Rural Rural Voice Voice
The The
August 2022
THE MAGAZINE OF AGRICULTURAL LIFE ... $2.50 PM 40037593
DINNER UNDER THE STARS RESPECT YOUR FOOD Food is meant to feed and nurture you, say owners of Silver Creek Nursery
Farm dinners with homegrown food attract attention of former Governor General
MORE TREES, LESS FUEL Big companies get serious about reducing carbon footprint with Carbon Footprint Initiative
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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
32 Columns
Lisa Boonstoppel-Pot . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 Keith Roulston . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8 Kate Procter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10 Jeffrey Carter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12 Mabel’s Grill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14 Viewpoint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16 Recipes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .51 Gardening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .54 Woodlots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .64 Agrilaw . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .66 Markets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .68
Departments
Feedback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Ruralite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 News & Advice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .56 People . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .62 Business Centre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .69 Classified . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .71 Advertisers Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .79
Newsletters
National Farmers Union . . . . . . . . . .74 Perth County Pork . . . . . . . . . . . . . .75 Grey County Federation . . . . . . . . . .76 Bruce County Federation . . . . . . . .77 Perth County Federation . . . . . . . . . .78 Huron County Federation . . . . . . . . .80
37 AUGUST 2022 • Cover Photo Zack and Steph Muma, Silver Creek Nursery. Photo by Jeff Tribe
Editor: Lisa Boonstoppel-Pot rveditorlisa@northhuron.on.ca Contributing writers: Keith Roulston, Kate Procter, Jeffrey Carter, Rhea Hamilton Seeger, Arnold Mathers, Donna Lacey, Melisa Luymes, Anne Mann, Nancy Fisher, Carolyn Crawford, Bonnie Sitter, Jeff Tribe, Amanda Brodhagen and Hetty Stuart
• Deadlines: Sept. Issue – Aug. 9
Advertising Sales: Shelley Kroes rvads@northhuron.on.ca
18 Trees and Tiny Houses
Production co-ordinator & Telemarketing: Joan Caldwell
October Issue – Sept. 13
Zack and Steph Muma add nurturing food to nursery business and live life large in a tiny home
25 Carbon Food Initiative Businesses focus on reducing emissions and planting trees
32 Lynn River Dinners
At Lynn River they raise the chickens, grow the vegetables, make the meal and serve it under the stars
37 Farm Crawl Facts Hundreds buy tickets to tour four farms and food providers for Eat Local Huron Food Crawl
Advertising & editorial production:
Dianne Josling
PUBLICATIONS MAIL AGREEMENT NO. 40037593 RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES TO CIRCULATION DEPT. PO BOX 429, BLYTH ON N0M 1H0 email: info@northhuron.on.ca Subscriptions: $25 (12 issues) $45 (24 issues), includes HST
Back copies $2.75 each. Make cheques payable to: NORTH HURON PUBLISHING CO.
42 Farm Safety Lessons
Children get to use fire extinguishers and tour an ambulance during Family Safety Day in Lambton County
47 New Dairy Barn at Pfister
Visitors curious about conveyor feed system in new dairy barn
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.
NH
ORTH URON
PUBLISHING COMPANY INC.
A division of North Huron Publishing Company Inc.
Feedback Letters to the Editor may be sent to The Rural Voice, P.O. Box 429, Blyth, On N0M 1H0
Player family tells it like it is The Editor, The July issue of The Rural Voice had some more interesting articles to read. I especially liked the Player family and how Gord spoke of Ontario Pork industry looking more like the U.S. integration style. Many of us “smaller” producers see it coming, especially when prices between processors/contracts can be $25-40 hog. Carol Mitchell did no family farm any favours taking away Ontario Pork’s marketing powers. For me Kate Procter always has very interesting and educating farm columns. She is a smart lady from a smart family. Even though I don’t agree with very much Hannah Tucker had to say or propose a doomsday outlook on pages 22 and 23, it is still something we need to think about. Keith Roulston, as always, is able to provide some history lessons and what he thinks. Keep up the good writing by all. ◊ – Kevin Kimball, Leamington
“Barrie” needs a voice at Mabel’s Grill The Editor, My wife and I retired and moved up from “GTA” to Thornbury about five years ago. Having read every page of The Rural Voice for the past several years, I find it fascinating, very informative and enjoy looking forward to each issue. Mabel’s Grill gives us a sense of
2 The Rural Voice
comfort in a familiar setting. It brings us current news both local and throughout the world with a wonderful sense of humour. Just a thought... with the amount of city folk relocating to rural/urban areas, what would you think of introducing a new character “Barry” from the city? Barry wanting to leave the city life far behind him and while not having a clue about the farming community, is quite interested in finding out how everything works. He could make the odd appearance to the breakfast table with the regulars asking questions about everyday farming life. Questions that would have the regulars looking at each other shaking their heads in amazement thinking “is this guy from Mars?!” But they would answer Barry’s question and give some background/history information. Some questions would be: Barry: why is a type of barn called a “Bank Barn”? Answer: Well Barry, it is a barn built into the bank of a hill. With the reason why it is built into the hill. Barry: What does it mean when
the cows are lying on the ground in the shade? Answer: Well Barry, it means they are tired and hot and need to get out of the sun. Barry could be portrayed as a bit of a dufus but enthusiastic and wanting to learn about his rural/urban Ontario. The locals could have fun with him while educating him how important it is to know how and where his food comes from. ◊ – Barry Tatchell, Town of The Blue Mountains (Thornbury)
Marvin L. Smith
B.Sc.F. (Forestry), R.P.F. Farm Woodland Specialist 570 Riverview Dr. Listowel, Ontario N4W 3T7 Telephone: (519) 291-2236
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Perth County Plowing Match Saturday, August 27
Host: John Berlett Farms Ltd. ~ 8270 Road 152 (2.5 kms. east of Listowel off Line 86)
• Displays • Machinery Show Food truck on grounds 10:30 am to 2:00 pm
Registration from 8:00 am - 9:00 am Lands Draw at 9:00 am Sharp Competitive Plower at 9:30 am - 1:30 pm Specialty Classes & VIP Plowing 1:00 pm
• Queen of the Furrow Interviews at 12:30 pm, Plowing 1:30 pm; Speeches 2:30 pm; Garden Tractor Class for children 2 to 12 - no entry fee 10:00 am. Each child receives a prize. For general information call Clayton Terpstra 519-444-8700 or Bryan Bertrand 519-565-5927 Proud supporters of the Perth County Plowing Match
Proud to Serve the farm families of Perth—Wellington
Suppor ng our rural tradi ons and communi es.
John Nater, M.P. johnnater.ca • 519-338-3589
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ATTENTION: ALL FARM PROPERTY OWNERS
Have you completed your 2022 Farm Business Registration?
A requirement to get the farmland property tax rate is a valid Farm Business Registration (FBR) number. Contact Agricorp at 1-866-327-3678 for more information. To be eligible for the farmland tax rate, you must contact Agricorp and link all your farm properties to your FBR number(s). If you have any questions on the Farmland Property Class Tax Rate Program, contact Agricorp at 1-888-247-4999 or your OFA representative below. Brought to you by the Huron, Perth, Grey and Bruce County Federations of Agriculture Margaret Vincent Joanne Hughes
(Huron & Perth) 1-800-511-1135 ext 1 (Grey & Bruce) 1-800-275-9551 ext. 2
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4 The Rural Voice
Ruralite
•
Your future self
“As you think about money for yourself ... you need to picture yourself in the future because the trade-offs in the moment are between you and your future self” ~ Bruce Sellery on the motives and context for investing your money. Story on page 56 Silly Signs • In a pizzeria: Nothing tops a plain pizza! • In a school: Cosmetology
FUN WITH WORDS • A chicken crossing the road is poultry in motion
student misses class...forced to
• The man who fell into an
make up makeup test.
upholstery machine is fully
• Roadside sign humour: I pulled a
recovered
muscle digging for gold. It’s just a
• A lot of money is tainted —
minor injury.
taint yours and it taint mine • A boiled egg in the morning is hard to beat
FARMING IN
Climate Change “We all know that our emissions are affecting the climate. We have no choice but to look at how to reduce those contributions and from my perspective, it's a matter of choosing to be proactive or waiting until we are forced into it,” says Derek Mendez, vicepresident of Molesworth Farm Supply Ltd.” ~Derek Mendez, vice-president of Molesworth Farm Supply talking about the company’s involvement with the Carbon Footprint Initiative. Story on page 25
AUGUST
“Earth is so kind, that just tickle her with a hoe and she laughs with a harvest.”
•
~ Douglas Jerrold
Neil’s One-Liners (Wisdom and humour from the McGavin files)
• Never agree with a fool. People might not know the difference.
•
• A small leak can sink a great ship.
Thank you kindly! It’s always a good day when a little one gives you flowers ~Firmly Rooted Farm, Belgrave Story on page 37 August 2022 5
Lisa B. Pot Lisa B. Pot is editor of The Rural Voice, and farms in Huron County
Wisdom in living colour from field and farm
Never underestimate the power of a baby animal to tell your story. One image and moment with a healthy farm animal in a pen full of fresh straw can embed a lifetime of security and confidence in the mind of a consumer who is starting to lose faith in farmers to grow and produce good food. Farmers do take excellent care of their animals. Open your farm to guests and offer experiences. This little one delighted guests on an Eat Local Huron farm crawl at Meeting Place Organic Farm.
I’m a farmer who used to kill milkweed plants with Roundup. Now I grow them in my garden ON PURPOSE to feed the pollinators. Goldenrod too. Supporting biodiversity is all the rage and I’m here for it because it’s actually huge fun to grow things instead of kill them.
Strawberries are the only fruit to have seeds on the outside and the Vitamin C in seven strawberries is equivalent to that of one orange. You learn something new every day. This wisdom came from Emily Morrison of Morrison Berries near Lucknow. 6 The Rural Voice
While on a hay wagon en route to see a hay field, Tony McQuail was talking about rotational grazing, soil microbes and pasture. One lady asked, “What is pasture?” There was a pause and he nicely explained what pasture is. It might seem like a dumb question to us but if you lived in the city all your life, why would you know what a pasture is? There is most definitely time for science, agronomy, research and deepdiving into soil microbes and the latest innovations. But urbanites are flooding to rural Ontario and we also need to make time to just talk, in simple language, about what we do and why we do it, explaining our lingo as we go.
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August 2022 7
Keith Roulston Keith is the former publisher of The Rural Voice. He lives near Blyth, ON.
Who should farmers listen to?
Editor Lisa B. Pot’s column last month on the future of farming as seen through the eyes of food “experts” who don’t believe in farmers, got me thinking about a lifetime of providing the latest updates to farmers. Lisa was writing about the speakers who “enlightened” at the Arrell Food Summit’s “Future of Farming” and the Globe and Mail’s “Future of Farming Event” where the they accused farmers of unsustainable methods that contribute to climate change. As I read the opinions of these speakers, I couldn’t help thinking of something the late Harry J. Boyle said many years ago when he spoke
in Blyth at an anniversary of the Farm Forum movement. A native of a farm near St. Augustine, a few miles away, Boyle started his career in radio at CKNX in Wingham, then joined CBC in Toronto where he was behind the Farm Forum weekly programs and eventually became chair of the Canadian Radio, Television and Telecommunications Commission, overseeing all telecommunications in Canada. Having listened to speakers for a while at the Farm Forum conference, Boyle spoke up and remembered that during World War II, Canadian farmers listened to the experts and increased their production to feed the troops overseas and the British public. But once the war was over, the Canadian troops came home and Britain, unable to pay for imported food, cut off Canadian imports. Canadian farmers were left producing a surplus of food and prices dropped below the point of substantiality. Canadian society, of course, had moved on and few stuck up for the plight of farmers.
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His comments rang true for me because my dad, who served in the army in Italy and Holland, came home from the war to buy a farm, but with money-losing farm prices, never had a chance to get his feet under us, financially. I think there’s still a sense, among urbanites (including the experts who Lisa quotes), that farmers are uneducated and backward. Yet most farmers from my age to the youngest, are educated, having gone to university or agricultural college. They have also, to varying degrees, listened to the teachers of agricultural knowledge. I remember working at harvest as a high school student with a young man, a couple of years older than me who was attending University of Guelph and was bemoaning that so many farmers were backward, growing mostly wheat, oats and barley and very little corn, which he had been taught was the crop of the future. He proved right as oats and barley nearly disappeared and corn and soybeans (unknown in Bruce County at the time) came to dominate the landscape. If farmers are not growing the crops they should, or not in the proper way, it’s probably because they are following some advice they got from some farming “expert”, perhaps helped along by a farm reporter like me, who was spreading the most recent research on how to be a better farmer. I have a granddaughter who was recently doing research about beef cattle for the University of Guelph. Among her supervisors was a man who grew up on a farm near me. Both of them, along with the sons and daughters of hundreds of other farm families, were busy helping farmers be more efficient in their own way, giving them advice on how to farm under current economic rules. It was different advice from that provided by the sort of speakers who were making presentations at the conferences Lisa reported on. According to those speakers, farmers are behind the times. According to University of Guelph farmers are following their latest advice. So if farmers are wrong, so are the “experts” they’re listening to.◊
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August 2022 9
Kate Procter Kate farms, hikes, canoes, and plays guitar in Huron County.
Canada Day reflections After two summers of staying close to home and not being with other people much, we decided to take a little trip to appreciate Canada Day by exploring areas we had not visited before. It is always very interesting to visit other countries, but whenever I venture even a little distance from my home, I’m amazed at what can be learned in our own backyard. Just before the Covid-19 pandemic shut us all down for a while, I travelled to Montreal and spent a weekend there, which was a first for me. A walking tour revealed the rich history, culture, and architecture of a city where many
different peoples have come together over the centuries. This summer, we decided to venture a little further and visit Quebec City, using our bicycles to explore the area. Travelling to Quebec from Huron County takes you through many Ontario towns and cities whose names are familiar and easily roll through your mind as easily as you roll along the 401 highway. But instead of barreling on through, we decided to stay and explore a couple of these cities on our way. It meant less time in Quebec City, but also added a richness to our trip that I had not expected before we ventured out. Hopping off the 401 and driving along Highway 2, that was at one time the main corridor of land travel, allowed us to see the area in a different way. The small towns had beautiful gardens and buildings that had survived since Europeans arrived in the late 1700s. This area became known as “Loyalist Country” because it was largely settled by United Empire Loyalists who fled from the newly formed United States.
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10 The Rural Voice
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But there is more to this area than pretty landscaping and old stone work. Cornwall, whose Mohawk name is Tsi kana:taien, is the seat of the United Counties of Stormont, Dundas, and Glengarry, and is the easternmost city in Ontario. Cornwall is also the meeting place of several different groups of people, with many of the street names appearing in French, the Mohawk Territory of Akwesasne is located to the south, and the U.S. town of Massena, New York is located across the Saint Lawrence River. We stayed in Auberge Chesley’s Inn, built in 1814, located about a block from the Lamoureux Park and now the home of Hamish, a very sociable Scottish Terrier. An antique gun hanging on the wall led to a discussion of some of the local history, including the history of slavery in Canada. John Baker, the last slave to be born in Canada, died in Cornwall in 1871 at the age of 93. We drove to the eastern part of town to cycle. The bike trail is paved and follows the Saint Lawrence River. People have planted beautiful gardens so the ride is an interesting mix of natural and cultivated areas. The Moses-Saunders Power Dam, visible from the Visitor’s Centre, located on the Saint Lawrence River, supplies water to two power generating stations – Cornwall’s 1045 MW R.H. Saunders Generating Station and Messena’s 912 MW St. Lawrence-Franklin D. Roosevelt Power Project. This dam serves several purposes aside from the renewable power it provides – it regulates the Saint Lawrence River and provides water for large vessels to move goods on the river. The dam also is responsible for the creation of The Lost Villages, which were home to 6,500 people, who were forced to move when the area was flooded in 1958. Relocated to two new towns – Long Sault and Ingleside – some residents were able to move their homes while others had their homes and businesses demolished ahead of the flooding. While residents were compensated for what was reportedly fair market value, many felt that the value of the
land had already decreased because people knew the project was coming. Aside from whether the value was fair, residents had no choice – then as now, privately owned land can be expropriated if it is needed for public projects such as the building of roads, highways, or schools. This is governed in Ontario by the Expropriations Act. The dam also impacted the traditional territory used by the Mohawks of Akwesasne, who were subjected to multiple levels of government with the arrival of European settlers. Ten islands, including 1,200 acres of reserve lands and 15,000 acres of traditional lands belonging to the Akwesasne, were flooded without compensation. After years of negotiations, the Mohawk Council of Akwesasne and Ontario Power Generation (OPG) came to an agreement in 2008 that included an apology, compensation of $45,963,520 (CA), transfer of islands, employment, and environmental stewardship. “The Proposed Settlement is an historic opportunity that concludes 15 years of good faith efforts to address the past wrongs and to develop a positive working relationship,” reported Grand Chief Tim Thompson. Our host told us the Vistors Centre was constructed as part of this agreement. Learning about the dam, the Lost Villages, and the impact on the local indigenous people who had lived in this area for centuries led me to reflect on our current struggles around individual freedoms versus what is in the public interest. This dam provided such a huge perceived benefit – both by the production of electricity and the ability to move goods up and down the Saint Lawrence River – that the cost represented by the loss of homes, communities, farm land, hunting grounds, and environmental damage that resulted from the flooding was believed to be a necessary trade off. While the issues may change, living in community requires a neverending negotiation between individual freedoms and what is deemed to benefit the greater number of people. ◊
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519-529-3653 Fridays ~ Austin’s Appliance Store on Huron Road, Goderich Saturdays ~ Makers Market on Hwy. 21, Bayfield Or at the farm by appointment
Visit our farm market and experience family farm fresh
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August 2022 11
Jeff Carter Jeff is a freelance journalist based in Dresden, Ontario.
