie!

Pride also performed a song Mercey had co-written. “I was there in the audience and he announced he was going to do a song by a Canadian and he had me stand up,” remembers Mercey. By the second verse, the crowd of over 10,000 was on their feet and singing along. It was quite a rush.

So many stories! Mercey’s mom started the process of recording the family memories, Mercey lived them on a larger-scale and now he has recorded these stories in his own book. It will sit proudly on the shelf beside his scrapbooks, containing memories of a good, full life. ◊

Larry Mercey’s London basement contains a treasure of memories from his time as lead singer of The Mercey Brothers, shown above, in their heydey.

February 2021 29

Viticulture

Marquette reminds owners of plum jam

From a dream six years ago to a wine boutique featuring a handful of their own home-grown wines, Frank and Liz Ihrig are adding to Huron County’s vision to become a wine-producing region.

Prost! The Schatz winery at Hessenland Inn is the family’s “darling winery”

By Bonnie Sitter 30 The Rural Voice

C

o-owners Frank and Liz Ihrig had a dream. Six years ago that dream of having a vineyard and producing fine wines began to become a reality. Five acres of land, along the coast of Lake Huron close to St. Joseph, was prepared for planting the grape vines to create the Schatz Winery.

The acreage’s soil is a combination of silt, clay and loam. Research had been carried out about the possibility of vineyards being established in Huron County. It was determined that the climate, with the moderating effect of the lake, and the number of days between the last frost in the spring until the first frost in the autumn, would allow vineyards to thrive. There would, however, be a shorter growing season than the Niagara-area which would require careful consideration when choosing what varieties could be planted.

The Ihrigs carefully prepared the soil to the required depth and the roots were planted. It takes faith to wait years before a crop can be harvested.

There were some grapes harvested in 2017 but 2019 was the first official season for their retail store and Frank and Liz have been very pleased with the feedback from customers, many of whom had been encouraged to explore and discover areas closer to home.

Really cold temperatures are a concern when growing grapes so vines that are cold hardy to minus 30 and minus 35 were chosen. The minus 30-35 temperatures do not need to occur for a prolonged period of time.

Potentially, just one hour at these temperatures can cause damage and may even kill the dormant buds.

They also had to learn about grape This is an average and will fluctuate vine diseases, such as powdery from vintage to vintage and grape mildew, downy mildew, phylloxera variety. and the odd issue with insects.

Choosing what grapes to grow to Weeds are controlled by mechanical establish a vineyard is one part of the weeding. The leftover grape skins are plan. You also need a winemaker called pomace and these skins and with a reputation for excellence to pulp are used to fertilize the turn the grapes into wine. Derek vineyard. It makes perfect sense to Barnett, who emigrated from return the leftover product to nourish the soil.

Many grape wine varities are grown on rootstocks to improve Frank Ihrig of Shatz vigor, increase production and Winery and his help sustain the health of winemaker, Derek survival of the vineyard.

Barnett, take a break on Grape varieties growing at the barrels storing wine Schatz Vineyard include: varieties such as Sister • Petite Pearl – Red, own (rose), Musuko rooted (Marquette) and Blume • Marquette – Red, own which are sold at thier rooted boutique at Hessenland • Frontenac Blanc – White, near Hensall. Now at own rooted rest in the winter snow, • Frontenac Gris – Off White, the vines were own rooted beautifully green in their • La Crescent – White, own neat rows during the rooted growing season (below).

• Riesling – White, grafted vine In a test plot, the Ihrigs are experimenting with: • Chardonnay – White, grafted vine • Siegerrebe – Rose, grafted vine • Cabernet Franc – Red, grafted vine Frank described Marquette as a distant relative of Pinot Noir, just much more cold tolerant. It makes a beautiful medium body red wine, that will benefit from being aged in oak for at least 10 months.

On the nose, Schatz’s Marquette is reminiscent of Frank’s Oma’s plum jam, and hints of spices, peppercorns and black olives on the finish. This wine pairs well with Pork Schnitzel, Beef Rouladen and Beef Goulasch all of which are served to guests dining in the Hessenland Restauarant and prepared by Chef Frank.

In general, the Ihrigs have been happy with their harvests, but these of course are early days and they look to improve yields in the coming years. On average one ton of grapes will yield approximatey 600 litres of wine, which translates to approximately 65 cases of wine.

England in 1991 and began his winemaking career in Niagara-onthe-Lake was their choice. He was named Winemaker of the Year in 2000.

Schatz Winery’s first harvest/ vintage was Petite Pearl in 2017. It was named 15-35 reflecting the harvest date which was October 5,

February 2021 31

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Frank supervises the hand harvesting of all of the grapes grown at the Schatz Vineyards. After harvesting, the grapes are delivered to Dark Horse Estate Winery as they have the equipment to remove the stems, crush, and press the fruit. The juice returns to the Schatz Winery for the fermentation and aging process. During this time the wine will be “racked” several times, to take the wine off the sediment.

their 15th wedding anniversary.

What a way for Liz and Frank to celebrate! It was also special for another reason. It marked the 35th anniversary of Frank and his mom, Christa, immigrating to Canada from Germany.

The name Schatz is one that they hope people will remember because the English translation is “treasure”.

Apparently, schatz is also a term of

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endearment in Germany for “my honey” or “my darling” so Schatz is the Ihrigs’ “darling winery”.

Dining in the vineyard became popular during the pleasant temperatures last summer and autumn. Guests are invited to “BYOB’ which means “bring your own blanket”. Enjoying a glass of wine or a casual meal surrounded by vines and grapes is inviting indeed! ◊

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February 2021 33

Recipes by Dorothy Brown Henderson

Chocolate and love, snow and cold

F

ebruary is the month of snow and cold, but it also offers us Valentine’s Day, time to express warmth and love.

February 14th and chocolate just seem to belong together. Silky, rich chocolate is an edible declaration of love.

Since chocolate contains chemicals that affect the pleasure and reward centres of our brains, it is considered an aphrodisiac or, at the right time of day, a sweet pick-me-up treat for anyone.

Chocolate, especially dark chocolate, is reported to be good for our health. It’s full of antioxidants and flavonoids which fight against free radicals in the body. It is known to lower blood pressure and improve blood flow.

There is much evidence that chocolate is good for the heart— literally, romantically and expressively.

So, open the pantry and fill a mixing bowl with a chocolate love treat for an important someone in your life—a sweetheart, your favourite teenager, your aunt in a retirement home or yourself.

Black Forest Mousse Dessert This deliciously goopy Black Forest Mousse is a favourite with children and, since it requires no baking, is a good recipe for them to make for grandparents or the family.

Ingredients: 1 ½ cups milk 1 pkg (113 g) instant chocolate pudding 2 cups (or so) whipped topping, thawed 10-16 Oreo cookies, crushed 1 can (590 mL) cherry pie filling Directions: Crush the cookies and reserve about half of them for the garnish on the top.

Pour milk into a mixing bowl and whisk in instant pudding mix until thickened. With a rubber spatula, gently fold in ½ cup of the whipped topping.

34 The Rural Voice

Stir about half the crushed cookies into pudding mixture.

Spoon half the pudding mixture into a glass serving bowl. Spread 1 cup (or so) of the whipped topping over the pudding. Spread half the can of cherry pie filling over the cream.

Repeat these layers so that you have another layer of chocolate, one of cream and one of cherries on top.

Sprinkle remaining cookie crumbs around the top edge of the dessert.

Garnish with whipped topping.

Serves 8-10 Eddington’s Triple Layer GlutenFree Chocolate Torte In the town where I live (Exeter, Ontario), we are fortunate to have Eddingtons, an excellent, casual, finedining restaurant. The ambiance of dining on innovative, fresh, local foods in one of Exeter’s historic, yellow-brick houses is a real treat.

Chef James Eddington kindly shared with me the recipe for a favourite dessert. It takes a little time to prepare, but is well worth the effort.

Ingredients: Base layer 1 ½ cups fine white sugar 8 tbsp unsalted butter ½ tsp salt 1 tsp vanilla ¾ cup cocoa powder 3 large eggs ¾ cup all-purpose gluten-free flour 1 tsp baking powder Mousse layer 200 g (7 oz) semisweet chocolate 1 tsp gelatin 2 tbsp water ½ cup sugar 2 cups (35%) cream Ganache layer Silky, rich chocolate is the highlight of this month’s 35 g (3 oz) semidesserts including (top to bottom) Oreo Cheesecake sweet chocolate Cookies, Flourless Chocolate Cake and Black Forest 1/3 cup (35%) cream Mousse.

Recipes Directions: To make the base layer, melt together the sugar, butter and salt.

Pour into a heat proof bowl and mix in vanilla and cocoa. Combine well.

Add eggs, one at a time, combining well with each.

Add gluten-free flour and baking powder until combined. (Do not over mix the batter.)

Pour into a greased 9-inch spring form pan and bake in 350° oven for about 35 minutes. (An inserted toothpick should have a few wet crumbs.) Cool for 30 minutes.

To make the mousse layer, place chocolate in a double boiler and melt the chocolate.

In a small bowl, sprinkle gelatin over water and let bloom for five minutes In a small saucepan over medium heat, heat ¼ cup (60 mL) of the heavy cream with the sugar, stirring until sugar has dissolved.

Add the cream mixture to the chocolate mixture and combine. Let cool slightly at room temperature but don’t let it go cold.

Whip the remaining cream to medium stiff peaks.

Combine ¼ cream to chocolate mix with a spatula, then gently fold in the remaining cream.

Spoon onto chilled base layer.

Smooth the top. Chill for 30 minutes.

To make the ganache, place the chocolate and cream in a double boiler until completely melted. Cool to room temperature.

Pour ganache over the mousse layer and place in fridge for at least 2 hours to set.

Once set, run a knife around the edges of the spring form pan and release the cake.

Garnish with whipped cream, fresh berries and coulis (fruit sauce).

Serves 12.

Oreo Cheesecake Cookies It may seem counter-intuitive to use cookies to make cookies, but apparently children don’t think so. A twelve-year-old girl sent me this recipe. If you love cheesecake, you’ll enjoy these treats for Valentine’s Day. Refrigerate to store.

Ingredients: 1 (250 gram) package of cream

cheese, room temperature ½ cup butter, room temperature ¾ cup white sugar ½ tsp vanilla 1 cup all-purpose flour 15 Oreo cookies, coarsely crushed A few chocolate chips or red cinnamon hearts for topping Directions: Mix cream cheese and butter until smooth.

Blend in sugar and vanilla.

Add flour and crushed Oreo cookies. Stir well and chill batter for an hour.

Scoop the batter into walnut-sized balls, roll in your palms, then flatten before baking.

Bake for 10 minutes in 350° oven.

Makes about 24 cookies.

Strawberry Chocolate Ice Cream Squares Here is a simple make-ahead dessert that is popular with families, easy enough for children and teens to assemble.

Ingredients: 2 cups chocolate baking crumbs 2 tbsp white sugar 1/3 cup butter or margarine, melted 4 cups strawberry ice cream (or substitute your favourite flavour) Toppings: 2 cups fresh strawberries, sliced Chocolate sauce Sliced toasted almonds Directions: In a small fry pan over medium heat, toast sliced almonds for about 5 minutes, stirring constantly, until toasty brown. (This takes about 5 minutes.) Set aside for topping.

