The Rural Voice - October 2024

The

Rural Voice October 2024

THE MAGAZINE OF AGRICULTURAL LIFE ... $3.50 PM 40037593

RAREST IN CANADA Bill O’Keefe continues his search for rare apple varieties

THE LOG HOUSE DREAM Modernizing an 1850s-era log cabin required sweat, tears and lots of compromise

FAIR FINANCE Slow money makes huge impact in Ontario’s local food economy

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Contents The Rural Voice 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 Website: ruralvoice.ca

18

Publisher: Deb Sholdice

22

26

Columns

OCTOBER 2024

Lisa Boonstoppel-Pot . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 Keith Roulston . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8 Kate Procter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10 Jeffrey Carter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12 Mabel’s Grill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14 Viewpoint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16 Recipes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37 Gardening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40 Markets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44 Woodlots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46 Agrilaw . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .49

Departments Feedback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Ruralite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .43 People . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .52 Business Centre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .54 Classified . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .56 Advertisers Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .63

Newsletters

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

• Cover Photo

The O’Keefe Family Photo by Lisa Boonstoppel-Pot

Editor: Lisa Boonstoppel-Pot rveditorlisa@northhuron.on.ca Contributing writers: Keith Roulston, Kate Procter, Jeffrey Carter, Gary Kenny, Rhea Hamilton Seeger, Donna Lacey, Melisa Luymes, Carolyn Crawford, Bonnie Sitter, Jeff Tribe

• Deadlines: Nov. Issue – Oct. 8

Advertising Sales: Shelley Kroes rvads@northhuron.on.ca

18 Rarest Orchard in Canada

Production co-ordinator & Telemarketing: Joan Caldwell

December Issue – November 5

Collecting and growing heritage apple trees has earned O’Keefe Grange a new title!

22 Fair Finance Fund

When traditional banks say “no” this fund supports farmers

26 Life in a Log Cabin Couple lives the dream in a log cabin after all the work of making it liveable again

30 Biodynamic Goat Farm

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: $30 (12 issues) $55 (24 issues), includes HST Back copies $3.75 each.

Make cheques payable to: NORTH HURON PUBLISHING CO.

It’s all about circles and cheese at Capella Meadows

37 Pumpkins for Pies Pumpkins aren’t just for decorating says cook Carolyn Crawford

46 Certified Tree Marker Donna Lacey audits future tree markers through very specific and demanding parameters

All manuscripts submitted for consideration should be accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope. The publisher cannot accept responsibility for unsolicited submissions. 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.

A division of North Huron Publishing Company Inc.

We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada.

Feedback Letters to the Editor: The Rural Voice, P.O. Box 429, Blyth, ON N0M 1H0 rveditorlisa@ northhuron.on.ca

We can’t stop growth so lets do it responsibly To the Editor: After reading Keith’s column in the August edition, I felt a need to respond. I read that he is a farm boy but is sounding more like a big city reporter.

I am also a farm boy retiring after more than 40 years of cropping as well as having a career owning a company building grain and other dry bulk storage structures.

The cry of loosing 319 acres of farmland every day needs further research. As the editor of the Ontario Farmer wrote more than a year ago, the definition of what qualified as a farm changed in the last census from the prior census. It is like comparing

apples to oranges. In fact he pointed out that Chatham-Kent gained 4000 acres of farmland. In a recent letter to the editor in the Waterloo Region Record the writer pointed out that the loss of farmland according to the recent census was mostly unproductive and pasture land. Maybe some of that is being cleared and made productive in the northern clay belt.

Ontario is not going to run out of food! When I started cropping in the mid 1970s, I was happy to get 100 bushels corn per acre. Forty years later, I would be disappointed if my wheat yield didn’t blow by 100 bushels per acre and corn more than 200 bushels per acre.

Ontario exports corn, wheat, beans, pork, beef and many other farm products. One only needs to sit by the window in Tim Hortons in New Hamburg and count the trucks heading east with two containers full of food grade beans heading for export.

Last year we left our century farm and our grandson and his wife are now eighth generation residents. Our house in town is in a subdivision that I remember as a dairy farm. Everything is built on former farmland.

It’s my understanding that the VW battery plant is being built on the former Ford Talbotville assembly plant site which means that land has not been farmland for years.

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While I try to stay away from the emotional debate on the 770-acre assembly going on in Wilmot, there are some important factors that make it attractive to the Region of Waterloo for industrial development. The land is mostly flat, it’s next to a four-lane highway, it’s half a km from rail, no one living on the land farms it, there is no livestock on the land, and high voltage power lines cross the land.

The large dairy farms that own parcels of this land will have to replace it with other area farms and the prices offered need to reflect that which means a price two or three times the going price for area land.

I will say that if there is ever a book written on how not to assemble land, the Region of Waterloo will write it.

Also of note, the five or so farms less than a kilometer north between New Hamburg and Baden are reportedly already owned by developers and will eventually become housing.

We can’t stop growth. Lets hope it can be done responsibly. ~Calvin Schmidt Wellesley To the Editor:

Stay out of the politics, please The Rural Voice continues as a great publication . All the content and contributors have interesting articles.

Kate Proctor is excellent on the farm business side.

However, I was disappointed in Jeff Carter who entered into politics in the August publication, saying the Prime Minister should call an election.

There is social media to discuss election politics so it would be best for The Rural Voice to stay neutral and unbiased. Articles on farm programs, et cetera, would be fine. This is just my humble opinion. ~Kevin Kimball Staples

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October 7th to 13th, 2024

Lisa Thompson MPP Huron-Bruce

Happy Ontario Agriculture Week!

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“

Ruralite

How an apple tastes today is not exactly how it will taste tomorrow.”

”

~ Bill O’Keefe, explaining that apples are living, breathing things, taking in oxygen and releasing carbon dioxide. See page 18.

•

Fair Finance

“The world is pretty disillusioning if you spend

Will Rogers, the Cowboy Sage

too much time thinking

● If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging ● The quickest way to double your money is to fold it and put it back in your pocket ● On aging: One must wait until evening to see how splendid the day has been

about it. And then you lose the capacity to do the best with what you have right around you.”

Kim Keckes on why she focusses on a small patch of land near Angus, growing the health of her farm and community ~ See page 22

October

INSPIRATION

“It is only the farmer who faithfully plants seeds in the spring, who reaps a harvest in autumn”

•

~B.C.Forbes

Neil’s One-Liners (Wisdom from McGavin Files)

Fall Ready

It was just early September when this photo was taken but Nora Charbonneau of Hi Berry Farm outside of Port Elgin had wagons full of pumpkins ready for sale. Inside, garden vegetables and fresh strawberries were also for sale. The business opened in 1987 as a pick-your-own strawberry patch. It has expanded significantly over the years as Nora’s husband Norm and their son Luke manage the business with local employees and workers from Mexico.

~ Photo by Lisa Boonstoppel-Pot

● Don’t cry because it is over. Cry

because it happened. ● Hit your ball over the fence. Then

•

you can take your time running around the bases.

October 2024 5

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

THIS is the life I have been blessed with

Y

ou get these moments as a journalist when you see the real heart and soul of people.

A connection is made, you’re in deep with the questions, fascinated by their knowledge/ experience/ personality and they forget you’re a reporter.

It happened at O’Keefe Grange when I interviewed Bill, Sean and Cathy O’Keefe about their new title – rarest orchard in Canada. I asked each of them to name a favourite apple. For his answer, Sean grabbed an apple and started biting and chewing, tasting, swaying, feeling, thinking and just being totally in the moment enjoying the apple.

It didn’t last more than a minute but I saw the man who knows apples inside and out. He is alive with purpose running the business, tasting the flavours and combining said flavours from heritage apples into unique and sensory ciders. It was a privilege to watch.

It’s also been a privilege to work these past 10 years as editor of The Rural Voice. We are, in fact, looking for a new editor but haven’t found one yet. This isn’t my farewell column…but it’s coming.

This month I want to focus on what it means to retire from a lifelong career and how does one find a new sense of purpose? It’s not that the time won’t fill. There is always lots to do — children to raise and support, grandchildren to babysit, a little farm and a small business to run, creative pursuits to explore, volunteerism. But what is the underlying purpose of it all?

This is a question I think about often because I’m an earnest sort ... I find it hard to just be. So I search and ponder and look for answers. And I have found some.

Be in the moment: While watching Sean eat his apple, I knew I’ve never eaten an apple with such pleasure and intense focus. Author Eckhart Tolle talks about being in the now. The past is gone and the future isn’t real, no matter how much we obsess about it. The only “real” thing is the moment. Even as my mind wants to stress about a speaking engagement tonight and thoughts flit about like butterflies on crack, all I have to do RIGHT NOW is write this column and really glean some understanding, cohesion and focus.

At home, I get to be with my people and animals on a little slice of heaven in Huron County. I don’t want to miss the life I’m living not being where I am. Being “in the now” is a definite goal and purpose.

Be a Grace Giver: This came after a sermon by Stephen Tamming at Trinity CRC in Goderich.

Tamming stood at that pulpit, admitted his own failings and then talked about how he uses them to connect, relate, forgive and accept other people. We weren’t made to judge and shame, he said. We were Organically grown, healthy trees!

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made to be like Jesus who was about grace, that Christian term that means “undeserved love”. It’s so hard. But Tamming encouraged us all to be “Grace Givers” and I think that’s an amazing “easy-to-remember” life purpose to strive towards.

So those are huge underpinnings of a life’s purpose. But what is my specific purpose? What are my specific gifts to use as I move into my senior years? What are yours? It isn’t that easy to answer those questions with an alliterative title, is it? But let’s give it a go.

Listen, Learn, Love: I was visiting friends whom I’ve known for decades now. I think I was being a Chatty Cathy at first, sharing what was on my mind. As the visit lengthened, I started asking questions because hey, that’s what I do. And it got intense. I know when I start leaning forward and my mind clears that “this is it”. This is where I am supposed to be ... mouth shut.

It all starts with listening.

Sometimes I have to tell myself to “shut up” and then it happens… everything disappears except the people and the words coming from them. I think ... is this my purpose?

To be quiet so others can share what’s in their heart? I’ve always imagined internal hurts and worries are like pus under a wound. It has to come out! Then healing can begin.

Listening to others helps them clarify their thoughts; see themselves more clearly; clearing the ways for new ideas. Listening with a smile and thoughtful questions is encouragement and encourage-ment = “courage” to move forward.

I know so many people who do this naturally. The empaths, God bless them, don’t need a column to figure it out. I’ve got a ways to go.

“THIS is the life I was blessed with” is a quote I have around my house. Not my neighbour’s life. Not the life of the rich and famous. But THIS life, here in Huron County, surrounded by my family, nature and the rural community. THIS is where I’ve been placed to listen, learn and love.

And along the way, I hope to be so in the now that I can enjoy an apple like Sean O’Keefe! ◊

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October 2024 7

Keith Roulston Keith is former publisher of The Rural Voice.

He lives near Blyth, ON.

How blessed we are in this time

T

hough this is for the October issue, it is written weeks previously, with the soybeans still ripening in the fields around our house, and the corn still green. Still, as I look ahead to October, I think of Thanksgiving.

Here in 2024, we have so much to be thankful for. As I gaze out my farmhouse window (where I have lived nearly 50 years), I think how amazed the pioneers would have been who settled this land when it was covered by trees, and gradually hacked out a better living. Who could have imagined, as they planted crops by hand among the stumps, that someday mighty combines would

harvest soybeans (who even heard of soybeans back then?) from two farms totalling 250 acres, in a single day?

Even consider what changes this house I live in has existed through.

We have the odd scar in the hardwood of our kitchen where coals were dropped when cleaning the ashes from the wood stove that heated the house and cooked meals in the first half of this house’s existence. There are the remnants in our yard, of the windmill that must have seemed a miracle to residents of the time as it pumped water for the barn and for the kitchen.

Imagine the different world that electricity brought, from coal-oil lamps to electric lights, and eventually to electric cook stoves, refrigerators and radios and televisions.

When we bought this house in 1975, the previous owners had just installed an oil furnace. Since then we’ve converted to geo-thermal heating at a long-term saving of thousands of dollars a year.

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conditioning in the heat of summer.

These modern miracles in personal comfort are matched by advances in medicine. I recently reread a book written by my childhood doctor, Dr. Victor Johnston, and the changes from the world he practiced in first, nearly a century ago, are almost unbelievable.

Even in my lifetime the world has been revolutionized. When I was young, we still suffered from yearly infections of polio. I remember a man, Lorne Reid, who mended my shoes and sharpened my skates in Lucknow, who was crippled from the waist down by polio. We went from hundreds of cases a year across Ontario to none, when a vaccine became available in the 1950s.

When I was 11, I was infected by rheumatic fever and had to spend a winter in bed – at home because it was before medicare provided free hospital and medical service. Today people don’t even know what rheumatic fever is because better medication has wiped it out.

I had a damaged heart valve from that disease. Recently, surgeons replaced that valve with an artificial one, something that would have been unheard of a few decades ago.

How fortunate we are can be compared to stories from Africa where people are often homeless and walking from one place to another, all without regular medical care.

Or from war zones. Recently there was news of a child suffering from polio in war-torn Gaza that led to hundreds of thousands being given the polio vaccine under horrid conditions.

So as Thanksgiving approaches it’s so easy to see how fortunate I have been to live a life of regularly improving conditions, and in virtual peace. My father fought in Italy and Holland to help drive out Adolf Hitler and install peace, that has generally been only mildly interrupted (for us) in my lifetime.

But blessed as we are, we can’t become lazy. The pandemic taught how vulnerable we are, health wise, with thousands of deaths. Some people in Europe seem to cheer Hitler, not deplore him. This Thanksgiving we can celebrate, but we must also fight for our good life.◊

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

History lesson continued

T

his summer has provided several interesting history lessons for me, right in my own backyard. Most recently, seeing the play at the Blyth Festival, Onion Skins and Peach Fuzz, helped provide greater understanding about the Farmerettes and other aspects of life in Ontario during World War II. As with many plays presented at Blyth, there is always a way to relate the story to our current day.

Live theatre is a great way to bring stories to life, and I have learned a lot from the stage at Blyth. I have learned about the Donnellys, Steven

10 The Rural Voice

Truscott, Maggie Pollock, and now the teams of young women who left their city homes to work on farms during both World War I and World War II. As we head into harvest season on our own farms, it is interesting to reflect on the lives of the men and women from these time periods.

As young men answered the call to fight in both wars, much of the work at home had to carry on and women, many of whom had not had the opportunity to do this type of work in the past, stepped up to fill these roles.