100 square acres
“I
t’s the story my aunt Leone told me, Pinkie, the arrival to the Carter farm of relatives from Georgia in the 1920s, including the president-to-be, just a babe in arms then.” Pinkie, I can tell, has some skepticism about the tale and so I elaborate, “she told me about it when she was 100 years of age and living in a spacious retirement apartment in Brantford. Being my aunt and a favoured older sister of my father, the only sister for whom he never named a cow, it is only fitting that her nephew upholds the veracity of the story. “I also learned that she was a Grand Master in contract bridge and
a key employee in the big department store, being in charge of the women’s section and having convinced the business’s owner to offer a small discount on wedding dresses. Before that time, wedding dresses were marked up by the same amount no matter where you shopped. The move was wildly successful, brides travelling from across Southwestern Ontario to Brantford to save a few dollars, and then spend what they had saved. “She spoke of her second husband – a wonderful dancer – and informed me of a hand-dug swimming hole that once existed on the farm where she and her siblings swam without supervision. “Father once mentioned her name during a discussion concerning the farm’s future, who would inherit what and so forth. My mother’s response was, “Oh, that Leone! She’s everybody’s friend,” at which point, having considered her words, her mouth snapped shut.” “A likeable lady, then?” “Certainly, and even in her elder
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years, most attractive. She was 103 the last time I visited, napping in the afternoon. As I left, the caregivers there said I should have wakened her.” *** The last generation to have been conceived on the Carter farm were all highly successful, a testament of the coming together of families of divergent backgrounds, the Isbisters and Richardsons of whom you have heard, and the Carters and Millers. The Millers were likely immigrants from what is now Western Germany and may have been supported by Amish Mennonites from what is now EastZorra Tavistock in the vicinity of Cassel, today little more than a dot on a map. The Carters, if family lore is to believed, sailed from England to Virginia in 1637. The grandfather of my grandfather, William Carter, was born in Pennsylvania in 1805 and is said to have been captured by Indians as a young boy, raised among them and eventually granted a farm of his choice in what was then Upper Canada. He chose land along the Upper Thames in the same area where the Millers would later settle, an acquisition that was formalized in 1828. My father was named Russell, (Rusty to his friends). He was a tall man for his time, slim with darkhaired good looks, athletic, a champion plowman in 1945, Junior Class. The youngest of seven siblings, he dropped out of high school in Grade 9 to farm with his father along the Braemar Sideroad a few miles south from the original Carter homestead. The farm was 100 square acres in size with a swampy woodlot of about 10 acres. There were seven little fields, not counting the three-acre parcel on the other side of the swamp. Valentine, like his father, managed an orchard and market garden along with dairy cows, poultry, swine and the rest. A stone lay buried at the heart of that land, just deep enough the trip a drag plough. I was told that decades later it was excavated, a monolith the size of a moderately-priced pickup. It
was there as a young lad that the land spoke to me, a whisper upon the wind, calling my name. I heard it once, twice, and try as I might, never again. An era was ending for Canada’s agricultural communities and a new one beginning. The farming neighbours of my father’s time were numerous, the one-room school at the corner filled to capacity. They relied upon each other, the neighbours. Equipment and labour were shared out of necessity as much as good will. Father owned the sprayer and, being clever with numbers, calculated the chemical formulations not just for his own farm but for many of the neighbours, and performed the operation. He offered me only two pieces of advice that I remember. The first being that the precepts of Communism are not entirely without merit. The second was that “all people are the same” relating a story from his youth during the Second Great War about a Jewish boy of about his same age who was being boarded a mile away; up a sharp slope along the sideroad, down the other side and then up again to where the farmstead and his friend were located He never judged, shared with me the agony his deepest frustration, a circumstance over which no control could he exercise, and on a single occasion tested my mettle. There was single light bulb near the peak of the barn. It could be reached by climbing the ladder, past the first beam, past the second and from there if one were to lean well out, holding fast with one hand and stretching out with the other, the bulb could be replaced. Father asked me one day to do the job. I refused, trembling where I stood. Then he showed me how. Upon learning of his demise at 60, I wept without pause during the flight home, drank excessively with friends at the Southside Hotel, and the day of his burial, remained sober and dryeyed, watching in the funeral home the repetitive movements of a glassenclosed time piece, counting the moments. ◊
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August 2022 13
Mabel’s Grill The world’s problems are solved daily ’round the table at Mabel’s Grill.
“What’s with you? You trying to be fashionable?” Dave Winston asked Cliff Murray the other morning as he pointed to a three-cornered tear in Cliff’s jeans when they sat down at Mabel’s Grill for breakfast. “No,” Cliff laughed nervously, “I just caught my pants on a spring that was sticking through the seat of my truck on the way into town this morning.” “No kidding,” smirked Dave, peeking sideways at George Mackenzie as they both tried not to laugh out loud, since the state of Cliff’s old truck was a regular topic of their shared conversations. “Oh well, at least with holey jeans you’ll be right in style these days.” “I don’t know about that,” said Cliff. “I haven’t seen many people
14 The Rural Voice
with jeans with holes lately. How about it, Molly,” he asked Molly Whiteside as she poured their coffee. “Oh I don’t know,” said Molly, “Mabel would never let us wear worn jeans in here.” She looked straight at the guys. “It would look like she didn’t pay well enough – or we had cheap customers who didn’t tip well.” “Well I see according to the internet,” said Dave, who had pulled out his phone and was studying it, “that Generation Z’ers are wearing ripped jeans.” “What the heck is a Generation Z?” George wondered. “That’s people born between 1997 to 2012,” said Molly. “I can’t keep up,” sighed George. “I mean at that age they’re practically kids anyway. How can they be setting fashion?” “I’m glad my daughter was born after that,” said Molly as she headed for the kitchen. “Maybe her generation will get back to ‘unimproved’ clothes.” “I guess my older brother would have been right in style,” said
George. “I remember he worked for a farmer who had round bales – the small ones, not the big ones we have now – and they used to use their knees to help lift the bales onto the wagon, which wore holes in their pants. My mother used to despair. Who knew that if she’d kept those pants and not patched them, she could have sold them for a fortune!” Molly who had put back her coffee pot and returned to take their orders, scribbled her notes and prepared to leave but Dave’s story stopped her. “I nearly hit a groundhog on the way in this morning,” he said, stopping Molly in her tracks. “Oh I hope you missed him,” she said, her voice full of concern. “Barely,” answered Dave. “He was sunning himself in the middle of the road then made a run for the left ditch when he heard me coming and was almost there but turned around and ran into the right ditch!” “Too bad,” grumbled George. “The world can always use one less groundhog.” “I remember a guy in high school,” chuckled Molly. “He tried to dodge to hit a groundhog with his family’s car – and ended smashing into a tree. I’d like to have heard him explain that to his parents!” “My wife would have agreed with Molly,” said George as Molly took their orders back to Mabel. “She saw me getting my rifle out to shoot a groundhog in my pasture field that had dug a hole that a heifer stepped in and hurt herself, and she got downright grumpy. Of course then a groundhog ate off all the lettuce in her garden and she sounded like a different woman,” he chuckled. “Do you still have cattle on pasture?” Cliff wondered. “The weather’s been so dry around our place that the pastures are really burnt off and I’ve been putting out hay for my sheep.” “Yeah, my beans aren’t looking good either,” said Dave. “We’ve had lots of days when it looks like rain but we can never squeeze much moisture out of those clouds.” Cliff sighed. “It’s got to be that the most useless thing I have on the farm is my rain gauge.” “Humph,” grumbled George. “My wife claims the most useless thing on our farm is me.” ◊
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The Rural Voice 519-523-4311
Friday evening 6:30 pm
Tractor pulls!
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“Allis-Chalmers” Steam Engines • Early Gas Tractors • Early Diesel Tractors • Old Gas Engines • Baker Fan • Antique Automotive • Old Farm Machinery • Garden Tractors For more information contact: Brad Rapien 519-347-2515
BEHIND THE BARS This summer at the Huron Historic Gaol 181 Victoria St. N., Goderich
Tuesdays & Thursdays, July 12-Aug. 3, 7-9 p.m. Tickets available online: www.HuronCountyMuseum.ca
August 2022 15
Mel Luymes Mel Luymes works in agriculture and conser‐ vation and blogs at headlands.ca
Of turtles and treading lightly
I
’m writing this just back from four days of backcountry camping. My skin still tingles from the sunburn, my ankles itch, my muscles ache and I still have that wild excitement about me. A friend and I went to the Massasauga Provincial Park near Parry Sound. Most of its gorgeous, secluded campsites are accessible only by canoe. We went through seven lakes in all and about 3.5 kilometres of portaging with our gear on our backs and a canoe on our heads, up and down slippery trails, all while trying to outrun a bazillion bugs. Anyone that has done a trip like this knows the feeling – halfway through a long portage when you are nearly buckling under the weight of your pack, you just want to stop and chuck most of what you packed out into the bushes. I felt every pound and I cursed myself for taking more than I needed. Then we get to the campsite to set up the tent and tarps, find the hole-inthe-ground toilet, forage for dry wood in the forest, get a fire started, filter water from the lake, make dinner, clean up the dishes and then hang everything up in a tree to keep it from bears and bold rodents. Too tired to move at this point, I lay down in my tiny tent, fitfully trying to get comfortable on a squeaky air mattress with a twisted sleeping bag between twisted tree roots. I love backcountry camping, even if it sounds like a lot of work. Because the next morning, I get up as the sun does. Pink streaks of 16 The Rural Voice
clouds mirror perfectly on the calm water. A loon does a running takeoff on the lake for a few hundred metres before getting enough speed for flight. I make coffee and take a book to the water’s edge. After who-knowsand-who-cares-how-long, my reading is interrupted by heavy breathing. There are two eyes shining at me from a gnarled head just three feet in front of me in the water. I stare at the head as it stares at me, takes another big raspy breath, and submerges. The snapping turtle is huge, prehistoric, and slow, ambling about the rocks and water lilies in the shallows before heading back to the deep, dark water. From its size, the snapper might have been older than me. Apparently, the age of a turtle can be measured, like trees, by the rings on its shell. And I smiled when I thought this turtle’s shell seemed a bit like its own backpack - its shelter and protection from predators and, with the lake providing all its fresh food, this turtle had everything it needed. Socrates wrote, “He is richest who is content with the least.” Similarly, I heard a quote earlier this week that hit home: “He who is of few needs and easy to serve, swiftly finds peace and is already close to happiness.” This is from Guy Burgs, a meditation teacher in England. He goes on, “The more complicated is our idea of ourselves, the more we will perceive our needs to be and the more of a burden it will be to this planet… The truth is the only real needs are food, shelter and companionship. Everything else is a bonus.”
As we packed up the tent, stove, filter, our clothing and food, it is quite remarkable how little we actually needed out there. We had two backpacks and a blue barrel of food, and we could have been comfortable out there on Spider Lake with half of that. And I think back to all the things I have back at home: piles of books, throw pillows, every size of pot and pan, the knife set(s), the paintings on the walls, etc. They suddenly felt like a weight on me. Mesmerized by the turtle, I was also reminded of the story Turtle Island, the creation story of many Indigenous people here. Skywoman fell to Earth, which was only water at the time, but birds caught her in their feathers and a turtle held the woman on its back. When she gave birth, the animals wanted to make land for the people, so they swam deep to try to bring back some ground. They were all unsuccessful until finally, a muskrat tried. When he later surfaced, he had died but had a fistful of land, which Skywoman placed on the turtle’s back and as she danced her gratitude for the muskrat’s sacrifice, the continent was formed. She planted seeds that she had brought with her to make a garden on earth full of food and medicines. Out in Massasauga, it is easy to feel reverence and gratitude for Turtle Island, for the water, trees, animals; I want to tread lightly on the place. Back home, we instead get caught up with having all these “things.” But what if we had to carry all of it on our backs? Would that make us see things differently? ◊
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August 2022 17
Plants
Food is meant to feed and nurture Nursery owners and tiny house dwellers, Steph and Zack Muma, choose to live a lifestyle focussed on selfreliant regenerative sustainability Zack Muma (right) used hempcrete to build this 28‐ by‐10‐foot tiny house along with materials recycled from a former mink shed. He was helped by partner Steph Muma (left) as the pair took over her cousin’s nursery to sell trees, berries and food crops on nine acres of land. Named Silver Creek Nursery, the business has created two full‐time job along with part‐ time and seasonal employment.
S
teph Muma’s wide-ranging exploration of the culinary arts has happily transitioned from chickweed “plating tweezers” to fruit tree grafting tools. “I do appreciate the art of food, 100 per cent,” said owner/operator (with life and business partner Zack Muma) of Silver Creek Nursery near Wellesley. “But food is meant to feed and nurture you. “If we are fortunate enough to be among those who eat two or three times a day, it should be treated with respect.” An enthusiastic canner and freezer, Steph grew up with a large family garden and reminds herself to not take access to growing one’s own fresh produce for granted. “The flavour, the nutrition, the satisfaction as well.” The former chef school student also understands quite well how “cute little chickweed leaves” precisely positioned with tweezers can aesthetically enhance a plating of Eggs Benedict on a high-end restaurant’s breakfast line. But she is far more comfortable with broader access to food’s nutritive value, how we quite literally are what we eat, which can also be what we grow. “Helping people grow their own food-bearing things is what gets me really excited.” Passion project might not be entirely accurate, given the term’s potentially-inferred connotation of disregard for financial considerations. In order for Silver Creek Nursery to continue offering diverse products to customers and
18 The Rural Voice
support not only the Mumas and their community through creation of two full-time jobs, part-time and seasonal employment, it’s essential the operation continues to “pencil out.” However their commitment to self-reliant regenerative sustainability is passionately projected through not only the nursery, but a chosen lifestyle reflective of those principles, not just the what, the how. “In nature, you’re probably never going to get perfect,” said Zack, alluding to one theory that corn, for example, utilizes as little as 15 per cent of its photosynthetic potential. “We’re probably never going to get to 100 per cent, but are striving to get better.”
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Their approach is more gentle evolution than abrupt lane change for an environmentally-conscious business founded by Steph’s cousin Ken Roth. A fan of trees who learned grafting as a teenager, Ken’s vision was to supply overlooked and uncommon tree fruit varieties while justifying and funding his own growing collection. Roth began selling trees, from a small building in 2009, produced conventionally with an array of broad spectrum insecticides, fungicides, antibiotics and weed control spray, supported with high amounts of synthetic fertilizer. Shifting away from his initial approach, through years of trial and error and modeling courtesy of Michael Phillips’ “holistic orchard” system, Roth eventually developed an integrated organic program operating within the symbiotic connections between all forms of orchard life: bacteria and fungi; pest populations, their hosts and predators, up through birds, coyotes and humans. Roth simultaneously became more conscious of what he ate, believing sustainable, organic practices offer advantages in both nutritional density and flavour. It is no coincidence that the Silver Creek Line features organic-friendly species and sensitivity. Steph grew up roughly 20 minutes away, near Ellice, working for her cousin during summers. When Steph was at the nursery full-time in 2018 during a hiatus from the culinary world, Ken outlined plans to either have her and by extension Zack take over, or sell the operation. Zack grew up on a mink farm near Amulree, working in that industry and on a nearby dairy farm before earning a Mechanical Systems Engineering degree from Conestoga College. But amidst an ongoing fascination in exploring how mechanical things work, Zack’s farming itch, enjoyment in planting and growing things, ‘never went away.’ “That’s a requirement if you’re going to be my life partner,” laughed Steph. “Into food.” In the intervening two years
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C o m e t o t h e Fa i r ! Hanover Fair
THE 162nd ANNUAL DURHAM FALL FAIR
August 13 & 14, 2022 Hanover Raceway Fairgrounds
* Exhibits * Beef Show * Dairy Shows * Sheep Show Inflatables * Rock Climbing * Children’s activities * Wagon Rides * Teddy Bear Picnic * 4H Shows * Horse Pull * Tug of War competition * and so much more! TRIPLE BILL FREE CONCERT ~ featuring Tandem (Keith Hundt and Sam Glasier); The Owen Riegling Band; Cara Smith Band Saturday, August 13 ~ 6:30 p.m. - 1 a.m. at the Raceway No cover charge ~ All ages event Free admission all weekend More info. and schedule of events available at www.hanoverfair.ca or email info@hanoverfair.ca
Friday, Sept. 2nd - Sunday, Sept. 4th Durham Community Centre (Arena)
Friday
- Craft Show - Junior & Senior Ambassador Competition - Dessert & Quilt Auction - Kids’ Pedal Tractor Pull - Bingo in the BIG TENT - Spaghetti Dinner ($15)
Saturday
- English & Western Horse Show - 4-H Invitational Beef, Dairy & Sheep Show - Local Entertainment - Bike Rodeo - Games in the BIG TENT - High Tea - Beef on a Bun Supper ($15) - Family Dance ($10 Adults, under 14 ($5)
Sunday
- Community Church Service - Luncheon following Service - Antique Tractor Pull ($5 Entry)
Admission by Donation
For more information and Schedule of Events check us out at http://www.durhamfallfair.ca Current COVID measures will be in place
We welcome you to celebrate the 170th
o t k c a “B Roo�s” our
September 9th & 10th , 2022
For more information & schedule of events please visit:
www.owensoundfallfair.com
20 The Rural Voice
between official takeover in June, 2020, initial plantings and growth without return on investment through sales of marketable trees, Zack’s employment at a machine shop financially assisted their career transition. The Silver Creek Nursery line currently features around 150 different apple tree varieties, just over 40 pears plus quince trees and between five and 10 each of apricots, peaches, cherries and plums. They have expanded berry options considerably to around 50 including such familiars as raspberries, blueberries, thimbleberries, elderberries, gooseberries and currants as well as aronia, hardy kiwi, sea buckthorn and Saskatoons. Beyond these core offerings, the couple also has experimental plantings, bringing their varietal range of food-bearing plants to between 600 and 700. A total of around nine acres is utilized, which in rotation with cover crops translates into four acres in grafted fruit trees plus an acre of seedlings and berries. Beyond expanded diversity and preservation of varieties falling from commercial favour, including experimental plots offers experiential data on process and results enhancement, the opportunity to experiment with both variety and technique, and fruit production. Steph’s electrician father Gary Roth’s eventual retirement is anticipated to allow expansion in native nut trees and seedlings, plus rootstock propagation. A specialized and complicated niche, growing one’s own root stock would allow for more control of not only final product, but process and timing given the potential vagaries of root stock typically crossing the U.S./Canadian border. Most trees are grafted, beginning with selections from 20-40 common rootstocks on the market, featuring varying characteristics ranging through full-sized, dwarf or semidwarf, as well as vigour, disease resistance, cold hardiness, time before bearing, height and soil adaptability. The variety (Gala, Honey Crisp, Empire or whatever) is defined by grafting stock, either scion (dormant) or bud wood grafted
Top: Seeing things live, grow and thrive is what drives Steph Muma of Silver Creek Nursery . MIddle: Zack and Steph are embracing and expanding upon the environmentally‐sustainable footprint laid down by Silver Creek Nursery founder Ken Roth at their Wellesley‐area business. Bottom: Zack has found chicken tractors to be a successful method of producing pastured meat birds in conjunction with Silver Creek Nursery operations.
August 2022 21
onto the root stock. Trees are ready for sale roughly two years after grafting and planting, an approach offering earlier production and also consistency of production through clonal matches. Silver Creek is also experimenting with seedlings through seed propagation, which due to the fact apples accept three or four sources of pollen, leads to less consistency, which depending on one’s point of view, can be a plus or minus. “Like humans, you’ll get a genetically-diverse child,” says Steph. Grafted stock is planted six inches apart in rows four feet apart. The Mumas’ transitional approach to regenerative farming has embraced the concepts of compostable 12-by12 or 18-by-18-inch hemp mats for organic weed suppression, along with cover crops over mechanical cultivation. In the shorter term, cover
crops may attract insects and require scything or mowing. Zack is however experimenting with Joel Salatininspired pasture-raised poultry option, the chicken tractor, a mobile housing/protection unit which facilitates sequential grazing for a flock of meat birds. His laying herd is housed in a “chickshaw”, a scalable hand-drawn mobile coop loosely based on a rickshaw based on a design by Justin Rhodes, combined with mobile fencing. Chickens being chickens, a couple of outriders tend to roost in nearby spruce trees. “They come down and join the flock every day.” An experiment in a nursery area proved successful, meat birds both trimming the cover and gobbling up roaming insects, with minimal impact on the trees. “It went well.” Zack has also tested the concept of cover-crop-pastured pork, a small Zack, Steph and Edgar Muma are balancing the extended hours required to run Silver Creek Nursery with the enjoyment of moving toward the goal of increasingly sustainable, regenerative farming practices. Weed‐ suppressing hemp mats (left) are part of the “work within nature” approach taken at the nursery.