In a medium bowl, stir together chocolate baking crumbs, sugar and melted butter. When well combined, press firmly into a 9-inch square pan which you have lined with parchment paper. The paper should overhang on the sides. This makes a handle for easy removal of your dessert.

Set the pan into the freezer and chill for 30 minutes.

Remove pan from the freezer and spread the ice cream over the chocolate base. You may have to let the ice cream soften for 10 minutes or so until it can be easily spread.

Freeze until firm, about 4 hours.

Meanwhile, wash, stem and slice the strawberries.

To serve, remove the dessert from the pan using your parchment paper handles, cut into squares and garnish with fresh sliced strawberries, a drizzle of chocolate and a sprinkle of the toasted almonds. Serves 6-8.

Chocolate Lava Cakes Warm lava cake is sinfully delicious with a rich, solid exterior and an interior of oozing chocolate sauce. These cakes are best eaten warm with a little whipped cream.

However, you can make the batter ahead, spoon it into buttered muffin tins and refrigerate, bringing the tin out 30 minutes before baking to allow the batter to come back to room temperature.

Ingredients: 6 oz (175 g) semi-sweet chocolate 2/3 cup butter 1/3 cup white sugar 6 egg yolks 3 egg whites 1/3 cup all-purpose flour Directions: On the stovetop, over medium low heat, melt together the chocolate and butter. Set aside to cool slightly.

With an electric mixer, beat together the sugar and egg yolks until thick and creamy.

Pour in chocolate mixture and beat for about 3 minutes.

In a separate bowl, beat egg whites at high speed until stiff peaks form (about 3 minutes). (Since my mixer has only 1 bowl, I transferred the chocolate mixture back into the cooking pot and washed my bowl and beater thoroughly before beating egg whites.)

Fold the chocolate-egg yolk mixture into the egg whites, then fold in the flour.

Using a ½ cup measuring cup, scoop batter into 12 well-buttered muffin tins. Bake for about 7-9 minutes in a 425° oven. The edges should be cooked and the centre still liquid.

Cool for five minutes and carefully remove, inverting them onto serving plates. If desired, add whipped cream, ice cream, fresh fruit or a dusting of icing sugar.

Serves 12. ◊ February 2021 35

Gardening Rhea HamiltonSeeger is a skilled cook and gardener who lives near Auburn.

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Raised gardens for all types of gardeners and spaces While I am not a big vegetable gardener I certainly do appreciate the look of them and of course the produce. I spent many long hours among the vegetables when I was a kid. Weeding, watering, checking for bugs, and of course eating fresh from the plants.

It was not uncommon for my Dad to request baby potatoes and we were delighted to take on the quest to carefully seek out the potatoes in the hills without disturbing the plants.

They were delicious plain or with a spot of butter dripping off the sides.

We used to carefully cut the steamed potatoes in half and then drag the cut side in the butter.

Snacks were easy to find, a quick tug on a carrot, a snap of a bean or emptying a pea pod. We were excited when new seeds arrived in the mail.

We were fascinated with snow peas where we could eat the whole pod and who could resist baby carrots.

Just thinking about a feast of beet greens topped with a dollop of sour cream makes my mouth water!

I had hoped to grow vegetables when my husband and I bought our little farm and we did for the first few years. But travelling in the summer with the kids left the garden neglected and we would come home to a lot of the produce seeding itself down. We were fortunate that our inlaws lived around a couple of corners and had a huge vegetable garden. We enjoyed many wonderful meals there and they generously shared the bounty with us.

My mother-in-law had a cold

frame and started lettuce and parsley early. She used parsley in healthy doses in salads and stir-fries. Some of her German dishes called for cups of it! I remember first using parsley sparingly as a seasoning and when I worked at the Benmiller Inn kitchen it was used as a garnish, which I thought was pretty but a waste.

Tastes change, and now I consider parsley a tasty addition to salads and it really enhances a beef stew.

Another trick my mother-in-law, Kathe, employed was raised beds.

Not great long mounds but smaller, about 30 inches square, and she would scatter the seeds on it and move onto the next square. Now, not all vegetables were treated this way.

Onions and potatoes were in rows as were the tomatoes and peas. But any salad greens and carrots were in these raised blocks.

A raised bed can be anything from simple planks about six inches high to waist-height boxes on legs.

Among the benefits are that you start with good soil despite what you might have underfoot and the soil heats up quicker. I think we make better use of the space with plantings closer together and succession sowings to make sure the area produces for as long as is seasonably possible.

Raised beds seem easy enough, make a frame and fill it with balanced soil mixture. If your structures sit on the ground you have to loosen the native soil to a depth of 12 to 18 inches for better drainage.

You can also make raised beds using a method from deep green permaculture called Hugelkultur.

When I read about this Germanic process I thought of Kathe. This method relies on building the garden on branches or rotting wood as a foundation. I picture pioneers building gardens on newly cleared land. The descriptions I uncovered used mounds of branches or brush a foot or two deep, or as deep as seven feet, and four to eight feet long in a sunny spot. I don’t think there are many who would opt for the really high model. Old rotting wood was also suggested but I would avoid any treated scraps of wood from decking

Gardening plants and black locust or cedar which both take forever to break down. If you are making a shorter pile you will naturally want to step on this pile and crush it down to have more contact with the ground. Top with compostables like old sod, straw or even grass clippings. I am thinking leaves. Sprinkle compost on the pile to get it started in decomposing and add an inch or two of soil on top of it all. These will all hold moisture well and you can pretty much plant what you want on it.

The decomposition in the pile will keep your garden warmer longer in the fall season and heat up sooner in the spring. The nutrient matter will improve the deeper soil.

We cut out two large junipers last fall and in hindsight we should have kept it all to try our own Hugelkultur.

But there are more opportunities. We also have to reduce a yew hedge so we will make do with branches from that for our experiment.

Whatever method you choose, when planting your vegetables this spring take advantage of the invaluable information on the back of your seed packages about planting depth, amount of sun, water and of course spacing to get the best results.

Crowding can lead to fungus or mold issues when air cannot circulate.

Thinning is a delicious way to remedy crowding.

If this year is anything like last year, I suspect there is going to be a rush on vegetable seeds and plants.

Plan accordingly. Send me some photos of your joys or not so joyful projects. Sharing gardening stories helps us all. ◊

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Advice • By Lisa Boonstoppel-Pot •

Changing the rules of musical chairs

Figure out what you want to feel, then change the rules of the game so it makes you feel that way, say disruptors

W

hen Jerrold McGrath was a small child, he despised musical chairs. The game seemed to award aggressiveness and pushing. If you were a gentle or absent-minded child like he was, or one with a physical disability, it was a game at which you would not do well.

“What would happen if we redesigned musical chairs to feel caring, mysterious and celebratory?

Does it make the game less fun?

Does it change the experience of playing it?” are questions McGrath asks as a way of challenging systems.

A fan of disorder, McGrath is the founder at Intervene Design, a design agency and consultancy in North York that drives strategic programming shifts. He told viewers of the “Seeing Differently” seminar at the Rural Talks to Rural Conference organized by the Canadian Centre for Rural Creativity that most people have expectations of what is supposed to happen in the world. They have maps and categories and as things happen, they slot them into folders or definitions or labels. This isn’t so bad in itself except that when everything fits, people stop paying attention. When they stop paying attention, it gets easy to distance themselves from being present in the moment.

Taking the idea of redesigning musical chairs and extrapolating it to redesigning systems, McGrath says people need to ask themselves how they want playing in that system to feel. If they can articulate that, then within a family or business or society, people can design moments of interaction to feel that way. This will make people present in the situation.

A good example of this took place in Kensington Market in Toronto, explains McGrath. The market has 38 The Rural Voice

Jerrold McGrath, founder of Intervene Design and Meghan Hellstern (right) an independent consultant and teacher in Toronto, are in the business of challenging ideas, systems and processes to encourage deeper engagement in communities.

suffered profoundly during the COVID-19 pandemic and McGrath and fellow artists wanted to explore connections at the market. Using art, they designed a Care Project where everyone in the market added something to a box to show who they are. The box was passed around for all vendors to see. Another installation was a pair of booths. A person could enter the booth and use prompts centred on the theme of community to have a conversation with the person in the other booth … whom they could not see.

“We got business owners, tourists and residents involved,” said McGrath. “They have conversations without basing their response on what they saw.” In this way, preconceptions based on sex, age, race or ethnicity were removed and the conversation focused on the now.

The goal is to create a community to meet the way you want it to feel. It works for family and

business as well.

“For instance, we decided we wanted to go on holiday and we wanted it to feel spontaneous and loose,” said McGrath. “So then we designed our holiday so that it would be that way.” oining McGrath in this thought process during the online workshop was Meghan Hellstern, an independent consultant, facilitator and teacher in Toronto. She said the pandemic is pushing people to shape their system to a different set of values and interactions. Art is one way to shape the system, and design is another. As a designer, Hellstern said she does a lot of “reverse engineering” by examining the minute blocks that build up to the end outcome. This is a system as well, a system of creating small steps to reach the ultimate outcome.

When it comes to disrupting systems, polarization is a real and complex issue. It could be seen in the

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Rural Living

United States during the election when Republicans and Democrats were in opposite camps. When redesigning systems, “the squeaky wheel gets the grease”, said Hellstern. “You get folks with an agenda who are vocal so you end up with a distorted sense of an issue because of the huge amount of people in the middle who aren’t vocal about their beliefs.” To make space for all voices requires curiosity and empathy, said Hellstern.

“We have to tap deeply into human parts and create a space for active listening. Put yourself into the shoes of another person. Experience their viewpoint with deep openness and burst out of your filter bubbles,” advised Hellstern.

She supports the idea of using virtual reality for empathy building.

“Video storytelling is remarkable,” said Hellstern. She reflected on an exhibit in Toronto telling the story of the gun trade. Participants were given different roles and forced to adopt a stance so they could see a different element of the situation.

McGrath seconds that notion. He said we need to become strangers to the identities we assume. “We all have armour to protect us from the hurtful things in this world. But we need to create moments of care, intimacy and trust. Getting people to experience the other in a way that we cannot categorize forces us to process. Then it's impossible not to feel empathy,” he said.

He remembers a trip to Japan where he was invited to watch a Japanese fisherman use a cormorant bird, with a ring around its neck, to catch fish. The ring prevented the bird from swallowing the fish.

“When asked about it, I had to admit I thought it was cruel. But I think I missed a beautiful moment because of my viewpoint.”

To release those viewpoints and change, people need to recover their ability to linger. “We have the expectation the future will be better than the present but this expectation causes us to lose the experience of the moments we are in,” said McGrath. “We have to draw attention to the journey versus the destination.”

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He does think one of the beneficial side effects of the COVID19 pandemic is just that: people are starting to doubt the future will be better than the present. It’s forcing people to accept this journey instead of rushing toward the future.

Hellstern added that mindfulness and meditation can be useful tools when changing systems and seeing this differently. “It brings us to the present moment to connect with what is happening around us and also inside of us.”