A newspaper headline from that era proclaimed “We Can’t Fight If We Don’t Eat”, raising awareness of the need for young women in an emotional appeal for volunteers to help accomplish the farm work. The program was promoted as a way for young women to actively play an important role in the war effort and help to bring Canada closer to victory.

Farmerettes were over the age of 16 and were recruited by the provincial government’s Farm

Service Corps in Ontario from 19141918. The Ontario Farm Service Force operated the Farmerette program again from 1941 to 1953.

The book, “Onion Skins and Peach Fuzz”, written by Bonnie Sitter and Shirleyan English, was published in 2019 and provides first-hand accounts of some of the 20,000 young women and some men who participated in the program during WWII. The theatre was packed for the last show of this production and the talented actors did a great job of telling some of the stories from that time. I could easily imagine the excitement as the young women learned they could get away from home for the summer - possibly escaping school and the dreaded departmental exams by participating.

The hours were long and the pay not great – some were not paid enough to cover their room and board. But it was an adventure, and they were also able to have some fun – shopping, playing ball, and attending dances with young men who were stationed close by.

The Lambton County Museum (https://www.lambtonmuseums.ca/en /lambton-heritage-museum) provides information about the program, which saw young women from across Ontario – from as far as Sioux Lookout - participate. Most stayed in various accommodations close to the farms where they were working, including hotels, high schools, camp cabins, renovated farm buildings, and tents. The largest camps had up to 100 young women staying there. A Farmerette camp in Clinton was a renovated packing house, described as a “first cousin to a barn”. Many were operated like a Girl Guide camp, with a house mother, cook, and someone in charge of job assignment, however, the Farmerettes did cook their own meals at some camps and most did their own laundry (https://www.lambto nmuseums.ca/en/lambton-heritagemuseum/camp-living.aspx).

The Harvester magazine was published by the Ontario Farm Service Force and provided articles written by Farmerettes. The camps

were also encouraged to come up with a camp song, many of which were published in “The Harvester”.

The play helped bring the stories of these young women to life – their fears of loved ones overseas, their rivalries, and how they learned to forgive and live together during uncertain and stressful times.

The play also told some darker stories from that period that are not so widely remembered. Two sisters who were born in Canada, but whose ancestors came from Japan, revealed the story of how Japanese Canadians were treated after the bombing of Pearl Harbour, which happened on December 7, 1941. Many Japanese Canadians were farming in British Columbia at that time, their farms were confiscated by Canada’s federal government, sold, and the proceeds used to fund an internment program.

Using The War Measures Act, 23,000 Japanese Canadians, over 75 per cent of whom were born in Canada or were naturalized citizens, were removed from their homes on the British Columbia coast, moved to internment camps, and were not permitted to return. More information about this can be found at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights website located at https://human rights.ca/story/japanese-canadianinternment-and-struggle-redress.

Some of these camps were in Ontario, and the play told the story of the sisters who moved with their mother to be closer to their brother.

Several Farmerettes befriended the sisters, learning firsthand of the unfair treatment and prejudice that existed both within the communities where they were living and within their families back home.

While the details may be part of history we would rather forget, as with many of the stories presented on the stage at Blyth, we can see links to our current lives. As the young women on both sides of this issue learned, we can often find common ground with strangers if we take the time to get to know them. I am grateful to all who participated in bringing these stories to the stage, providing us a glimpse of history we would not have had otherwise. ◊

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Jeffrey Carter Jeffrey is a freelance journalist based in Dresden, Ontario.

Alice Munro: A reflection

A

list of most influential women in the world of English literature in Canada would not be complete without the names of Margaret Laurence, Alice Munro, and Margaret Atwood.

Manitoba-born Laurence is best known for her 1964 novel, The Stone Angel and The Diviners which was published a decade later and recognized with a Governor General’s Award for fiction. Having read these some decades ago – both remain in our collection – I can only imagine they served as an inspiration for the other two authors.

Celebrated to an even greater

extent has been Atwood who has reached the pinnacle of international fame. It has taken time for me to build an appreciation for her work. I thoroughly enjoyed The Blind Assassin (2000) which received the coveted Booker Prize and now I follow her vision of a dystopian future which begins with Oryx and Crake (2003).

Atwood captures, like Munro, the essence of rural Ontario though perhaps from a somewhat more privileged perch. Add to that the fact that Atwood is recommended by Salman Rushdie who currently is my favourite of all living writers. He mentions her name at least twice in his 2012 autobiography, Joseph Anton: A Memoir, a most honest work which demonstrates that one may be at the same time a most brilliant writer and not a particularly nice person.

It was only this summer, as the controversy around her legacy erupted, that I became familiar with Munro, having picked up a used copy of her 2006 collection of short

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stories, The View from Castle Rock.

Undeterred, I finished reading the work and a few weeks later selected additional titles.

I also took the time to peruse the Toronto Star article that led to the furor and thought, who are we to judge? Skeletons lie closeted within the lives of all families. My family has many. Which particular door would you like to open?

When I read Munro, I am reminded of the matriarchs of my own family, women whose strength lay perseverance, able to emerge stronger from the tribulations thrust upon them; women determined to gather influence and agency about themselves when the opportunity arose.

My mother, a contemporary of all three authors, had many words of advice for her children. Among the most oft-repeated phrase was this: “You’ve made your bed, now lie in it.”

There may be a bit of “I told you so” tied to those words but at their core, I think, was an important message linked to responsibility. In life, mistakes are made. Walking away is the easy thing to do.

Remaining committed is the more difficult path, the uncomfortable choice.

Munro is a winner of the Nobel Prize of Literature, awarded in 2013, and is known primarily for her short stories which tend to be intergenerational in scope and emotionally charged. Few if any words are wasted. She captures the essence of rural Southern Ontario, scenes often bathed with a kind, warming light though with illumination of any kind, shadows also lie.

Alice Ann Munro was born in Wingham in Huron County in 1931 and is of Irish-Scottish descent but views herself as a North American.

Her mother was a school teacher and her father a farmer who raised fox and mink during the fur industry’s heyday. It is in Huron County and other parts of Southwestern Ontario that many of her short stories are set.

She passed away in May this year. ◊

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

“Sometimes,” Cliff Murray said as he and the guys opened their menus at Mabel’s Grill one recent morning, “I think the U.S. election should be Oct. 31, not Nov. 5.”

“I’m with you,” chimed in Dave Winston. “Anything to get them to talk about something else than the election a little sooner.”

“I was thinking some of the things that are said are so scary they should be happening on Halloween,” Cliff laughed.

“Yeah, like the idea of a woman president!” grumbled George Mackenzie. “My wife already thinks she runs the house. What will she do if a woman is the most powerful person in the world?”

“Okay, remember Mabel’s rule about not talking politics in this restaurant,” Molly Whiteside

announced as she brought the guys’ menus to the table.

“We weren’t really talking politics,” Dave told her. “Just wanting all the election talk to be over.”

“A big hope with so much election speculation here in Canada,” Molly grumbled.

“Let’s not even get into that!” objected Cliff.

“Except the quicker we can get rid of Justin Trudeau the better,” George said emphatically.

“Okay, let’s talk about something else,” Molly piped in. “Weren’t the leaves pretty with the first hint of colour this morning?”

“It just means we’re that much closer to corn harvest,” grumbled Dave. “I’ll be on the combine all day long then trying to get the chores done before bedtime.”

“And the time when all the cattle are inside for the winter and I have to feed them and clean them out,” grouched George.

“Yeah but that means we can soon put the lawn mowers away,” said Cliff. “No more wasting time and gas

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keeping the lawn short.”

“Goodness, I’m glad there’s one of you guys in a positive mood,” Molly said. “I mean, we’re coming up to Thanksgiving day. Don’t you guys have anything to be thankful for?”

“I’m happy it’s almost the end of gardening season,” George said.

“I’ve got carrots to dig and store in the basement and potatoes to harvest.”

“And the pumpkins are nearly ripe,” chimed in Cliff.

“Oh, are you selling any pumpkins?” Molly asked. “I need some to decorate for Thanksgiving.

And then I’ll carve them for the kids for Halloween.”

“You’re not going to cut them up for pumpkin pies?” Cliff wondered.

“Heavens, that’s too much work, cleaning out all the stringy stuff, then peeling off the shell, then baking the rest of it in the oven and mushing it all up,” Molly grimaced. “It’s easier to just buy canned pumpkin in the supermarket.”

“Such is the world,” shrugged George. “I think there are more pumpkins grown these days than ever before – whole fields of them down near the cities, and yet people just use them for decorating.”

“Or they shoot them off in those big pumpkin cannons to entertain people,” Dave reminded them.

“I forgot about that,” George said, shaking his head. “All those pumpkins just used for entertainment.

No wonder people think it’s no big deal if they use up farmland for new subdivisions.”

“Yeah, but there are still more people all the time lined up to get food at food banks,” Molly sighed.

“We’ve got supermarkets that are overflowing with food and other people who can’t afford to buy any of it.”

“And then the prices are as high as this!” said George looking at the prices in the menu.

“Well you are the farmers who grow the food that Mabel has to buy to cook the meal – like the pork for the bacon and the beef for the hamburger,” Molly reminded them.

“Yeah, but then it gets served to us by waitresses like you who expect a higher wage all the time,” chuckled Cliff. ◊

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Viewpoint Ralph C. Martin is an author and a retired professor from the University of Guelph

Land tenure for future farmers

I

n Indigenous communities, the ongoing tenure of land was relational and inter-dependent over generations, bioregions and species. In nation states, specific areas of land, often rectangles, are parcels owned by an individual, family, corporation or government.

With hubris, an aging King Lear asked his three daughters to expound on their love for him and his kingdom, before assigning land parcels to them. Cordelia understood that real love is not for exchange. “I cannot heave my heart into my mouth. I love your majesty according to my bond, no more, no less.”

Enraged, Lear disowned her.

His elder two daughters gleefully exaggerated their “love” and were each rewarded with one half of the kingdom.

Lear expected to bask in the glory of the kingdom he had inherited and strengthened. His daughters accepted that he could live in their castles, as he chose, with 100 knights of his own. However, relationships deteriorated, they reneged and released his knights, saying he didn’t really need them. The succession plan collapsed.

In the 2023 Stratford production, Paul Gross, as the distraught King Lear, humiliated by his precipitous collapse in living standards, roared, “O reason not the need!” I heard the echo all the way home. He had assumed an indefinite royal living from the surplus of the land.

Similarly, my two and a half-year-old grandson will declare, “I need a muffin,” completely merging needs and wants.

Lear was later purified in a storm surge of thunder, lightning and rain.

As the kingdom disintegrated, Lear, reunited with Cordelia, said “I’ll

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MADE BY

kneel down and ask of thee forgiveness.”

Over my years of teaching, I’ve asked my students which generation they represent on their home farm.

Some were third and fourthgeneration farmers, fewer in the Maritimes were seventh and eighth generations, one in Prince Edward county, Ontario, was the ninth and an outlier from Austria was sixteenth and admitted, with a sigh, that he might stop farming. Imagine his conversations with generations 15 and 14.

Farm succession is partially motivated by a love of family and land in both generations. Despite tensions between generations and varying expectations, succession works well in some cases.

Today, many farms are aggregated parcels of land with equipment, infrastructure, livestock and perhaps quota, often incorporated, even if family run, and may not include the original family homestead.

Land prices are increasing with pressure from investors (Bill Gates, certainly not a farmer, owns more farmland than anyone else in the U.S.) and from supply management farmers in Canada who buy extra land because they cannot purchase more quota. Land prices based on questionable assumptions about ongoing increases are now excluding dedicated food producers and rewarding speculators. Rented land may provide profits in some years, but it limits long-term planning.

Retiring farmers want to protect their hard-earned legacy and ensure a comfortable retirement (even if without 100 knights), after accounting for capital gains taxes.

They may resist no longer having the last word.

Young farmers want some scope to earn a living as they envision it.

They require enough financial heft to face future challenges of increasing weather variability, rising costs and land prices and the precarity of markets and supply chains. However, some may accept succession as an obligation and stoop under heavy debt burdens or feel constrained with poorly defined or shifting roles in a family corporation.

Succession may hit potholes of expectations of equal inheritances by non-farming siblings or conflicts between too many siblings who aspire to farm on too little land or a business which is larger than preferred by the younger generation.

Farmers of both generations, independent and self-motivated by nature, may also have bristles to smooth.

It can be tempting to sell out, divide the cash and move on.

There should be other options for land tenure. Youth who want to farm can discover their passion in urban households, without access to land.

Some who grow up on farms want to proceed quite differently than their parents.

What if a farmer could offset capital gains taxes from a land sale, by designating 50 to 100 acres of the total sale, to a small farm with covenants? The buyer of covenanted land would pay 10 per cent per acre of the market value land. The seller could use that discounted sale price on covenanted land to offset capital gains on market value land.

I recommend covenants that include mandatory plans to measure and document soil organic matter levels, nutrient management, drain water quality, biodiversity and financial profitability. The covenants would include a specific definition of “farming” including farmgate sales of food, but excluding farmgate sales of feed grain crops, concentrated animal feeding operations and luxury estates.

Appropriate organizations to select eligible buyers and to administer these land covenants, with commensurate provincial government financing, could be provincial Soil and Crop Improvement Associations, the Agricultural Land Commission in BC, SaskSoil and Ontario Farmland Trust.

I assert that talented, aspiring farmers should have options for land tenure to make a living, doing what they love, to serve the public good.

My grandson can rightly declare, we need land tenure for future farmers committed to healthy food from healthy ecosystems. ◊

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Fruit

The search continues for rare apple trees O’Keefe Grange has been named the rarest orchard in Canada but that isn’t stopping Bill O’Keefe from hunting down apple varieties that have disappeared • By Lisa Boonstoppel-Pot •

Bill O’Keefe has passed down his knowledge and passion for apples and pears to son Sean and his wife Cathy (right) as each one brings their own skills to run O’Keefe Grange, the rarest orchard in Canada.

I

t’s pretty rare to be the “rarest” of anything but there’s a little apple and pear orchard on a sideroad outside of Dobbinton in Bruce County that has been named “Rarest Orchard in Canada.”

It earned that title from the University of Guelph for having the largest collection of heritage apple and pear varieties, many of which were bred in Canada in the 1800s.

Owners Bill O’Keefe and son Sean with wife Cathy, each have a specific skill set to run O'Keefe Grange as a business, selling apples, cider and trees. Yet it all started with Bill’s passion for researching, collecting and propagating rare apple trees.

“We have found trees that were thought extinct!” says Bill, now aging out of manual labour as he cares for his ailing wife. He walks around with a notebook, where he records all the info on each tree and the rare varieties he is still searching for! Most of the knowledge is in his head for he has a story to go with each variety.