22 The Rural Voice
sample size revealing the necessity of constant monitoring and regular moving to avoid over-rooting, as well as the mess following seven inches of concentrated rainfall. “Sometimes it feels like we’re doing it the hard way,” Zack admitted, realistic yet not discouraged from closing one regenerative loop through a cover crop/grazing animal rotation, which ideally, will mean less work while working within, rather than against, nature. “It’s another resource potential instead of maintenance cost.” There was however, no qualification to the success of his determination to build a tiny house from largely compostable or recyclable formaldehyde-free materials, many of which were also recycled. Encouraged by a shared weekend-long course on designing and building one’s own home and using natural techniques, “I just kind of went for it.” The ensuing 28-by-10-foot structure was constructed on a purpose-built tiny house trailer, hempcrete (a quick-setting combination of hemphurd, a cokbination of hemp and fibre), hydrated lime and hydraulic binder around a 2-by-4 frame. Setting up within an hour, it continues to harden further over time. “It makes a nice, plasterable surface,” says Zack, who added fibreboard exterior walls to protect integrity during moving, and former mink barn metal roofing and siding on top of that. Hempcrete has an R value of two per inch, translating into roughly R15 overall given sevenand-a-half-inch thick walls (floor and roof insulation are offered through raw sheep’s wool mainly from a local shearer) featuring six inches of “crete” which also adds thermal mass, mitigating the rapidity of temperature change. A plumbed, hard-wired fourseason 350-square-foot structure, including a sleeping loft, is heated via electric heater and small wood stove and features a basic composting toilet and shower from a repurposed wine barrel Steph soldered together.
“You ‘brained’ it all,” she said, crediting Zack’s design that followed international tiny house code guidelines for both safety and functionality and took roughly a year to complete. “I probably made mistakes here and there,” confessed Zack, who did the lion’s share of the work himself. “But that’s part of it,” Steph rejoined. In a nutshell, those two sentences may sum up their decision to move forward with Silver Creek Nursery, in the manner they are. It’s a choice
that requires long hours, particularly in the spring, and an abundance of hard work. But there’s also an abundance of fulfilment in being able to ‘brain it all out’, incrementally moving toward self-sufficient sustainability in an industry built around the positive progression of things growing and living and thriving. “The magic of plants growing is all I need,” Steph added. “That’s where I get my kick.” Having enough money to survive,
support the entirety of the endeavour, consider children someday and replace securely rented property with their own ground, is important to the pair. So, too, is finding fulfillment in one’s life choices beyond simply making money. It’s about continuing to progress; continuing to evolve. “To be able to do your own thing, to make your own mistakes and learn from them and change your course of action,” Steph summed up in conclusion. “If you are the owner, you can take those steps.” ◊
C o m e t o t h e Fa i r ! 159th Brussels Fall Fair “Twist & Sprout” September 13-14 Tuesday, September 13th Brussels Legion Fish Fry 4:30-6:30 pm Brussels Four Winds Barn Inflatables 4-8 pm; Exhibits Open 6 pm; Pie Tables, Raffle Table, Train Display 6-8 pm; Opening Ceremonies 7 pm; Dog Show 7:15 pm Brussels Library Junior Section 6-8 pm
See you at the
Kincardine Fall Fair September 2nd & 3rd • Children’s Activities • Petting Zoo • Beef/Dairy Shows • Grand River Inflatables • Exhibits For more information visit kincardinefallfair.com
Wednesday, September 14th Brussels Legion Kids’ Program 9:30 am - 11:30 am Brussels Four Winds Barn Exhibits Open 10 am; Pie Tables, Raffle Table, Train Display, Inflatables, Fiddlesticks, Food Booth ~ 12-3 pm Brussels Library Junior Section 10 am - 3 pm Livestock Shed at BMGCC Sheep Show 12 pm; 4-H Beef Show, Little Folks Ag Show ~ 1 pm
Admission by Donation Visit our website or Facebook page for all the events and info!
www.brusselsfallfair.ca
159th Ripley Fall Fair September 22-25, 2022 Scarecrows & Fence Rows
September 22 ~ Teen Dance September 23 & 24 ~ Exhibits, Sheep, Beef & Light Horse shows; parade; pipe bands; live music/beer garden; midway. Special Events: Super Dog Show; FMX Show, Saturday night fireworks September 25 ~ Stoneboat Puller
Full schedule and all other info available at www.ripleyfair.ca August 2022 23
C o m e t o t h e Fa i r ! Mount Forest Fall Fair
Saturday Aug 20, 2022 Doors open 9:30 am
Western horse show, exotics show, exhibits, craft show & sale (inside). Also enjoy the balloon lady, face painting, power paws dog show, pet show, and so much more. Cost is by donation only.
Hope to see you there!
Drayton Fair
is Raising the Steaks
August 26 to 28 All weekend enjoy the Children’s Village, Inflatables, and Pony Rides Friday Parade 6:30 pm Taste of Minto 7 pm Saturday Tailgate Garage Sale 8 - 11 am Minto Farmers’ Market 9 am - Noon Cake Decorating Challenge - 9 am Tractor Show 9 am - 4 pm Antique Machinery Show 9 am - 4 pm Pet Show 10 am Baby Show 11 am Midwestern Equipment Demo 1 - 4 pm Celebrity Guest Ben Cullen 1:30 pm Auction of Champions 3 pm Food Trucks & Live Music 3 - 9 pm Corn Eating Competition 6:30 pm Sunday Church Service 10 am Family Music - Paul Behnke 11:45 am Dog Agility 12:30 Equine Showcase 1 pm Zucchini Races 2 pm Roast Beef Supper 4:30 - 6:30 pm
www.palmerstonfair.ca
24 The Rural Voice
August 5 to 7, 2022
Just another day in Fairadise
Friday
5 5 pm pm -- Gates Gates open open 6 6 pm pm local local Truck Truck & & Tractor Tractor Pull Pull
Saturday
7:30 am - Gates open 10:30 am - Heavy horse show and Gymkhana events 11 am - Goat Show 11 am - 3 pm - Inflatables 12 pm - Dairy Show 12- 5 pm - Tiger Paws Animal Exhibit 1-4 pm - Face Painting 2 pm - Pet Show NEW! 3 pm - Mapleton Barks - Mapleton Dogs Have Talent You can teach an old dog a new trick! 4 pm - Baby Show 6 pm - OTTPA Tractor Pull
Sunday
7:30 7:30 pm pm Gates Gates open open 8 8 am am -- 11 11 am am -- Legion Legion breakfast breakfast 10 10 am am -- Worship Worship service service open open to to public public 12 12 pm pm -- Exhibits Exhibits open open & & Beef Beef Show Show 12:30 12:30 pm pm -- Sheep Sheep Show Show 11:30-2 11:30-2 pm pm -- Chuckles Chuckles the the Clown Clown 11 pm pm -- Demolition Demolition Derby Derby -- presented presented by by Mom’s Mom’s Motor Motor sport sport
www.draytonagsociety.com
Environment
More trees and less fuel part of CFI goals • By Lisa Boonstoppel-Pot •
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rom variable frequency drives to renting vans versus trucks to building net-zero homes, members of Huron’s Carbon Footprint Initiative (CFI) are taking their commitment to reduce emissions and protect biodiversity very seriously. “We all know that our emissions are affecting the climate. We have no choice but to look at how to reduce those contributions and from my perspective, it’s a matter of choosing to be proactive or waiting until we are forced into it,” says Derek Mendez, vice-president of Molesworth Farm Supply Ltd. “We have decided to take a proactive approach. Every project we do now, we try to make it more efficient and minimize emissions.” Chet Calhoun, the Production Supervisor at Corteva’s Wingham Parent Seed Plant agrees. The company began tracking “everything” to get an idea of all the carbon produced at the plant. Then began decreasing fuel usage, recycling seed bags, and reducing driving times with strategic carpooling methods. “Honestly, it makes good business sense to operate green,” says Calhoun.
Above: Carbon Footprint Initiative leaders who attended the June 9 meeting were (left to right) Tracy MacDonald, CEO, Trillium Mutual Insurance Company; Kriss Snell, CAO, Municipality of North Perth; Richard Keeso, J.H.Keeso and Sons Ltd; Tim MacDonald former CEO of Ideal Supply Ltd; Ron Coghlin, Chairman, Molesworth Farm Supply Ltd.; Derek Mendez, Vice President, MFS Ltd.; Front Row: Ed McGugan, Vice Chair, MVCA. Missing: Martin Vogt, CEO, EFS Plastics Ltd.; Pat Downie, CEO, Ward and Uptigrove; Derry Wallis, Climate Change & Energy Specialist, County of Huron; Chet Calhoun, Production Supervisor, Wingham Parent Seed Plant, Corteva Agriscience. Top: Employees from Corteva Agri Sciences Wingham Production Plant had a field day planting trees as part of their carbon footprint strategy. ~Photos submitted
The Carbon Footprint Initiative in Huron County is a non-profit alliance of business owners, farmers and local goverment finding ways to reduce their carbon footprint August 2022 25
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26 The Rural Voice
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It’s also fun working IN green, says Richard Keeso, owner of J.H. Keeso and Sons Ltd, a sawmill business that was retired after a massive fire destroyed the main buildings in Listowel. While no longer part of the CFI as a businessman, Keeso is very active with CFI’s Middle Maitland Rejuvenation Project planting trees. “That is where I am happiest,” he says. Plus, he’s taken his passion for carbon reduction and applied to the building of his new home to create a net-zero home. Flooding, wildfires, tornadoes and wind events resulting from climate change directly affect the insurance industry which is why Tracy MacDonald, CEO of Trillium Mutual Insurance is a keen member of CFI. With goals to reduce their fuel usage, adapting a hybrid remote work model and building a living fence, the company continues to push for environmental sustainability. They have already received the Gold Standard from Canada’s Green Building Council for energy-saving efforts at their central office in Listowel, built in 2011. These are just four members of the CFI which is a non-profit alliance of public and private sector entities representing local government, agribusiness, forestry, insurance, seed, automotive and electrical supply sectors. They formed the initiative out of a common interest in finding ways to reduce their carbon footprint, especially the use of fossil fuels. They are also very active in planting trees, shrubs and plants to remove carbon from the atmosphere and store it in the land. Each company has its own carbon footprint strategy …. Molesworth Farm Supply rom changing all the lights in the mill to LEDs and then using automation for efficiency, Molesworth Farm Supply continues to modify and research ways to reduce their carbon footprint. Variable frequency drives (VFD) was a big saver in terms of electricity usage. “With VFD, we can adjust the speed equipment is run at, instead of running it at one fixed speed, which saves energy, “ explains Mendez.
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The system also stops any machinery that is idling. “When we run augers and run products through it, power consumption increases. Once it has passed, it goes at idle speed. Now, the system shuts it down so no equipment is running that isn’t being used.” Also, in terms of electricity, they created a system so that if two pieces of larger equipment are needed at the same time, they start sequentially versus simultaneously. “That doesn’t really reduce consumption but it reduces spikes which are a huge draw on the power supply.” The automation for both these systems saves the company on hydro costs as well. Other emissions the company is working to reduce include dust and waste water. Dust from the mill was traditionally released into the environment but now dust collectors trap the dust. Also, the mill is completely enclosed which reduces noise pollution. In terms of waste water, fully-automated truck washing systems were installed at the mill that monitor how many times a truck can be washed during the week. Mendez explains that some drivers really like to drive clean trucks and were cleaning trucks more than necessary. Now the system limits drivers to two washes a week. When a wash is needed for biosecurity reasons, the system washes only the bottom half of the truck to reduce water use. Water is also used in the feed pelleting process and has to be treated before use. “That creates waste water from the treatment process so we are capturing that water and using it for the truck wash on site. We know exactly how many litres are used in a wash,” says Mendez. The next big project for the company is the commissioning of a feasibility study to convert the truck fleet to hydrogen. “That would involve putting hydrogen fuel cells in the trucks and fueling them with hydrogen,” explains Mendez. The company wants to determine if the plan is possible and affordable. “We aren’t just waiting until we can buy new trucks,” says Mendez.
Automating truck washing and installing variable‐frequency drives in the plant have helped Molesworth Farm Supply reduce its emissions says Vice‐President, Derek Mendez (right). “We are looking at what we have now and the opportunities to further reduce emissions.” Corteva Agri Science Wingham Production Plant ne of the first members of CFI, Calhoun said he had the backing from his company right from the start when he wanted the plant to become “better in terms of environmental sustainability.” The first project was simply planting trees around the plant. “It was just an empty field and we decided to offset some of our carbon usage by planting trees. Then began a full-scale system of tracking all the carbon produced at the plant. That included use of propane, natural gas, electricity, landfill waste and water usage. “We wanted to have a baseline so that we could put goals into place to reduce outputs,” says Calhoun. In 2017/2018 we planted 150 trees with the goal to reduce 100,000 kilograms of carbon which was met. In 2016/2017 we reduced carbon tonnage by 219,000 kilograms and in 2017/2018, it was 98,000 kilograms.” Fuel usage was the next focus with multiple methods employed. They employed carpooling plans and rented fewer vehicles for employees to use. “We went from six weeks of using rental vehicles to four weeks,” says Calhoun. When trucks were rented, they only rented new, fuelefficient vehicles. Also, three staff earned their AZ licences so they
O
could truck combines instead of driving the actual combines to their destination. In terms of the world-wide Corteva company, the Wingham plant is in the top 10 per cent for efficiency compared to other sites of their size. By 2030, the company’s goal is to have zero waste traveling to the landfill. “That will be a big one but we are slowly but surely trying to recycle everything, such as our bags. We have a lot of waste when we cut seeds out of bags. They used to go to a dumpster but now they go to Clean Farms for recycling.” These initiatives make good business sense for the company and an unseen bonus is how planting trees and making positive choices benefits company morale. “Last year we helped CFI by putting all our employees in the field to plant trees. It seems like a lot of work but all the employees enjoyed it. Most of them grew up on farms and like to be in the field. It was fun and good to be part of the community.” Richard Keeso till regrouping from the 2018 fire that shut down the J.H. Keeso and Sons sawmill in Listowel, Keeso doesn’t represent a business on CFI so he works as much
S
August 2022 27
28 The Rural Voice
Richard Keeso as he can in the field. Which is right up his alley as he was already planting five acres of trees per year while operating the sawmill. “I always favour field work and I have been helping with the forest health studies via the Maitland Valley Conservation Authority (MVCA),” says Keeso. He’s been gathering data and is actively planting trees along the Maitland River. While running his business, Keeso believes he gained a well-rounded perspective about the environment by chatting with biologists, farmers, agribusiness, companies and municipal government. That knowledge coupled with extra time has translated into a personal passion to protect the environment. He regularly reads and researches new methods and is a big fan of Katherine Hayhoe, a Canadian atmospheric scientist working at Texas Tech University. Keeso also wanted to live by his beliefs so when the opportunity came to build a new home on Lake Huron, he and his wife Ann decided to build a solar, net-zero home. “It will produce as much energy as the home consumes and eliminate any need for fossil fuels,” says Keeso. The garage will feature two Tesla Powerwall battery units to collect sun energy on sunny days. When they fill them , the excess energy goes to the grid and the Keesos will receive a credit back from Hydro One for the contribution. In the evening, the home can be powered from these batteries which can store enough energy to power the home for six days. LoĒ³-366® glass windows are being installed to act as a barrier to the sun’s rays which takes a load off
the air conditioning while also maintaining heat in the home. It’s an exciting project for Keeso who says he is rethinking everything he does, including single use plastics and fuel versus electric vehicles. “We need to get back to a cyclical society where we can return things instead of throwing them out,” says Keeso. “It’s been said that our generation is the first to feel the effect of climate change and the last to do something about it. I believe that we are at a tipping point in many ways on this planet. I want to get out there and take action. Trillium Mutual Insurance Company uilding a main office with a focus on energy efficiency and replacing their vehicle fleet with 100 per cent hybrid vehicles are the big things Trillium Mutual Insurance has done. It’s also hard at work changing the small things. “Climate change is such a massive issue it seems insurmountable but there are simple things we all can do, like donating old clothes instead of bringing them to landfills,” says MacDonald. The company has an internal Carbon Footprint Initiative Leadership team that meets regularly to educate employees about those simple ways to change. “We really want to encourage good practices in
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everyday life.” More wide-reaching is the company’s podcast, called The Back 40 which is taking knowledge gleaned from agricultural clients and sharing it with the broader agriculture community. Moreover, the company itself is teaching clients how to prepare for emergencies that are arising out of climate change, such as flooding, tornadoes, fires and heavy wind and rain events. “A lot of people think they have insurance, so it will pay to restore what they lost. But there is far more to it. If we can help prevent some losses, it reduces the cost of insurance for everyone. There is also the sustainability aspect because rebuilding is not sustainable from an environmental perspective,” explains MadDonald. Interestingly, property loss can also be very detrimental to mental health. Flooding in particular seems to have lingering effects. After a flood and all the loss of property, some homeowners find themselves stressed each time it rains as it triggers memories and worries about future loss. At the business, research is being done on constructing a living wall to serve as a privacy fence. Employees are also active in tree planting projects while the office has gone 100 per cent digital. “We do not use paper at all,” says MacDonald. ◊
Climate change has a massive effect on the insurance industry and Trilliam Mutual Insurance CEO Tracy MacDonald (above, left) says the company has replaced its entire fleet with hybrid vehicles and has gone 100 per cent digital. The company also has a Sustainability Committee seen above near Wingham while involved in an on‐site education on Climate Adaptation work in Agriculture. August 2022 29
94th Annual Huron County
PLOWING MATCH Thursday, August 18 & Friday, August 19, 2022
Thursday, August 18 & Friday, August 19, 2022 Hosted by: Farm of Brian & Annette MacKenzie 85399 St. Helen’s Line, Lucknow
Co-hosted by Huron County Warden, Glen McNeil
Thursday, August 18 - Junior Day
Schedule of Events - Friday, August 19
Practice - 9:00 am - 11:00 am Lunch - 11:00 am - 1:00 pm by Wild Willie’s Food Truck Competition - 12 noon - 3:00 pm Steam Engine Princess Speeches - 1:00 pm Ploughing Demos Awards
Ross Gordon Memorial Trophy William Leeming Memorial Trophy McGavin Family Award Don Dodds Award Best Going Plow Team Award Antique Tractor Awards
Antique Plowing Champion Huron Junior Champion Huron Junior Reserve Champion Huron Senior Champion Huron Senior Reserve Champion Val-Lea Farms Award MGM Townsend Tire
For information call Brian Wiersma 519-955-1738
7:30 - 9:30 am Breakfast by Jonathan Nelson Silent 8:00 am - Registration & Live 9:00 am - Competition Auction after Banquet 11:00 am - 3:00 pm - Lunch by
Banquet Tickets Call
Neil & Joan Wild Willie’s Food Truck Vincent 1:00 pm - Queen of the Furrow Speeches 519-357-2336 5:00 pm - Greetings or Joan Ryan 5:30 pm - Banquet catered by 519-237-3806 Cardiff BBQ Catering Ltd. Silent Auction Bidding throughout the day Steam Engine Ploughing Demos Awards Presentations and Queen of the Furrow Crowning following Banquet
Antique Competition Bring your restored and unrestored antiques
Proud supporters of the Huron County Plowing Match HURON COUNTY FEDERATION OF AGRICULTURE 519-482-9642 ofahuron@tcc.on.ca www.hcfa.on.ca
See you at the Match!