Nature is another tool to bring people to the present moment to effect change, believes Hellstern. She recommends taking the time to wonder at things like the first buds in spring. “For me, that is a majestic moment that is so easy to miss if we have our heads down to a phone.”

The workshop continued and it was obvious to see that McGrath and Hellstern were similar visionaries who got excited about change and how to bring it about. Their conversation flowed from one idea to another. Here are a few more excerpts from the “Seeing Differently” discussion: Treat each other right: “We need to live by a code that we treat each other as good or better as you want to be treated yourself. For the rationally-minded, it’s good to remember there is a cost to not helping each other. It’s more expensive to have people living on the street than living in a house. The more we take care of each other, the less they are a burden financially.” Hellstern Incentives: “It’s a cutthroat world and there aren’t any incentives to sharing what you know. When you make it big, it’s a cutthroat world.

We need to have incentives to reward generosity.” When McGrath was hiring, he asked existing employees to give him names of people looking for work who were inherently generous and McGrath made generosity a top qualification for new hires.

Cross-Cultural Training: “Cross-cultural training allows people to explore the edges with other people.” -McGrath Change in Government:

Advice “Government was formed to serve a world that no longer exists. It does need to shift. But in what direction?

A shift I would be excited to see is the government moving from a doer and actor to a facilitator and convenor. It can match resources to needs and understand that it is maybe not in the best position to understand what those needs are.” Hellstern references the Smart Cities Challenge which was open to all municipalities, local or regional governments, and Indigenous communities (First Nations, Métis and Inuit). The Challenge empowered communities to adopt a smart cities approach to improve the lives of their residents through innovation, data and connected technology. The winner received a financial award to implement the plan, effectively allowing the communities themselves to articulate their needs rather than the government conducting a study to determine needs. -Hellstern Make it Easy to Help: “When I think about my schooling, I have received zero training and knowledge on how to help effectively. I think in high school we should have a class called Cargiving 101 to learn how to take care of children and the elderly.

I believe that until people have these tools and feel like helping is easy, it is hard to get people engaged. People are busy. They have a lot of things on the go. We need to make caring easy.” -Hellstern Abundance versus Scarcity: We need to shift from a scarcity mindset to one of abundance. It’s not musical chairs where you steal someone’s chair. Life should be more like a game where everyone benefits. The more you give away, the more you benefit.” - Hellstern No Pyrotechnics: “You guys have said so many things I will ponder. Your goal is to make a place where curiosity abounds and people are not judged. A place where people care. This conversation was like an old practice where you go to a place and listen to people talk. That was tonight. There were no strawberries with chocolate and no pyrotechnics.

Just people coming together who have things to say and share them.” Peter Smith, session moderator. ◊

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Dairy • Lisa Boonstoppel-Pot •

Standing is ruining cows’ feet Hoof trimming expert says inflammation from standing too long is the prelude to all cow lameness

Digital Dermatitis is an infectious hoof disease prevalent in dairy cattle that can quickly turn chronic if modern hoof-trimming approaches aren’t incorporated into dairy herd management, says Travis Busman, a hoof care technician and instructor while speaking at Dairy Day during Grey Bruce Farmer’s Week.

Travis Busman, Dairyland Hoof Care

N

o one wins with lame cows.

Not the farmer, not the farm labourers, not the truckers, not the slaughterhouse and certainly not the cows.

“And I can tell you the best trimmers in the world hate lame cows,” said Travis Busman, a hoof care technician and instructor with the Dairyland Hoof Care Institute in Ravenna, Michigan. He spoke to dairy farmers on modern approaches to hoof care as part of Dairy Day presentations at Grey Bruce Farmer’s Week held January 7.

“We also know that once a cow goes lame, she is likely to go lame again.” So prevention is key when 42 The Rural Voice

dealing with the three primary causes of hoof infection: sole ulcers, white line disease and digital dermatitis.

“Inflammation is the prelude to all lameness,” said Busman, “If we can get the inflammation out and increase circulation, then the horn can produce healthy hoof again.” He recommends the use of antiinflammatories when needed and correct trimming but it really begins with preventing the cows from standing for long periods of time.

“It’s imperative when you manage a herd that you keep cows off their feet,” said Busman. He recommends making sure the parlour is set up and ready for cows before putting cows in the holding pen. Also, watch the temperature. Busman explained that once cattle reach a temperature of 39 degrees Celsius they will not lie down. This is critical on summer days but also needs investigating in the holding pen as well. High-

producing cattle can output over 6,000 BTU of heat (compared to 2,500 BTUs for lower producing cattle). “It’s incredible the amount of heat a high-producing cow makes.”

When asked about using rubber mats throughout the barn, Busman said he’s not convinced they are effective because while comfortable for the cow, they still don’t allow for proper circulation in the hoof. “It doesn't increase circulation but it does increase standing,” he said.

Since Busman’s goal is to reduce how long cows stand, rubber mats sometimes become counterintuitive.

They are also expensive. Mats in the parlour are good, he said. But as for alleyways and holding areas, he is not a believer.

“We don’t have hard scientific data on it but rubber mats are expensive and are not always fun things to deal with when they curl up and buckle,” said Busman. “Believe me, rubber matting is the most contentious thing I speak on.”

The three keys to reducing lameness on the farm are cow comfort, cow cooling and short milking time, said Busman, In terms of the specific hoof diseases, Busman had this advice.

White Line Disease: “We see this disease when a farm has flooring and stockmanship issues,” said Busman.

“In my opinion, stockmanship is a skill that needs to be honed over time. Too many people handle cattle like they see, hear and think like we do and that is far from the truth.”

He does like sand bedding not only for cow comfort but for the traction it provides cattle as it spills into the alleyway.

Sole ulcers are the other common claw horn lesions he deals with which can be effectively treated with trimming and blocks, something he highly recommends.

Digital Dermatitis: The primary

Dairy cause of dermatitis is a breakdown in the cow’s immune system. Simple touching does not pass the infection unless the cow’s immune system is weak and she has compromised skin integrity. Then the bacteria can enter.

Keeping barns clean helps reduce the spread because this is an infectious disease that can quickly become chronic once it gets past the early acute stage.

“It’s absolutely imperative that we treat dermatitis at an early stage,” stressed Busman. To maintain control of prevalence of cases in the dairy barn, hygiene is critical.

Alley scrapers can be effective to keep alleyways clean but only when they are run often enough.

Otherwise, cow hooves remained covered in manure.

To keep hooves as clean as possible, he recommends spraying the hooves once a day in the parlour.

“What a difference that makes!” he said. He is also a proponent of foot baths and recommended people visit the www.savecows.com website to get ideal dimensions. Copper sulphate added at 2.5 per cent ratio and formaldehyde at no more than two per cent are good additives to the foot bath. Be careful how much disinfectant you add because more than two per cent of formaldehyde can be damaging to hooves.

Treatment: All cows should have their hooves trimmed twice or three times a year with emphasis on the primary trimming occurring during the dry cow period three to eight weeks before calving. First lactation heifers should also be trimmed three to eight weeks before calving.

Someone in the barn should be designated to watch for lame cattle.

This ensures proper detection for treatment within 24 hours. Trimming schedules can be managed with dairy management software.

Busman also recommends regular locomotion scoring of cows in herds with lameness.

The purpose of a proper trim is to keep the cow walking on her toes which naturally wears them down.

“With hoof trimming, we must retain proper claw function. It is not about aesthetics, it’s about the anatomy of the foot,” concluded Busman. ◊

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Markets Scott Krakar is a Grain Merchandiser with LAC Inc., Hyde Park, 519-473-9333

Crop prices rally as inflation spreads The inflation trade that began towards the end of 2020 continued into the new year. Most asset classes continue to inflate, and many liken this time to the roaring ’20s of the past century.

One notable market commentator wrote that “we are seeing the longest list of inflation forces in 50 years.”

Housing prices, oil prices, metal prices and most notably grain prices are all rallying in price. In the case of grain prices, values are rising to levels not seen for many years. The inflation trade is positive to grain valuations and this has helped to fuel

the money flow that is accelerating the upside momentum. Many money managers look to own a basket of commodities in inflationary periods and this passive investment is happening now. The case for higher grain prices has been more than this, however, because there are regions of the world that grain production is being severely challenged due to drought.

It is noteworthy that this is all occurring as COVID-19 infection rates continue to surge around the region and abroad. Here in Ontario we have seen further restrictions and the state of emergency declaration reintroduced; with the purpose of limiting travel. As discussed, in the midst of this, markets are surging with hopes that the vaccine roll-out will be rapid and effective.

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developing, especially in old crop markets.

As we have been discussing, China’s demand is huge as the nation rebuilds its swine herd. To do this they need soys. Brazil having become sold out of supplies, China came to the U.S. for stocks and has been buying large volumes continually. As the U.S. ships these beans, U.S. ending stocks have been drawn lower and lower – and from this, prices have moved to ration supply until South American production becomes available. This has been the situation for some time, and it is from these events that soy prices have been strong since harvest.

While the old crop narrative has continued in this manner the variable input has been South American weather and the fears concerning current production in this important region. The soy crop in Argentina can’t seem to catch a break as rains continue to be elusive in the country.

Soybeans are in ration mode and where prices go from here are to levels that prevent folks from buying beans because they are too expensive.

If Argentine weather remains threatening, prices must continue to ration. How high the market goes is dependent on increasingly important rain in the region. Every day that goes by we see more and more worries about what final yields will be in the country. Why all this focus on Argentina today? This country is the largest exporter of soymeal in the world. And finally when do the steep price increases stop? It is of course when crop fears in Argentina subside, potentially even with one expansive rainfall.

Weather markets are known to be brutal for their severe and rapid price movements. I’ve grown beans for enough years to recognize that some of my best crops come in years when the crop experiences early dryness followed by good rains. Will this happen in Argentina this year? How good are you at predicting the weather?

South America is all the worry in the corn market too. As the world balance sheets tighten, U.S. exports fill the gap until Brazilian and Argentine supplies come available.

But what happens if these southern

Markets hemisphere countries see mounting crop losses? It’s a long time until the U.S. will produce another corn crop.

If the Argentine crop and the second crop corn in Brazil have issues then corn futures will run higher to ration corn, as is happening with beans.

Couple this with the USDA January report showing a historic reduction in U.S. corn production last season (from previous reports) and expectations of continued demand.

This all leads to a bullish market.

With this in mind it is little wonder that corn ran limit up on USDA report day January 12.

The wheat market also continues to trade higher along with the soy/corn markets. Questions remain about the crop conditions in many areas including the Hard Red winter plains in the U.S. and in Russia.