18 The Rural Voice

The trees thought extinct were Autumn Grey, Milfor and Glenton. Autumn Grey was developed in Markham sometime in the 1900s. Glenton was developed in 1909 for commercial use. “There were thousands of these trees at one time and now we have the only one left in Canada,” says Bill. “At least we think so. There could be one in someone’s else’s orchard but when properties change hands, the knowledge of tree varieties often goes with it.”

Another tree on the property thought to be extinct is called Belliveau. It had been the subject of a study and paper for the Oxford Food Symposium because this tree was important to the Acadians and their lifestyle.

When I ask Bill what he thinks of all this, he takes a minute to think. “Well, it wasn’t my intent when I started this orchard,” he says. “I just wanted a few varieties of rare apple trees.” Now, finding rare apple trees is a full-blown addiction for Bill. Once found, he can start new trees by grafting scions of these rare varieties onto rootstock.

Customers are keen on preserving these heritage varieties as well. Each year, the family hosts apple tasting events where, using a “passport”, visitors can record how the apples taste by checking off a list of tastes that include strawberry, licorice and carmamel. Then, you can order that tree variety for pickup the next year (scions are harvested in the winter and the process takes time).

The taste-testings are quite popular. Last year, there were over 120 varieties in the store and sometimes, a customer tries an apple and orders the tree variety it came from. Tree sales are a big part of the O'Keefe Grange business model.

I asked Bill, Sean and Cathy what their favourite varieties were and why. They didn't want to pick just one. However, at my insistence Cathy chose Florina because it has notes of bubblegum flavour. Then she quickly added Fenouillet de Ribouts because it’s “juicy with so much flavour” and has a russet-like skin. “Normally I don’t like russets but this one is sweet, not dry.”

Bill chose Fryburg which is named after General Fryburg who was the “most wounded general in battle.” He says it has a peach flavour “with notes of licorice as the apple ages.”

Bill explained that apples are living, breathing things. They take in oxygen and give off carbon dioxide via lentils (little white dots) on the apple skin. “So how an apple tastes today is not exactly how it will taste tomorrow.”

Finally, Sean had to weigh in and he chose Starsong. Grabbing an apple he showed the proper way to test an apple which is to start with bits of the skin to see what the skin tastes like.

Then he bites into the flesh and finally, bigger bites into the whole apple. Tasting an apple should be an experience, not a few quick bites before you toss the core. Watching Sean taste his apple was an experience in itself. He leaned into it, closing his eyes, chewing slowly as he savoured the flavours and tried to name them with words. Sean took a few bites before he came out with “hard, crispy, juicy, sweet with notes of caramel and tropical fruit.”

Sean is big into the flavour because his passion at O'Keefe Grange is making cider with blends of seven to 20 apples. His goal is to combine sweetness with tartness, with the right tannin notes, so you feel the cider on your tongue and the back of your cheeks. “I don’t think you can make a traditional cider without all these different kinds of apples,” he says. He wants his cider flavours to linger but not have a disagreeable aftertaste.

Sean and Cathy also do the bulk of tree maintenance including pruning, harvesting and setting up the store.

Bill admits the orchard got away from him a little bit these past years.

So having Sean and Cathy working full-time in the family business is a perfect trio: Bill the researcher and storyteller; Sean the muscle and cider-maker and Cathy the organizer, manager and not afraid of hard work herself. The orchard is organic, with no pesticides, so the apples aren’t all

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Top: The O’Keefe’s graft scions of heritage and rare apple trees onto rootstock to create new trees and customers can choose and order their favourite based on apple tastings in the store.

Above: Each apple is handpicked and handwashed at O’Keefe Grange near Dobbinton. Bill says that apples are living, breathing fruit which take in oxygen and release carbon dioxide through their skin.

Below: Dad Bill and son Sean walk the orchard at O’Keefe Grange.

Top: Bill and Lyn enjoy a date under the apple blossoms. (Photo by Cathy O’Keefe) Above: Sean takes apple tasting very seriously as he considers what heritage apple varieties to combine to make the ciders O’Keefe Grange is noted for.

20 The Rural Voice

blemish-free, but the ones sold in the store are handpicked and hand washed.

Moving forward, the family has celebrated their “rarest orchard in Canada” with a colourful sign on the road. The younger generation has lots of goals for their business while Bill, well, he isn’t done searching for rare varieties yet.

He is specifically researching Canadian-heritage varieties such as Roothouse Red, which was found on St. Joseph's Island which is north of

Manitoulin Island. There, in an orchard that belonged to David Tate, they found the variety which is a treasure because it tastes like black cherries.

Right now, Bill is hot on the tracks of a variety called Peartosh. “It was developed in Ottawa at an experimental station and no one has seen it since,” says Bill. Could this be the rarest of the rare trees? The O’Keefes have over 600 varieties at their orchard right now so surely there is room for one more. ◊

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Finance

Investing dollars for change Slow money makes a huge impact in Ontario’s • By Melisa Luymes • local food economy

K

im Keckes has been farming since 2001 near Angus, the fourth generation on that land. When she needed to upgrade the barn’s electrical panel, add an activity space, run hydro and install new water lines, any other farm could have taken out a bank loan. But not this farm.

Kim runs Moondance Organics, a market garden with an on-farm event and education space for the community. The business was deemed too high-risk. So too was Jennifer Osborn and Tim Fisher’s dream of purchasing milling equipment to process waste wool into useful products. So was Ben Gott’s plan to build an in-ground greenhouse at White Pines Artisan Market near Flesherton.

All these established entrepreneurs were denied loans from conventional lenders because they were deemed a high risk.

“Well, I don’t consider sustainable, long-term, resilient farms a high risk,” says Sally Miller. She is the founder and Executive Director of Fair Finance Fund, which extended financing for the above projects in the last few years.

The Fair Finance Fund (the Fund) grew out of a need for social impact investment in Ontario’s local food economy.

It got its start with a grant in 2018 and has since had over 80 investments and lent just under 5 million dollars to 60 food and farm projects that would not otherwise have access to capital. The loans are between $20,000 and $200,000 with a monthly repayment schedule over five years at approximately six per cent interest (varies annually), and an optional three-month grace period.

As for the investors, they are individuals and institutions that want to put their money where their values are, says Rebecca Jacobs, the Fund’s Marketing & Communications Coordinator. Farm businesses grow relatively slowly, working with nature and building up over seasons, and so they also need “slow money” to help it along. The Fund’s investors aren’t there to make a quick buck and run; instead, they are there for at least five years and make a modest return, but, more importantly, make a positive impact in communities across the province.

Tom and Kim Keckes operate Moondance Organics and their business was considered too high‐risk to get a loan from conventional lenders so they turned to the Fair Finance Fund for a loan to install water lines at their farm. ~Photos submitted by Kim Keckes 22 The Rural Voice

Investments are Community Bonds with a five-year term in increments of $5,000 with two per cent interest or $50,000 with three per cent interest, both issued annually without compounding interest.

Eighty percent of the Fund’s investors are individuals and they contribute over 35 per cent to the Fund; the remainder are institutions.

The three to four per cent margin between the interest charged to clients and that paid to investors, along with various grants for new initiatives, is the fund’s operating budget, Sally describes. They have a small but mighty staff (that their clients rave about, I might add) providing ongoing support through webinars and workshops, along with 10 hours of one-on-one mentoring related to marketing, accounting, or whatever the client feels they need.

There is a two-step application process, explains Sally, and before they even start talking about the money, they meet with a potential client to ensure that values are aligned. They are looking for food and farming businesses that are already established, wouldn’t qualify for traditional lending, and that are making a positive impact in their local communities and for the environment. If a client needs support developing the business plan and cash flow forecasting, or other resources, the staff can help, or provide access to REAL Assist mentors, or their Path to Purpose training platform. Every loan is reviewed by a volunteer committee that meets weekly. The Board sets the parameters of the loan program– interest rate, maximum amounts.

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benefit, as of 2023, their $4 million in turn generated $27.2 million in local food and beverage sales, created 244 local jobs in the community, and translated into $15.9 million purchased from local suppliers.

But the real impact isn’t just in the numbers, it is in the lives and businesses that have been able to get ahead with the support of the Fair Finance Fund.

Ben Gott is the 33-year-old entrepreneur behind White Pines Artisan Market, near Flesherton. He grew up on a farm outside of Collingwood and now grows fruits and vegetables on his parent’s property, while his friend Ryan cooks it up into gourmet street food for pop-up events and meals on the farm.

They also created a Healthy Eats line of granola bars and other products.

At the end of every year, they run a Give a Gift Fundraiser for local youth and donate their proceeds. Ben wondered if the Fund would approve of his paying things forward (instead of paying things back), but found they strongly encouraged him to make a social impact in his community.

Ben became interested in an inground heated greenhouse, following the success of Russ Finch and his ability to grow lemons, bananas and other tropical fruits in his geothermal greenhouse in Nebraska. When the banks didn’t support his vision, he found the Fund online and was able to access $70,000 to build the greenhouse, along with an on-farm market and commercial kitchen. The greenhouse was constructed in 2020 and is now a warm home to guava, olives, peppers and tomatoes and, earlier this year, Ben saw his first fruiting bananas. Now, they are in the middle of construction of the market space and hope to host people on the farm by the end of the year.

Kim Keckes returned to her childhood home with her husband Tom nearly 25 years ago to start a market garden. After a degree in psychology and a career in the “health” care system, even running a horticultural therapy program, she knew she needed to get back to the land to grow organic, nutritious food.

She started Moondance Organics, 24 The Rural Voice

growing vegetables for farmers’ markets and has her own on-farm market. She loves connecting people to the land, so she runs workshops at the farm and hosts a farm and forest school for children. The Fund helped her with $70,000 to install water lines in 2022 and do electrical upgrades in 2023.

The improvements are nothing they can see at first glance but go a long way to building the future of the farm. While Kim is 58 years old and still going strong, she and her

husband are hoping to slow down eventually and thinking about transitioning to a next generation on the farm. As they live adjacent to a subdivision, they are hoping to work with Ontario Farmland Trust (OFT) to create a farmland easement to protect the farm from nonagricultural development (see last month’s issue for more on OFT). As well, they are open to working with new farmers that could potentially have long-term use of the farm property in the future.

Sally Miller Founder, Executive Director of the Fair finance Fund

Rebecca Jacobs Marketing and Communications Manager, Fair Finance Fund

Jennifer Osborn of All Sorts Acres operates a permaculture farm, raising sheep and making ice cream from sheep milk as well as sheep wool products. She used the Fair Finance Fund to secure a loan for the equipment needed to do on‐farm wool processing.

Jennifer Osborn and Tim Fisher have run All Sorts Acre since 2007, beginning on an acre outside of Guelph before they purchased 50 acres near Ayton. They run a permaculture farm, raise sheep, make wool products, have an incredible line of sheep milk gelato and do creative fine art projects to boot.

They are even grazing sheep under a solar project at Conestoga College this summer. If you read the article on EcoWool here in the The Rural Voice a few months back, you’ll know they are developing a market for pelletized wool as a soil amendment. But they needed funding for the equipment to do on-farm wool processing and secured a loan of $65,000 from the Fund in late 2023.

The last of the equipment was delayed and arrived only in May, so they were grateful for a three-month grace period in loan repayment.

There are dozens more examples of farms and food businesses that have accessed funding on the Fair Finance Fund’s website – these were just a few within The Rural Voice readership area to highlight.

Community investing is not new, but it clearly wasn’t enough. Credit unions, like Vancity or the many we see in rural Ontario, are also nonprofits and are owned by their local members. What makes the Fund different is that it is strategically investing in local, small-scale food and farming ventures. A similar fund, FarmWorks, was developed in Nova Scotia in 2011 and there is interest across Canada to launch similar agriimpact funds.

To truly support a local, sustainable food and farming movement, you need to understand it.

And the Fund’s founder Sally Miller understands the movement perhaps better than anyone. With a PhD in Anthropology, she jumped into the local food economy by managing a successful farmer’s co-op that delivered to New York City. She came back to Ontario, got another degree (this time in environmental studies) and was deeply involved in the organic industry and in nonprofits. She published her first book in 2008, Edible Action: Food Activism and Alternative Economics and another in 2016 that focused on

farmland access and food sovereignty, Belongings: The Fight for Land and Food.

The Fund is now also working on the Inclusive Prosperity Project. This project focuses on getting capital for land purchase specifically to equitydeserving farmers that are Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC). And more on that in the next article of this series.

While access to capital is critical, the Fair Finance Fund is just one piece of a larger puzzle around local food, farmland prices and farm succession that many farmers and non-profits are wrestling with, in Ontario and around the world. The statistics show us that there will be a massive transition of farmland ownership in the next decade and Sally believes, like much of the agricultural community, that this land should be owned by farmers, staying out of the hands of speculators. She also knows first-hand the slim margins that farmers are living on, especially those growing at a smaller scale for local markets. While she has

researched and written about these issues and alternative models, there is not a quick and easy solution to the problem, and she admits that it may need public support to solve.

I can’t help but think that if a problem is large and global, then perhaps the solutions are small and local.

“The world is pretty disillusioning if you spend too much time thinking about it,” says Kim. “And then you lose the capacity to do the best with what you have right around you.” So, she focuses on a small patch of land near Angus and spends her efforts improving water lines, growing the health of the farm and of her community.

And the Fair Finance Fund is a way to invest in small, local solutions like the Kims of the world. Ghandi said “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” And now you can invest in it too.

More information and more incredible stories of entrepreneurs and their impacts at www.fairfinancefund.org. ◊

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October 2024 25

History

Former logger revitalizes log cabin

This mid‐19th century log cabin represents a meeting of the minds between Art Shannon (left) and Kym Snarr. The 1.5‐acre property it is built on supports their sustainable, lifestyle choices.

T

here may be no better residence for a fifthgeneration horse logger than an 1850s-era log cabin.“I couldn’t be happier,” said Art Shannon, whose unique career has been featured in documentary movies including Workhorse, a Canadian film directed by Cliff Caines, released in 2019. “I can’t think of a better place to live.”

Shannon’s goal always was to live in a log home in the middle of the bush, a vision not entirely shared by wife Kym Snarr. The retired professor, environmental anthropologist and organic inspector did embrace their traditional, simpler lifestyle, farming organically just down the road from their Grey County location, west of Swinton Park.

But there were limits.

“Sometimes a couple has to get along,” Shannon smiled.

The cabin represents matrimonial compromise, lodged on a level 1.5-acre property shaded by mature maples and an additional 20 species of trees with space for growing their own food. There is a mancave in the upper floor of the small barn and the cabin is within walking distance from Shannon’s deer and turkey hunting stands. It’s also along a paved road in an area with deep colonial family roots, a heritage that drew them here in the first place.