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30 The Rural Voice
Best wishes for a successful plowing match CONSTITUENCY OFFICES Blyth Office:
408 Queen Street, Blyth, ON N0M 1H0 Phone: 519-523-4251 Toll Free: 1-800-668-9320
Kincardine Office:
807 Queen Street, Unit 3 Kincardine, ON N2Z 2Y2 Phone: 519-396-3007 Toll Free: 1-866-396-3007
Website: www.lisathompsonmpp.ca Email: lisa.thompsonco@pc.ola.org
Huron-Bruce Matters
94th Annual Huron County Plowing Match
Proud supporters of the Huron County Plowing Match
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Food
From garden seeds to tent-top meal Farm dinners at Lynn River Farm attract the attention of Canada’s former Governor General
I
get out of the van to be greeted by three large Maremma dogs and one host, talking animatedly on her cell phone. I wander around as I wait and Lindsay Higgins mouths an apology while continuing the conversation. When the phone call is over she is glowing because it was Adrienne Clarkson on the phone, Canada’s former
Governor General, booking her family for one of Lynn River farm dinners under the stars at the Stratford farm. It’s a bit of good news for Lindsay and Mike Higgins who are closing their farm store due to zoning issues with the municipality, yet have thousands of chickens and a huge vegetable garden filled with produce that needs to be eaten and sold. It’s also a bit of a win for Lindsay whose goal has always been to turn farm produce into a “meals on the farm” scenario since she became captivated with the farm when she was 27. Until then, Lindsay had good childhood memories visiting her grandparents on the farm but it had been many years since she’d been there. Her grandparents had rented out the house and fields became quarries as gravel was extracted from under the ground. Then her grandparents decided to sell and she returned with her father to check the place out. “I was in the truck with my dad and as we were driving down the laneway and I asked him if Grandpa would sell the place to me,” remembers Lindsay, a former case manager at Stratford Perth Shelterlink for homeless youth. “He laughed and said no and I left it. But a few days later, feeling nervous, I called my Grandpa and asked. His reply? ‘How soon can you sell your house?” She and Mike moved to the farm in 2009 and worked on a few projects as they got their feet wet in the farming life. Lindsay’s parents are chicken farmers but that’s not the way she wanted to go. Her intent was to grow food, make food and serve food. The first project was establishing a Community Shared Agriculture (CSA) garden for 20 friends on the deep, black soil in the valley alongside the laneway. Then she took part in a farm mentorship program in British Columbia where she first learned about farm dinners and KNEW that would come on her own farm. Next came chickens in moving chicken tractors via Chicken Farmers of Ontario Artisanal Chicken program, with permission to raise 2,000 birds. A farm store was built in 2015 with large fridges to store the chickens and vegetables from the CSA. To make use of the chickens, the farm began making and selling pot pies because the CSA customers were keen for premade meals. These were so successful, there wasn’t enough time for the CSA so that ended in 2017. In the pasture stands the tent, being prepared for the weekend’s As the years went by, the goal to offer farm guests, who will dine on homegrown vegetables and cooked on dinners started taking shape and in 2021, with an site for Lynn River Farm dinners. Owner Lindsay Higgins says to her, the definition of farming is good food and how it brings • By Lisa Boonstoppel-Pot • family, friends and community together. 32 The Rural Voice
outdoor tent, a custom-made grill and their own home-grown chicken and vegetables from the garden, the first dinner was served in September. “To me, that is what farming is all about – food,” says Lindsay. “It’s about food, connection and eating dinner together.” The first dinner offered five courses including roasted brown butter pumpkin soup; beef/pork ravioli with organic tomato sauce, fresh basil and homemade pasta; salad with organic greens from the garden topped with roasted beets; barbeque chicken with homemade barbecue sauce then a dessert of homemade custard with elderberry sauce and a shortbread biscuit. It was cooked and eaten under the tent, with guests free to wander the grounds between courses and relax by the firepit as they wished. The tent overlooks the large pond from the quarry. The dinner costs $115 per person and guests could bring their own booze with the evening taking between three and four hours. With 50 dinners under their belt, the couple have now hired a chef (Mike used to do the cooking) and while not all the dinners were sold out, enough were that Lindsay knew they were onto a good thing. “It’s just so peaceful. That’s what I want to offer the guests – a break from the everyday to sit with family and friends and eat good food,” says Lindsay. “It’s a window of time to be still.” As a business model, the dinner allows her and Mike to stay on the farm full-time. It is a labour intensive process but because she loves the work, Lindsay feels just doing the dinners (versus running the store and CSA) is like a vacation. On a deeper level, Lindsay feels called to do this work and without wanting to sound “out there” she says like many people, she has a spiritual yearning to be connected to the land, in the same way her grandparents did. “Many people are losing touch with the deepest parts of what it means to farm, in the way that our grandparents had it … this feels authentic.” As I leave Lindsay to look at the chickens, I meet Eden Kontrimas who is the gardener on the farm. This
Sept. 9,10,11
2022
1929 20HP Waterloo • Owned by Bruce Shillinglaw • Londesborough, ON
FEATURES ANTIQUE TRACTOR John Deere
ANTIQUE VEHICLE 1931 Ford Model “A”
LIVE DEMONSTRATIONS • Steam Engines • Antique Steam Shovel • Large Saw Mill • Gas Engines • Threshing • Rope Making • Blacksmith Shop • Bean Pot / Popcorn • Indoor/Outdoor Vendors • Quilting • Lifestyles Program
DAILY PARADES AT 4PM
HORSE DRAWN DEMONSTRATIONS
SERVICED CAMPING AVAILABLE
CHILDREN’S ACTIVITIES
SPECIAL EVENTS
TRACTOR PULLS
• Petting Zoo • Miniature Ponies • Face Painting • Pedal Tractor Pull • Lawn Tractor Rodeo • Crafts
• Log Sawing • Bag Tying • Belt Setting
• Antique Tractor Pull (pre 1958) • Classic Tractor Pull (1958-1978) • Children’s Stock Antique Garden Tractor Pull (pre 1978)
STONEBOAT PULLERS MODIFIED LAWN MOWER PULLS FRIDAY 7:00PM
MUSICAL EVENTS Fiddle Competition Jam Sessions
Free Fiddle Workshop Step Dance Competitions
Sunday Church Service Brussels Pipe Band
DANCES FRIDAY - Travis & Kim Teed Band SATURDAY - Irish Cowboys 8:00pm - Midnight (Arena Auditorium) The Friday and Saturday night dance under authority of the Special Occasion Permit. Proceeds go towards Community Betterment. Age of Majority is required.
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Members must have 2019 membership • Children 12 and under $2.00 or free when accompanied by an adult
Senior Day! Friday $8.00
86 Blyth Road Threshers Campgrounds Blyth, Ontario
Huron Pioneer Threshers Tel: (226) 523-9100 email: info@hptha.com
ALL exhibitors and vendors are required to provide their certificate of insurance to their committee chairperson. Association not responsible for accidents.
www.blythsteamshow.com August 2022 33
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34 The Rural Voice
384954 Salford Rd., Burgessville, ON N0J 1C0
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is Eden’s fourth season managing the gardens and given the size of the vegetable garden (a full acre) she has her work cut out for her. However, Eden was smiling and listening to music and looked quite content hoeing in the warm sun Up the hill are the chickens in several chicken tractors, which are moved regularly to provide the chickens with fresh pasture. Here, Mike admits getting to this point in the farm’s trajectory has been a lot of work and a huge learning curve for him. He grew up in the city and worked as a financial planner and in construction, skills he carries with him, but still …farming is its own lesson on lean times, long hours and a constant shift to what the consumer demands. ◊
Clockwise: • Mike Higgins filled feeds in the chicken tractors for the chickens they raise under Chicken Farmers of Ontario’s Artisanal Chicken program. • Lynn Higgins stands by the giant grill used on their farm dinner evenings. • Chickens raised outdoors in moveable chicken tractors provide the meat for the farm dinners. • Lynn River employee, Eden, keeps busy managing an acre of garden used to grow vegetables for the farm dinners. August 2022 35
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The Rural Voice
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36 The Rural Voice
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Farming
Curious consumers attend Farm Crawl From growing strawberries and salad greens to rotational grazing, the Farm Crawl offered handson learning • By Lisa Boonstoppel-Pot •
P
eople are thrilled to get on a farm to see and learn how food is grown, says Katrina McQuail of Meeting Place Organic Farm near Lucknow. McQuail was instrumental in organizing a Farm Crawl on July 10 via Eat Local Huron, a not-for-profit online farmers’ market dedicated to bringing locally sourced food to the doorsteps of Huron County residents. The Farm Crawl was a chance for people to see where the food and products they are buying are made. This Farm Crawl took place in northern Huron County with more farm crawls planned in different parts of the county throughout the summer. Meeting Place Organic Farm Meeting Place was one of the stops and if you arrived on time, you got to hop on a hay wagon pulled by horses and driven by Tony McQuail (Katrina’s dad) who explained the ecological methods practised on the mixed farm. “We are trying to imitate what the bison do,” said McQuail of the pastures, grazed in rotations by about 40 head of mixed beef cattle. “We like to see the grass trampled because for soil microbes to have a good life, they need soil cooled under the mulch.” The farm is managed with regenerative principles and a focus on biodiversity. As such, hay fields are cut later to ensure bobolinks have
Katrina McQuail of Meeting Place Organic Farm introduces ducklings to little Ennio Dicecco and his mom Krista during the Farm Crawl which allowed visitors to tour three farms and one coffee roastery in Huron County on July 9. a chance to raise their young as part of the Delay the Hay campaign. Late hay can be tough and nutrient-poor for cattle so the McQuails graze the hayfields in April and early May and let it grow after that, so the new growth will be nutrient-dense at harvest. Wagon riders viewed the pastured poultry, which are moved every day on grass. The ephemeral ponds, due to their seasonal nature, are not home to fish. This makes them ideal nurseries for amphibians. McQuail also pointed out the innovative water pump system he imported from New Zealand to pump water from a lowlying pond to a reservoir high on the property. This water then serves as drinking water for animals and irrigation water for crops, gardens and an orchard. After the tour, visitors enjoyed
watching a young foal nurse from its mother, piglets scampering around a cow, ducklings in a barrel and Fran McQuail’s perennial garden near the house. Katrina McQuail, who now runs the farm, was thrilled with the turnout and says as planning proceeds for future farm crawls, emphasis will be placed on providing safe activities for families. Morrison Berries Did you know that eating seven strawberries provides as much vitamin C as one orange? Which is why strawberry farmer Emily Morrison encourages every child on the farm crawl to eat at least seven strawberries out of the field. “We had a big rush at 12:30 and we taught them all about strawberries,” said Emily, walking first to a three-acre field that has been August 2022 37
newly planted with strawberry plants. Each field had irrigation lines running under each row of plants because “water is what makes a berry grow big and heat is what makes them turn red.” Morrison was full of fun facts, teaching that: • Strawberry plants last for four years • The first berry is called a King berry and is the largest • Each plant produces about seven berries with the latest ones being the smallest • Strawberries are the fruit with seeds on the outside, not the inside • Strawberries need ¼ inch of rain every week to thrive Work in the newly planted field involves walking it weekly and popping off all the flowers. The goal is for the plants to grow roots and get stronger, rather than produce fruit the first year.
Tony McQuail (top and left), founder of Meeting Place Organic Farm near Lucknow took visitors on a hay wagon ride to explain their Delay the Hay strategies to raise quality hay while protecting bobolink habitat. Friend Perry Pearce was beside Tony for the tours. Visitors could then enjoy the livestock on the farm, which included sows and piglets in the barn and pastured pigs beside the laneway.
38 The Rural Voice
In the other fields, five different varieties of strawberries are grown to provide early, mid-and late-season berries. Due to June’s frost, the midseason berries were affected with much of the fruit deformed. That cold snap also pushed back the late season berries. It’s this late season variety called Malwina that is her favourite because of its smooth, mellow taste. It turns dark purple when it is ripe. Next on the strawberry farming agenda is mulching the fields with straw. The clean straw serves as a weed suppressant, cooling agent and keeps the berries clean. “It also provides a nice picking experience
which we want for our customers,” says Morrison. It will compost and add humus into the soil as well. Firmly Rooted Farm As the day ran late, I missed the crowds at Firmly Rooted who were keen to see what was growing in the five, large greenhouses at this organic vegetable farm near Belgrave. The owners, Tamara McMullen and Brian Wiley, have realized their vision to create a small-scale farm business that provides food four seasons of the year using 3.5 acres of a seven-acre farm. They use the rest of the land to provide habitat to pollinators and other beneficial
insects and animals, as part of their focus on biodiversity and sustainability. Tamara gave a tour of the farm including the gorgeous Salanova beds filled with green and purple salad greens. New seedlings and new beds are started weekly so they can provide greens to restaurants, stores and Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) clients until Christmas. Then they take a break and start all over in March. Firmly Rooted is a colourful, thriving place that employs seven workers beside themselves. One greenhouse is filled with sky high tomatoes, another with cucumbers
Emily Morrison (above, right)) taught visitors to Morrison Berries near Lucknow how to grow strawberries using irrigation to increase size and using straw to keep berries clean and weeds down. August 2022 39
growing up trellises. Tamara will pick 100 cucumbers a day out of the greenhouse until the cukes, which are particularly susceptible to disease, succumb. Then new ones are started and the process continues. The outside gardens are filled with rows of lettuce, carrots, zucchini, asparagus and other vegetables. They have around 150 CSA clients in the spring, 200 in the summer and 250 in the fall. While Tamara doesn’t offer tours (there just isn’t time) customers are welcome to explore the gardens while picking up their vegetable boxes. A walk to the back of the farm shows a constructed wetland being built with an additional area to process waste water from the greenhouse. Beside the pond is a man-made hibernaculum, which is made of large rocks above and underground to provide hibernation space for snakes. Tamara said visitors were fascinated by the hibernaculum as is she, as she believes in providing habitat for creatures. As such, they continually add hedgerows containing native Tamara McMullen at Firmly Rooted Farm near Belgrave (right) showed visitors on the Farm Crawl the height and productivity of the tomato and cucumber greenhouses while a walk outside revealed rows of Salanova lettuce, which is the bread and butter of this organic vegetable farm that promotes biodiversity.
40 The Rural Voice
Coastal Coffee Roastery on Kintail Line near Goderich was a good place to end the tour with a cup of fresh roasted coffee and view of the gardens with wandering chickens. Owners Ben and Bri Gingerich have created relationships with coffee growers around the world to import tasty beans for their coffee shop.
shrubs such as chokeberry or trees like hazelnuts to provide shelter and food for wildlife and insects. With three acres of gardens, five huge greenhouses and two little ones to manage, Tamara and Brian are busy but happy farming the way they believe in. They make use of smallfarm technologies such as a salad harvester that is run by a drill, a fiverow seeder for the outdoor gardens and a vacuum seeder for planting trays. “Just because we are small does not mean we cannot benefit from technology,” says Tamara. Coastal Coffee The final stop on the tour was Coastal Coffee, a coffee roastery situated in an old church on Kintail Line near Goderich. Owners Ben and Bri Gingerich have developed relationships with growers in countries like Colombia and Guatemala to import fresh beans to roast here in Ontario. They also have large gardens, chickens and bunnies to make sipping coffee at the church a visual experience while simultaneously growing food for their family. ◊
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August 2022 41
Farm Safety
Stop. Think. Act. to be safe on the farm
T
Over 100 children learn about fire, tractor, chemical and internet safety at Family Safety Day
he Lambton Farm Safety Association is a volunteer organization dedicated to teaching farm and agricultural safety to the farmers and families. They host community seminars and events on various farm safety topics, advocate for improved injury prevention practices for their region, and host an annual Family Safety Day in various locations around Lambton County. On July 7, they presented an exceptionally informative program at the Legacy Centre in Thedford. Approximately 150 parents, guardians and children received a “Safety is my Superpower” T-shirt and a ball cap. Each family received a gift bag that included a fire extinguisher supplied by Lambton Mutual Insurance. A spokesperson for the insurance company told me that they
Lambton Shores Mayor Bill Weber brought along two of his grandchildren, Stella and Archie, to the Lambton Farm Safety Association’s Farm Safety Day on July 7. Sarah Hawley of Dowler‐Karn taught the children the "Stop, Think, Act" motto that can help save lives on farms. 42 The Rural Voice
support this educational initiative every year. There were 11 interactive stations set up and each child had a safety passport to be stamped after they visited and participated. The importance of STOP - THINK ACT to prevent injuries in a farm setting was stressed over and over. WSPS (Workplace Safety Prevention Services) is a provincial organization that sponsors and promotes STOP, THINK, ACT. They provide many online resources for family farm safety and they encourage people to review their website. Operating a family farm has unique health and safety concerns. Unlike other businesses, farms are often a workplace, a home, and a playground. Family members can be exposed to varying risks. It is not uncommon for children to participate in farming activities and chores at a young age. They need to learn how to live and work safely. The key to preventing farm accidents is to look out for the factors that typically contribute to accidents and address them before an accident occurs. It is critical to develop a farm safety plan before an injury or death occurs. Don McCabe from Alvinston gave his presentation on Chemical Safety. Chemicals, pesticides and herbicides can cause serious burns, respiratory illnesses and poisonings. With each group of children he continually made an impression about the dangers around the home and farm. He had a case full of unlabeled liquids in large glass test-tube-like containers, numbered one through 24. The children tried to guess what each of the test tubes contained. Just some of the mysterious liquids included windshield washer fluid, maple syrup, liquid ammonia, apple juice, Windex, paint thinner, lemon juice, rubbing alcohol and Gatorade! It was quite something to see how “almost identical” the blue coloured Gatorade and Windex were in their side by side test tubes. Don did a great job of teaching the children about the meanings of different hazard labels that are displayed on containers and taught how they need to be mindful at all times when in proximity to common agricultural chemicals including fuels, solvents, insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, fertilizers and veterinary chemicals. Safely storing, transporting, using and disposing of chemicals is a big responsibility for farmers. Don, who is an advocate for environmental farm stewardship, holds a chemistry degree from Western University and has served as President of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture. The children were taught how to use a fire extinguisher to put out the virtual flames on the screen during the
• By Bonnie Sitter •
presentation given by the Lambton Shores Fire and Emergency Services. The innovative, safe and exciting demos kept the children engaged and offered worthwhile reminders for the attendees about staying safe. Lawn mower instructor Pat Soetemans with assistant Tom MacLean, from Podolinsky Equipment in Petrolia were on hand to discuss Lawn Mower Safety. They displayed a John Deere riding lawn mower that the children could climb on and explore. Part of the safety instruction was to have children sit on the seat and then see how far it was for their feet to reach the pedals. According to their information package that was handed out, operators of riding mowers need to be at least 16 years of age, have the strength to operate the equipment and show maturity to make wise decisions. Discussed at great length were the risks of children riding along on lawn tractors of any size and the many dangerous situations that can quickly arise. In their display were two different boots that showed the children the importance of proper safety footwear when using lawn equipment. The first was a simple black rubber boot which had one side of it sheared completely off. The other work boot was a proper safety boot fully loaded with many layers of protective materials A warning was added that even the best safety work boots were not necessarily 100 per cent effective. Even though chemicals are dangerous, machinery is the highest risk factor to people living on farms. Research has shown that nearly half of all agricultural fatalities in Canada were due to three machine-related causes: machine rollovers, machine runovers and machine entanglements. The safety station showing the dangers of power take-offs certainly “grabbed” the attention of both the children and adults. Twelve year old Gavin Sitter was heard to say, “Whoa, wouldn’t want to stand too close to that thing” when the PTO was demonstrated. In their example a rope was pulled in and wrapped around so quickly it surprised adults and children alike.The PTO Safety presentation was given by Lambton
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44 The Rural Voice
Farm Safety Association members Ken Campbell and Earl Woolever. Although not technically a safety display, the presentation by Emily Febrey, the Stewardship Communication Technician for St. Clair Conservation Authority, shared detailed information about Invasive Species and Species at Risk. The children were asked to choose pictures from the Species at Risk display board and figure out which Invasive Species was causing their demise. For example she explained that 99 per cent of all Ash trees in North America have been killed by the Emerald Ash Borer. The Blanding’s turtle is at risk in this area due to the abundance of Phragmites that are taking hold in our ditches, rivers and at the edge of Lake Huron. The Phragmites are so strong and thick once they have rooted that the turtles are unable to get through them to lay their eggs. The Spiny Softshell Turtle is endangered as well for various reasons, one being Purple Loosestrife. The plant is a perennial that has pretty purple flowers and is a troubling invader that once rooted will take over vast areas. Each plant can produce millions of seeds each year. It overtakes the natural habitat needed for turtles and birds. Emily told her audience how important it was to properly clean boats, fishing equipment and even your footwear if you have come into contact with Purple Loosestrife in order to avoid spreading the invasive plant further.