Russia continues to keep the market nervous as they continue to chatter about their export tax, and potentially further increases to this tax. This is significant as Russia has become the largest exporter of wheat in the world in recent years – and has been the cheap seller. To highlight the ramifications of this, Egypt, the world’s largest wheat buyer – tendered for wheat about the time of the release of further export taxation from Russia. The tender received offers that were up $30/metric tonne compared to their tender only one month before. In this tender they received only four offers, and due to the prices and limited offers they cancelled the tender. In recent years Russia has been the dominant shipper to Egypt and other major buyers in the world. With crop problems there, buyers will come looking to the U.S. once again. ◊

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• Call Melody at cell: 416-704-7953 • melody.hambleton@greenfield.com February 2021 45

Woodlots Donna Lacey is a forester with the Saugeen Valley Conservation Authority

Snow roads can reduce forest damage I think a lot of us have a picture of working in the winter forest as wading through almost impossibly deep snow. Or pushing snow to clear areas. Not often do we have those winters of super deep snow or even winters of frozen ground for long periods of time any more.

These changing seasonal conditions can wreak havoc on many types of forest work. Such as making it impossible to access forest through a field because it would end up rutted. In some cases, the increased planting of winter wheat has already made this a limiting factor.

Often logging contractors plan for a winter harvest of forests to minimize damage to wetter or hardto-access forests. Without deep snow and frozen ground for a couple of consecutive months, contractors are left trying to plan their work around short bursts of freezing temperatures.

These temporarily freeze the surface of the ground to minimize rutting and damage.

In wet forests or swamps, the best time to access them has always been winter. In the past, a cold fall leading into winter weather would freeze the water in the swamps and then allow for a good snow and ice cover over most of the area. My favourite season is winter, partly because it had always allowed me to snowshoe over dense shrubs that were weighed down by snow. Partly, because it is awesome.

I would very much love to see the return of snow roads built through the wetter forests to ensure that managed forests can continue to be managed. Without being able to rely on snow roads, some swamps may be 46 The Rural Voice

removed from management or harvested in poor conditions.

I believe that once a forest has been managed, we have altered the natural course. The people settling our area made determinations on the state of our forests, likely without any regard for the future forest because there were too many trees impeding their settlement. Forestry professionals, for many decades, have been working within these forests to try to increase the diversity of tree, wildlife, and vegetative species to improve the health and quality of those trees. With each successive harvest, if planned properly, the diversity should increase. Without continued management, many of these forests will likely cease to continue to improve in either area. I will also suggest that we have continued to improve our understanding how best to manage the forests for all forest users.

The lack of frozen ground leaves our fields and forests susceptible to grazing by wildlife for more periods of time. This increased grazing opportunity should help to maintain larger wildlife populations than would have survived a tougher winter. These larger populations may then create a change in the dynamics of our forest food web. It doesn’t take too many trips to fields during a harvest to really see the damage done by wildlife. Not too often do people

consider that the increased grazing is also taking place within our natural areas. Insects, invertebrates, seeds, plants, and trees are being consumed.

I am not a hunter and therefore my knowledge of hunting seasons and the frequency in which they are modified is very limited. I am certain that the natural predator/prey relationships have, or will be, evolving over time, but maybe some outside assistance will be necessary at least for a period.

As our seasons have changed, we have tried to adapt many of our practices to ensure success. One of the biggest adaptations we need to consider is adjusting our expectations of harvest timelines. Then we need to ask contractors to work within these timelines when tendering our forests for a harvest. If we put a wetter forest out for tender, is it realistic to expect that the conditions will be favourable for a damage-free harvest within a one-year period? We need to look at issues like this into the future to limit unnecessary damage to our access lanes, fields, and forests.

On a completely different, but related note, I always hoped that our forests would be harvested in winter over a bed of snow with frozen trails to minimize the damage to the forest floor. It appears that this may have been a bit misguided in our plantations. I am looking at some of our planted forests that have not regenerated with seeds from the

The return of snow roads in wetter forests protect swamps and other natural areas, reducing ruts and damage.

Woodlots surrounding areas as they were expected to. While there are multiple reasons that this may not be happening, one factor may be the winter harvests. As many who have visited a plantation are aware, the needles from the growing pine and spruce trees do not break down quickly and therefore build up on the forest floor. These needles create a very dense mat that stops the cones, and with that, the seeds, from reaching the soil. Some disruption of this needle layer to expose the soil should increase regeneration opportunities within the stand.

I do feel the loss of my favourite winter conditions each year. To make things worse, it seems that snake season is getting longer. Just this past fall, many wildlife species were temporarily leaving their winter roosts, nesting areas, and other habitats due to the unusually warm sunny days. While I know that just because I don’t like something doesn’t make it right, I am hopeful that at least a couple of those slithery, silent creatures got just a little too cold. ◊

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B.Sc.F. (Forestry), R.P.F. Farm Woodland Specialist 570 Riverview Dr. Listowel, Ontario N4W 3T7 Telephone: (519) 291-2236

February 2021 47

Agrilaw John D. Goudy is a partner in Scott Petrie LLP Law Firm, and also farms north of London.

Utility Easements and Swimming Pools – A Costly Combination In conducting a title search on a property, it is not uncommon to discover one or more registrations for easements for public and even private utility services. A municipality may have an easement for a sewer line through a property or an easement for access to maintain a sewer in an adjacent property. Oil and gas companies have easements for pipelines. Electricity distributors have easements for electricity transmission and distribution lines.

Telephone companies have easements for telephone lines. A neighbour may have an easement for a private water line. In all of these cases, there will be some restriction on the use that may be made of the land encumbered by the easement.

The “servient” owner of the affected land, whether by the terms of a contract or through the Common Law, is generally prohibited from substantially interfering with the rights of the “dominant” owner for

whose benefit the easement exists.

Some minor utility easements will have little effect on property use, such as those running parallel to a road allowance where building is already prohibited by setback requirements in a zoning by-law.

Other utility easements can have a major impact on land use. For instance, the easement for a large diameter high-pressure natural gas pipeline or for an overhead electricity transmission line can effectively sterilize a property. Within urban centres, such easements may be condemned to serve as “green space”. In agricultural areas, these easements can often continue to be used for cultivation and other agricultural purposes but not for any other non-agricultural development.

In standard forms of Agreement of Purchase and Sale for land, buyers agree that they will take title to the property subject to minor easements for utility or telephone services or easements for public utility lines that do not have a material effect on the use of property. While the seller is generally obligated to provide clear title to the property, those easements are an exception. In some cases, a buyer will know about easements affecting a property before signing the Agreement of Purchase and Sale.

In other cases, easements will only be disclosed after the deal is signed when a title search is conducted.

Sometimes the discovery of an easement can scuttle the closing of a transaction.

In a case decided in 2016, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice ordered that sellers return a $50,000 deposit to a buyer in a failed transaction involving a $1,685,000 1563 Hwy#9 Mildmay, ON N0G 2J0 Ph: 519-367-3215 Fax: 519-367-3214 www.southbruceflooring.com

BERNIE McGLYNN LUMBER LTD. BUYER OF HARDWOOD BUSHLOTS Wholesaler • Hardwood Lumber 1563 Hwy#9, Mildmay, ON N0G 2J0

Ph: 519-367-5789 • Cell: 519-357-6621 sawmill@wightman.ca

48 The Rural Voice

home. The Agreement of Purchase and Sale included the exceptions to clear title mentioned above, but the buyer refused to close the transaction after discovering that there was an easement for a TransCanada Pipelines natural gas pipeline running through the backyard directly beneath the property’s pool, cabana and patio. There was an agreement registered on title that provided TransCanada with the right to remove the pool and cabana if necessary to deal with its pipeline.

There were actually two TransCanada easements registered on title to the property. While the sellers had disclosed the existence of one of the easements (registered in 1959), which did not affect the pool, cabana and patio, they failed to disclose the second easement (registered in 1992), which did affect those components of the property. The sellers had constructed the pool, cabana and patio in 2011 without TransCanada’s consent, and had subsequently entered into the agreement by which TransCanada could require removal of the pool and cabana in order to allow construction to be completed.

The Court ruled in the buyer’s favour, finding that he was entitled to rescind the agreement to purchase the property because of the undisclosed easement and agreement which could “affect, in a significant way, the [buyer’s] use and enjoyment of the property.”

The Court of Appeal for Ontario just released a decision in another utility easement/swimming pool case.

This time, homeowners constructed a swimming pool on a part of their property that was subject to a 1972 general municipal utility easement.

The terms of the easement reserved to the landowners the right to use the surface for any purpose which did not conflict with the Municipality’s rights. The easement also specifically prohibited planting of trees and the erection of any building or structure.

The homeowners had purchased the property in 2012. They knew about the utility easement, but believed it was abandoned or never used. They were wrong. The easement contained an electricity distribution line servicing a neighbouring property.

The

Agrilaw homeowners built their pool in 2014 without a building permit, which resulted in prosecution under the Building Code Act. In 2018, the easement rights holders (the Municipality and the local electricity distributor) applied to the Court for orders declaring that the pool encroached upon the easement and requiring the removal of the pool.

A judge of the Superior Court granted the application, ruling that the pool “actionably” encroached on the easement because it contravened the express prohibition in the terms of the easement. Without that express prohibition, though, the judge would have found that the pool did not have to be removed because it did not meet the test for “substantial interference” with the easement; the pool could only “cause some unspecified or unknown, but probably quite minor, degree of inconvenience” to the rights holders in exercising their easement rights.

On appeal, the Court of Appeal upheld the finding that the construction of the pool was an actionable encroachment. The words of the easement document were clear – do not under any circumstances plant a tree or build a structure within the easement lands.

Whether you own a property or plan to buy one, don’t ignore easements. And, no, that caution doesn’t just apply to properties with swimming pools. ◊ ______________________________ John D. Goudy’s law practice includes real property and environmental litigation, expropriation law, energy regulation, and regulatory offences.

Agrilaw provides information of interest to the farming community, not legal advice. Readers should consult a legal professional about their particular circumstances.

Trust family

neighbours

wisdom

intuition

dreams

You put a lot of trust in those around you and deserve a business advisor who really get what’s on the line.

Larry Batte Clinton 519.606.8550

Jordan Bowles Stratford 519.272.0000

Deadline for the March issue of The Rural Voice is February 9, 2021

MNP.ca

February 2021 49

Insights 2020 Reports Benchmarking for better decisions THE RURAL VOICE MAGAZINE www.bdo.ca/farmbenchmarking

Don't Delay – Subscribe Today The Rural Voice Produced by people with farming in their blood. Serving more than 11,000 readers in the region.

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To place your order call 519-523-4311

50 The Rural Voice

In Memory

A tribute to a simpler time

By Mary (Riemer) Kabanov

Carol Riemer was a Rural Voice columnists for many years, teaching us to enjoy the simple things

A

s we collectively approach one year of a very different life, one without travel or gatherings, one with increasing uncertainty and loss, I can’t help but reflect on a simpler time. I grew up in the country, on an acre of land in the middle of acres of other land. Our neighbours were cornstalks and cows, rolling hills and trees. I tried to make friends with the chipmunks and avoid the grasshoppers at all cost – all while shadowing my older brother wherever he went.

My father was a school teacher and my mother, Carol, took care of us and worked from home, writing a monthly article for The Rural Voice for many years. In November, she passed away. My father lost his cherished wife of 48 years, and my brother and I lost our mother. Like so many others this year, we have spent the past months adjusting to a life without, while longing for a simpler time where we could all be together.