Additionally, it presented a path for Snarr to get 26 The Rural Voice

Shannon out of the bush and retire, rather than essentially dying in the traces alongside his beloved Belgians and Percherons.

Having honed his appetite for cabin living every time he passed by it, Shannon had a chat with the owner when it came up for sale. In the vein of “be careful what you wish for”, the sale was concluded in under a minute, although with the caveat that the former owner’s attempt to bring it into the 21st century had proven to be “too much work.”

Energy and determination combatted time and neglect to transform a centuries-old cabin into a warm, personable home • By Jeff Tribe •

“And it was,” laughed Shannon.

Snarr believes remains of a previous cabin, her own research and publications on Black pioneer history from the region, the fact the existing structure was erected quickly, along with its geographical location, provide clues to the property’s background. Oral history indicates Black soldiers fighting for the British crown in The War of 1812 were promised land for their services, eventually settling in the area, although without deed. Despite significantly improving their properties, they were essentially squatters in a legal sense, and would ultimately be pushed out by white settlers who attained title to the land.

“These Black pioneers faded into the background in many ways, some leaving the area and others marrying into white settler families,” said Snarr.

Although serving generations of different families well, the passage of over a century-and-a-half combined with neglect meant the cabin was showing its age.

“When we bought it, there were red squirrels running through this place,” Shannon recalled.

The cabin is a 22-by-24-foot storyand-a-half structure with two upstairs bedrooms and an office featuring sloped walls. Main floor markings indicate it once hosted a small bedroom, summer kitchen and bathroom. A more modern addition features a hallway, kitchen and main floor bedroom, allowing openconcept restoration in the cabin.

Its structural logs are squared hemlock and rock elm, says Shannon, scribed or dovetailed to fit tightly into each other without pegs.

“There may even be a couple of maple logs in there for fun,” he smiled.

The first order of business was repairing the western wall and expanding its single small window.

“These six logs were rotten,” Shannon said, placing his hand on a squared surface.

He sourced two 52-feet-long 8-by8-inch beams from the teardown of a bank barn south of Harriston.

“It was almost sacrilege for me to cut them in half to transport them.”

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They proved wider than the original walls. To retain aesthetics, two inches was sawn out of the middle of each, external sections pegged back together.

Shannon chinked the new logs with a modern rubberized compound, also replacing the existing masonry cement fulfilling that role throughout.

“It’s soft so it moves with the logs.”

The other major issue was subfloor logs in the cabin’s western half, rotting due to their connection with the ground. Friends assisted in ripping out the logs and antique hemlock flooring, and a five-foot crawl space was hand-dug to prevent the issue reoccurring. Shannon had two 20-foot-long 8-by-8-inch cedar beams in reserve from a job years previously, anchoring them on 18inch-wide stone walls and “big foot” pillars.

“I got it right on level,” he reported, hoping to limit a “big job” to a one-off by adding insulation, ventilation pipe, dehumidifiers and fans to keep the air moving in the newly-created space. Despite costing a financially painful $15 a foot, antique hemlock flooring was sourced and installed to match existing material as closely as possible.

“It’s new antique hemlock,” Shannon smiled.

Additional work included threaded bolts to solidify spruce beams supporting the second story, and Top: “Compromise” is spelled “mid‐19th century log cabin” for married couple Kym Snarr (left) and Art Shannon, who realized a reasonable amount of his lifelong dream to live in a cabin in the middle of the bush with its purchase and renovation.

Middle: Classic meets contemporary inside Art Shannon and Kym Snarr’s log cabin, including antique hemlock flooring and a leather couch, flatscreen TV and a wood stove.

Bottom: For the record, a log cabin provides excellent acoustics for jam sessions reports Art Shannon, whose guitars grace its northern wall.

28 The Rural Voice

sandblasting whitewash and removing drywall to expose the logs’ texture.

“It becomes a feature wall,” Snarr explained of a return far closer to its original mid-19th-century state. “We just said it’s its own thing.”

“Patina,” laughed Shannon.

Decorations are an eclectic mixture of old and new, original art

and a flat-screen TV balanced by an antique secretary acting as storage in an upstairs bedroom, and an oldschool icebox housing a selection of fine single malts representative of the couple’s shared Scottish and Irish heritage.

“There may be a bit of a divergence in our decorative taste,” he conceded, both pleased and surprised elements of his guitar collection are allowed to grace the northern wall. For the record, Shannon adds, an 1850s cabin is a great place for jam sessions with musically-inclined friends.

“It’s got great acoustics - it just works.”

The same could be said for the couple’s decision to transition from the labour-intensive world of organic farming to a uniquelysuited semi-retirement residence.

It didn’t come without cost or labour. However it allows them to retain the essential nature of their mindfully chosen grounded, self-sustaining and sustainable lifestyle inside a functional and enjoyable combination of convenience and a classic log cabin.

The couple can prepare a Mediterranean-inspired combination of spiced Eastern wild turkey, grilled vegetables

and homemade rhubarb muffins and applesauce in a modern kitchen and enjoy them inside a brightened, airy structure whose hand-hewn walls were fashioned over 150 years previously.

Shannon will always miss his horses on some level, a longing compensated for through the lived experience of thoroughly enjoying his dream home. If there is a signature moment, it would be during a mid-winter blizzard as driven snow peppering the windows.

Wood does have an associated Rvalue calculation, says Shannon, roughly 0.71 per inch for hardwood and 1.4 for softwood. From a cold start it takes roughly four hours for the woodstove to warm their cabin’s walls, which then hold the heat.

There are few places Shannon would rather be in the world than perhaps sharing a wee dram on their living room couch in front of a roaring fire amidst a century-and-ahalf of history.

“There’s no warmer feeling you can get - it’s just really cozy.” ◊

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Goats

Going circular to build their own ecosystem ● Biodynamics ● Goats ● Cheese Erik and Edda have a lot to say about all of that!

Erik and Edda Boettcher are raising goats and children on a biodynamic farm near Brussels and are turning their goat milk into cheese.

• By Scott Stephenson

Y

ou may not be familiar with Capella Meadows yet, but Erik and Edda Boettcher’s organic goat farm in Brussels is on the verge of becoming an essential destination for food fans from far and wide.

People will be coming to their new farm store to pick up some small-batch cheese and organic goat meat, or to hear a little bit about biodynamic farming techniques. Or just to check in on how construction is coming along on the cheese plant they’re building on the farm.

The Boettchers may be busy, but they set aside a bit of time recently to sit down at a picnic table in the shade for a conversation about the history of their unique farm and the many plans they have for their goat-centric future together.

Erik comes from a traditional farming background — he was raised on a farm right across the street from their current location. Growing up, his family mostly kept sheep, but goats did work their way into the mix. “We always had a few milking goats,” he explained. “It was my grandpa’s fancy when he was getting a little older. He said ‘oh, let’s get some goats’. And I kind of took that milking over — those four or five goats. I hand-milked them from when I was eight years old. And it just kind of became my animal, that I enjoyed. So then I grew it from that to actually making a good living with them. Shortly after, Edda came along. We kind of run the whole farm as a couple now — I guess the main part being the goats. At some point, Edda started with the cheese. The cheese part is all Edda’s doing. Mostly. With my support.

Obviously.”

30 The Rural Voice

Edda recalls the situation a little differently. “I was basically greeted with a question like: ‘If you’re starting to date Erik, are you interested in cheesemaking? I had never planned to do that, but I think I’ve got the cheese bug now. I’m very much into cheesemaking.”

When she first came to Huron County, Edda didn’t have a whole lot of farming experience - she’s from Düsseldorf, Germany. “I’m a city slicker, as his sister points out... I accidentally came for a visit, and I never really left.” In a roundabout way, however, it was a shared passion for biodynamic farming that brought them together — it just wasn’t a passion shared between Erik and Edda! “My cousin knew Erik, because he had learned biodynamic farming on the farm she was living on, he invited her, and she invited me, and I stayed.”

However her first foray into the world of cheesemaking began, both Erik and Edda agree she’s very well-suited to the task, while he’s better suited to manage the farming side of the operation. The first cheese she started making was one of the most popular styles of cheese in Canada: cheddar. “It was not really a very intentional choice,” Edda explained. “It was just what was possible with the very limited opportunities we had to have with someone else doing the cheese. Gordon’s [Goat Dairy in Wroxeter ] at that time had been doing custom cheesemaking for three people, and only cheddar, as far as I remember. So we started with cheddar. And that, for a very long time, was our only cheese, because we had three children in the meantime, which took up way more time than we had expected. Last year, we really started with the cheese

business. Before, it was just kind of a hobby, on the side.”

Erik pointed out that Edda was really slacking off on the cheesemaking when she was raising each of their three newborn children.

“It didn’t get the focus to take off,” he surmised. Edda agreed, but also promised that things were about to change.“I was the main person, and I had three children in five years, basically. My focus was somewhere else. Our youngest is turning two soon — that’s independent enough, so last year I started making feta — that’s the cheese I make at Gordon’s Goat Dairy... there are more cheeses we’re planning, but I’m not going to tell [you] about it.”

Edda believes everybody should give goat cheese a try. “One thing which a lot of people like goat for is the taste. Although for some people, that’s why they don’t eat or drink goat. For some people, though, it’s that unique taste of the cheese. And for a lot of people, it’s easier to digest.”

Even though she’s a convert now, goat milk wasn’t always Edda’s thing. “The first goat milk I ever drank was at my mom’s, in coffee, and I refused the coffee, because it was so strong.” Erik broke in with a quick alert - “Disclaimer for Ontario Goat Producers,” he announced, “that happened in Germany.”

Before they could really get going with the cheese business, Erik and Edda spent years converting the previously-conventional farm to an entirely organic operation, guided by biodynamic principles. “It’s always a little bit of a rough couple first years,” Edda explained. “You have weeds popping up, and everything needs to kind of get back into balance. The first years I was here, that was always a big issue.

The land was not really productive.

It took a while to really get started.

The farm is kind of over that big bump now.”

Edda offered a brief overview of the biodynamic farming movement.

“Basically, it was the first form of organic farming. Actually, it started 100 years ago this year. At that

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continued from pg 31 point, a lot of farmers realized that industrial farming changed the food, and they wanted to do something about it. There was one guy, Rudolph Steiner, who brought up an idea about how farming should work, and that was biodynamic farming. It was the first kind of logo of ‘organic’. There are two main things — one is that we’re trying to be circular. We have the animals that supply fertility, and the fertility grows all of the feed for the animals, and a little bit extra, which is, in our case, cash crops and vegetables. We try to be as closed-loop as possible.

We cannot expand our land base without increasing our animals, because we wouldn’t have fertility.

We’re trying to build a little ecosystem.”

Right now, the crop Erik is most enjoying growing is red beets, which is great, because they’re currently growing 10 acres of them. That’s 120 tonnes of beets. They’re also

Goats provide the manure that fertilizes the crops that feeds the goats in a biodynamic system of milk and cheese production at Capella Meadows near Brussels.

34 The Rural Voice

growing kidney beans and flax, hard red wheat, and soybeans. But the majority of their acreage is for the goats to enjoy. Edda likes to try out different specialty crops.“For us, it makes sense to look for specialty crops, especially since we are fairly good with weed control, so we can grow crops where others might be a little scared to try.” Erik thinks this has been a great year for their farm.

“Great growing conditions, great hay yields, and as far as it looks to me now, we’ll have good wheat.

Can’t complain this year.”

Biodynamic farming also includes some very old-school methods when it comes to soil and crop improvement. “The other thing we do is preparations,” Edda explained.

“Which, for a lot of people, is very esoteric.” This involves utilizing fermented herbs in the farming process. “It helps to harmonize the compost process, which is the base of our fertility. And we spray preparations on the crops, to help them utilize the soil

better, and utilize the sun better...

Biodynamics is the only form of farming that acknowledges the influence of the cosmos. With the tides, everybody knows what the moon does to the earth. In biodynamics, there are a lot of people that are very much into astronomy, and how the stars affect what happens on earth.” The astronomy element of biodynamics also inspired the name of their business. Capella (or ‘little goat’ in Latin) is the brightest star in the northern constellation of Auriga. “In fall you can see it - it’s a very bright star, and I thought it was a nice name,” Edda explained.

Erik also mixes herbs into the pasture mix for the goats, which improves the health of the herd.

“Herbs have a much higher mineral spectrum,” he said. “They definitely like chicory, and plantain and trefoil. They also like curled dock, which is a weed, but they just eat it right up.”

The farm is now home to 200 milking goats, plus young stock and meat goats. The milking breed are

purebred, registered French Alpines.

“We’ve had them from the start,” Erik said. “We were lucky to find a whole herd, and we just kept going with them. They’re a breed that’s well-suited to what we do - with the amount of grazing we do in the summer.” The herd had never experienced life with biodynamically-minded farmers before coming to live with the Boettchers. Having so much space to graze confused the goats at first, but they eventually figured it out, with the guidance of a few borrowed sheep. The goats at Capella Meadows are also collectively afraid of water - they won’t even step across the shallowest puddle!

Both Erik and Edda obviously love their goats, but for different reasons. Edda likes their easy-going attitude. “They’re fun. Most of the days. Some days, they are the opposite of fun... but they’re also easy to handle. I can't imagine milking a stubborn cow. You can’t really do a lot when they don’t want to, because they’re so heavy.”

Erik respects the way goats live and learn together. “For me, I enjoy working with them. They seem to have that bit of intelligence - if they know the direction to go, if they know the routine, they’re quite reliable. We have a dog to help with moving them around the barn or out to pasture, but they’re quite smart animals. Which brings also the problem that they are able to figure out how to get out sometimes.”

Their current lead dog is a border collie named Roy. Roy is almost too good at his job - he has to be kept away from the goats when they don’t need any guidance. Flax, their other dog, has retired from the strenuous world of goat herding.

Edda appreciates the work Roy does on the farm. “When the goats get out, then you don’t have to be running after them as much - you can just send the dog, and he will, hopefully, get them to where you want them.”

The Boettchers believe in honouring what the goats provide for them, and spend time every day working to treat them with the respect they deserve, all the way to

the end. “It feels even more respectful to eat them ourselves, than it does to ship them.

We try to give them a good life, and a good end... I basically don’t have any beef in the freezer.