Emily kept the children engaged by adding interesting facts such as earthworms are not a natural species here in Ontario! Internet Safety, which has become increasingly important, was discussed by OPP officer Jamie Bydeley. Rules need to be in place to keep children safe, such as don’t talk to anyone on the internet when playing games on the internet. Make sure parents know what games you are playing and where on the internet they are. Don’t put any personal information on the internet and don’t talk to anyone you don’t know. No computers in bedrooms was stressed as well as explaining that chat rooms have people who are not who they appear to be. Gord Marsh was the paramedic on hand with an ambulance and children were able to climb aboard the ambulance and see the medical equipment it contained. Very importantly, Gord explained when and how to call 911. Children were reminded not to touch needles they might come across. Report seeing them to an adult. Animal safety was explained by two directors of Lambton Farm Safety Association, Harry VanWieren and Bob Woolvett. They spoke about how an animal sees and hears and how things like sudden noises and unexpected movements can frighten and stress animals and cause them to bolt and make intense escape attempts. Some warning signs
that an animal is on guard for danger are ears back, teeth bared, pawing the ground and loud whinnying and bawling. Tractor safety proved interesting with instructions of where to stand and where not to stand so the operator of the tractor can make eye contact with you. If the operator can’t see you, you could be in danger. Delta Farm equipment brought one of their large tractors to the event and placed children in and out of the cab to demonstrate the dangers. The event was made possible through sponsorship of many companies, organizations and families. Promoting safety is everyone’s business and responsibility. ◊
Right: Lawn mower instructor Pat Soetemans had help from Tom MacLean from Podolinsky Equipment in Petrolia to discuss lawn mower safety. Far right: Children were given hands‐on instruction on how to safely use a fire extinguisher with members of the Lambton Shores Fire Department. Above, right: Paramedic Gord Marsh of Lambton County let children tour an ambulance on safety day. August 2022 45
46 The Rural Voice
Dairy
New dairy features overhead feeding The cattle are fed by an innovative overhead conveyor belt system and kept separate at the manger by steel dividers • By Gary West • to prevent pushing and shoving
H
undreds of interested farmers turned out to a new dairy barn open house southeast of Mitchell in June. The dairy farm is owned by Marco, Ashley, Hans and Marlies Pfister. The Pfister family moved to Ontario from Switzerland in the 1970s and have been very progressive dairy farmers in Perth County ever since. Hans and Marlise have three children – Sandra, Marco, and Martina. They have always milked in a milking parlour/free stall setting and when they outgrew their facility, decided to build a new freestall barn with extra hi-tech ventilation, overhead conveyor feeding with a double-8 parallel milking parlour. Cow comfort has always been their priority. Marco’s
wife, Ashley, is also an intricate part of the operation and enjoys milking morning and night along with looking after her three daughters. The Pfisters are repeatedly in the top one percent for production and management for all Ontario dairy farms. In recent years the energetic Holstein family has also received a “Master Breeder” shield from Holstein Canada for excellence in breeding and production. They have also been known for supplying champion 4-H dairy calves to many youth in the Perth County area, who have gone on to be very progressive dairy men and women themselves. Neighbours will say the Pfister family have been most welcoming to new immigrants and friends, because they know they were newcomers to a new country at one time too. According to Marco Pfister, some of the reasons why they decided to go with the hybrid ventilation system and the feed stalls were: It’s a mechanically-ventilated barn during peak temperatures of the year and the rest of the year it functions as a naturally-ventilated barn. Consistently fresh air being brought into the barn with no dead spots. During the hot summer when the barn is being mechanically ventilated, the curtains are closed keeping the sunlight out of the barn The overshot roof design allows the exhaust air to escape with no restriction compared to chimneys.
The new barn at Pfister Dairy Farms Inc. near Mitchell features both natural and mechanical ventilation to ensure cow comfort (above). At right, daughter‐in‐law Ashley Pfister and Hans Pfister pose in front of their new dairy facility along with employee Maddy Dixon. AT far right, Hans and Marco pose with the farm mascot, Jasper, a Bernese Mountain dog. August 2022 47
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The feed stalls allow cows to have their hooves on a clean and dry surface and away from the disturbance of the alley scrapers behind them. It also eliminates all bullying at the feed bunk and makes for a very quiet atmosphere in the barn. But as you look further, the main feed trough area is not drive-thru like most free stall barns. Instead overhead conveyors bring the TMR mixture of corn silage, haylage, high moisture corn, pellets and minerals to an overhead conveyor system that drops feed via a feed deflector to various production groups. The dairy cows, when eating, stand higher than the scrape alley and
cows are kept apart by steel dividers to prevent them from pushing from side to side. On both sides of the barn there are large fans “blowing in” for extreme air control during hot summer days. As with most new free stall barns, feed is pushed in by a robotic feed pusher throughout the day. ◊ Below: Cattle can have their own space at the manger thanks to steel partitions which prevent fighting at the manger while dry, close‐up and close‐to‐calving cows and heifers are given ample space in clean, straw‐ packed pens at Pfister Dairy Farms Inc near Mitchell.
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August 2022 49
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Recipes by Anne Mann
Garden vegetables equal a harvest fiesta
A
ugust’s abundant supply of tomatoes and peppers begs you to make a batch of salsa to preserve all that bright and beautiful produce. If you find some tomatillos you can even try some homemade salsa verde! Unfortunately the green salsa does not keep like tomato salsa but you can freeze it (it may lose a lot of its colour) and it was nice to have the sauce in the winter for chicken enchiladas. With a jar of freshly made salsa and if you are lucky a batch of salsa verde you must try these amazing carnitas! I promise you will not be disappointed in this Mexican variation of pulled pork. I do not make them very spicy because we have a lot of grandchildren who do not like the heat but you can add more peppers as desired or just some hot sauce to your own. I like to serve the carnitas in a soft tortilla wrap with all the fixings – avocado or guacamole, sour cream, salsa, salsa verde, cheese and lettuce. With salsa and carnitas you have an excuse for a great fiesta! Add some complementary sides like corn on the cob or Tomato Corn Salad (The Rural Voice, September 2018), Corn and Bean Salad (July, 2018), Rice or Baked Beans and you can feed a crowd. Let guests choose whether they want to use a wrap, some tortilla chips or just a plate! Mexican Pork Carnitas These Pork Carnitas are adapted from the blog “RecipeTinEats” and I return to it again and again because they are just so delicious! They are simple and I have not had any I like better! The final step of browning them in the frying pan takes them to the next level so do not skip it. When I am freezing them I leave some of the liquid with it and do the final browning step just before serving. Ingredients: Rub: 1 Tbsp oregano 2 tsp cumin, ground 2 tsp salt 1 tsp pepper
1 Tbsp olive oil Slow Cooker: 5 lb pork shoulder or butt roast with bone 1 onion, chopped 1 dry hot pepper, whole or 1 Jalapeno pepper, chopped without seeds 4 cloves garlic chopped or minced 2 oranges, juice (3/4 cup) and skin separate
Directions: Combine seasoning mix for rub. I use my mortar and pestle and whole cumin seeds but anyway you mix them is fine. Rinse and dry the pork and rub all over with seasoning mix. Place in a slow cooker with fat side up and cover with onion, garlic and orange juice. Throw orange peels
Mexican Pork Carnitas (top) are a fun, simple meal using either pork shoulder or butt roast and adding hot peppers (right) and garlic. Tomatillos, avocados and onions (above) can be transformed into Grilled Tomatilla Salsa. August 2022 51
and hot pepper in along the sides and cook on low for about 10 hours. Remove from the slow cooker, reserving liquid, and cool slightly before shredding with 2 forks. Heat 1 Tbsp oil in a large nonstick pan and spread the pork in the pan. Remove orange skins and hot pepper if using the whole one then drizzle with juices from the slow cooker. Cook until juice evaporates and pork is crispy and brown on the bottom. Do not brown all of it so it retains some of the juicy deliciousness. ...Mmmmm. Serve with soft tortilla wraps or taco chips and guacamole, salsa verde or salsa and sour cream. Serves 8 - 10 Salsa Opening a jar of this salsa in winter is like opening a jar of summer! That being said… I can never decide which salsa recipe I like better – Ruth’s with the extra peaches and mustard seed or the next recipe with corn. Often I put both recipes together and I could combine them into a single recipe with all the ingredients but I keep them separate because every time I make salsa I have a little different mix of ingredients. One time I am making it at the same time as the peaches are on and another time I do not have a can of tomato paste or a cob of corn so I adapt between the two so it is always a surprise! You need to be certain that you keep the acid content high enough to preserve the mix so do not swap out a low acid vegetable for the tomatoes or leave out any citrus juice or vinegar. Ruth’s Salsa This plain salsa recipe from my cookbook, based on Ruth Buchmeier’s, has been used by hundreds of fans and often variations of it take the prizes at the Lucknow fair! It is not a hot salsa but you can spice it up if you choose to. I like to use a variety of tomatoes when I make salsa, it just looks so appetizing, but the finished colour will not be as bright red. I may add a tablespoon of fruit fresh to help brighten the colours. Ingredients: 12 cups tomatoes, peeled and chopped 52 The Rural Voice
3 cups celery, finely chopped 2 cups onions, finely chopped 3 Tbsp pickling salt 2 Tbsp white sugar 1/2 cup lime or lemon juice 1/2 cup cider, wine vinegar or pickling vinegar 2 cloves garlic, crushed or finely chopped 1 - 2 Tbsp hot pepper, minced including seeds or 1 - 2 tsp cayenne 2 Tbsp mustard seed 1 sweet green pepper, chopped 1 sweet coloured pepper, chopped 1 Tbsp cilantro or 1 tsp ground coriander 1 tsp paprika 1 tsp cumin 1 can (5.5 oz) tomato paste Directions: Combine tomatoes, celery, onions and salt and let stand for at least 3 hours or overnight. Drain and save the juice for soup. I freeze it in 2 cup portions. It is nice and salty and full of flavour. Add sugar, lime juice, vinegar, garlic, hot peppers, peaches if using and mustard seed and simmer for about 45 minutes or longer, stirring often, until the sauce is the consistency you like. I tend to cook it a little longer now than I used to. Add green and yellow peppers, cilantro, cumin and tomato paste and continue to boil for 15 minutes. Do not worry if you add the peppers at the beginning – they will just be a little softer and less colourful – still delicious. Sterilize jars by boiling for 10 minutes. Pour into sterilized jars and seal according to manufacturer's instructions. Makes about 6 – 16 oz jars. Variation: Eleanor’s Peach Salsa Add 4 cups of peeled and chopped peaches and ¼ cup of vinegar and reduce tomatoes by 2 cups. You can add an additional 2 jalapeno peppers, minced, since the peaches counter the heat in the peppers. Corn Salsa I like the additional colour and texture the corn adds to the salsa so if I have some fresh corn I will make this recipe. Because some of the sweeter varieties of tomatoes have less acid I was finding this did not
keep after opening as well as the other recipe so I have increased the lemon juice to a quarter cup. Ingredients: 9 - 10 cups tomatoes, peeled and chopped 1 large sweet onion, chopped 2 Tbsp pickling salt 2 cloves garlic, crushed 2 - 3 tsp hot pepper, minced with seeds 1 sweet orange or red pepper, chopped 1 sweet green pepper, chopped 2 - 3 ribs celery, chopped with leaves 1 cob sweet corn, cooked and cut off the cob, about 1 cup 1/2 cup red or white wine vinegar 1 - 2 Tbsp brown sugar, packed 1/4 cup lemon juice, fresh 1 Tbsp fresh parsley, chopped 1 tsp cumin 1/2 tsp coarse black pepper Directions: Place tomatoes and onions in a large pot and sprinkle with pickling salt. Let sit several hours or overnight. Drain liquid and reserve for soups or stocks. Measure garlic, hot and sweet peppers, celery, corn, vinegar, sugar, lemon juice, parsley, cumin and black pepper in a pot with tomatoes. Heat to boiling, stirring often. Reduce heat and simmer for about an hour until desired consistency. Sterilize jars by boiling for 10 minutes. Seal in hot, sterilized jars according to the manufacturer's directions. Makes 4 – 16 oz jars Grilled Tomatillo Salsa (Salsa Verde) Last summer we decided to grow some tomatillos because we like Mexican flavours. I found out they are very prolific so I was able to experiment quite a bit. I did not find many things besides salsa verde that used tomatillos so I added a few to soups and stocks and sauces along the way and they fit in quite nicely – just three or four here and there. This version of salsa verde was my favourite and works well when you have the oven or grill on for another part of your meal. For an authentic salsa verde the cilantro
would not be optional but it is something I do not have on hand all the time and have not had good luck keeping it in the garden. If you do have some fresh cilantro you get a brighter green colour which is nice. You can mix this salsa with a mashed avocado for a thicker, richer dip if you like. Ingredients: 1 lb tomatillos, husks and stems removed 1 onion, cut in 1/2 inch chunks 1 Tbsp olive oil or as much as you like 1/2 -1 Jalapeno pepper, seeded and roughly chopped 1 clove garlic 2 Tbsp lime juice 1/2 tsp salt 1/2 tsp sugar 1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped, or 1 tsp cilantro paste (optional) 1 -2 avocados (optional) Directions: Wash and dry tomatillos and cut in quarters, reserving half uncooked to add later. Toss half the tomatillos with the onion, Jalapeno and garlic and olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place in a single layer in a roasting pan and cook for 10 - 20 minutes in a hot oven (400–425°F) or on a clean grill until soft and slightly browned. Pulse roasted vegetables with reserved fresh tomatillos, lime juice, salt, sugar and cilantro (if using). You may process until smooth or leave chunky. Serve with chicken, pork or tortilla chips. Leftovers in the refrigerator will turn brown after a few days. I freeze any leftovers to use with enchiladas in the winter. ◊
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August 2022 53
Gardening Rhea Hamilton‐ Seeger is a skilled cook and gardener who lives in Goderich.
Learning to do it right ... no shortcuts
We have the wonderful opportunity to start fresh in our new yard and I have been trying faithfully to be mindful of preparing the soil and careful with my choices of plant material. Mind you I will readily admit to having battles with assorted “thugs” in the garden like both plain and variegated gout weed, creeping bellflower and some rather sneaky ones like periwinkle. I wrote about our first big cut with the sod cutter last year. This is an update on that project. Right below
the kitchen window along the quaint picket fence was a nice tidy row of climbing red roses and neatly trimmed hydrangea. All the plant material was left in place — why disturb a good design. We cut the sod from the garden over to the corner, which was marked with a large soft ornamental evergreen and a viburnum. Not wanting to eliminate any soil, the sod was flipped over and covered with newspapers and a load of manure. The plan was to let it age and the following spring we would till and plant. As my husband will tell you I am a bit impatient. An offer of free topsoil moved the plans up. Once three inches of wonderful black earth was hauled in, we started planting! In this plot we wanted to focus on mostly natives. In the back under the window we planted a Spicebush, Lindera benzoin, an early spring, yellow-blossom shrub; think forsythia with miniature double blooms. Since that corner is shady most of the day this was a good choice. In perfect conditions they can reach eight feet but I think with some judicious pruning
we can keep it to the five or six feet. One year later the plant has tripled in size and had a handful of wee blooms. Next year will be even better. (tripled in size sounds Wow! but when it arrived it was only a healthy 10 inches high!) Next in the garden went Obedient plant, Physostegia virginiana, which some of you may know. We had the white variety and this year it is up to my chest! They can grow anywhere from two to four feet. At the farm the same plant in our gravelly soil would reach a little over two feet. With the enriched soil, and water we have, reached the four-foot limit here. The Blue lobelia, Smooth Blue aster and Lanceleaf coreopsis were also happy with the new garden and the wild lupine bloomed and set seed but did not appear this year and neither did any seedling. New location needed! We also included some fancy daylilies along the hot edge of the garden and of course a peony found its way into the mix but is taking its time settling in, as some peonies like to do. We are continuing to add more natives and this spring a wee spotted bee balm, Mondarda punctata, was popped along the edge. It takes part
Before and after pictures show how taking a thorough approach to establishing a garden can create dramatic results within one year. A sod cutter was used to cut strips of soil which were flipped over, covered with newspapers and a load of manure. This was topped witih three inches of topsoil and planting began. A year later, and the result can be seen to the left.