When I was young, I would climb the birch tree in our backyard with my homework in tow and only come in for dinner. I would burst inside with boundless energy, full of stories to tell Mom about what I had seen – a stray dog, a baby bird, or what I had read about – a far off country, a desert on another continent, or whatever else I had come across or imagined. When she was writing, I would mercilessly demand attention, sometimes teasing her about the humble content she carefully crafted.

Why focus on the little things when there were so many other big things in the world to discover! Now, in a time when everything feels difficult, complicated and uncertain, I appreciate more than ever the small joy and comfort she brought to others with her writing.

In these difficult times, I have often sought out similar things – a recipe, a short story, something to relate to, something lighthearted to

Carol Riemer (second from right) was a columnist for The Rural Voice and mother who encouraged readers to be thankful for the simple things. With Carol is her famiily (left to right) Jesse Kabanov, Mary Kabanov, Hayley Riemer, David Riemer holding daughter Claire and Carol’s husband, Peter.

look forward to as a break in my day, and how important that is.

Luckily, she left me with many of these simple treasures. She taught me that the best blankets were the ones made by someone you loved, and that just about anything could be fixed or mended. She knew that even though it would take 20 years for that tree Dad picked up from the nursery to grow, it was worth planting now.

She taught me how to make a gourmet soup, homemade pizza, and a full Christmas dinner from scratch.

To my great surprise as a teenager, I realized one day that you could buy a frozen lasagna. What were we doing making our own?? Luckily, my fascination with pre-cooked meals was short lived, though perfect to get me through University until I could get my own kitchen and fuss about having enough fresh thyme to make

the perfect pasta sauce.

Mom was hopelessly devoted to raising her family and always reminded us to be strong, but kind.

That it was important to be there for your loved ones, your community, and even people you didn’t know – we were all on the same team. I live in Los Angeles now – a place I read about in a birch tree decades before and a place with great community, but even greater challenges. In this big city, I often find myself relying on the things I learned growing up in the country – my rural roots. That kindness is key, that home is where your family is, and that we could all use a little more thyme.

In loving memory of Carol Diana Watt Riemer, March 16, 1949 – November 9, 2020. Loving wife to Peter, mother to David and Mary, and grandmother to Claire. ◊ February 2021 51

The

Rural Voice

Business Centre To place your ad call: 519-523-4311 or email: rvads@northhuron.on.ca

B U S I N E S S C E N T R E

Horse & Livestock Car, Utility & Recreational any design, hitches trade-ins welcome super after sales service

Full service to all boats and marine engines

ARGYLE Marine & Small Engines Inc.

33973 Church Camp Rd., Goderich 519-524-5361 Email: argylemarine@cabletv.on.ca

• In-shop & on-site millwrighting • Custom fabrication • Steel & industrial supply sales

Serving the area since 1999

Broker WILFRED MCINTEE & CO. LIMITED

Bus: 519-357-2222 Cell: 519-531-0252 Email: nixon@execulink.com Web: www.stevennixon.com 318 Josephine St., WINGHAM, ON N0G 2W0

52 The Rural Voice

324025 Mount Elgin Rd. Mount Elgin, Ontario N0J 1N0 Jamie Belore

phone: 519-485-5358 toll free: 1-877-247-7227 fax: 1-519-485-6129 jbelore@gmail.com

Maitland Welding & Machining

Est. 1991

STEVEN NIXON

www.beloretrailers.ca

63 North St. Wingham

Ph: 519-357-2727 Fax: 519-357-4769 www.maitlandwelding.com rstute@maitlandwelding.com

It’s a Seller’s Market Need listings for houses and farms

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Snowblowers, Quick-attach Buckets, Sweepers, Woodsplitters, Crimper Rollers, Land Rollers, Stone Windrowers, etc.

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TEESWATER, ON

• Agricultural & domestic water wells • Well Cleanouts • Pump Testing • Camera Inspection • Irrigation Wells • Dewatering Services

Rissler KEITH SIEMON FARM SYSTEMS LTD. 81987 Perth Rd. 180, R.R. 4, Walton 519-345-2734 (anytime)

www.keithsiemonfarmsystems.com email: keithsiemon@tcc.on.ca For Free Planning and Estimates

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February 2021 53

C E N T R E

CLASSIFIED

CLASSIFIED

CLASSIFIED

AUCTION -------------------------------------------------Elmira Produce Auction – Hay and Straw Sales every Wednesday at 10:00 a.m. Consignors and buyers welcome. Call Lloyd Martin 519-6643356, 7400 Reid Woods Drive, Elmira.

-------------------------------------------------CONSTRUCTION -------------------------------------------------WE POUR: liquid manure tanks, bunker silos, foundations and pads.

All are 100% engineered. Serving Ontario since 1968. De Jong & Sons Ltd. 519-348-0523.

-------------------------------------------------CUSTOM WORK -------------------------------------------------Barnhem Farm Services – solid manure spreading; variable rate precision application (optional).

Serving Bruce, Grey, North Huron and North Wellington. Contact for information: Herman Vinckx at 519881-7663 or Dylan Vinckx at 519-8818957.

-------------------------------------------------DAIRY -------------------------------------------------Screened bedding sand, delivered.

Call 519-625-8242 or 519-274-1490.

-------------------------------------------------FIREWOOD -------------------------------------------------Screened hardwood slabs – 16" cut $30 face cord, 10 cord deliveries or pick up in Auburn. huronfirewood.com Call 519-5243493.

-------------------------------------------------FOR SALE -------------------------------------------------CORN SEED pricing starting at $129/bag (before discounts). De Dell Seeds, the Leaders in non-GMO corn.

519-264-CORN. -------------------------------------------------Rosco grain bins for sale – 19' and 14' diameter. Parts available. Used grain bins wanted for parts or reuse.

Closed Sundays, 519-338-3920.

-------------------------------------------------MULCH/GREEN SAWDUST, FOB MILL, trucking also available. 519367-5789.

-------------------------------------------------Wheat straw - 90 48"x52" round bales, $25 each. Paisley, 519-3535720.

--------------------------------------------------

FOR SALE -------------------------------------------------Martin’s Nursery & Bee Supplies Etc. Large selection of flowering trees, shade trees, fruit trees and hydrangeas and other shrubs. We have the plants you need to make a living “privacy hedge” or snow fence or windbreaks. Blue Spruce, Norway Spruce, White Spruce, Pine and Cedars. Also… a Complete line of Bee Supplies for the commercial or hobby beekeepers. Order your (Nuc) Bees for spring 2021. We stock all wooden-ware (bee-hives) foundation, assembled and unassembled frames, smokers, suits, jackets, gloves, mite treatments and some extracting equipment. Honey containers, jars, pails, custom built wooden-ware.

Come visit our nursery and bee supplies store Monday to Saturday at 42661 Orangehill Rd., RR 1, Wroxeter, ON N0G 2X0, one km. north of Wroxeter.

FOR SALE -------------------------------------------------Inventory Sale until February 27/2021 30% to 70% off ladies’ designer, casual and western clothing. All giftware 50% off. Wedding apparel and accessories 50% off. Caralot Country Clothier, Mt.Carmel 519-2940494. Open Thursday, Friday, Saturday, 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

-------------------------------------------------1972 384 Leyland tractor, recent four new tires and clutch, 8 ft. 3 pt. hitch spring-toothed cultivator; in excess of 500 lbs. of electric fence wire, in good shape; 2 farm wagons, weigh scale for bags, many miscellaneous articles. Call Kelly 519373-6521 or Carl 519-534-3988 (Wiarton).

--------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------HELP WANTED --------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------HELP WANTED --------------------------------------------------

54 The Rural Voice

Discount Steel Great for barn posts, stabling or other build-your-own projects

Custom Welding & Machine Shop Custom Stabling Mfg. Open Tues. & Thurs. ~ other days by chance John A.M. Martin 1467 Grey Ox Ave., Lucknow

CLASSIFIED HELP WANTED -------------------------------------------------The Huron Research Station is seeking college or university students to work as research assistants from late April to the end of August.

Please send your résumé by February 19 to the Huron Research Station, 911# 70257 Airport Line, RR 1, Exeter, ON N0M 1S4 or huronresearchstation@gmail.com -------------------------------------------------JOB OPPORTUNITY AgLinks.com is seeking individuals with knowledge or experience in the agricultural industry to join our Commissioned Sales Agents team. Work from home setting your own hours.

Contact Jim Ford ~ 519-670-9303 or jim@aglinks.com

------------------------------------------------IRON & STEEL -------------------------------------------------DISCOUNT STEEL: New second grade steel sales; 1" - 8" square tubing; 7/8" - 14" round tubing; Rectangle tubing, discount plate; New and Used I-Beams; Bar grating, rebar, angles; Custom cutting, welding, punching. Listowel. Phone Aden 519595-7775.

-------------------------------------------------LIVESTOCK BEDDING -------------------------------------------------MIRACLE FIBER Livestock Bedding.

Also, coarse wood mulch for horse and cattle walkways, wet areas around water troughs and bush lanes.

Also available is dairy pack starter bedding. 1-877-773-8004. Sittler Grinding. Rick Sittler.

-------------------------------------------------LIVESTOCK FOR SALE -------------------------------------------------Limousin bulls, open and bred females available. Smart Limousin, Meaford 519-372-7459. smartlimo@ bmts.com www.smartlimousin.com -------------------------------------------------Hypharm Genetics rabbits breeding stock now available in Ontario. Order your PS19 does and PS40 bucks. CuniON@tcc.on.ca -------------------------------------------------LIMOUSIN breeding bulls – quiet, thick, semen tested, guaranteed breeders, delivery included. Select now for spring delivery. OPEN HOUSE – April 10, 2021. Posthaven Limousin, John Post. 519-766-7178. www.posthavenlimousin.com --------------------------------------------------

February 2021 55

CLASSIFIED LIVESTOCK FOR SALE -------------------------------------------------Red Angus, Simmental, Red AngusSimmental and Charolais bulls for sale. Watch them grow at AgSights website, Bull Evaluation, Silver Spring Farms. James and Joan McKinlay 519-599-6236.

-------------------------------------------------REAL ESTATE -------------------------------------------------Selling or buying farmland, residential or commercial. All properties needed. Call Greg or Dwaine Nicholls, Brokers for GA Nicholls Realty Ltd. Greg 519-2910507, Dwaine 519-492-2002.

-------------------------------------------------RESTORATION -------------------------------------------------The Olde Tyme Radio Centre – antique radios, clocks, gramophones, telephones; sold/restored. (vintage autoclock radio, speedometer, tachometer repaired). Belgrave 519357-4304, www.oldtymeradio.ca -------------------------------------------------RETAIL & GIFTS -------------------------------------------------Stitches with a Twist – 404 Queen St., Blyth, 519-523-9449. Yarns, needles, notions, patterns, books and lots more yarn.

------------------------------------------------SERVICES -------------------------------------------------INCOME TAX FILING – for farms, small business, truckers and individuals. Will make house calls in the North Huron, Perth and surrounding area. Call Shirley in Wingham – cell No. 1-705-434-8187.

-------------------------------------------------Firearms and hunting training.

PAL & HUNTER ED. Ongoing courses available.