Whatever you would do with beef, I do with goat. I’m a lazy cook, I like easy recipes. So with a roast, I put it in the oven right after The Boettchers believe in honouring what the goats breakfast, and then I provide for them, and spend time every day working to forget about it, and treat them with the respect they deserve, all the way to then at lunch I take it the end. out, eat it, and that’s it. It’s very easy.” sky’s the limit for Capella They also raise their own meat Meadows. “We’re at a point where chickens for a little bit of variety, it really starts to get interesting for and trade cheese with Erik’s mother people,” she said. “Hopefully the in exchange for eggs. cheese plant [will be completed] In addition to their milking goats, soon, and [we’ll start] having more Capella Meadows raises about 100 varieties.” They may have only just meat goats each year, most of which broken ground on the facility, but are sold at the nearby stockyard in the driven young cheesemaker from Brussels. One of their primary Düsseldorf is already dreaming of buyers is a butcher shop in Toronto, hosting cheesemaking classes and a which makes sense - goat is one of second-storey event space. She just the dietary staples for cultures found needs Erik to build it all first. in countless countries from all Until the plant opens, people can around the world, including Sudan, still stop by the Capella Meadows Haiti, Nepal, Nigeria, Ecuador, farm store for some organic cheese, China, Bangladesh, Mexico, meat, flour, or seasonal produce.

Mongolia, and more. North America may be lagging behind when it The store is currently open Monday comes to consuming goat meat, but to Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. it’s perhaps time to catch up - goat They don’t do sales on Sunday meat is flavourful, versatile and high that’s their day off. “It’s always in protein. good to have one day off and a little Capella Meadows hopes to start bit of privacy,” Edda explained. “On producing its own cheese on the Sundays, we try not to work. farm as early as next spring, and Obviously, we have the animals, and Edda is very excited. “It will extend we have to feed them in the our cheese varieties... I always want morning. And milk them in the to make [cheeses that are] as natural morning. And in the evening.” as possible. When we have our own Working so much has meant that plant, we can start experimenting the Boettchers haven’t had that with the really funky ones. I like much time to promote their creamy cheeses, with a little business. “With the cheese, it’s just stronger flavour. In general, I don’t getting the word out there. We don’t like really young cheeses - I prefer get off the farm a lot!” Edda an older cheddar, or gouda. I like explained. “You have to get people variety - at the start, we only had to know you, and it takes a while. I cheddar at home, because we only think, the way we started, it’s not an ate our own cheese.” exciting story, so people don’t really Once she has her own plant, the know about us.” ◊ October 2024 35

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36 The Rural Voice

Recipes by Carolyn Crawford

Pumpkin spice and a few things nice!

B

y the time you receive this October edition of The Rural Voice, the colours of autumn will be at their most vibrant. Ontario produce vendors will be offering their finest variety of fall crops. Fruits and vegetables that cannot take even a slight frost will be on shelves and in displays in abundance awaiting our selection.

Cucurbita – the genus of fruit that is more familiar to us as squash, pumpkins, melons, cucumbers and gourds – are among the first to be picked when there is a risk of a killing frost. You may be surprised to know that evidence of the first cucurbits to be cultivated was around 9,000 years ago in Central America. When the first Europeans arrived in North America in the late 1400s and early 1500s, they were eager to return to their homelands with the easy to grow cucurbits.

Pumpkins, being the most versatile of the crops, quickly gained in popularity with the Europeans. Pumpkin pies (made with sliced or grated fruit) are first mentioned in British cookbooks in the mid 1600s. By the Victorian era, pumpkin pies were known as a poor man’s food and fell out of favour with the upper class. Not until 1929, when Libby’s in the U.S. and E.D. Smith in Canada provided canned pumpkin, did pumpkin pie become a mainstay at Thanksgiving.

Of course, the work of preparing a pumpkin pie (such as the varieties listed below), is not hard to do but it is rather time consuming. You can cut it into sections, scoop out the stringy pulp and seeds, peel, and cut it into cubes and steam it. Or you can cut it in half, scoop out the pulp and seeds, and bake it in the oven on a parchment-lined cookie sheet for about 45 minutes to an hour. Sugar Baby and Sugar Pie (the most recognizable of pie pumpkins), Winter Luxury Pie (heirloom variety), Kabocha Squash (a sweet, green to reddish orange Japanese variety that tastes like a cross between a sweet potato and butternut squash), Long Island Cheese Squash (an organic NY variety), Casper (a white variety developed by Jerry Howell of Fonthill, ON in 1992), and Lumina (a large white variety suitable for pies) are some of your choices available in Ontario.

Pumpkins can be made into many dishes both savoury and sweet primarily because of its mild flavour. Pumpkin pie spice is often used to enhance the pumpkin taste. You can buy a blend or make your own. This recipe from the E.D. Smith's website is just enough to use for two pies: 1 tsp ginger, 1 ½ tsp cinnamon, ½ tsp cloves, ½ tsp nutmeg.

Author’s note: For an extra “little zing” you could add a very tiny pinch of black pepper. You can use this not only for pies but lattes, smoothies, in a glaze etc. Pumpkin spice flavouring has shown up everywhere these days, in coffee shops, in creamer and milk (like Sheldon Creek Dairy).

Downey’s Farm makes delicious pumpkin spice doughnuts fresh daily. The aroma is heavenly if your visit coincides with when a batch is being made!

I made a pumpkin dip for dessert at my daughter’s place last Thursday. I wanted to enhance a fat-free low sugar

recipe, and I thought it would taste good with mascarpone cheese added. It turned out well and my grandchildren loved it. (If you take out the mascarpone, use fat free cream cheese, fat free whipped topping and sub in monk fruit sweetener, you can make it diet friendly again) Fluffy Pumpkin Pie Dip Ingredients: 1 250 g pkg cream cheese (room temperature) 1 250 ml tub mascarpone cheese 1 ½ cups pureed pumpkin (½ a large can or your own, cooked)

Pumpkins are an incredibly versatile ingredient and can be transformed into pies, drinks (top) and dip (above).

October 2024 37

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1 small tub or ½ large tub of whipped topping (or you can use one small carton of whipped dairy whipping cream) 1 cup icing sugar, sifted to remove any lumps (dark brown sugar is nicely subbed here!)

1 ½ tsp cinnamon 1 tsp ginger (or 1 tbsp pumpkin pie spice) ¼ tsp nutmeg ¼ tsp ground cloves 1 tsp vanilla extract Dash of salt For dipping any of the following: gingersnap cookies, Nilla wafers, Arrowroot cookies, lady fingers or pretzels; fruit—honeydew or cantaloupe, pineapple, sliced apples, pears, or firm nectarines, grapes (dark ones look nice on a tray), banana, kiwi, strawberries, etc.

Directions: Beat cream cheese, mascarpone cheese, pumpkin, and whipped topping together with mixer to blend thoroughly.

Add spices and salt to icing sugar and combine with pumpkin mixture.

Add vanilla. Beat until thoroughly blended.

Chill at least an hour before serving but overnight is even better for the flavours to carry throughout the dip. I use whipped topping for this so it will last longer.

You can double this batch for a large crowd. rom Peel County and the Mayfield United Church Cookbook comes this pumpkin pie recipe. I use this recipe all the time and it never fails. I even measure my freshly made cooked pumpkin into three cup portions and freeze it so it's ready for this recipe.

Eunice Cation who lived on Dixie Road named her recipe: Dixie Road Pumpkin Pie Ingredients: 3 cups cooked pumpkin 1 1/3 cups brown sugar 1 tsp ginger 2 tsp cinnamon 1 tsp salt 4 eggs (I will use 5 eggs if the pre frozen puree seems too wet when it thaws) 3 cups milk

F

(1/3 cup maple syrup may be added) Directions: Beat eggs and add remaining ingredients. Pour into an unbaked pastry shell. Bake in a hot oven, 425°F for 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to moderate, 350°F, and continue baking 45 minutes or until a knife inserted in the centre comes out clean. This makes three pies, give or take. Sometimes I make a mini pie or sometimes I stretch it out with more milk.

Author’s note: The secret to not having your pumpkin pie crack in the centre is to not overbake it! Your pie will continue to bake after you take it out of the oven until it cools completely — just like a roast rests.

Make sure you put the pie on the bottom oven rack and watch it in the last ten minutes. You want to pull it out just before it sets firm. You can test it by giving it a small jiggle (once!) towards the end of baking time to see how set it is. he next recipe is from “Treasured Recipes— Homecraft Section— Brampton Fall Fair” (1990-1993).

My aunt, Ina Harris, entered quite a few things in the fair for decades.

She had a Black Magic chocolate box full of ribbons that she won with those entries. She has numerous recipes in this cookbook. I like how her recipe works for either pumpkin, squash, or bananas.

E.Z. Pumpkin, Squash, Banana Muffins Ingredients: 1 cup sugar 1 egg ¾ cup oil (part milk or cream may be used, or melted butter) 1 cup cooked pumpkin/squash or mashed bananas ½ cup raisins, nuts, or chocolate chips (optional) 1 tsp baking powder 1 ½ cup all purpose flour 1 tsp baking soda Pinch of salt Cinnamon, nutmeg and/or cloves to your taste (I think pumpkin pie spice for the pumpkin muffins).

Directions: Mix oil/milk/cream/butter, sugar and egg together.

T

Mix dry ingredients together and add along with pumpkin and raisins.

Grease muffin tin well and fill half or 2/3 fill with muffin batter.

Bake at 400°F for 15 minutes or until the top springs back when touched.

A cinnamon drizzle would dress either of these muffins up. Use ½ cup icing sugar, ¼ tsp cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice, 2 tsp melted butter and 1 tsp hot water (if needed). his next recipe is one I would like to try. It is common knowledge that plum sauce often used for egg rolls or chicken fingers is made with pumpkin. This recipe is in a vintage cookbook with no publishing date entitled, “In Praise of Pumpkins A Cookbook” written and compiled by Mary Joan Barrett.

It looks circa 1975-1985 as it lists both imperial and metric measures.

Pumpkin Plum Sauce Ingredients: 2 cups plums, any variety, pitted (It does not say chopped but I would definitely chop them, and I would be tempted to try a yellow plum for a brighter coloured sauce) 2 cups cooked, mashed pumpkin 1 cup water 1 cup vinegar 4 cups sugar 1 lemon, juice and rind ½ cup cornstarch 1 cup water Directions: Combine plums, pumpkin, water and vinegar in a saucepan.

Stir in sugar with a wooden spoon.

Blend cornstarch with water and add to mixture in kettle.

Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until thickened, about 45 minutes. Stir frequently to prevent sticking. If using a thermometer, it should register 200°F .

It makes four cups of sauce. You could freeze this, water bath it, can it or keep it in the fridge. I do not know about your house, but when my kids were small, we used plum sauce at an alarming rate!

I hope you enjoy putting a little pumpkin spice in your life in October — or have a slice of pumpkin pie.

Happy Thanksgiving! ◊

T

October 2024 39

Gardening Rhea Hamilton‐ Seeger is a skilled cook and gardener who lives in Goderich.

Editing in the garden

O

ctober is always a bittersweet month for me in the garden. I see what was not accomplished but that’s okay as spring is not that far away. Fall work can be done in short spurts; moving and thinning out perennials before layering in the leaves for winter protection. I enjoy every moment in the garden and always look forward to spring.

This fall has me busy assessing ideas I have applied to our garden.

Further study has shown me that what started out as a good idea needs a bit of tweaking.

Let’s start with the easiest one. A couple of years ago we took out aging crab apples and in their place we created a long bed next to the driveway with native trees and shrubs and this year we inserted some native perennials. It was looking good.

I noticed one of the birches was not as robust as the one next to it and upon further inspection found the narrow flannel strips attaching it to a supportive stake (that came with it) was actually, girdling the tree! I had replaced the tape that secured the tree to the support with the fabric strips thinking they would give way as the tree got stronger. Oops, not so. Off came the strips and a week later a strong wind snapped the tree off at the weak point. I know that trees should only be supported for the first year until they get their roots established, but here we have strong winds that funnel around the neighbours and rip along the driveway. I was hoping the support for one more year would further strengthen the tree and its roots.

That got me thinking, I should check the rest of the trees. We had bought some of what I thought were 40 The Rural Voice

science on this one. We all have a expandable plastic tubes/guards for pretty general idea about cardboard. around the trees. From the kitchen Those heavy boxes that land on our window Klaus and I had watched doorsteps or we carry our wine home rabbits nibble the nannyberry tips and in, are corrugated board. I have chokeberry shrubs and did not want noticed the accordion-like middle the same to happen to the tulip tree. layer and the much heavier outer So we wrapped the trunks of three layers. My thought was all the better trees. Poor trees. The guards did not to smother weeds. Not so. The expand and the trunks were surface layer is called a liner board expanding between the curves of the and is made from sheets of pulp that guards, compromising the bark and could be coated to improve the health of the whole tree. smoothness before being laminated We have used these types of using adhesives. I think you are guards before and found them very getting the picture. helpful for the first two years. We The toughness of these boxes always checked for insects or critters' makes them a problem in the garden. nests/webbing inside.

The fact that they don’t absorb I never had a problem with the moisture means they won’t break guards not expanding. I can hear the down easily. In fact they impede the quicker ones among you muttering flow of moisture and air to the about there should be a warning on ground below. When I read about this those strips. And if I had been more it was after 9:30 at night but I attentive I would have read the grabbed my shovel and went out in warning. But here we are, two years later, and I am reading “Tree Maintenance Warning: This product does not expand with tree growth. It is the responsibility of the installer to determine the necessity for continued application each growth season.” In hindsight, I suspect that is why they were so expensive…..

The next lesson involves lasagna layering in the garden. In the same garden we used cardboard we had carefully saved, covered it with a thin layer of soil and a heavy layer of coarse chopped bark mulch. Over the last two springs I have carefully inserted any pieces or corners that have surfaced back under the mulch. In some cases the cello tape surfaces and I simply remove that.

When I planted the native perennials into this garden this spring it was a tad difficult in spots where the cardboard was Rhea’s new mantra is ”knowledge is power and I am still evident. A really in control” after assuming Hairy Willow Herb (above) sharp shovel was the was a native plant, when in fact it’s an interloper that ticket. Here comes the has reseeded as an unwanted repeat guest.

the garden to poke around to find some of the offensive cardboard. I found one little piece, which could mean it has broken down enough in three years but in the meantime how much have I hindered the growth of the trees and shrubs in that garden?

If you would like to read further on this and some other really interesting garden topics (Earthworms, the Good, the Bad and the Ugly and How Would Your Garden Handle a 12-inch Rainfall?) look for gardenprofessors.com,

Advancing the Science of Gardening and Other Stuff Since 2009.

One final note. Yes, on native plants. I had a lovely three-foot plant appear in the garden with dainty pink flowers. My first thought was that it must be native and I let it bloom last summer and this summer before I thought I should find out more about it. Hairy Willow Herb, Epilobium hirsutum, is from the eveningprimrose family. It made the pages of How to Know The Wild Flowers, by Mrs. William Starr Dana, published

in 1900. It was known then as “an emigrant form Europe” and grows in waste places. Nothing has changed about that.