54 The Rural Voice
shade to full sun and works on dry to medium moisture. Not a permanent site as it can reach two feet but since the plant was so small to start, I wanted to keep an eye on it. The second wild garden was the boulevard strip along the back street. There is a large Norway maple, two younger sugar maples and a Kentucky Coffee tree. We left the grass uncut the first year and mulched the leaves. I cut into the lawn and planted bee balm, Monarda didyma; white yarrow, achillea millefolium (native) and a few of the yellow variety (not native); coneflower, Echinacea pallida. And here we are about choices and research. I thought Leopard’s bane, Doronicum, was native and planted three of them. Nope, perennials from Europe, Asia and Siberia, but they bloom early in the spring like the dandelions so I left them. They are low growing and if deadheaded in the spring will bloom again in the fall. As you can imagine the results of the two beds are like night and day. The one with the grass flipped and the added manure and topsoil shows in the wonderful growth. The extra work has paid off. The boulevard, on the other hand, was a project that skimped on labour and materials. I was hoping that the natives would be aggressive enough to take on the grass. Not so. This spring the grass was cut back to a smaller area; the ground around the natives was cut short, covered with wet cardboard and mulched. Along the fence itself is a lovely flush of heart-leafed white asters. They are happy, unplanned, and will look good this fall. When we are ready to expand the boulevard native garden we will follow the plan of flipping the sod, supplementing the soil and mulching well around the plants for the first year. Meadow, and assorted native gardens take a bit of time in the planning stage and no shortage of work in the preparation, but the benefits are enormous. Not only the beauty of the native plants but the excitement when you see the butterflies and bees enjoying them with you makes it all worthwhile. ◊
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August 2022 55
Finances
Why are you working hard to make money? Answering that question creates motivation to make and save it, says money expert • By Lisa Boonstoppel-Pot •
W
hen it comes to getting a handle on your moolala, it’s all about the four C’s — context, consequences, complexity and community. So says Bruce Sellery, a business journalist, author and radio host who was a featured speaker during Farm Credit Canada’s Women Entrepreneurs Summit held virtually in March. “Money can make us feel inadequate and it can be really, really scary but there are four things we can do to get a better handle on it and it starts with context,” said Sellery. Also, people tend to get really weird talking about money so he tries to make it fun, as you’ll see from some of his comments coming up. Context is the setting in which an event occurs and in terms of money, it’s vital to know what your money is for. What is the purpose of it, asked Sellery. Using exercise as an example, Sellery said many people exercise to lose weight. Or to deal with stress. “I exercise because I like the challenge and I want to live for my grandkids. I also exercise because it is fun. Everyone has an answer for why they exercise and if they don’t, they don’t exercise,” he said. It is the same with money. Everyone needs to know why they are making money. “Society will tell you it is for retirement but how can you talk about retirement with a 27year-old?” said Sellery. Some people make money for stuff. For others it’s about supporting and funding their children and creating a legacy for multiple generations. Or prestige. Or beauty in terms of clothes and plastic surgery. For some it’s about contribution to their community or to the world. For others it’s about comfort and having a big lazyboy in a modern home. Others make money for survival. 56 The Rural Voice
Bruce Sellery Host of Moolaalaa: Money Made Simple “My mother was raised through the Depression so my mom saved everything. Elastics. Bread ties. She rinsed out the milk bags and put our sandwiches in it. On Christmas morning, you took your presents and removed the tape as though you were deactivating a nuclear bomb in the movie Mission Impossible because you had to save the paper.” However, that was not a context that empowered Sellery. To him, money is about adventure. He discovered this after taking a trip to New Zealand and realizing travel was his context; his reason to make and save money. “As you think about it for yourself, you will come up with an answer. Then you need to picture yourself in the future because the trade-offs in the moment are between you and your future self,” said Sellery. The benefits to this context is that it gives you language to empower your actions, said Sellery. It’s also a check for your behaviour. “If you do not contribute to your RRSP or are not organized about your estate plan
or will, that is inconsistent with the context you have for money.” Context also keeps you motivated. “I just did a whole portfolio rebalance and it was like swallowing bleach. Awful! But I did it because money is for adventure,” said Sellery. “More people do smart things when they create a context for money.” Consequence is the second of the Four Cs and for Sellery, it connects two things that are disparate. In terms of money, it means paying attention to RRSP deadlines or using Registered Education Savings Plan (RESP) grants early on. “If your weakness is savings, then you will miss out on the 20 per cent RESP grant and years of compound interest.” To avoid consequences, the first step is to understand what your greatest weakness is. Is it income, spending, debt, saving, investing, organization, communicating or taking action? Knowing it and acting to avoid these weaknesses will release you from many of the intangible consequences of not taking care of your money. These intangibles include annoyance, regret, feeling stupid, stress, anger, frustration, disappointment and fear. “I want you to think of what is a weakness for you and address it so that you can be a smart person doing smart things,” Sellery advised listeners of the forum. Complexity was next. Some people are able to understand the complexities of personal finance and others are not, either from lack of education or lack of interest. Another way to look at complexity is to consider where one needs to do more, and where one needs to do less. For instance, he knew of a woman who tracked all her makeup spending and knew to the dollar how much she spent in that category.
However, she also had a basement apartment she was not currently renting out to make income. “There was too much complexity in tracking and not enough complexity managing her rental property,” explained Sellery. The trick to making money is to understand where you need to add more complexity and where you need to do less. Finally, money is about community. While business entrepreneurs tend to have support groups and create community, most people shy away from talking about their money and lose out on the benefits of community. “There are three killer benefits about community and those are support, ideas and accountability,” explained Sellery. He urged listeners to ask themselve who they could talk to and what they would talk to them about. Finally, he urged the listeners to do at least one of the above in the next seven days. “Time is so precious,” he said. “Get a better handle on your money so you can do the things you want.” ◊
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58 The Rural Voice
Advice
• By Lisa Boonstoppel-Pot •
Farmers of the future may wear different clothes Evan Fraser says farmers of the future may be as likely to wear lab coats as drive tractors as he discusses sustainable agriculture
T
he farmers of the future are just as likely to wear a lab coat as drive a tractor, believes Evan Fraser, Director of the Arrell Food Institute and professor of Geography at the University of Guelph. Just after the Arrell Food Summit ended in June, he spoke at the Sustainable Agriculture event exploring technology and the future of food which was organized by The Globe and Mail and offered online. With global conflict, skyrocketing fertilizer prices, inflation and food shortages, what are Canadians and people around the world facing in terms of their food? Fraser said the consequences of war, climate change and rising costs is that there will be greater poverty in Canada. The United Nations is expecting more hungry people on the planet than ever before. Meanwhile, Food Banks Canada say they have never been busier. “It is a bleak situation, considering the global market,” said Fraser. Hearing about fertilizer prices, he investigated the cost of urea and ammonia which traded at $200 and $300 a tonne a few years ago. “Now it’s $1,200 to $1,600 a tonne. That’s 200 to 300 per cent inflation for key inputs,” said Fraser. “That will drive smaller farmers in poorer parts of the world out of business.” He sees a fundamental shift in how food is produced, explaining the system everyone has enjoyed since the 1950s can no longer be assumed to continue working. “The industrial food system offers a whole lot of benefits in terms of volume, cheap food and scale. But it depends on cheap energy to grow inputs and move food around, along with seamless trade and geopolitics plus a productive environment.” Those
conditions are no longer a given, he said. Seeing this, he believes it is C a n a d a ’ s moment to shine. “We have resources, the land base and sophisticated farmers. This is a wonderful opportunity for our country to develop global leadership,” suggested Fraser. He believes Canada could become the world’s trusted supplier of safe food. That could start this spring Evan Fraser as Canadian Arrell Food Institute farmers start harvesting the competitive crop in terms of water, wheat crop. “Let’s hope they get a energy and land use and will become good crop off because the world more popular in the future needs Canadian wheat to keep prices • The billion and half cows on the level.” planet have a disproportionately large Fraser suggested Canada should footprint on the planet so these become a hub of agriculture tech numbers have to be reduced leaders to rival Holland and • Cellular proteins created in large Singapore and that begins with skills stainless steel vats in industrial and training. “The farmers of the complexes could become meals of future need different skills than the the future farmers of the past,” said Fraser. • The next level of brewing will use “Universities have to change and we fermentation processes to turn should see them becoming a hub of starches into whey protein to make training and innovation to the world.” products such as vegan ice cream Other ideas he had on the future of which tastes identical to real ice food and farming included: cream • Canada should start using waste • The challenges are significant but heat and waste organics to produce Canada is on the cusp of a giant food in highly controlled transformation which will make the environments in the city shadow world a more sustainable place. ◊ • Green leaf, vertical farm lettuce is a August 2022 59
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Advice
• By Lisa Boonstoppel-Pot •
Farming needs to be cool for the next generation Chasing perfection is a way to become excellent says manager of 30,000 acre farm in western Canada
F
arm sustainability isn’t just about the environment. It’s about being a successful business and making farming “cool” enough for the next generation to farm. So says Kristjan Hebert, Principal Managing Partner of Hebert Grain Ventures, a 30,000 acre farm in Moosomin, Saskatchewan that started with 320 acres in 1978. Hebert spoke at the Globe and Mail’s Sustainable Agriculture event and unlike many of the speakers, he had no doom and gloom message. He was excited about agriculture as a way to respect the past while growing for the future. “I want to give my kids an opportunity to go to Harvard and choose whatever job they like but I want my farm to be cool enough to be one of those choices,” said the grain and cattle farmer. The farm grows malt barley, wheat, canola, fall rye, hybrid fall rye, oats and yellow peas or whatever is required “for the land and for profitability.” First off, communities surrounding farms need to be vibrant and healthy, offering attractive services. “I can’t convince someone to work for me if there isn’t hockey or other services in my town,” said Hebert, revealing that among his employees alone there are over 30 children. One of the goals at Hebert Grain Ventures is to leave the land better than when they got it and to do so, he chases perfection. “If you chase perfection you might become excellent because we cannot settle for the way we used to do things … we have to continue to learn.” The farm does grid soil sampling every four acres to allow for highly customized nutrient prescriptions even on large fields. They treat all nitrogen with nitrogen inhibitors to
Managing 30,000 acres and dozens of employees while trying to be sustainable is a challenge Kristjan Hebert of Hebert Grain Ventures in Saskatchewan is keen for. Speaking at the Globe and Mail’s Sustainable Agriculture Event in June, Hebert says farmers need to embrace technology because the world isn’t standing still and farmers cannot either. prevent nitrogen breakdown and carbon burnout. There is no “flat rate” for fertilizer as it is only spread on soil that needs it for yield goals. All farm workers and equipment are managed by phone. “I have 12 pieces of equipment running right now and I can tell you who is running them, how much fuel they are using and what they are applying,” said Hebert. When you spend over $13,000 a day on fuel, it’s important to keep track. Being in western Canada, it’s very rare to find a black field. “Degradation happens on tilled soil,” said Herbest. The more days the soil is green, the better. A new addition to the soil health is the spreading of a phosphate product called Crystal Green on the whole farm. “Crystal Green is made from 100 per cent human waste,” said Hebert. Humans are the largest
number of mammals in the world, after all. Moisture is also tested with soil water probes which are injected four feet deep to measure how much water per unit of soil is in the ground. “We started using them 10 years ago and it blew my mind that by June 10, we had roots wicking water at four feet. It was unfathomable and I thought it was impossible but it was happening.” Looking to the future, Hebert is a huge fan of technology and supports innovative ideas to make farming work. He says federal leadership is needed for Canadian farmers to be internationally competitive and agriculture requires more transparent and science-based decisions. Finally, farmers need a predictable trade environment. “Which in today’s world, might be the hardest task yet,” said Hebert. ◊ February 2019 61
People • By Gary West •
Tractors get into position on Field of Dreams
M
any stories have been written, over the years, about the “Field Of Dreams” and this year it takes on another new look for an area farming couple east of Hickson near the Hebron United church. Jennifer and Mike Van Boekel created and built a ball diamond in their corn field years ago, just like in the 1989 movie Field of Dreams starring Kevin Costner, Amy Madigan and James Earl Jones. The pair say many ball teams have come to the rural ball field just to be able to say they played ball in the cornfield in a “Field of Dreams”. In a recent interview, Mike and Jen said they came up with a new idea last year. They decided to place antique tractors on all the bases for the July 1st long weekend to make it look like a tractor baseball game. They improved on it this year by having the home team green. The Field of Dreams at Accordingly, they placed John Jennifer and Mike Van Deere tractors on all the bases Boekel’s (above) Oxford including the pitcher and County farm got a new look catchers area. The hitting team on the Canada Day was to be red so red weekend when the couple McCormicks tractors were set up set up a “green versus red” as the hitting team. If you study the diamond long game using tractors from enough you will see that the friends in the area. The story of tractors playing baseball couple have shared their surely does take on a different field with many teams over twist. You can let your the years, excited to play in imagination run wild and dream a real Field of Dreams. of all those tractor owners at catcher is a John playing the summer-time game. Deere bulldozer 40 all owned by The Van Boekels say that all the Glen Garner. On second base is a tractors are owned by local antique John Deere M, at centrefield a John tractor enthusiasts and the “Red” Deere B and in left field is a John team tractor that is up to bat is a Deere AR, all owned by John and Farmall H, the runner on first is a Brian Walton. You could probably McCormick Super W6 and the say that this team is one that will runner on second is another Farmall probably never “run out of steam”. H. Each are owned by Jay Fleming. In talking to a farm neighbour up The fielding team in right field the road from the Van Boekels, includes a John Deere 430 owned by Sharon Weldrick had to say that they Frank McKay. A John Deere A and are one of the most caring couples the John Deere D at third base are with the right attitude in the both owned by Ralph and Jerry De neighborhood. She said they would Boer. The shortstop is a John Deere do anything for anybody and that’s M, at first base is a John Deere D and 62 The Rural Voice
why they never charge anyone who wants to play ball on the “Field of Dreams”. They also have signs on the fences in the outfield at no charge to the companies on them, and they have a box behind the home plate screen that has bats, balls and gloves for anyone that wants to come and play ball at any time at no charge. All in all, this Field Of Dreams built by the Van Boekels and dressed up with antique tractors July 1st, sure has been a tourist attraction for the Oxford County area and will certainly continue to be, for many years to come. ◊
People
• By Gary West •
Twilight meeting returns
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One of the longest established Holstein clubs in Ontario held their annual twilight meeting and BBQ recently at a Listowel-area dairy farm. The hosts were Jim and Heather Robinson and family of Royal Acres farms who welcomed hundreds of Holstein breeders and enthusiasts from all over Perth County and beyond to their new dairy facility. The barn features two robotic milking stations and a slatted floor barn with all the newest free stall designs and ventilation features. The young couple have been involved in the community throughout their lives in local organizations like Junior farmers, 4-H clubs, and the Perth County Dairy committee. Heather is also the executive Director of “I” farm which occurs every June to educate school students in Grades 3 and 4 about where their food comes from. This takes place at the Rotary complex in Stratford every year. The Twilight meeting included the presentation of milk production awards for the top herds in the county. ◊
Top: Representing the Perth County Holstein Club at the Twilight meeting and Barbeque held at the end of June were (left to right): Secretary‐ Treasurer Sandra Jordon, Past‐ President Stefan Weber from the St. Marys area of Perth South, and club President Andrea Cnossen from the Brunner area of Perth East. Above: Greeting Holstein club enthusiasts attending the Perth County Twilight meeting was long‐ time retired Perth Holstein secretary Elaine Standeaven from Sutherhill Farms, along with her grandson Scott (back, left), Stratford’s Deputy Mayor Martin Ritsma (back, right) and Holstein director, Luis Velazquez (front, right).
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John Deere 660 Trail 5 Bar Hay Rake, low acres...................................$2,850. Westfield Grain Auger, 8 in. with hopper on wheels........................$1,850. Hesston PT10 Haybine,SOLD 9 ft. steel rubber rolls.................................$2,700. Inland 3PH Swath Turner Two Wheel Rake, stored inside ...............$750. New Holland 279 Haybine,SOLD 9 ft., rubber rolls, 540 PTO .........................$2,600. Thrower Rack, 18 ft., good floor, Martin gear, side doors...................................$975. Steel Thrower Rack and Wagon, 18 ft., Martin gear......................$1,250. Hay Crimper for Macdon 7000, 9000 Windrower, steel rolls........$1,650. New Holland Trail PTO Hay Conditioner, steel rolls.....................$1,650. Alloway Four Row Corn Vegetable Scuffler, rolling shields.........$1,450. Pallet Forks, Frey hookup, 72 long, heavy back plate .......................$575. Round Bale Spear for Loader, various models ..................$375. to $475. 3PH Draw Bar and TrailerSOLD Mower Cat Two......................................$275. Acid Tank for Hay Baler, 60 gallon, stored inside ...................................$475. New Holland 69 Small Square Baler,working order, 540 PTO......$1,450. Gehl 264 Trail Rotary PTO Hay Rake, 11 bars, lots of teeth...........$3,600. John Deere 1209 Haybine, rubber rolls, 9 ft., hyd. lift ...........................$2,200. New Idea 270 Flail Cutter, cut conditioner, 8 ft., used this season...........$2,700. Grain Auger, 16 ft., 110 motor, stored inside, 4 inch............................$475. Versatile 400 Swather, 2 reels, new canvasses, extra tires, 12 ft...$3,600. Massey Ferguson 36 Swather, crimper, 10 ft., new canvasses............ $2,200. Antique Case Two Furrow Drag Plow, little wear on moldboards....$1,250. Antique International 3 Furrow Drag Plow, rope trip lift..................$975. John Deere 800 Swather, 10 ft. finger reel, 6 cyl. Chrysler engine.........$2,600. Wrecking NH, JD, New Idea Haybines, NH Mix Mill, IH Drills........CALL For pictures go to www.farms.com/used-farm-equipment/dan-seifried-farm-equipment/
DAN SEIFRIED EQUIPMENT 8th Line East, Harriston Established 1986
519-338-2688 August 2022 63
Woodlots Donna Lacey is a forester with the Saugeen Valley Conservation Authority
The first thinning can look like a massacre I have been planting trees for over 25 years for a wide variety of landowners. I am embarrassed to admit that I have never created a guide for landowners to aid them through the management or care of their newly planted forests. I have simply planted the trees and walked away, with my only follow-up being survival assessments. Sure, I would gladly answer any questions when asked, but I have never provided a step-by-step timeline of necessary care. This would be a simple document to create and would be helpful to those interested in reading it, I have just never taken the time. Following is my attempt to set out a timeline that most tree plantations could follow. You will notice that this is a bit long for a brochure, but I thought I have room for detail here so why not. Please remember that for this, I am only referring to seedlings as trees that were/are planted in larger acreages for the purpose of reforestation. In the beginning, trees are planted at a spacing to encourage upward growth and less branching at the lower level. This spacing could be almost any variable between the historical spacing of six feet between trees by six feet between rows to today's approach of planting eight feet spacing. Trees are planted closer together to encourage the competition for sunlight which produces taller, straighter, less branched trees. We like to maintain the eight feet between rows to aid in the maintenance of the trees as a small tractor will easily fit between the rows for quite a few years. With most species, the trees will 64 The Rural Voice
be beneath the height of their competition for three to five years following planting. Once the trees have exceeded the height of the surrounding vegetative competition they are called “free to grow”. Prior to this free to grow stage, it is important for plantation managers to control the vegetation near the trees. This could be done through mowing/ grazing or herbicide applications. Not all vegetative species pose the same level of threat to young trees but broadleaves may soak up all of the sun and rain while tall dense grasses may bend or break the trees under the weight of the winter snow. Now that the trees are above the
vegetation, and at a time when you can still reach to top of them, you will want to watch very closely for discoloured branches, dead branches or trees. Discoloured branches or trees are a good warning that something isn’t right, and dead branches or trees are screaming at you that something is wrong. Trees dying in our natural forests are not of the same concern as those in a plantation, as the levels of biodiversity and genetics are quite different. A tree that is being harmed by a pest in a plantation can be host to a pest that now has a whole buffet of that species. It is therefore very important to remove either the whole
Thinning is an important part of maintaining a planted forest. The first thinning (top) can look quite severe compared to a second thinning (above).
dead tree or the dead branch from the plantation and burn it to kill whatever the pest was, whether insect or fungal. If trees or limbs have been killed by a fungus, all tools should be cleaned using a 10 per cent bleach solution to avoid the unintentional spread of the disease. Please remember that trees typically want to rise to the sun. Therefore, when pruning coniferous trees, if your interest is to have a healthy tree for life, pick a stronger lateral limb to be the leader and ensure that all others are shorter, to stop the reach for sky by all branches. If you have the desire to remove the lower limbs from your trees to limit fungal issues, create trails, aid in aesthetics, or strive for clear saw logs, please always remember that you can only safely remove one-third of the existing live branches without harming the tree. By now your trees are 25 years old and lower limbs may be touching, showing signs that your plantation is ready for a thinning. If you can complete this task on your own, that is great. This first thinning should not exceed one-third of the trees growing in your stand. If you cannot complete this work on your own, you will likely be waiting another 10 years, in my area anyway. In my area, plantations typically obtain a merchantable size at around 35 years of age. Most often the first thinning is a fourth-row removal thinning. This thinning involves the removal of every fourth row and a few trees from the other rows, called residual rows, to equal a one-third removal. The row removal is nonselective – all trees go. The trees taken from the residual rows are removed based on quality, health, and spacing. This first thinning is, in my opinion, the most dramatic management activity that a landowner will face following the planting. The plantation will be transformed from an area of peaceful darkness to an area of dabbled sunlight and singing birds until it grows dense again. I may have just made this stage sound beautiful, but that is not the correct picture
immediately following the first thinning. Yes, the birds and other wildlife will come, as will plants and trees, but many people see the scene as a bit more of a massacre when seeing it for the first time. I do often get correspondence from people asking for my professional opinion on other people’s work following their first thinning as it is shocking. Now that I have made that first thinning sound so wonderful, let me point out the importance of having your plantation thinned. Trees are planted at a spacing that plans for
great growth which requires thinning over time. If a thinning is not completed it is mostly likely that all trees within the plantation will be stressed. Some trees will succumb to this stress and others will basically stagnate their growth and continue living. One of the biggest concerns with a plantation being under stress is that it is more likely to suffer from an infestation of a pest as stressed trees do exude chemicals that attract certain insects. In future writing I plan to cover more on this topic, I just got started with this one. ◊ Green Lumber Kiln Dried Lumber Coloured Mulch Sawdust Firewood
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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
August 2022 65
Agrilaw John D. Goudy is a partner in Scott Petrie LLP Law Firm, and also farms north of London.