Certified instructors. Call Greg 519-887-9622 or 519-291-0507.

-------------------------------------------------TOWNSLEY BARN PAINTING – All farm buildings and houses, seamless eavestroughing, liquid rubber coatings, waterproofing, metal, concrete, wood, foam and bin flooring sealing. Serving Ontario since 1955.

Call 519-859-0097 or 519-871-0300 townsleypainting@hotmail.com --------------------------------------------------

56 The Rural Voice

CLASSIFIED SERVICES -------------------------------------------------Cronin Poured Concrete Ltd. Since 1976. Liquid manure tanks to 200'.

Heights of 8'-14' (1-pour). All jobs engineer specifications/inspections guaranteed. Best firm quote in Ontario. Mark Cronin, 519-348-9062.

Cell 519-274-5000. www.cronin pouredconcrete.ca --------------------------------------------------

GLAVIN BARN & COMMERCIAL PAINTING FARMERS repaint your faded coloured steel FREE QUOTES ~ FULLY INSURED

RR 1 Crediton, Ont. N0M 1M0 (near Exeter)

Call: Jim Glavin 1-800-465-4725 519-228-6247 Eugene Glavin 519-228-6801

CLASSIFIED SERVICES -------------------------------------------------Sales Service Installation Free Estimates

519-364-4026 eod@persona.ca

Eastern Overhead Doors (Bruce-Grey) Ltd.

DONALD A ANDREW ACCOUNTING Accounting & Income Tax Services for FARMS, BUSINESSES & INDIVIDUALS 296 Ross St., Lucknow

Ph. 519-528-3019 SEAMLESS EAVESTROUGHING

Specializing in on Farm Pest Management Serving Southwestern ON, Golden Horseshoe, GTA Email: info@sgsltd.ca

519-692-4232

 Roofs & Walls  Elevator Legs  Air Blasting  Pressure Washing  Fully Insured  Free Estimates

London 519-268-8500

www.sgspestmanagement.ca

-------------------------------------------------UPCOMING EVENTS -------------------------------------------------TREE ORDERS – Spring tree order forms ready now at Ausable Bayfield Conservation. Visit abca.ca or call Ian at 519-235-2610 or toll free 1-888286-2610. Orders taken accompanied by payment until February 28, 2021.

Thank you for planting trees.

-------------------------------------------------WANTED -------------------------------------------------Dion threshing machine, 22x38 or 28x48; 7 ft. International or John Deere grain binder. Phone evenings 905-983-9331.

-------------------------------------------------Round bales of horse or cattle quality hay picked up. Call Riley Gorman 519-321-1012.

-------------------------------------------------DEALERSHIP OPPORTUNITIES are available in many areas with the Leader in Non-GMO corn. De Dell Seeds 519-264-CORN. -------------------------------------------------Looking for land to rent for upcoming year. Call Braecker Farms 519-524-0615.

--------------------------------------------------

CLASSIFIED WANTED -------------------------------------------------Scrap Cars Wanted – 20, 30, 40 yd. scrap metal bins available. We sell quality used auto parts. Wanted to buy – scrap cars, trucks, farm machinery, heavy equipment.

Kenilworth Auto Recyclers. 519-3231113.

-------------------------------------------------Farmland – Long or short term.

Cash rent, share crop. Contact Paul at Hill & Hill Farms, 519-2333218 or 519-525-3137 or email: paul.hillhill@tcc.on.ca -------------------------------------------------Young farmer looking for land rent, sharecrop, or custom work opportunities. Good environmental stewardship and professionalism.

Short and long term. 519-200-7845 or hundt.chris@outlook.com --------------------------------------------------

The deadline for the March issue of The Rural Voice is February 9, 2021

CANADIAN CO-OPERATIVE WOOL GROWERS LIMITED Serving Ont. Sheep Producers Since 1918

February 23, 2021

Safe, Dependable Trucking Service Livestock, Bulk, Freight Brussels

519-887-6122 • 1-800-667-8399

Parks Livestock of Canada L.P.

Box 280, 6 Spencer Street Milverton, ON N0K 1M0

Office 519-595-8555 Toll Free 1-877-338-4647 SOWS, BOARS, FEEDER PIGS, CALVES TRUCKING AVAILABLE matthew.kuepfer@parkslivestock.com

Due to the Coronavirus we are only accepting wool deliveries on a consignment basis.

Wool payments will not be issued until further notice.

We apologize for any inconvenience.

For more information contact:

WINGHAM WOOL DEPOT John Farrell R.R. 2, Wingham, Ontario Phone/Fax

519-357-1058

There’s Insurance, then there’s Mutual Insurance.

Find an Agent or Broker near you www.wwmic.com

farfieldfarm@gmail.com

February 2021 57

National Farmers Union – Ontario NEWSLETTER Strong Communities.

Sound Policies.

Sustainable Farms.

Phone: 1-888-832-9638 E-mail: office@nfuontario.ca Website: www.nfuontario.ca

Farmers’ Rights: India and the Corporate Control of Food Join us February 25-26 for the NFU-O’s first-ever online annual convention and AGM. Our keynote speaker is Kannaiyan Subramaniam, a small farmer from south India.

Kannaiyan will share his and his fellow farmers’ stories of fighting to retain control of their farms and farm income, as well as continue to feed their families and communities in the face of new laws which would create an environment for consolidation of farmland, concentration of ownership in agricultural companies, greater control of markets and prices by large processors, retailers and exporters, and increased sales of commercial seed, chemical inputs such as fertilizer, herbicides and pesticides, and digital technology for data mining, surveillance and automation.

Additional panels will cover our farm labour project, and we will run a

land-linking session with farmland owners looking for successors.

We will also hear reports from the NFU-O board, hold elections, and

host debates on policy resolutions.

For more information or to book tickets, visit https://nfuontario.ca/ or call 1-888-832-9638. ◊

Check out the following AGMs and events being held over Zoom.

For details, reach out to your Local Presidents: https://nfuontario.ca/new/your-local/.

Grey County Local 344 – Monday, January 25, 7:00 p.m.

Hastings Prince Edward & Northumberland Counties Local 334 – Wednesday, January 27, 7:00 p.m.

Waterloo Wellington Counties Local 341 – Thursday, January 28, 8:00 p.m.

Toronto, Peel & York Counties Local 305 – Sunday, January 31, 1:00 p.m.

Renfrew County Local 330 – Tuesday, February 2, 7:30 p.m.

Northern Ontario Local 333 – Sunday, February 7, 1:00 p.m.

Land Access for BIPOC Farmers – Monday, February 8, 6:30 p.m. Join a discussion on land access issues for BIPOC farmers, facilitated by Cheyenne Sundance of Sundance Harvest Farm. Learn about resources available now, and share your farmland needs and experiences as a BIPOC farmer. Register at Eventbrite: http://bit.ly/landBIPOC.

Join us for the NFU-O AGM & Region 3 Convention!

Thursday, February 25 - Friday, February 26 – Via Zoom

A subscription to The Rural Voice is one of the benefits of being an NFU-O member 58 The Rural Voice

Stewart Skinner, President stewart@stonaleenfarms.ca / 519-492-2990

Perth, Huron, Grey and Bruce County Pork Producers

NEWSLETTER

* The Rural Voice is provided to Perth County Pork Producers by the PCPPA perthcountyporkproducers@gmail.com

Sick and tired of “In Europe” policies applied to Canadian farming This phrase has begun to grate on my nerves. For instance: In Europe, new developments cannot use natural gas.

In Europe, farmers are not allowed to grow genetically modified organisms.

In Europe, farmers are paid to maintain their hedges and meadows.

In Europe, a farmer must use a bottle of livestock medication within a week of opening it.

In Europe, all livestock treatments must be reported to the government.

In Europe, there is a quota on how much phosphorus can be applied to the land.

In Europe, they have eliminated dairy quota.

In Europe, every animal is tagged for traceability.

In Europe, manure must be injected or worked in within 12 hours of application.

I don’t know how many of these statements are true. Many of them refer to a specific country rather than the entire European Union. To me the sentiment that the phrase expresses is more important than its accuracy.

The phrase is always stated in a way that implies the practice should be adopted in Canada, because if it is possible to do it in those welldeveloped northern countries, we should be able to do it here. My sentiment towards those phrases is, “Thank God I’m a Canadian farmer!”

But that sentiment will not change the mind of anyone who proclaims these phrases and idolizes the European

way.

There are social, spacial, and economic differences between farming in Europe versus North America. Europeans have a strong preference for food produced in their own region. European farmers work smaller fields and raise livestock in much closer proximity to their urban neighbours.

This increased population density also means that Europe is a net food importer whereas North America is a net food exporter. As a result, our agricultural commodity prices are lower. Unfortunately, despite these differences, Europe’s regulatory framework still influences ours.

I have witnessed this in criticism of Canada’s livestock transport regulations. Some activists suggest that our animals spend too much time in transit, especially when compared to Europe – where distance between cities is measured in minutes instead of hours. Grain farmers have seen this influence in the latest proposal for the clean fuel standard. The Government of Canada proposed that crops grown on land that had been cleared or drained since 2007 would not be eligible for use in biofuels; because that is how it is in Europe.

After consulting with farming organizations they have revised the regulation to something more acceptable in the Canadian context.

All of these differences lead to another difference, agricultural subsidies.

Total Support Transfers represent

the total support granted to the agricultural sector, and consist of producer support, consumer support (quota) and general services support (OMAFRA).

Producer support transfers to agricultural producers are measured at the farm gate level and comprise market price support, budgetary payments and the cost of revenue foregone. ~Source: OECD So the next time someone tells you that “In Europe” ... the manure doesn’t stink, please tell them that in Europe, 19 per cent of farm receipts are government subsidies. In Canada, it is only eight per cent. ◊ – Submitted by Craig Hulshof

PERTH COUNTY PORK PRODUCERS PORK PRODUCTS • Smoked Pork Chops • Fresh Pork Chops • Stuffed Loin Chops • Smoked Sausage • Smoked Cheddar Sausage • Bacon Burgers • Teriyaki Pork Steaks AVAILABLE FROM: Dave/Ruth Kloostra (Monkton) - 519-347-2619 Ted/Donna Keller (Mitchell) - 519-348-9836 Jerry/Sandra DeGroot (Kinkora) - 519-393-5237 Leis Feed (Milverton) - 519-595-2048

February 2021 59

Grey County Federation of Agriculture

446 10th St., Hanover, Ontario N4N 1P9 519-364-3050 or 1-800-275-9551 Email: grey@ofa.on.ca Website: greyfederation.ca

* The Rural Voice is provided to OFA Members in Grey County by the GCFA

GCFA invites students to participate in the 75th annual competition Editorial articles submitted and published on this page are the views of the author(s) and are not meant to represent the position of the Grey County of Ontario Federation of Agriculture.

The Grey County Federation of Agriculture cordially invites you to participate in the 75th Annual Public Speaking Competition.

The competition is open to students in Grades 4 to 8 (Juniors in Grade 4, 5, 6 and Intermediates in Grades 7 and 8).