So my new rule in the garden is if I find a new plant, I cannot assume it is a native plant finding a muchneeded home to settle in. Yes, the lovely hairy willow herbs are all pulled and I suspect I will continue to find them sprouting in the garden a few more years. “But knowledge is power and I am in control” – my new garden mantra. Wish me luck! ◊ Perennials, Shrubs & Trees SALE

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G

rey Bruce Farmers’ Week has been a mainstay for the agricultural industry in Grey and Bruce Counties since 1966. The featured commodities have evolved as the area’s agricultural focus has changed, but the mandate to provide information to producers and agribusiness has remained firm.

Producers have supported our programming for 58 years, so the committee would like to give back to the community.

With that mandate in mind, the Grey Bruce Farmers’ Week Committee has established an annual $1,000 Grey Bruce Farmers’ Week Prize in conjunction with the University of Guelph, Ontario Veterinary College (OVC), to recognize new veterinarians entering food animal practices serving producers in Grey and Bruce

Counties. This award recognizes the individual’s past accomplishments, but also encourages their future contributions, and commitment to our rural communities. This prize has been awarded for 16 years.

In June of this year, OVC Doctor of Veterinary Medicine Class of 2024 had their Convocation and Veterinary Oath Ceremony. The GBFW Committee is delighted to announce that Dr. Jacky Normandeau is the recipient of the 2024 GBFW award.

Jacky grew up outside the rural town of Uxbridge, Ontario. Despite growing up in a town, she has an abundance of farm experience. In high school she worked on a hobby farm doing the daily chores and at a local dog kennel. During university she milked cows on a dairy farm on the three a.m. shift, and collected turkey eggs at a large pedigree facility. She also worked at a small thoroughbred breeding facility. Her farm experience has varied widely, and she enjoyed each job she had.

Jacky knew from the age of six that she wanted to drive around in a vet truck and take care of all kinds of animals.

She thought it would be great to work outside on the road instead of in an office. She also looked forward to being part of a rural community, seeing everyone’s farms and helping her neighbours with their animals.

As she found out more about veterinary medicine, the surgical, problem-solving, and physical aspects of the job also appealed to her because she enjoys anything hands-on. A large animal practice has always appealed to Jacky due to the down-toearth mentality about the Dr. Jacky Normandeau is a new veterinarian at care of animals, the the Walkerton‐Hanover Veterinary Clinic who group/herd aspect of animal health and especially the received the Grey Bruce Farmer’s Week prize.

physical and outdoor nature of the work. She finds a special level of care can be provided when she’s able to see an animal’s husbandry firsthand on the farm.

Dr. Normandeau started working at Walkerton-Hanover Veterinary Clinic in May and she is very excited to practice in Grey-Bruce. She commented, “It’s a lovely area with very friendly people. I’m most looking forward to getting out on the road and meeting everyone at their farms to help with their production animals and horses.” She is excited to perform surgical procedures because she finds that it is very rewarding to be able to resolve a problem for an individual animal and the producer through surgical correction.

Jacky is very grateful for this award that is directed to new graduate food-animal veterinarians. ◊

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

Late season dryness takes the top off American crop yields The purpose of the higher interest rate cycle has been to slow inflation by slowing economic growth. This mission has been achieved and the grip of higher interest has taken a bite out of the world economy.

Recently the U.S. Federal Reserve released data indicating that income growth is sluggish and the individual saving rate has declined. This indicates that the consumer, who is spending more on debt servicing and higher priced goods, has less to save at the end of the day. With economic

44 The Rural Voice

data such as this, along with a widespread drop in inflation, the U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Powell has stated that the time has come to start lowering borrowing costs.

The Federal Reserve has taken a very cautious approach to interest rate reductions. They have been reluctant to lower rates too fast, just to see inflation spike higher once again, making it even more difficult and painful to contain. The Federal Reserve has the confidence to lower interest rates because they see economic headwinds. Economic headwinds lead to lack of purchasing power, and lackluster demand for goods and services. Commodities which are the building blocks of these goods and services take a hit.

Consequently commodity prices are falling along with economic expectations.

Oil prices have been under pressure, falling to lows not seen since 2021. Softening economic data from both the U.S. and China brings expectations that oil demand will be reduced. But while demand falls

production will likely be maintained or potentially increased. Production is surging, especially in OPEC+ countries, for the very simple reason that they need incoming revenue.

Russia is an example of this, having recently seen oil proceeds at a sevenyear low. With producers needing to maintain production to meet budget expectations, prices are driven by demand.

Grain prices are seeing a similar scenario, but this market has been experiencing even more downside pressure. Grain prices have been the weakest component of the major U.S. commodity markets. Compared to other commodities, grains have fallen to a 14-year low on a relative basis versus other commodities such as energy/metals etc.

For the past few decades we have been in demand-driven markets.

Demand for agricultural goods has been increasing, driven by the well documented and widely understood wealth increase in China. With wealth, the nation has seen an increase in diets, including more meat production and consumption.

This has driven demand for U.S. agricultural commodities. With a demand-driven market, prices accelerated and crops became profitable for growers.

The goal of the market was to satisfy the demand by increasing supply. Add to this some years of challenged production in some major growing areas, and prices accelerated as bidders paid up to maintain growing demands. With growing profits, growers invest in production.

This has spurred production around the globe, most notably in Brazil and Russia. Brazil has become the world’s leading soy producer and Russia the world’s largest wheat producer. With these regions producing large crops, coupled with the U.S. and their good crops on the way, prices have a hard time rallying from demand alone. Currently there is just not sufficient worry for world buyers to put strong enough demand into the market to dramatically improve prices.

But given all of this bearish talk there are potentially some friendly inputs on the horizon. It has been

well displayed that the U.S. crop is expected to be big. This has been the market expectation through the majority of the growing season. Early on the U.S. drought monitor showed little moisture stress throughout the majority of the crop growing regions.

With plenty of moisture, crop potential has been strong and crop tours have confirmed this expectation. But late season dryness has potentially taken the top off U.S. yields. Some analysts expect that if crop tours were surveyed a bit later than they were, that yields wouldn’t have been estimated quite so high.

Brazil is in the midst of a deepening drought. Some reports indicate that various regions show the worst drought in 40 years. This is occurring at a time when Brazilian growers are traditionally planting soys. This year however, with the dryness, growers are holding off until some precipitation occurs, and the heat subsides. Late planting doesn’t usually bode well for a crop, or in Brazil, for the second-planted corn crop that will also have delayed planting if some beans are still in the field with a later than usual maturity.

It’s similar in the Black Sea region with the wheat crop. Heat and dryness are widespread in the region.

Ukraine's wheat crop is predominantly winter wheat and Russia grows a vast amount of winter wheat as well. Growers in the Black Sea region have been waiting for much-needed precipitation here too, before planting. The result is that Russia is off to the slowest start in over a decade. Timely planting is key in the region, giving the wheat enough time to become established prior to winter.

But the market today isn’t showing much concern about the planting concerns in both of these major growing areas. Why is this? It is because there is still time and hope that the droughts are broken before it’s too late. We’ll see what’s happening next month when it really matters. If these droughts persist then the markets will take notice. If rains come, unfortunately we’ll continue in a stagnant market that merely hopes for demand. ◊

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October 2024 45

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

Becoming a certified tree marker is quite a process

This past month I have been given the honour of completing my first audit of a tree marker. How is this an honour is a good question. The honour is in the fact that the coursetrained and tested tree marker has selected me to determine whether or not they will receive their certified tree marker status. Oh, the power.

Well, not really. As an auditor I must follow the protocols that have been put in place to ensure that only qualified markers pass.

My task starts with reviewing the silvicultural prescription and mapping while laying out my plots on paper. Plots are established prior to entering the forest to ensure that the information is not biased. I must complete a minimum of 10 plots that are greater than 262 feet (80 meters) apart. While completing the plots I require a minimum total of 120 trees

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46 The Rural Voice

to be recorded and graded.

I record the diameter of every tree within the plot in two different sections, one for marked and one for not marked. The rationale for this is that I need to be able to evaluate the stocking factors of each size class before and after marking to see if the marker meets the requirements of the prescription. Just to backtrack, the silvicultural prescription is written based on the inventory information gathered, silvicultural science, and the desires of the owner for the residual and future forest.

I am looking to ensure that any areas of concern or species at risk that are either identified within the prescription or I note in the stand are respected according to Ministry standards. Some forest management policies dictate that the areas of concern or species at risk must be marked on the ground with flagging or paint buffers. We don’t do that within our stands as we don’t want to draw attention to those areas or species locations. We don’t mark within the area and may remove that area from the harvest mapping so that it is not a travel corridor.

I am also looking to see if there are any infractions. These situations can quickly fail the marker. An infraction can be as simple as poor stump marks or paint not applied heavily enough to be easily seen.

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These are two items that can be easily overcome with simple discussions during training. While it may seem silly, these are two very important aspects of marking. If the log buyer, or the cutter, cannot see the trees that are marked, the operation will be underbid and the goals of the prescription will not be met as trees will be missed. The stump mark ensures that anyone checking on a harvest can verify that the stump that is present was a tree that was selected for removal. If there is no visible stump mark, the logger may be accused of stealing trees.

Some infractions that are more tree and prescription-based are spacing, species priority, residual quality, and size priority. Spacing looks at crown closure and crop tree release. Did the marker select a tree for removal that did not create space for the residual trees to reach into or sunlight to reach the forest floor? Are the trees that are being retained of good health and structure to continue to grow and provide quality seed?

Species priority is identified within the prescription and describes the current forest condition, the desired future forest condition and the series of harvest, renewal and tending treatments that the prescription author expects to follow in order to attain the desired outcome. For instance, in our current forest conditions, the marker would have an infraction if they marked a healthy sugar maple tree that was of similar size and location to an ash tree that is infested with the emerald ash borer, while retaining the ash tree.

The residual quality should be in line with that of the goals of the prescription and result in an improved stand condition. Even if the stand contained mainly trees of poor quality, removing the worst first will result in a better stand.

Size priority is something that may be hard for some markers to overcome. In the prescription, the sizes and targets based on size are listed for the marker to follow.

Markers are often biased when it comes to larger trees. Some markers automatically see these trees as over-

mature and requiring removal. Other markers see these trees as seed sources and are reluctant to remove them. Both markers need to set aside their bias and evaluate the trees in front of them, their place within the stand, and the effect of either their removal or retention on the stand and in meeting the prescription goals.

Once all of the trees are tallied, all of the areas of concern and species at risk situations are checked, the math begins. The hard rule is that the marker needs 90 per cent to pass.

However, if a marker achieves 90-93 per cent it is considered to be a red flag, and more plots/trees need to be tallied to ensure that the marker was fairly audited. A mark between 93-95 per cent will result in discussion over inconsistencies and concerns. If the marker achieves 95 per cent or higher they have done a good job and have met the objectives of the prescription.

The 90-93 per cent rule is often questioned — if 90 per cent is a pass why do you need to be higher? Using 93 per cent provides a confidence interval given that the sampling may have an error in the neighbourhood of three per cent.

While certified tree markers are mandatory in Crown Land operations, they are not always mandatory in private land forestry.

Some tree by-laws may indicate anyone other than the landowner completing the marking must be certified, others may be different. I often hear that anyone can put paint on trees, which is true, but not just anyone can follow a silvicultural prescription. ◊

Helping each other to become the best possible stewards of our woodlands!

For woodlot management and membership information, visit www.ontariowoodlot.com

Huron­Perth Woodlot Association 2024 Fall Tours Wagler Sugarbush site, Line 37 New Hamburg, Sat. Oct.19th, 9:30­noon

Woodlot management for maple syrup production Rodger Tract ­ Auburn, November, date TBA

Plantation harvest demonstration For more info e­mail hpwoodlot@gmail.com or visit hpcowa@huronstewardship.ca

Huron Clean Water Project supports your forest management goals Cost-share funding is available in Huron County for: Preparing plans to guide your forest management Marking your woodlot for a sustainable harvest Managing invasive species in your woodlot

For more information contact:

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

Ben Van Dieten: bvandieten@mvca.on.ca or (519) 3353557 ext. 245 Nathan Schoelier: nschoelier@abca.ca or (519) 235-2610 ext. 263 October 2024 47

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48 The Rural Voice

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

Repair and maintenance of easements —whose responsibility?

T

he Ontario Superior Court of Justice recently ruled on a case where the duties surrounding easements and who has the obligation to maintain an easement were at issue. An easement is a legal right to use another person’s land for a specified purpose and must have four characteristics to be effective.

There must be a dominant and a servient tenement – the “dominant” land is benefitted by the “servient” land over which the easement applies; the easement must “accommodate” the dominant tenement in that it is reasonably necessary for the enjoyment of that land; the owners of the dominant and servient tenements must be different persons (you can’t have an easement over your own land); and a right over land cannot amount to an easement unless it is capable of forming the subject-matter of a grant (for instance, the right can’t be vague or uncertain). Case law has established that where an easement is created by express grant, the nature and extent of the easement should be determined based on the language of the instrument that created it, taking into account the circumstances at the time the easement is created.

In the recent court decision, the “dominant” owner was found to have no positive obligation to repair and maintain a drain located on the “servient” owner’s land. The servient land was located adjacent to the Highway 401 corridor. In 1959, the owner of the servient land, part of a farm, had granted the Province an easement for the installation of a

drainage system. The drain was properly installed but, as the years went by, the drain deteriorated and caused the farm property to retain water. The servient owner experienced crop loss and had to undertake significant repairs to the drain at a cost of roughly $60,000.

The servient owner sued the Province (and later the Municipality that took over the easement) to recover his losses. After the Plaintiff passed away, his estate carried on the action and asked the Court to grant summary judgment (a decision made by the court without a full trial) against the Municipality.

After repairing the drainage system, the Plaintiff had contacted the Province and the Municipality to inform them of the problems in hopes of having the repair costs covered.

The Municipality informed the Plaintiff that it only had the right to maintain the drain and not an obligation to do so. Hearing this news caused the Plaintiff to write a letter to the Mayor of the Municipality setting out the background behind the drainage easement. The Municipality did not respond to the letter or take responsibility for the repair costs, which led to the Plaintiff commencing his action.

The Plaintiff’s claims included requests for a declaration that the Municipality is liable for the continuing maintenance of the drain, reimbursement of the costs to repair and replace the drain, and damages for the loss of crops.The Court considered several issues in deciding the claim, including the applicable test for summary judgment, the nature of the easement, whether the Municipality had a positive obligation to repair the drain, and whether the Municipality was liable to the Plaintiff for the cost of the drain repair and/or the crop loss and in what amount(s).