Ensuring you’re insured – know the exclusions Life Insurance. Health Insurance. Auto Insurance. Property Insurance. Commercial General Liability Insurance. Travel Interruption Insurance. At one point or another in their lives, most people will purchase some sort of insurance coverage to protect against unexpected loss or expense. The purpose of insurance generally is to spread risk of loss or expense amongst a group of
Providing
policyholders. Each policyholder enters into a contract with the insurer in which the insurer agrees to pay money to the policyholder or “insured” conditional on the occurrence of an event or “peril” that is anticipated to cause loss or expense. The policyholders pay premiums to the insurer in exchange for this coverage. Hopefully, the total premiums paid into the insurance scheme will always exceed the total payments out to policyholders where loss or expense is incurred. Insurance is a contract. The contract can be a written policy, certificate or other form of agreement, but it could also be an oral agreement in some circumstances. Legislation such as the Insurance Act in Ontario will dictate the form and content of some contracts of insurance. The contract will define the risks or perils that are insured against and the duties of the insurer that arise when those risks or perils materialize. A property insurance contract might provide for payment by the insurer of the cost to replace a building if it is destroyed by
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AGRICULTURAL • RESIDENTIAL • INDUSTRIAL • COMMERCIAL 66 The Rural Voice
fire. A liability insurance contract might provide for indemnification of the insured against a claim by a third party who has been injured or suffered a loss as a result of the negligence of the insured (i.e. payment of a judgment against the insured). The insurer may also have a duty to defend the insured against the third party claim (including covering the legal costs of the defence). The protection that a policyholder or insured has under their contract of insurance depends on the terms of the contract. Therefore, if the insured doesn’t know the terms of the contract, the insured doesn’t know what coverage they actually have. Stories in the news about people who believed they had insurance coverage but found out after suffering a loss that there was no coverage seem to be commonplace. Anyone purchasing insurance should make sure to obtain a copy of all insurance documents and should do their best to review and understand the policy wordings (the terms of the contract) that will apply to the coverage. Exclusions of coverage are particularly tricky for people buying insurance. In the case of property insurance, a homeowner might think they have coverage for water penetration into their basement, but find out after a heavy rain that coverage for damage caused by water infiltration from overland surface flows (as opposed to damage caused by a ruptured swimming pool or burst pipe) is excluded. Similarly, a homeowner whose fuel oil tank has leaked oil into the ground may discover that their basic policy excludes coverage for loss or damage caused by contamination or pollution. In the case of liability insurance, exclusion of coverage for incidents involving contamination or pollution is common and has resulted in a large volume of litigation between insurers and insureds. Late last year, the Ontario Court of Appeal released a decision involving a claim against the estate of a mechanical contractor who tragically died from ammonia exposure when he opened a valve during sampling and analysis work on mechanical and refrigeration systems at a jobsite. The owner of the jobsite sued the contractor (his estate)
Agrilaw in negligence for damage caused to the property by the ammonia. The contractor’s insurer took the position that it was not obligated to defend the action because of the “Total Pollution Exclusion” in the liability insurance policy for “pollution liability”, which was defined as: “ “Bodily Injury” or “property damage” or “personal injury” arising out of the actual, alleged, potential or threatened spill, discharge, emission, dispersal, seepage, leakage, migration, release or escape of “pollutants”.” The term “pollutants” was defined in a different part of the policy (not connected to the “Total Pollution Exclusion”) as: “any solid, liquid, gaseous or thermal irritant or contaminant including smoke, odours, vapour, soot, fumes, acids, alkalis, chemicals and waste.” The Estate brought an application to the Court for a declaration that the insurer had a duty to defend the action by the jobsite owner. The Application Judge granted the declaration because he found that the word “pollution” used in the exclusion was ambiguous and could be interpreted as including only “environmental pollution” in the usual sense of a spill of contaminants and not including the sudden and accidental escape of gas caused by opening a valve. The Application Judge wrote: The definition used by [the Insurer] of “Total Pollution Exclusion” was misleading in that it not only included an exclusion of events which an average person would associate with pollution, but any accidental occurrence that caused any damage to the customer’s property and which did not lead to environmental pollution as commonly understood. The Court of Appeal agreed with the Application Judge: In this case, it is alleged that [the contractor] acted in a negligent manner when he opened a valve and allowed the ammonia to escape. His alleged negligence caused damage to the property of [the jobsite owner]. It is his alleged negligence that is at the core of the claim pleaded … . A
claim arising from negligence is precisely the type of claim for which parties obtain CGL policies. It is the type of risk that [the contractor] sought coverage for. The fact that the damage causing substance was a pollutant does not change the nature of the claim. In this case, the Court found that an exclusion in the liability insurance policy did not negate the insurer’s duty to defend the insured (and his estate) following an accident. But the outcome might easily have been different if the wording of the policy
had been different. For anyone purchasing (and relying on) insurance, the best course is to understand the terms of the policy and know in advance what is covered and what is not covered. ◊ ______________________________ 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.
MXU 450i $7,849
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REBUILD YOUR NATURAL CAPITAL Nutrient Management Plans NASM Plans
Feasibility Studies & MDS Soil Health
August 2022 67
Markets Scott Krakar is a Grain Merchandiser with LAC Inc., Hyde Park, 519‐473‐9333
Ukraine continues to ship grain Market sentiment is constantly changing. With this sentiment change comes changing prices. What a change we have seen! Upon the invasion of Ukraine, markets started to price in every worst-case scenario imaginable. Such scenarios were: what if Ukraine can’t get planted, what if the world embargos grain from Russia, what if sanctions against Russian energy are adopted widely, what if delays in U.S. planting come to fruition and substantially reduce final acres and what if inflationary forces keep pushing prices higher continually? These, along with more concerns such as those listed, added to the frenzy of worry. These concerns were (and are still) real and concerning. However, markets are demonstrating less fear of these happenings, as the outcome of these events have not been as impactful as was once feared when markets were making new highs. As concerns to these market worries spread and became more widely known, commodity markets lost a natural seller, as it seems everyone was a buyer. With the extreme upward pressure, small speculators and various market funds that had short futures got pushed out of the market, as financial needs for margin calls were too much for them to cashflow. This added to the upward price boom. End users scrambled to buy limited (perceived) supply, and financial trader’s algorithm computers bought sharply with size and large volume. The markets rally to extremes. As
68 The Rural Voice
the market rallies it signals to everyone that an unsolvable crisis is at hand, shortages will lead to higher prices continuing and everyone becomes convinced that prices will strengthen for the foreseeable future. From this prices keep rallying until all those who participate in the frantic buying stop buying. Markets are always most bullish at the top. Central banks around the world started beating their inflationary drums and started increasing rates at what seems like a rapid pace. Along with higher rates they all had the same jawboning that they would not hesitate to keep pushing rates higher in order to bring inflation back to target ranges. Fears that higher rates would push the world into recession put a damper on continued buying as futures markets started to appear that prices got too high too fast. Once this perception came the norm markets reversed extremely fast – stock markets, commodities all started to appear like they expect a recession forth coming. Market players started moving into the U.S. dollar in a big way, pushing the U.S. buck to the highest level it has been in decades. Money moves into the U.S. dollar in times of uncertainty because it is the world’s reserve currency – and therefore the most secure in times of financial fears. At times market prices are greatly impacted and affected by financial situations and money flow more significantly than by short-term supply and demand of the commodity. All of these financial pressures weighed on grain prices. But financial market worries were not the only headwind against grain market values. Ukraine continues to ship grain, albeit slower and in more expensive modes of transport than in pre-conflict times. In May, Ukraine exported 1.7 million tonnes and 2.17 million tonnes in June. While these shipment volumes are well below their normal capacity of six million tonnes per month, they are still rather large volumes, especially compared to the fears of no exports for months if not years to come at the peak of the market. New crop fears are subsiding also, albeit they are still being closely
monitored as the situation can rapidly change. Ukraine is now forecasting 69.4 million metric ton production, up around three million tonnes from previous estimates. This is still sharply lower than 2021 production which reached 106 million metric ton. Market sentiment has also shifted from a “what if the U.S. harvest is poor” to a “the U.S. crop should be good” mindset. A good crop will need to find a buyer, rather than turn buyers away. Less than previously worried acreage abandonment, widespread rain events, forecasts for cooler temperatures and a U.S. dollar that makes U.S. grain expensive have all added to the liquidation of grain values. All at once the market seems to have recognized that extremely high futures prices were destructive to demand, and prices will need to fall to levels that support some consumptive buying. The narrative may well change at any time as we go through summer. Grain weather markets come and go so often that today’s sentiment can be drastically different than tomorrow. We’ll need some consumptive buying here at home as the local wheat harvest is about to begin. Overall expectations are for a decent crop, albeit smaller than last year when a near-record-size crop was harvested. Following last year’s quality fiasco with low falling numbers, export shippers, and also world buyers, have been hesitant buyers of Ontario SRW, as no one wants to get caught with a similar situation as last year, if quality is poor once again. Quality doesn’t seem like it should be an issue, and isn’t widely expected, but following on the heels of last year the value chain is showing extreme caution, especially until quality is known. The forecasts look good for wheat quality – with little to no rain forecast through the typical harvest window. ◊ The Rural Voice welcomes letters and will publish as many as space permits. Write to: The Rural Voice Box 429, BLYTH, ON N0M 1H0
The
Rural Voice
Business Centre To place your ad call: 519-523-4311 or email: rvads@northhuron.on.ca
QUALITY METAL ROOFING, SIDING & TRIMS
Lucknow Auto Parts Supply 519-528-2220
519-363-3757
2051 Bruce Rd. 19, R.R. 1 Chesley, ON N0G 1L0
Email: lap@porters.ca
The Better Choice, Plain and Simple
DL Distributing
Profitable, Actionable, Advice Crop Planning SWAT Maps/Soil Sampling Variable Mapping/Scripts Cropwalker Newsletter
Dave Mustard 519-794-3334 Authorized Dealer
Tough on Winter, Easy on You
Jonathan Zettler CCA-ON, 4R NMS 519-323-7505 jz@fieldwalker.ca fieldwalker.ca
Email: dlmustard2@gmail.com 556735 Strathaven Road, Chatsworth, ON
STEFFEN WELL DRILLING 519-531-0355 TEESWATER, ON
mike@steffenwelldrilling.ca
• Agricultural & domestic water wells • Well Cleanouts • Pump Testing • Camera Inspection • Irrigation Wells • Dewatering Services
KRAEMER CONCRETE LTD. Two Locations to Serve You!
5595 Road 130 Brunner N0K 1C0
220 Industrial Park Dr., Brussels N0G 1H0
Fax: 595-4903
Fax: 887-8764
519-595-2343
519-887-8763
Toll Free at 1-888-RING-KCL August 2022 69
B U S I N E S S C E N T R E
Horse & Livestock Car, Utility & Recreational any design, hitches trade-ins welcome super after sales service
Farm Drainage
www.beloretrailers.ca 324025 Mount Elgin Rd. Mount Elgin, Ontario N0J 1N0
• GPS • Plastic • Bron Plow • Surveys • Maps Glen 519-291-0709 cell Dennis 519-276-9292 cell
Jamie Belore
Newton, Ont. 519-595-4545
B U S I N E S S C E N T R E
STEVEN NIXON
Serving the area since 1999
Broker WILFRED MCINTEE & CO. LIMITED
Bus: 519-357-2222 Cell: 519-531-0252 Email: nixon@execulink.com Web: www.stevennixon.com
318 Josephine St., WINGHAM, ON N0G 2W0
89739 BELMORE LINE, WROXETER $1,800,000. MLS# 40273484 93 acres of very productive farm land only with 60 GPS acres planted in soybeans and the majority of remainder being pasture and a small amount of bush and river flats. Great farm to add to your current farming operation. Fronts on a paved road. S 1/2 OF N 1/2 CON. 9, TEESWATER $399,000. MLS# 40267346 Excellent 50 acre recreational farm with hardwood bush and approximately 20 acres of White pine plantation, bush logged in 2021, open area with 2 camping trailers included, dug well, one trailer has a solar panel, spring fed stream flows year round, wild animals galore, very private location on an unassumed road well off Con 8, close to Teeswater. Just sit back and relax on this one of a kind property.
phone: 519-485-5358 toll free: 1-877-247-7227 fax: 1-519-485-6129 jbelore@gmail.com
PACKERS: WE BUILD Order Now
RUBBER TIRE PACKER SPECIALISTS
Also large fold-up steel drum packers, lawn & estate rollers, custom manufactured
RR #2, Arthur, Ont. (519) 848-2799
Organic Growers Wanted Long term production contracts available for HR Winter Wheat, Winter Barley, Winter Spelt and Winter Canola
Leadership in energy and environmental design
Devon Henry 519-505-2473 84772 McDonald Line • Box 616 • Brussels
devonjhenry@hotmail.com
Also available in 2022 : production contracts for Soybeans, Edible Beans, Sunflowers, Peas contact: Wehrmann Grain & Seed Ltd
RR 1 Ripley, Ontario N0G 2R0 Cell: 519.955.0386 • Office: 519.395.3126 • Fax: 519.395.2935
e-mail: ingasven@hurontel.on.ca
www.wehrmanngrainandseed.ca
- Licensed grain elevator/ storage/trucking - Custom spraying and custom farming - Competitive rates for renting agricultural land
CALL BRYAN MCKAGUE
519-392-8187 rkmgrain@gmail.com
70 The Rural Voice
• Farm Lanes • Campgrounds • Driveways • Horse Riding Arenas Brent Pryce
519-525-6295
Full service to all boats and marine engines
ARGYLE Marine & Small Engines Inc.
33973 Church Camp Rd., Goderich 519-524-5361 Email: argylemarine@cabletv.on.ca
SALES & SERVICE INSTALLATION & PARTS
WE WANT YOUR GRAIN!
Download the London Ag App for FREE (Real-time scale tickets, contracts, cash bids and more.)
Rissler KEITH SIEMON FARM SYSTEMS LTD.