RULES AND REGULATIONS Due to COVID-19 and the school year being unusual, GCFA has decided to run its public speaking contest differently this year. Students can submit a video of themselves saying their speech, by emailing it to grey@ofa.on.ca. Submissions will be accepted until February 28, 2021 at 11:59 p.m. Winners will be chosen by a panel of judges and will be shared at a virtual event (date to be determined later). The quality of the video will not be judged, but judges must be able to hear the student’s speech.

1. This competition is divided into two age divisions: a. Juniors (Grades 4, 5 and 6) b. Intermediates (Grades 7 and 8) Bruce County Federation of Agriculture

2021 MEETINGS February 11 March 11 April 8 June 10 August 12

September 9 October 14 November 11 December 9

DUE TO COVID-19 BCFA Board Meetings have become conference/video call format.

Please contact the office if you are interested in taking part.

Grey Federation of Agriculture

@ GreyFedAg

2. Students may speak on any topic of their choice. As Grey County Federation of Agriculture (GCFA) is an agricultural-based organization, agriculture-related topics have additional prizes. The speech must be original. Plagiarism will disqualify a speaker.

3. Each speech must be a minimum of three minutes and a maximum of five minutes. This would include any time required to set up props. A penalty will be incurred for time below or in excess of this. One point will be deducted for every 20 seconds.

4. Cue cards are acceptable – approximately 3" x 4". Nonelectronic props are acceptable but must not dominate the speech/ presentation.

5. Students are reminded to address the chairperson, judges, and audience when beginning their speech.

6. Prizes Awarded: • Prizes will be $30 (first); $28 (second); $26 (third) and $10 to all others.

• GCFA will provide two special agricultural prizes of $50 for the best agriculture topic for each age division.

• Grey County Federation of Agriculture will award a keeper trophy to the winner in each division plus a plaque will be displayed in each of the winner’s school for one year.

• Judges will consider the following marking schedule: * Introduction – topic, title ..................................10 points * Voice – volume, rate, quality, expression, articulation, modulation ......................20 points * Delivery – posture, eye contact, confidence, gestures, enthusiasm ......................20 points * Speech Material – suitability, interest, vocabulary, mastery, composition, originality, research, organization of material ..20 points * Conclusion – brief summation, refers to introduction, pulls elements together ............10 points * Overall Impression – sincerity, enthusiasm, forcefulness, audience appeal ..............................20 points Total ..............................100 points Please contact Jackie Pennings at 519-364-3050 Ext. 1 or 1-800-2759551 or email: grey@ofa.on.ca if you have questions. ◊

GCFA supports work of Farm and Food Care This month the GCFA is highlighting one the organizations it supports the work of, through a Supporter Member membership.

Farm and Food Care was formed in 2012 through the amalgamation of the Ontario Farm Animal Council (OFAC) and Agricultural Groups Concerned about Resources and the Environment (AGCare) and from their website have cited their Mission of the organization – “Proactively work with Ontario farmers and food partners to ensure public trust and confidence in our food system”.

The organization has excellent resources for the many people that want to know about how their food is produced.

Check out the website farmfoodcareon.org to see the 5th Edition of “The Real Dirt on Farming”, the new beef, chicken, and turkey VR farm tours and follow “Faces Behind Farming” on FACEBOOK or Instagram.

These are just a couple of things to keep you busy reading and watching during the winter months.

* The Rural Voice is provided to OFA Members in Grey County by the GCFA.

60 The Rural Voice

Email: bruce@ofa.on.ca website: brucefederation.ca

NEWSLETTER

446 10th St., Hanover, Ontario N4N 1P9 519-364-3050 or 1-800-275-9551 * The Rural Voice is provided to OFA Members in Bruce County by the BCFA

Consider taking the Mental Health First Aid course to support mental health Any opinion expressed is that of individual County Directors or Representatives and may not necessarily reflect the views of the Bruce County Federation of Agriculture or Ontario Federation of Agriculture.

As follow up to last month’s article “It’s okay to not be okay”, we wanted to take the opportunity to share information about a recent workshop sponsored by BCFA and facilitated by Jackie Ralph of the Grey Bruce Mental Health Association. Mental Health First Aid is a certified, broad-spectrum training to help attendees spot the signs that someone in your life might be struggling. The training is intended to prepare us to help a person developing a mental health problem, experiencing a mental health crisis or struggling with a worsening of their mental health.

Much like CPR/First Aid, anyone is able and encouraged to take Mental Health First Aid. Participants who take the course will feel better able to provide support and reassurance until the appropriate professional treatment can be received. Like CPR/First Aid, the overall goals of Mental Health First Aid are to preserve life, to prevent a mental health problem from becoming more serious, to promote recovery and to provide comfort to the person involved.

BCFA participants who took the Mental Health First Aid for Adults training interacted with youth. The course improved awareness of six different mental health problems and mental illnesses as well as crisis situations that may arise: Substance abuse disorders • Overdose • Eating disorders • Suicidal behaviour • Anxiety disorders • Panic attacks • Psychosis • Acute psychosis

• Mood disorders • Acute reactions to traumatic events • Deliberate self-injury The training helped participants to be better able to identify when a person may be at risk of harm or suicide by: • Discussing signs and symptoms and risk factors of each mental illness, • Practise the basic actions for mental health first aid, • Learn more about effective intervention and treatments, • Become more informed on where to get help locally.

With the continuation of the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on mental health, we felt this would be a good time to promote the need to be more informed.

Mental Health First Aid is a twoday workshop that is now available virtually. You can also learn more by reading the “Rooted in Strength” publication published and distributed

by Farm Credit Canada www.fccfac.ca/fcc/knowledge/wellness/ mental-health-publication-e.pdf. As we approach Bell Let’s Talk day on January 28, we can take advantage of the resources and information on etstalk.bell.ca/en/ ways-to-help. It offers more information to recognize symptoms of stress that might signal when someone needs help.

It is important to know that we are all different. Each person is going to react differently, act differently and we all have our own norms. You know “you” more than anyone and

you know your loved ones better than anyone. If you feel or believe someone in your life may be struggling with their mental health, follow up about that feeling! Ask your loved one how they are doing and if you notice unusual behaviour, ask about it.

If you need more help or information, please reach out to the Canadian Mental Health Association of Grey Bruce at 519-371-4120 or call the 24-hour Grey Bruce Mental Health line at 1-877-470-5200. The Canadian Mental Health Association continues to be open during the pandemic with most appointments being held by phone or virtually.

There is a long list of programs from peer support, family support, outreach, counselling, court support and leisure link social and recreation programs for individuals looking to connect with others. For a more comprehensive list of all the supports that are available to residents of Grey and Bruce counties, please call 2-1-1 or go to greybruce.cmha.ca/wpcontent/uploads/2020/02/Where-tofind-help-in-Grey-Bruce.pdf. ◊

Bruce County Federation of Agriculture

Amabel..........................................................Vacant Arran ......................................................Allan Smith Brant ....................Chris Cossitt and Tammy Young Bruce ..............Dennis Munro and Thomas Lennox Bruce Peninsula ................................John Rogers Carrick ........................................Lorne Underwood Culross ..............Joe Detzler and Lorne Underwood Elderslie........................................................Vacant Greenock ........................................Steve Ernewein Huron ..............Robert Emerson and John Gillespie Kincardine ....................................................Vacant Kinloss..........................................................Vacant Saugeen........................................................Vacant

BCFA Directors 2020-2021 County Executive President: Chris Cossitt 1st Vice: John Gillespie 2nd Vice: Tammy Young OFA Regional Representatives John Gillespie and Lorne Underwood OFA Director Zone 2 (Grey-Bruce) – Paul Vickers Office Administrator – Jackie Pennings OFA Member Service Rep. – Joanne Hughes

Bruce County Municipal Directors

2021 MEETINGS February 22 March 22 April 26 May 24 June 28

August 23 September 27 October 25 November 22

DUE TO COVID-19 BCFA Board Meetings have become conference/video call format. Please contact the office if you are interested in taking part.

* The Rural Voice is provided to OFA Members in Bruce County by the BCFA.

February 2021 61

Perth County Federation of Agriculture Email: perthcountyfedofag@gmail.com Website: www.perthcountyfarmers.ca Sue Shafer, Office Administrator 1-833-229-6834 Tim Halliday, President: 519-292-9533

Increased MZO use removes rights of appeal and is cause for alarm In January 2020, Perth County Federation of Agriculture (PCFA) became involved in a proposed municipal boundary adjustment between the Municipality of Perth South, and the City of Stratford, including an agreement with the County of Perth. The proposed agreement seeks to annex approximately 130 hectares (321.2 acres) of prime agricultural land into the City of Stratford for future industrial use.

During the public consultation, PCFA submitted an initial letter of concern seeking answers and clarity regarding the proposal. We also objected to the short notice given between the first notice of the Public Meeting, the January 16 public meeting date and the date council intended to finalize this agreement.

After receiving a response letter from the City of Stratford, our concerns about the Planning Act, Provincial Policy Statement (PPS), Official Plans and Minimum Distance Separation (the Nutrient Management Act) remained unanswered.

Therefore, PCFA submitted a followup letter requesting more information, which to this date also remains unanswered.

In total, five letters were sent to all parties expressing our concerns for this flawed process and the failures of the City of Stratford to meet even the most basic parameters for annexation of Class 1 farmland. These letters are now on the PCFA website under ‘What’s New/Communities’.

In spite of our efforts, it appears that the Municipalities had agreed in advance of the Public meetings about their response. County Council and the Municipality of Perth South approved the annexation. The City then finalized their approval in Council. Shortly after, the city of Stratford asked for a Ministerial Zoning Order (MZO) from the Ministry of Municipal Affairs. This was granted in July. An MZO

removes all rights of appeal and bypasses local planning. None of the issues PCFA was concerned with will be addressed. Neighbouring landowners cannot appeal or impact the decision. The annexed land is for the construction of a Chinese owned Glass Plant.

Ontario cannot sustain the current loss of agricultural land while continuing to produce food, fibre and fuel with limited and declining resources. Based on the latest census, agricultural land in the province has been lost at a rate of 63,940 acres per year.

The Ontario Federation of Agriculture and PCFA firmly believe that Municipalities with robust planning should not be subject to MZOs. An MZO doesn’t require the negative impacts of proposed developments on Class 1 farmland are first, avoided, then minimized and lastly mitigated. These MZOs are in increasing use in the province and are cause for alarm. See Better Farming January 2021 Issue, “The Growing Challenge of Ministerial Zoning Orders”.

In addition the information below is being shared with the wider community of Stratford and surrounding area to ensure the urban community is aware of agriculture’s efforts to save the land.

On the PCFA FaceBook page: FOR THE RECORD: Agriculture feels it is important that the citizens of Stratford and the surrounding area need to be aware of all the activities the Perth County Federation of Agriculture (PCFA) took to try to protect farmland from being annexed into the City of Stratford for the Glass Plant now under discussion.

Below are links to all the letters sent out by the PCFA to try to force the flawed “public” process in early 2020, to follow the many checks and balances that existed in Ontario to protect Class A farmland.

It has become evident that the MZO issue was impacting this discussion.