In considering what the nature of the easement was, the Court determined that both the original easement (originally granted to the Province) and the transferred easement (as transferred from the Province to the Municipality) are

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50 The Rural Voice

valid in law. The Highway 401 corridor was considered to be the dominant tenement and the Plaintiff’s property was the servient tenement; the original easement and the transferred easement accommodated the drainage of the highway (reasonably necessary for the use of the highway); the owners of the dominant and servient tenements were different persons; and, the right to build and maintain a tile drain on a strip of the property was a right capable of forming the subject matter of a grant. Having concluded that the easements are valid, the Court then addressed the Plaintiff’s claim that the Municipality had a positive duty to repair and maintain the drain and cover the costs incurred. The Court ruled against the Plaintiff based on its interpretation of the easement.

The Court referenced the legal principles established by the Supreme Court of Canada in a 2014 decision that stated evidence should be examined by considering the mutual and objective intention of the parties.

When it comes to easements, the words of the grant must be interpreted in an ordinary and grammatical meaning that aligns with the circumstances of the parties involved at the time the easement was created. The Court found in this case that the original easement was silent with regard to any obligation to repair. While in some cases, the party enjoying the use of the easement will be liable for repairs, that was not the case in this scenario.

Absent express language in the grant of the easement, the “dominant owner” (the person benefitting from the easement) does not have an obligation pursuant to the grant of easement to keep the easement in proper condition. However, that doesn’t necessarily leave the “servient” owner (whose land is subject to the easement) without a remedy. Where the dominant owner acts negligently or commits a nuisance, they can still be held liable for repair costs and damages. In this case, the Plaintiff’s estate was permitted to continue with a claim for damages based on the law of nuisance.

I thank our summer student Lauryn Miller for her assistance in preparing this article. ◊ ______________________________ 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 circumstance.

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October 2024 51

People

• By Gary West •

Bees and Honey was theme of Tavistock Fall Fair

● Top, left: New to the Tavistock Fall Fair this year was Tom Bishop’s “Wild West Show”, still packing them in after 100 years of entertaining. ● Top, right: Paul Frenette and his son Jacob, from Shakespeare, are chainsaw artists called the Carver Kings. They carved and sculpted animals and carvings out of wooden logs and have been featured on television for their skills.

The father and son team have travelled the world demonstrating their artistic endeavours and competed in carving competitions as far away as Australia, Europe and Asia. ● Right: Dave Johnson (seated on wagon) and the Nuview Farm team took home many red rosettes with their show‐winning Haflingers.

Here, they are seen getting ready for the three‐ horse hitch competition.

One of the largest classes at this year’s Tavistock Fall Fair was the junior 4‐H showmanship open show. There were many parents and grandparents in the stands, watching and waiting to see how well these 14 future young farmers would end up in this high quality class for showmanship.

52 The Rural Voice

4-H Beef winners!

By Gary West nother successful year was held by 27 members of the Oxford County 4-H Beef club who exhibited the “Learn to do by Doing” motto while preparing their beef cattle for show. The club wrapped up the year with their achievement day on Sunday, August 25, at the Tavistock Agricultural Society’s Pavilion, on a warm sunny day.

Over the course of six meetings this spring and summer, members learned about the butchering process; toured the University of Guelph “Beef Research Centre”; had a fitting, clipping, and showmanship clinic; and in August, volunteered at the Oxford Cattlemen’s successful Beef BBQ in Tavistock.

The showmanship winner in the Novice class was Brinkleigh Eby. Winner of the Junior class was Owen Pletsch; in the Intermediate class was Emily Hartle and Flynn Reinhart won the Senior class.

The Grand Champion Showperson was Emily Hartle and the Reserve Grand Champion was Owen Pletsch.

The show was judged by Kent Ribley from Paisley.

The club thanked sponsors Peavy Mart-Woodstock, Meadowbridge Angus, and Oxford Cattlemen’s Association for their continued support. ◊

A

Top: Members of the Oxford County Beef Club are (back row) Hank Weir, Albert Reinhart, Sam Haley, Faith Abel, Flynn Reinhart, Keenan Greive, Alex Haley, Ben Kittmer; (middle row) Cyprus Gilbert, Sarah Bean, Averie Tew‐Smith, Zephyra Gilbert, Meishka Gilbert, Courtney Pletsch, Tyson Smith, Tom Arms, Presley Eby, Brinkleigh Eby and (front row) Zach Haley, Tyler Smith, Nate Campbell, Owen Pletsch, Emily Hartle, Jade Dill, Brady Campbell, Tanner Norris and Spencer Norris.

Above: Jade Hill shows her Angus 4‐H heifer, “Lovebug IRCC”.

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Rural Voice

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54 The Rural Voice

Profitable, Actionable, Advice Crop Planning SWAT Maps/VR Scripts Soil Sampling Cropwalker Newsletter

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October 2024 55

C E N T R E

CLASSIFIED

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-------------------------------------------Available certified fall wheat varieties, fall rye and winter triticale. For pricing contact Courtney Grain & Seed (2015) Ltd, 225 Hwy 21 Ripley. Phone 519395-2972.

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56 The Rural Voice

The Rural Voice is looking for our next

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Call Shirley in Wingham.

Cell: 1-705-434-8187 .

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

519-692-4232 www.sgspestmanagement.ca

-------------------------------------------SERVICES --------------------------------------------

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

Ph. 519-528-3019

EGGER FARMS CUSTOM BALING

• 3x3 Bales Automatic Acid Applications, Roto Cutter.

Individual Bale Wrapping 6' bales

Call Fritz: 519-292-0138 -------------------------------------------WANTED -------------------------------------------Metal Robert Bell or favourite threshing machine with straw cutter and John Deere grain binder.

Phone evenings 905-983-9331.

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

-------------------------------------------WANTED -------------------------------------------Rear mounted belt pulley assembly for John Deere 2120 tractor with 540 RPM PTO. Darwin 519-3488526.

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

Cash rent, share crop. Contact Paul at Hill & Hill Farms, 519-233-3218 or 519-525-3137 or email: paul.hill@tcc.on.ca -------------------------------------------Young farmer looking for land rent, sharecrop, or custom work opportunities. Good environmental stewardship and professionalism.

Short and long term. 519-2007845 or hundt.chris@outlook.com.

-------------------------------------------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.

519-323-1113.

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

STEFFEN WELL DRILLING

RESISTS CRACKING & PEELING Water based, solvent free, Liquid Rubber Seal Roof creates an adhered, flexible membrane.

SURFACES

• Metal (inc. galvanized & aluminum) • Wood • Concrete • Manure Pits • UV Resistant

• Agricultural and Domestic Water Wells • Well Cleanouts • Pump Testing • Camera Inspection • Irrigation Wells

519-531-0355 TEESWATER, ON

mike@steffenwelldrilling.ca

BUYING? SELLING? DO IT ALL IN THE CLASSIFIEDS....519-523-4311 October 2024 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

Welcome to the NFU-O’s newest council members!

C

laire Perttula and Linda Laepple joined the National keen observer of changing weather and growing conditions.

Farmers Union - Ontario Council in March. Let’s As Region 3 National Board Member, Claire is invested in get to know them! the future of farming in Ontario and would love to hear Claire Perttula (Region 3 National Board Member) thoughts that members have about challenges and potential Claire Perttula (she/her) started paths forward! farming in 2017 on organic Linda Laepple (Region 3 vegetable and meat farms in the Women’s Advisor) Kawartha Lakes region. Working Linda Laepple has lived an with cows, chickens, pigs, ducks, international farming life. After and horses, running market booths growing up on a mixed farm in and helping with CSA drop-offs, South Germany, Linda came to Claire really discovered a love for Canada as a farm worker at the age farming. Currently, she manages a of 20, returned to Germany to two-acre community farm in marry, and came back to Ontario Scarborough, and coordinates a to start a family and her own staff team who run agriculture mixed organic farm. Over her training programs and food justice storied career, Linda has provided projects in the neighbourhood. relief support for Germany’s Claire is also a PhD student at farmer’s health insurance and York University researching spent over a decade on cash crop, farmer-led policy and planning dairy, and even a sport horse frameworks to address the farm breeding farm. Laepple Organic succession crisis.

Farm is still going strong after 26 Claire attended her first Local years, where the multigenerational 345 events with her N F U-O Laepple family raises grass fed employer in 2018. After that, she beef, and grows potatoes, grains, started following NFU-O, and and forage.

Claire Perttula officially became a member in 2021.

Linda joined the N F U in She joined the BIPOC Caucus support of its grassroots approach and attended the 2022 and 2023 to policy making. She has always National conventions. In 2023, been a strong believer in she participated in the convention community engagement and the as a shadow chair. Claire wanted cooperative movement, and was to get involved as an N F U-O even a cofounder of a successful board member because she likes renewable energy cooperative and to stay in-the-know about an organic food box CSA which agricultural issues. Claire is still benefit growers and inspired by the NFU community. consumers. She has hosted a As a council member, Claire is potato festival on her farm for 12 most interested in advancing farm years and was a WWOOF host for succession planning and farmland 15 years, welcoming diverse folk preservation issues. She was from around the globe. involved in the Land Access Linda strongly believes in Coalition before becoming a farming at a human scale and the board member and is eager to see need to professionalize farming as that work continue. a skilled trade in Canada. In her Claire loves watching things new position as Region 3 grow, and helping other people Women’s Advisor, Linda looks (specifically kids) watch things forward to being the ear and voice grow for the first time. She is a for all women farmers! ◊ Linda Laepple

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

Henry Groenestege, President

Perth County

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

Pork Producers NEWSLETTER

This is not just a pork chop...

By Craig Hulshof his is not just a pork chop…

It’s a muscle, grown to hold up a pig, slaughtered and sliced for your convenience, and grilled to perfection.

It’s an excellent source of nutrients such as potassium, riboflavin, iron, zinc, vitamin B6, thiamin, phosphorus, niacin and protein.

It’s a temporary foreign worker program success story. The pork industry is dependent on this source of immigrants to help staff our farms and packing plants. As our population ages, and fewer people are familiar with agriculture as a career choice, this program has enabled our industry to continue.

It’s a way of life. There are over 1,500 pig farms in Ontario. The industry supports 18,347 full-time equivalent jobs. That is a lot of people making a living making pork chops.

It’s John Deere’s second cousin.

Well, not really, but those 1500 farms support the rural economy. From equipment dealerships, to construction contractors, to accountants and trucking companies, the pork industry contributes $1.34 billion to the province’s economy.

It is something to draw people together. Whether it is time spent barbequing with friends, or the centerpiece of a community supper, pork chops draw people together.

It’s a globally-traded commodity, and we don’t even need to salt it!

With Canada’s abundance of fertile farm land and fresh water, we are a world leader in pork production.

Two-thirds of the pork we produce is exported to other countries.

It’s a product of research. Ontario produces 5.8 million pigs per year.

With that scale, we invest in research to ensure we are doing everything to the best of our knowledge.

It’s a genomics success story. We use the best genetics that are

T

available, world wide. Every year pigs become more prolific and feedefficient. Genomics accelerated both the consolidation and the improvement of pig genetics.

It’s a canvas for flavour: sauced, smoked, marinated, there are many ways to enjoy pork.

It’s corn’s highest purpose: 75 per cent of a pig’s diet is corn.

Ontario produces nine million tonnes of corn every year, no coincidence there!

It’s a protein sink for the vegetable oil and biodiesel industry. The other major crop in Ontario is soybeans. It is grown mainly as an oil seed, but there is a lot more to that seed than oil, so pigs help to take care of the rest.

It’s a great fundraiser for our organization. The Perth Pork Producers BBQ team prepares and serves hundreds of pork

chops every year to support our association and community. It’s a fun way to promote our product and pay our executive staff.

It’s delicious!

LOCAL PORK PRODUCTS Fill your freezer with local pork products Order today from: Tanya and Darryl Terpstra (519-291-7603) or visit Leis Feeds in Milverton – Open Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon

Pork supplied by: Perth County Pork Producers BBQ services for large groups are also available, contact: perthcountyporkproducers@gmail.com for more details.

October 2024 59

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

519-364-3050 or 1-800-275-9551

NEWSLETTER

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

Want to help shape the future of Bruce County?

Featuring Comedian

Jennifer O’Reilly

Join us at an Official Plan Open House: Oct. 2, 10:30a.m. - Southampton Curling 2024 1:00p.m Club, 26 Albert St. S Southampton Oct. 2, 3:30p.m. - Wiarton Arena and Com2024 6:00p.m. munity Centre, 526 Taylor St. Wiarton Oct. 3, 3:30p.m. - Bruce County Adminis2024 6:00p.m. tration Centre, 30 Park St. Walkerton Oct. 4, 5:00p.m. - Royal Canadian Legion, 86 2024 7:00p.m.

River St., Tara In partnership with the Bruce County Federation of Agriculture.

The Bruce County Official Plan will guide land use and development in Bruce County until 2046. Attend the open houses to: - Learn about the draft plan - See mapping schedules proposed - Provide comments

Bruce County 2024 Directors Meetings

Learn More

www.planthebruce.ca

October 4 - Annual Meeting • November 11

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

60 The Rural Voice

519-364-3050 or 1-800-275-9551 Grey County Federation Email: grey@ofa.on.ca Website: greyfederation.ca of Agriculture * The Rural Voice is provided to OFA Members in Grey County by the GCFA

To Build A Barn

The Saugeen Valley Children’s Safety Village found a critical need and made a commitment to make a difference in child safety. Their Mission... to provide an innovative and interactive educational safety facility to aid in the elimination of preventable childhood injuries and death.

The Safety Village features interactive Classrooms and a Miniature Village with scaled-down buildings, paved roadways, traffic lights, road signs, and hands-on safety demonstration sites. Full and half day Safety Programs focus on schoolage children from kindergarten to Grade Six with no charge for attending schools.

Additional Safety Programs and Community Events are held throughout the year for youth, adults, seniors, and families. The goal being to develop a "health & safety culture" by involving children in hands-on safety programs.

In October of last year, the Grey County Federation of Agriculture began an

initiative with Saugeen Valley Children’s Safety Village to Build an interactive safety Barn at their facility on the edge on Hanover.

Our vision is to expand on the education currently being provided by the safety shed that is already located within the village, providing a more in depth look at the different safety aspects around a farm. The interactive barn will help students to gain a better understanding about agriculture, food to table, farm life and livestock in a hands-on way they can understand and relate to. The children of today are the future of tomorrow, we want to ensure that this crucial agricultural knowledge is being passed on to both protect and empower them in the choices they make.

like to contribute to help make our goal become reality, please reach out to our office via phone (519-364-3050) or email (bruce@ofa.on.ca), tax receipts are available.