All letters are available at: https://www.perthcountyfarmers.ca/ new-page. ◊ – Submitted by Sharon Weitzel PCFA Director

Perth County Federation of Agriculture

ANNUAL MEETING Tuesday, February 16, 2021 – 8:00 p.m. ~ virtual online format ~ Elections will be held for six (6) directors Four three-year terms, one two-year term and one one-year term Nominations must be received by the Office Administrator seven (7) days prior to the annual meeting (February 9) Nomination forms can be requested by emailing: perthcountyfedofag@gmail.com or from www.perthcountyfarmers.ca/events All OFA members in Perth County are eligible to run as PCFA Director Register with Sue by February 11 perthcountyfedofag@gmail.com or 1-833-229-6834

* The Rural Voice is provided to OFA Members in Perth County by the PCFA.

62 The Rural Voice

Index A.G. Hayter Contracting Ltd ..................27 Allied Associates LLP............................25 Argyle Marine & Small Engines ............52 Artisanal Chicken Program......................2 Ausable Bayfield Conserv. Auth............47 Backyard Birding ....................................3 BDO ......................................................50 Belore Trailers ......................................52 Bernie McGlynn/SB Flooring ................48 Bio-Ag....................................................22 Brian Buffinga Electrical ..........................8 Buddsteel Architectural Products ..........27 Bushell’s Auto Sales ............................32 Canada’s Ag Day................57, Cover 6, 7 Canadian Co-op Wool ..........................57 CFFO ............................................Cover 3 Chalmers Fuels ......................................8 Cliff’s Plumbing & Heating ....................25 Design & Build ................................4, 7, 9 Donkers Agri..........................................23 Easy Lift Doors ......................................43 Fieldwalker Agronomy ..........................45 Financial Services ..........................15, 17 Fretz Welding ........................................43 Gerber’s Workwear ..............................52 Greenfield Global Inc ............................45 Grimo Nut Nursery ................................53 Hanover Honda ....................................41 Harold Jones Enterprises ......................52 Hill & Hill ......................Inside Front Cover Hunter Steel..................................Cover 5 Huron Commodities ..............................45 Jennifer Cook & Associates Inc ............14 Keith Siemon Farm Systems ................53 Kingwood Bins ......................................47 KMM Farm Drainage ............................32 LAC ......................................................40 Lakeside Shelving & Racking................45 Lands & Forests Consulting ..................47 Lisa Thompson MPP ............................37 Live Landscape ....................................36 Maitland Welding ..................................52 Maple Leaves Forever ..................Cover 4 Mapleview Agri ......................................20 Marquardt Drainage ..............................44 Martin Farm Wagons ............................13 Martin’s Nursery ....................................37 Marvin L. Smith ....................................47 McIntee Real Estate ..............................52 Metzger Meat Products ........................12 Midwestern Ontario Bull Sale ................10 MNP LLP ..............................................49 Morris Sachs Silo Construction ............32 Nature’s Wave Inc ................................41 Nutrient Management............................11 Ontario Pesticide Training ....................63 RBC ......................................................53 Ridgeway Metals ..................................53 Royal Homes....................................54,55 Rural Living ..........................................39 Rural Voice Books ................................50 Sauble Beach Motorsports ..........22,33,40,63 Schmidt’s Farm Drainage......................12 Schweiss Doors ....................................49 Sew & Save Centre ..............................37 Silver Creek Nursery ............................37 Smyth Welding ......................................53 Somerville Seedlings ............................47 St. Lawrence Cruise Lines ....................36 Steffen Well Drilling ..............................53 SWO Diesel Inc ............................Cover 4 Sylvar Technologies Inc ........................33 Townsley Barn Painting ........................56 Triple P Consulting ................................23 Trouw Nutrition ......................Back Cover WD Hopper & Sons Ltd ........................40 Williams Drainage ................................22

702 MAIN ST. SAUBLE BEACH (519) 422-ATVS (2887) sales.atvdepot@bellnet.ca

Grower Pesticide Safety Course & Pesticide Safety for Farmer Assistants

4

Farmers must be certified to buy and use Class B and C pesticides on farms.

4

Farm workers who assist with pesticide application under the supervision of a Certified Farmer must be trained.

For a list of opportunities, visit

www.opep.ca Sign up online or call us at 1-800-652-8573 to register for the

Ontario Pesticide Education Program

February 2021 63

HURON

42 First Avenue, Clinton, Ontario N0M 1L0 519-482-9642 or 1-800-511-1135

County Federation of Agriculture NEWSLETTER

From the History files The first HCFA meeting was held July 7, 1941. Motions at the first meeting included a motion to invite all township units to affiliate and forward 25 cents per member to the treasurer. A separate motion was to invite other organizations to affiliate with us for a $5 fee for the balance of the year.

October 1941: The first motion the HCFA sent to the Ontario Federation of Agriculture: “That the new policy of the government in reducing the freight rates one-third from the western provinces was wholly inadequate and if the Huron County farmers were expected to produce food stuff they must have cheaper grain or lower freight rates”. The motion was made by Ben Elder and C. Renwick.

December 1941: The HCFA wrote to the Ontario Federation of Agriculture in support of the plan for

Congratulations!

For its 80th Anniversary, the Huron County Federation of Agriculture is doing a draw every month from its membership.

Wiinner of the January draw for a local food gift certificate was Gerard Masse of Zurich.

a “proposed levy 1/5 of a mill or one cent per acre on improved farmlands to be collected by the municipality for the federation”.

Did you know that the first OFA director from Huron County was A. W. Morgan?

January 1942: A resolution forwarded to the OFA, “In view of the fact that new machines will not be available to farmers that the machine companies make more repairs this year than ever before so that our food production will not be affected”. – Motion by Hugh Hill. ◊

Scholarship Awards The Huron County Federation of Agriculture is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2020 HCFA Scholarships.

One award was presented to each Huron County high school to a student proceeding to a higher education in an agricultural­related course.

Recipients are: Central Huron Secondary School, Sara Kerr; F.E. Madill Secondary School, Myles Johnston; St. Anne’s Catholic Secondary School, Erica Overholt; Goderich District Collegiate Institute, Tyler Drennan and South Huron District High School – no award presented. Congratulations!

MP/MPP Local Politicians Forum CANCELLED Please be aware that this year the HCFA is not holding its MP/MPP Local Politicians Forum.

Website: www.hcfa.on.ca Email: ofahuron@tcc.on.ca

Upcoming Events February 9 – Food Freedom Day: a Canadian household of average income will have earned enough to pay for their entire year’s grocery bill.

February 14 – Happy Valentine’s Day! February 23 – Canada’s Agriculture Day: a day to celebrate the food we love and the people who produce it.

Huron County Federation of Agriculture

BOARD MEETING February 22 – 8:00 p.m.

Contact the office to receive the information to join this virtual meeting

SNOWMOBILERS: Please remember that some crops in the field are vulnerable to damage from snowmobiles.

Please ensure you have landowner permission to ride your snowmobiles on farmland and off the groomed trails.

Please also ensure there is adequate snow cover before you enter a field.

OFFICE UPDATE due to COVID-19 Please call before visiting the HCFA office to determine if the office is open.

Please be assured that we are still available to address your concerns by telephone: 519-482-9642 or email: ofahuron@tcc.on.ca Follow us on Twitter

Please know that the HCFA is still compiling briefing packages for local politicians and is scheduling meetings virtually with its MP and MPP.

twitter.com/huronfedofag and Facebook at Huron County

If you have concerns that you would like to have us present at these meetings, please let us know.

Federation of Agriculture

The Rural Voice is provided to all OFA members in Huron County by the Huron County Federation of Agriculture

64 The Rural Voice

FREE

A Visitor’s Guide to Huron County

Your guide to the hidden gems of Huron County Winter 2021

Distributed FREE at tourist information booths, town halls, retail outlets, accommodations, and restaurants throughout the county and beyond!

Also available online at

stopsalongtheway.ca

Supplying the agricultural industry needs since 1977!

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Angle Channel Hot and cold rolled bars Tool steel Beams Rebar Concrete reinforcing mesh Mechanical tubes Black pipe Galvanized pipe Sheet and Plate Bar grating Welded wire mesh Grip strut Precision ground shafting

* NEW * Now Stocking • Hog & Cattle Panels • Various livestock penning sizes available Services offered: • Saw cutting • Punching • Rebar cutting and bending • Custom welded columns and beams • Priming • Galvanizing OPEN: Monday - Friday 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM

www.huntersteel.ca 519-273-3151 500 Lorne Ave. E., Stratford

FORKS UP FOR CANADIAN

AGRICULTURE Canada’s Agriculture Day is February 23, 2021 This February, celebrate Canadian agriculture and food, and let everyone know how you feel about this awesome industry.

However you celebrate, share the love on social media and make sure to use #CdnAgDay when you do.

Visit AgDay.ca for more inspiration.

Let’s raise a fork to the food we love and the people who produce it!

Zurich 519-236-4381 Strathroy 519-246-1132

HURON FEEDING SYSTEMS Your local authorized dealer for...

Brussels JOE SEILI 519-887-6289 www.huronfeedingsystems.com

VITTTAAMIN/M MIN/MINER MINERAL AL & SPECIAALLLTTY FEED PR PRODUCTS ODUCTS FOR LIVESTTOCK

www.howickmutual.com 1-800-265-3033 Home • Auto • Commercial • Farm

69819 London Rd., R.R. #1 Centralia, ON 1IPOF t t 'BY & .BJM LLQQBMFO!LFOQBM PO DB t XXX X LFOQBM PO DB

Teeswater 519-392-6776 • 1-800-263-2555 Clinton 519-482-3433 • 1-800-270-2050 Tiverton 519-368-7696 “Quality Concrete and Service since 1977â€?

Proud to support pp

Lisa Thompson, MPP for Huron-Bruce

#CdnAgDay

CONSTITUENCY OFFICES BLYTH OFFICE Ph: 519-523-4251 KINCARDINE OFFICE Ph: 519-396-3007 Website: www.lisathompsonmpp.ca Email: lisa.thompsonco@pc.ola.org

BLYTH . CHATSWORTH . CHATHAM . COMBER . EXETER . HYDE PARK MITCHELL . ST. THOMAS . STAYNER . THAMESFORD . WALKERTON HuronTractor.com | The right choice.

Whatever your goals are, you can count on us to help you achieve them.

LEARN MORE about our robot herd approach at

YourRobotHerdPartner.com

TALK TO YOUR LOCAL SHUR-GAIN® DEALER FOR MORE INFORMATION. HENSALL CO-OP Londesboro 519-523-9606 800-265-9000 Zurich 519-236-7155 800-565-7155 Ripley 519-395-5955 855-895-5955

DAUPHIN FEED & SUPPLY LTD.

NIEUWLAND FEED & SUPPLY LTD.

Dungannon 519-529-7951 800-665-5675

Listowel 519-291-5795 800-265-3229

Walton 519-887-6023

Drayton 519-638-3008 800-263-9819

YANTZI FEED & SEED Tavistock 519-655-2033

Mitchell 519-348-8752 800-669-3502

HOLSTEIN FEED MILL (2015) LTD.

Alisa Craig 519-232-4449

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