At the site, plans are underway to have the concrete pad installed this fall. With the barn to follow in early spring for the 2025 visitors.

The next fundraising night will be happening October 14 in Durham, we will be hosting a Trivia Night with a live auction featuring Glenn Sinclair as the Auctioneer. Tickets are still available.

2024 Directors Meetings

Starting with a fundraising Comedy Night a year ago, the GCFA has been steadily raising funds. We are currently at 50 per cent of the goal and continue to look outward for more support. If you would

October 18 - AGM November 13

are inviting you out to their AGM, featuring a friendly

TR RIV VIA A NI IGH HT!!

Prizes to be won! Farming knowledge to be tested! New facts to be learned!

Friday, October 18th, 2024 at the Durham Legion Doors open at 6, Dinner at 7pm with entertainment to follow.

A meal by Farm House Cakes and Catering $40 per Person There will be an auction happening with all proceeds going towards the GCFA “Build a Barn” project. The GCFA are fundraising to add a farm educational site to the Saugeen Valley Children’s Safety Village!

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

October 2024 61

Perth County Federation of Agriculture Office: 1-833-229-6834 Email: perthcountyfedofag@gmail.com Website: www.perthcountyfarmers.ca Derek Van De Walle, President

Attend the gala, nominate a farmer and apply for scholarships Submitted by Inge Koskamp PCFA Director erth County Federation of Agriculture hosted a Municipal Councillor Ag Awareness Day on Thursday, August 21 at Kampkreek Dairies. There were 13 Perth County Councillors and staff in attendance. After a brief introduction by PCFA president Derek VandeWalle, the group broke into three smaller groups for the day’s discussions, tours and demonstrations.

Group one was led by Sara Wood and focused on agricultural equipment and our roads. Guests had an opportunity to ride a self-propelled sprayer, a tractor with tillage equipment and a tractor with tandem Nuhn tanks. This opportunity took them on the road to experience turning space required, visibility on equipment as well as sharing the road with other drivers. Great discussion was had regarding roundabouts, and visibility of signs in a car versus agriculture equipment.

Group two was led by Joost VanderHeiden. The topic was Perth County crops and processing. Joost led a discussion about the history of processing in the area and why there are challenges to bringing in new processing plants. Participants then had an opportunity to view a Perth County crop variety display and discuss products that can be made from Perth products and the economic impacts they give us.

Group three was led by Julie Danen and Jacqueline Martin (Kampkreek Dairies). While they travelled to Koskamp Family Farms for a tour of their water buffalo and dairy facility, the group discussed the Minimum Distance Separations (MDS, which is part of Nutrient Management Plans) and the impact on livestock production.

There was time for socializing and

P

snacking on local products, a charcuterie board and chocolate milk after the sessions. Participants agreed there was a good two-way discussion

Attendees at the Municipal Councillor Ag Awareness Day held August 21 in Perth County got to ride in tractors to learn about road safety with agricultural equipment as well tour Kampkreek Dairies (middle) and discussed crops grown in the county along with the lack of processing capacity (top).

on all topics and being a co-passenger on agriculture equipment provided a new perspective to those who had never experienced it. ◊

Perth County 2024 Red Tie Gala IN CELEBRATION OF PCFA’s 80th ANNIVERSARY Thursday, November 21 The Arden Park Hotel 522 Ontario St., Stratford • 6:00 p.m. Cocktail Hour • 7:00 p.m. Dinner $550 per table of 8 • $75 per person

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

62 The Rural Voice

Stoneview Custom Service Inc ..12 Superior Barn Painting ......Cover 7 SWO Diesel Inc ..................Cover 5 Townsley Barn Painting ..............57

Tree Planting & Maintenance ..32, 33 W.D. Hopper & Sons Ltd ............17 Waddell Engineering ..................27

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

CORNER

CRAFTER’S

Index

ABCA - Huron Clean Water Project ....47 Adam Lesperance ......................48 Apples ..........................................21 Bernie McGlynn Lumber ............63 Bervie Supply Energy ................42 Britespan Building Systems Inc....7 Business Centre ..................54, 55 Canadian Co-operative Wool ....48 Chalmers Fuels............................42 Creative China Decorating ..........21 Crafter’s Corner ..........................63 Crop Quest Inc ............................23 Croplan/R.T. Bolton ..........Cover 4 Cross County Eavestrough ........29 Easy Lift Doors Ltd ......................14 Egger Farms ................................57 Fall Harvest ............................13, 15 Farm To Table ............................38 Feeney Design Build ..........Cover 5 Green Valley Heating Inc ............45 Greenville Liquid Plant Food ......10 GRK Products................................8 Hanover Honda ..........................25 Harold Jones Enterprises ..........55 Hayden Water Wells ....................41 HearingLife Canada Ltd..............36 Hidden Home Wood Products ....23 Highland Fuels & Supply ............23 Hill & Hill/Varna Grain ........Cover 2 Huron-Perth Woodlot Association ..47 Kelly’s Electric..............................15 Kenpal Farm Products ................19 Kia of Owen Sound ....................53 Lakeside Shelving & Racking ....51 Legge Fitness ..............Back Cover Live Landscape............................41 Mapleview Agri Ltd ....................48 Marquardt Farm Drainage Ltd ....45 Martin Farm Wagons ..................31 Marvin L Smith Forestry..............47 May Apple Financial ....................17 McLeod Water Wells Ltd ..............2 MNP LLP ......................................31 Moore Hemsworth Ins. Group Inc ....45 Morris Sachs Silo Construction ..45 Nature’s Wave Inc ......................27 Nu-Matic Systems Inc ................50 Nuclear Waste Management Org ..51 Ontario Agriculture Week ............4 Ontario Mutual Ins Assoc ..Cover 3 Oxford Honey & Supplies ..........27 Pioneer Seeds ............................50 R2R Conference ................Cover 4 RCS Forestry Mulching ..............42 Riverside Welding & Mfg ............16 Rural Voice Books ..............Cover 6 Schmidt’s Farm Drainage 1900 Ltd..43 Schweiss Doors ..........................44 Seed Directory..........................9, 11 Seifried Farm Equipment ............49 Silver Creek Nursery ....................6 Snobelen Farms ........................3, 9 St. Helen’s Wood Products ........46 Steffen Well Drilling ....................57 Stones ’n More ............................41

Fabrics, Quilts & Much More Over 2,000 bolts of fabric 519-392-6046 3855 Bruce Rd. 4, 5 kms. N. of Teeswater Check Facebook for store updates or visit our website sanityhill.ca

Country Quilting Piece a quilt you love, we can quilt it! ** Custom Machine Quilting ** For the quilting enthusiasts, we have everything you need.

Cottons, flannels, fleece, wools, books, patterns

Fabric, Quilting Supplies, Ready & Custom Made Quilts

84849 Ethel Line, Brussels, ON

519-887-9456

519-625-8435 heather@thequiltplace.ca www.thequiltplace.ca

www.countryquilting.ca

3991 Perth Rd. 107, Shakespeare, ON

October 2024 63

HURON

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

County Federation of Agriculture NEWSLETTER

Congratulations

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

Upcoming Events

Congratulations to Mackenzie Terpstra, the new Huron County Queen of the Furrow.

Congratulations to Jillian Simpson, the new Huron County Princess of the Furrow.

Anna Vincent presenting HCFA award to Huron County Queen of the Furrow Runner Up Gracie Hoggarth at the Huron County Plowing Match. Congratulations!

Congratulations to Darrell Bergsma who received a 4H Ontario Arbor Award. A tree was planted at the Londesboro Lions Hall.

Are you passionate about agriculture in Huron County Take this chance to discover more about the HCFA. Connect with the HCFA office or a board member to learn all about the HCFA and how we make agriculture a priority in Huron County. Now is your opportunity to see how you could network and contribute to guarantee that Agriculture in Huron County is resilient and strong for today and future generations.

Send in your nominations We are collecting nominations for the annual Huron County Outstanding Contribution to Agriculture Award. Please include in the nomination the name, address, phone number of your nominee. Your nomination should include an explanation for the nomination such as the person or group’s contribution(s) to agriculture and rural life in Huron County. Please send nominations to the HCFA office - deadline is October 4th.

Annual/Regional Meeting The Huron County Federation of Agriculture is hosting its Annual/Regional meeting on Friday, November 1st at the Clinton Legion. The Guest Speaker will be Sara Epp, Assistant Professor School of Environmental Design & Rural Development at the University of Guelph. Tickets are $20 per person.

Contact the HCFA for tickets.

HCFA “Ag Review” coming in October The HCFA publishes its Annual Paper, The Huron County Ag Review in October and it will be delivered by Canada Post to all the farm mailboxes in Huron County. We anticipate the post offices in Huron County will receive the papers for distribution on October 11.

If you do not receive a copy please contact us and we will send you a copy and you should contact Canada Post to confirm your address is classified as a farm in their system.

October 1-5 International Plowing Match in Lindsay www.plowingmatch.org/ipm2024 October 7 to 13 Ontario Agriculture Week October 14 Thanksgiving Monday

Ontario Young Farmers Forum Ages 18 to 40 November 25th and 26th Delta Toronto Hotel and Convention Center To register and further details: oyff@jfao.on.ca

This year the HCFA has a small amount of funds available to first time OYFF attendees from Huron County to help offset some of the costs of attending. Please contact the HCFA office for details.

HCFA Board Meeting

Monday, October 28th 8:00 pm Vanastra Office

OPP Non-Emergency Line 1-888-310-1122

Room for Rent

The HCFA has a board room available for rent for $40 including HST. Call the HCFA office at 519-482-9642 ext 2 to book your meetings.

Huron Federation Office Hours Monday 9­12 and 1­4 Alternate Fridays 9­12 and 1­4

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

64 The Rural Voice

New Homes • Renovations Mitchell, Ontario 519-301-1502

Cell: 519-301-1502

Email: Matt@feeneydesignbuild.com

The Rural Reading Room

Happy Thanksgiving!

Specializing in Rural Living & Local Authors

DECORATIVE MACRAME FARMHOUSE WEEKENDS OLD MACDONALD HAD A BEAUTIFUL BOARDS This book walks you through the If you board it, they will come!

Apple cider donuts, white FARM bean chili, buttery cobbler, Sing along to a favorite song in a process of creating your own unique make mealtimes, special hot, flaky biscuits. You’ll find book that’s indestructible! This pieces, perfect for your space. Clear occasions and holidays extra brunch, dinner, and dessert indestructible book is built the step-by-step photographs show you memorable with the 50 recipes for spring, summer, way babies “read”: with their how to create the four basic knots delicious, inspiring, familyautumn, and winter: sixty- hands and mouths. It won’t rip or and apply simple macrame five recipes to entertain and tear and is 100% washable. It’s techniques, while detailed diagrams friendly and easy-to-recreate enjoy good company all year made for baby to hold, grab, help you with things like snack boards found in Beautiful Boards. $32.99 measurements. $19.95 round. $45.00 chew, pull, and bend. $7.99

PIES, PIES & MORE PIES A HALLOWEEN SCARE IN KID CHEF BAKES HELLO TREES CANADA FOR THE HOLIDAYS - Witness a tree's growth from This book features nearly 80 recipes for A perfect Halloween gift for kids, this 50 Fun baking creations seed to sapling and discover everything from a cherry tomato pie to a fun read-aloud book is packed with for kids 8 to 12―for how trees come together to decadent chocolate cheese pie. Also includes sweet potato pie, chicken pot colorful illustrations and charming holiday cheer all year- support each other in forests in this beautiful pocket guide pie, and rustic double-crust apple tart, to rhymes featuring iconic locations and round. $22.50 name just a few. $12.95 to nature $16.50 landmarks from Canada. $14.99

FARMHOUSE WEEKENDS OLD MACDONALD HAD A FARM DECORATIVE MACRAME BEAUTIFUL BOARDS A HALLOWEEN SCARE IN CANADA KID CHEF - BAKES FOR THE HOLIDAYS HELLO TREES PIES, PIES AND MORE PIES!

Qty.

$45.00 $7.99 $19.95 $32.99 $14.99 $22.50 $16.50 $12.95

Total

Total for Books Shipping & Handling $9.00 Canada Post Fuel Surcharge $4.00

Subtotal 5% GST on Subtotal Order Total

Send cheque or money order for full amount to: Books: North Huron Publishing P.O. Box 429, Blyth, ON N0M 1H0 or call and pay by credit card 519-523-4311 MAIL BOOKS TO: Name:_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Address: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ______________________ Code _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Phone: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Prices subject to change with increases in wholesale prices, postage, taxes, etc.

Please refer to current issue for correct figures. Incorrect payment will delay delivery.

 House & Barn Painting

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We’re also certified applicators of Liquid Rubber

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Liquid Rubber Features:  Waterproof  Adheres to almost any surface  Resists Cracking & Chipping  Flexible in all weather

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www.barnpainting.ca DORCHESTER

Let us help your business reach the height of efficiency Our team can help your business reach its true potential.

Advertising in The Rural Voice each month will allow your business to be in front of over 11,000 readers.

With ads both in print and on-line, reach a wider audience.

Getting started is as easy as calling 519-523-4311

The Rural Voice Magazine rvads@northhuron.on.ca • 519-523-4311 www.ruralvoice.ca

The N.E.A.T. Health Program Nutrition

N is for Nutrition. Food is fuel for our body. The foods we eat will either contribute to illness or help promote wellness. To help our clients with healthy and balanced nutrition, we receive fresh weekly shipments from Pfenning’s Organic Farms, a third generation family farm near New Hamburg, Ontario.

Exercise E is for Exercise. Achieve your optimum level of fitness with our quality cardiovascular products including Treadmills, Ellipticals, Bikes and Rowers. As well, we offer Strength Systems, Functional Trainers, and Free Weight Equipment.

Attitude A is for Attitude. Attitude can change everything. Our physical health and fitness is directly related to our mental and emotional health and fitness. Ask for a complimentary copy of the 5th Updated Edition of “Fitness and Health for the Whole Person”, written by Philip Legge. This information can be like a catalyst, because once we read it and act on it, it can change our life.

Therapy

T is for Therapy. Specialized therapy is important for improved recovery and enhanced performance.

We’re fortunate to offer Canadian Made Saunas and Canadian Made Softub Therapy Spas, as well as Massage Chairs and Zero Gravity Chairs to help our clients become more flexible and youthful and experience a higher quality of life – naturally.

LeggeFitness.com 1-800-695-7338 202 Main St. W., Listowel

105 Queen St W., Fergus

Your Family Fitness, Wellness and Mobility Store Since 1988!