• Corn • Wheat • Soybeans • Feed Grains • Feed Ingredients • Food Quality Soybeans
81987 Perth Rd. 180, R.R. 4, Walton 519-345-2734 (anytime)
www.keithsiemonfarmsystems.com email: keithsiemon@tcc.on.ca For Free Planning and Estimates
CASH & FORWARD CONTRACTS Call us today for Quotes Scott Speers Richard Smibert Scott Krakar Matt McKillop Alex Kissler 1615 NORTH ROUTLEDGE PARK UNIT 43 - LONDON, ONTARIO, N6H 5L6 519-473-9333 Toll-Free 1-800-265-1885
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CONSTRUCTION -------------------------------------------Liquid manure tanks, bunker silos, foundations and pads. All are 100% engineered. Serving Ontario since 1968. De Jong & Sons Ltd. 519-348-0523. -------------------------------------------CUSTOM WORK -------------------------------------------Janmaat Custom Bale Wrapping. In-line wrapping any size round bale and any size square bale up to 6 1/2 feet long. Also individual round bale wrapping. Call Cody 519-955-3384. -------------------------------------------DAIRY -------------------------------------------Screened bedding sand, delivered. Call 519-625-8242 or 519-2741490. -------------------------------------------FARM EQUIPMENT FOR SALE -------------------------------------------Reist, 3 point hitch, pto driven gear box pulley. 519-357-2509. -------------------------------------------FARM SERVICES --------------------------------------------
FARMERS’ MARKETS -------------------------------------------Flesherton and District Farmers’ Market – a “true farmers’ market”. Locally grown, produced and handmade, 101 Highland Drive, Flesherton. 519-924-0777. -------------------------------------------FOR SALE -------------------------------------------Martin’s Nursery & Bee Supplies Etc. Large selection of flowering trees, shade trees, fruit trees and hydrangeas and other shrubs. We have the plants you need to make a living “privacy hedge” or snow fence or windbreaks. Blue Spruce, Norway Spruce, White Spruce, Pine and Cedars. Also… a Complete line of Bee Supplies for the commercial or hobby beekeepers. Order your (Nuc) Bees for spring 2022. We now sell select Queen Bees raised under ORHBS program on a weekly basis. Order by Monday evening for Wednesday pick-up – during season. We stock all wooden-ware (bee-hives) foundation, assembled and unassembled frames, smokers, suits, jackets, gloves, mite treatments and some extracting equipment. Honey containers, jars, pails, custom built wooden-ware. Come visit our nursery and bee supplies store Monday to Saturday at 42661 Orangehill Rd., RR 1, Wroxeter, ON N0G 2X0, one concession north of Wroxeter. -------------------------------------------Rosco grain bins for sale – 19' and 14' diameter. Parts available. Used grain bins wanted for parts or reuse. Closed Sundays, 519-3383920. --------------------------------------------
FOR SALE -------------------------------------------Available for cover crops after winter wheat we have forage peas, oat/pea mixes, pure oats and special mixes with radish and brassicas. For pricing contact Courtney Grain & Seed (2015) Ltd., 225 Hwy. 21, RR 1, Ripley. Phone 519-395-2972. Ask for Carmon or Mitch. -------------------------------------------Alfalfa hay mixtures, pasture mixtures, top dressing for pastures, and a selection of organic grass seeds. All mixed to your personal needs. Also red clover for plowdown. Available at Courtney Grain & Seed (2015) Ltd., 225 Hwy. 21, RR 1, Ripley. Phone 519395-2972. Ask for Carmon or Mitch. -------------------------------------------IRON & STEEL -------------------------------------------DISCOUNT STEEL: New second grade steel sales; 1" - 8" square tubing; 7/8" - 14" round tubing; Rectangle tubing, discount plate; New and Used I-Beams; Bar grating, rebar, angles; Custom cutting, welding, punching. Listowel. Phone Aden 519-5957775. -------------------------------------------LIVESTOCK BEDDING -------------------------------------------MIRACLE FIBER Livestock Bedding. Also, coarse wood mulch for horse and cattle walkways, wet areas around water troughs and bush lanes. Also available is dairy pack starter bedding. 1-877-773-8004. Sittler Grinding. Rick Sittler. --------------------------------------------
EGGER FARMS CUSTOM BALING
• 3x3 Bales Automatic Acid Applications, Roto Cutter. Individual Bale Wrapping 6' bales
Call Fritz: 519-292-0138
August 2022 71
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LIVESTOCK FOR SALE -------------------------------------------For sale - sheep, Tunis breeding stock, yearlings or one-year-olds with lambs. Pieter Biemond, Eastern Ontario. Text or call 613802-8062. -------------------------------------------Bodmin Shorthorn Herd Dispersal. Call 519-887-6804. -------------------------------------------Suffolks - purebred yearling rams and ram lambs. British bloodlines M-V negative, closed flock, GenOvis tested. Several bloodlines available. 519-233-7896. -------------------------------------------Rabbit breeding stock. High quality genetics available in Ontario. Order your PS40 bucks and PS19 does today. CuniON@tcc.on.ca -------------------------------------------Limousin bulls, open and bred females available. Smart Limousin, Meaford 519-372-7459. smartlimo@bmts.com www.smartlimousin.com -------------------------------------------Red Angus/Simmental, Simmental and Red Angus heifers bred to calving ease Red Angus bull for Spring 2023 calving. James and Joan McKinlay 519-599-6236. -------------------------------------------McKague Charolais Bulls, registered purebred yearlings and two year olds, polled or dehorned. Bred heifers available. Wingham 519357-3808. -------------------------------------------LIVESTOCK WANTED -------------------------------------------Small herd of Hereford or Angus cows or Hereford-Angus cross. Phone evenings 905-983-9331. -------------------------------------------LOCAL FOOD -------------------------------------------The Market Shoppe – Your source for local since 2013, 7 Toronto Street South, Markdale 519-9864144. Find us on Instagram and Facebook. --------------------------------------------
RESTORATION -------------------------------------------The Olde Tyme Radio Centre – antique radios, clocks, gramophones, telephones; sold/restored. (vintage autoclock radio, speedometer, tachometer repaired). Belgrave 519-357-4304, www.oldtymeradio.ca -------------------------------------------RETAIL & GIFTS -------------------------------------------Stitches with a Twist – 404 Queen St., Blyth, 519-523-9449. Yarns, needles, notions, patterns, books and lots more yarn. -------------------------------------------SERVICES -------------------------------------------Cronin Poured Concrete Ltd. Since 1976. Liquid manure tanks to 200'. Heights of 8'-14' (1-pour). All jobs engineer specifications/inspections - guaranteed. Best firm quote in Ontario. Mark Cronin, 519-3489062. Cell 519-274-5000. www.croninpouredconcrete.ca --------------------------------------------
SERVICES -------------------------------------------INCOME TAX FILING FOR CORPORATIONS and late filers – for farms, small business, truckers and individuals. Will make house calls in the North Huron, Perth and surrounding area. Call Shirley in Wingham – cell No. 1-705-434-8187. --------------------------------------------
Advertising in The Rural Voice – A Wise Choice!
Call Today! 519-523-4311
72 The Rural Voice
DONALD A ANDREW ACCOUNTING Accounting & Income Tax Services for FARMS, BUSINESSES & INDIVIDUALS 296 Ross St., Lucknow
Ph. 519-528-3019
GLAVIN BARN & COMMERCIAL PAINTING FARMERS repaint your faded coloured steel FREE QUOTES ~ FULLY INSURED
RR 1 Crediton, Ont. N0M 1M0 (near Exeter)
Call: Jim Glavin 1-800-465-4725 519-228-6247 Eugene Glavin 519-228-6801 Specializing in on Farm Pest Management Serving Southwestern ON, Golden Horseshoe, GTA Email: info@sgsltd.ca
519-692-4232
www.sgspestmanagement.ca
DANNY’S
Custom Painting & Sandblasting 86362 Harper Line RR 1 Lucknow N0G 2H0 (just north of Zion Road)
-------------------------------------------UPCOMING EVENTS --------------------------------------------
FACTS Natural Dye Weekend Learn the Art of Natural Dyeing September 17th & 18th For info go to www.factsblyth.ca
CLASSIFIED UPCOMING EVENTS -------------------------------------------Smokey & Bandit Run (celebrating 45 years) looking for Trans Ams 1977-1980. Run held at Palmerston, ON Saturday, August 13 at 4:00 p.m. Contact Verdun Zurbrigg for information, 519-4448551. -------------------------------------------WANTED -------------------------------------------Looking for pasture for summer 2022 in North Huron/South Bruce areas. Fence repairs ok. Contact Justin at 519-357-8272. -------------------------------------------Farmland – Long or short term. Cash rent, share crop. Contact Paul at Hill & Hill Farms, 519-2333218 or 519-525-3137 or email: paul.hillhill@tcc.on.ca -------------------------------------------Round bales of horse or cattle quality hay picked up. Wanted to buy: small square bales of wheat straw, conventional or rotary. Call Riley Gorman 519-3211012. -------------------------------------------28x48 Dion threshing machine. Phone evenings 905-983-9331. -------------------------------------------Young farmer looking for land rent, sharecrop, or custom work opportunities. Good environmental stewardship and professionalism. Short and long term. 519-200-7845 or hundt.chris@outlook.com -------------------------------------------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. 519323-1113. --------------------------------------------
Schmidt’s Farm Drainage 1990 Ltd. Harriston
THE RURAL VOICE MAGAZINE Don't Delay – Subscribe Today! The Rural Voice Produced by people with farming in their blood. Serving more than 11,000 readers in the region. One year: $25; Two years: $45 (HST included).
Specializing in Farm Drainage, Backhoeing & Excavating, GPS includes: mapping grade control & surveying Where Schmidt’s go, the Water Flows!
The Rural Voice
GPS Grade Control
519-523-4311
519-338-3484 • Cell 519-323-6335
Box 429, Blyth, ON N0M 1H0
Call Joan at 519-523-4311 to place your classified ad Deadline for the September issue of The Rural Voice is August 9, 2022 August 2022 73
National Farmers Union – Ontario NEWSLETTER Phone: 1-888-832-9638 E-mail: office@nfuontario.ca Website: www.nfuontario.ca
Strong Communities. Sound Policies. Sustainable Farms.
This is our last, best chance for effective climate action in agriculture Provinces are currently negotiating with the Federal government to finalize the most important policy and financial instrument in Canadian Agriculture. Until very recently, Canadian governments didn’t view the agriculture sector as an important player in the fight against climate change. Government policy statements made only passing reference to climate. The term “climate change” didn’t even appear in the federal minister’s mandate letter until late 2020. That has all changed, thanks in large part to the efforts of Farmers for Climate Solutions (FCS), a national coalition of farm groups that includes 24 member organizations representing over 20,000 Canadian farmers and ranchers. Ontario Coalition members include: National Farmers Union Ontario, Sheep Farmers of Ontario, Ecological Farmers Association of Ontario, and the Organic Council of Ontario. Lobbying by the group has helped bring the issue of climate and agriculture to the forefront of the national debate, and has helped secure over a billion dollars in new federal spending commitments to help incentivise farmers to reduce onfarm emissions. Climate change is quickly becoming the greatest threat to our industry – just witness the heat dome, Prairie drought, intense flooding and other devastating weather events of the recent past. Canadian farmers have a vested interest in tackling climate change head-on or risk increasingly more severe and having frequent weather events strain our businesses to the breaking point. Our sector, however, still lacks sufficient support from governments to help farmers transition to lowcarbon practices. FCS research has shown that governments in the U.S. spend 13 times more than Canada on environmental programs in agriculture on a per-acre basis. The European Union spends 73 times
more. The result is that agriculture is the only sector of the Canadian economy that is not projected to significantly reduce emissions in the next decade. Government projections see total agricultural emissions declining by only one per cent by 2030. We know that agriculture offers many cost-effective opportunities to reduce emissions. Canadian farmers have been experimenting and innovating, developing practices such as reduced tillage, cover cropping and rotational grazing, to name a few, that can slash G H G emissions and sequester tonnes of atmospheric carbon in our soils. Currently, there are tens of thousands of farmers across the country who are passionate about farming in a way that benefits our climate and environment. We are ready to act. But we can’t do it alone. Agricultural policy in Canada is an area of shared jurisdiction between federal, provincial and territorial (F P T) governments. The most important policy instrument is the Agricultural Policy Framework (APF), negotiated every five years by the FPT governments, which traditionally includes about $3 billion in public spending. The next APF is being negotiated right now, and will run from 2023 to 2028. This next agreement must have climate action at its very centre if we are to have any hope of bringing down emissions and securing a stable future for our sector. Late last year, Farmers for Climate Solutions assembled an expert task force to examine opportunities for climate change mitigation and adaptation in the Agricultural Policy Framework. FCS brought together top researchers, economists and policy experts and paired them with farmers, who have on-the-ground experience. These farmers and researchers worked together to identify practical, proven and cost-effective practices that can immediately reduce GHG emissions,
increase soil carbon sequestration and make Canadian farms more resilient in the face of climate change. The result of this work is a comprehensive roadmap to rapidly drive down emissions and increase adaptation on Canadian farms. The task force identified 19 beneficial management practices (BMPs) that meet the criteria laid out by farmers: proven, practical and affordable. The BMPs recommended in the report certainly aren’t rocket science – all of them are already in use on many Canadian farms, some for decades. The government needs to show some leadership and support for farmers and help to spread these practices as widely as possible. In total, the F C S task force recommendations would reduce emissions by 14 per cent over the five year life of the next policy framework, and increase sequestration in agricultural soils by over six million tonnes of C O 2 equivalent every year. The last time the FPT agriculture ministers met, in October last year, they issued a lofty declaration – The Guelph Statement – that ranked climate change mitigation and adaptation as their number one priority. Their meeting next month will be a test of their true resolve. Canadian farmers have developed a science-based roadmap to a more sustainable future. Will our political leaders follow it? For more information visit: https://farmersforclimatesolutions.ca/ – Stuart Oke is a farmer and an Ontario representative for Farmers for Climate Solutions.
Local News/Events Local 340 (Waterloo/Wellington): Local 340 will be hosting a Sunday Social on Sunday, August 7 from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. at Wellington Brewery in Guelph. Come spend a fun afternoon getting to know (or reconnecting) with your fellow 340 members!
A subscription to The Rural Voice is one of the benefits of being an NFU-O member 74 The Rural Voice
Perth County Pork Producers NEWSLETTER
Polly Hoekstra, President phoekstra@hotmail.ca / 226-580-0174 * The Rural Voice is provided to Perth County Pork Producers by the PCPPA perthcountyporkproducers@gmail.com
Doug Ahrens exit interview
Doug Ahrens has served on the Ontario Pork Board for as long as I have been a pig farmer. Through his board updates at Perth County Pork Producer Association meetings, he has introduced me to a lot of the current issues within the pork industry, and played a very active role in addressing them at the provincial and federal level. Doug got involved in pork politics so he could do something about all the issues that bothered him on the farm that he had no control over. He is now retiring from the board of Ontario Pork after serving for 12 years. Here is the first of a two-part summary of our conversation about his time serving on the Ontario Pork board. What would you say the role of OP is in our industry? What does it need to be? Ontario Pork is the voice of reason for the Ontario Industry. Sometimes the Ontario Pork board could be bolder in the positions they choose to take instead of trying to appease everyone. How has the industry evolved over the past 12 years? Over his 12 years serving Ontario Pork, Ontario Pork lost its position as the sole marketer of hogs in the province. It was a struggle to set up the marketing division with the independence it needed to provide the service of marketing hogs in a competitive market, and still have sufficient oversight from the board. However, Ahrens believes that the majority of producers have not been able to realize the benefits of marketing their hogs through other means. Part of the problem is that we have not seen the price transparency necessary for producers to get a fair price for their hogs. Now Ontario Pork’s role is more advocacy and communication. A lot of the work that OP does – such as ad-hoc public relations – is invisible to the producers. The collective problems of our industry are laid at Ontario Pork's feet. Could you remind us of some of the big issues Ontario Pork has dealt
with while you were on the board? What is an issue where you think OP did a great job of moving the needle, or solving a problem for the industry? It seems that every two to three years there is a crisis that takes 12-18 months to solve. Issues that Ahrens has helped to deal with include price crashes, a disease outbreak, and Quality Meat Packers going bankrupt. This was the first crisis that taught Ontario Pork what it could and couldn’t do without its marketing monopoly. It was now solely dependent on communications to deal with an issue. It couldn’t just cut off the supply of hogs to Quality Meats when they stopped paying for them. Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea was OP’s first experience dealing with a disease. It had the potential to devastate Ontario’s pork industry, (as the board witnessed from the American experience), and allocated funds to avert the crisis six months before the disease was discovered in Ontario. Resources were spent preparing for an outbreak with veterinarians. This preparation also gave the provincial government the confidence to invest 20 million to fight PED when it arrived in the province. What is the most satisfying part of serving on the board of OP? Ahrens is not proud of the speed that Ontario Pork does its work, but he is very proud of the work that does get done. He feels that in his time there, the organization never made a mistake. Ontario Pork is always very honest and diligent, and have earned the trust of government and producers with the work they do. Ahrens has always tried to get rid of irritants for producers. For example, when TSSA wanted to have barns reviewed for unvented box heaters, every two to three years by an engineer, he worked hard with OP staff and the TSSA to find a solution that would work for farmers and satisfy the TSSA. What has been your proudest achievement?
Ahrens is proudest of a file that seemed to be built for him. When PED broke in Canada, Gerry Ritz, (the minister of agriculture at the time) realized the need for a crop-insurancelike program for livestock. As a pork producer who sat on the board of a mutual insurance company, Ahrens was the right person to understand the risks involved, the needs of the producer, and the mindset of an insurance company. He applied his knowledge of the pork and insurance industries to build political support and create a product that would insure pork produc-tion in case of a disease outbreak. When the federal government changed, and it was suggested that a subsidized federal production insurance program might become a trade irritant, Ahrens brought the product to be adopted by the provincial government. Despite 3.5 years of development by Ahrens and Ontario Pork, this product – that is sorely needed by producers – is still waiting to be implemented by the provincial government. Ahrens feels that if Agristability was working properly, a production insurance product for livestock wouldn't be required. Government relations is very labour intensive, with no promise of a positive outcome. Yet that is the main job of OP. It is what we read about most in the agricultural press. What do you think of OP’s approach? Ahrens says that with government relations you are always playing the long game. This is why he feels that it is important for producers to serve more than one term on the OP board. It takes more than one term to become effective at government relations. It takes time to build rapport and integrity with politicians and their staff. He feels that due to it's reputation, Ontario Pork has been treated fairly and held in high regard by provincial governments during his time on the board. ◊ – The second part of this interview will be published next month.
August 2022 75
St., Hanover, Ontario N4N 1P9 Grey County Federation 446 10th519-364-3050 or 1-800-275-9551 Email: grey@ofa.on.ca Website: of Agriculture * The Rural Voice is provided to OFA Members in Grey Countygreyfederation.ca by the GCFA Any opinion expressed is that of individual County Directors or Representatives and may not necessarily reflect the views of the Grey County Federation of Agriculture or Ontario Federation of Agriculture. Controversial, provocative, agitating or interesting, intriguing and challenging – farming has never faced more pressures: taxation, regulation, environmental, public perception, input costs and complexity, commodity markets, schools, healthcare, even climate change. Like so many rural Ontario communities, Grey County is witnessing change away from historical agriculturally-based roots. That is, more retiring farmers and farm youth are moving to urban opportunities while many urbanbased people are migrating to explore a lifestyle in the country. While this migratory phenomenon is not brand new or unexpected, it has the demographic net affect of reducing the community influence of the individual farm family. More of our neighbours have less experience living near farms and while many have made the lifestyle choice to do so, are still learning what is uniquely required by farmers to sustain a modern farm operation. It is a responsibility of ours as farmers who choose to stay and farm in Grey County to represent our sector; our interests and lifestyle effectively. Policy development in Grey County affects farmers so… farmers are wise to do all we can to affect policy. As our colleagues in Bruce County like to say “In Unity there is Strength” . We know that one farmer’s voice can be “loud”. We also know that many farmers’ voices, riased together are “strong”.
The Grey County farmer has a voice within a collection of farmers’ voices at the Grey County Federation of Agriculture (GCFA). The GCFA’s mission is: To do for Grey County Agriculture that which cannot be done by the individual farmer. To work smart advocating for Grey County farmers’ economic growth and the sustainability of the agricultural community. This past year the GCFA took an active advocacy role representing the interests of Grey County farmers and intends to remain vigilant on issues that align with the core mission and objective to support farmers in Grey County. GCFA is strongest when many lend their voices and today over 1,500 Grey County farmers are members. This is good. More would be better, as less than 10 farmers are helping us. The Board of the GCFA is effective when there is strong representation from a broad spectrum of OFA farmers. Your voice is important and it’s welcome. The board meets just a few times per year and is made up of some committees that meet as required to discuss, plan, execute on ideas. It’s democratic and it’s fun and it makes a difference for the Grey County agricultural community. Farmers can be directors on the board and if they wish, move to executive positions like vicepresident or president or if preferred, simply put their name forward as a resource to help on a subject they are passionate about. In any case, the GCFA will be better with you involved. On October 13 at 6:30 p.m. your GCFA will hold its Annual General Meeting and Dinner. It will be at the Walter’s Falls Inn where we’ll elect
GCFA 2022 MEETINGS • August 11 • September 8
• October 13 • November 10
Baker Magic Show
Make Grey County agriculture great again!
the directors and the presidents, talk about priorities for 2022/2023 and have entertainment by Baker Magic Show. As a farmer with a stake in the future of Grey County agriculture, the evening is designed for you. Please join us for this evening and give some thought to adding your name to the list of interested farmers whose voices need to be heard. Tickets are $25. They are limited and available now if you call Jackie at the office at 519-364-3050 Ext 1. ◊ – Submitted by Hugh Simpson, GCFA Past President
GCFA Student Online Trivia Weekly Challenge Weekly prizes and year-end grand prize Questions can be found at: greyfederation.ca
* The Rural Voice is provided to OFA Members in Grey County by the GCFA.
76 The Rural Voice
Email: bruce@ofa.on.ca website: brucefederation.ca
NEWSLETTER
446 10th St., Hanover, Ontario N4N 1P9 519-364-3050 or 1-800-275-9551 * The Rural Voice is provided to OFA Members in Bruce County by the BCFA
Fireworks can cause trouble for farmers and producers Any opinion expressed is that of individual County Directors or Representatives and may not necessarily reflect the views of the Bruce County Federation of Agriculture or Ontario Federation of Agriculture. Summer is officially in full swing and the warm weather that we’ve yearned for is here. With great weather comes long weekends and celebrating with loved ones. Oftentimes, fireworks are an integral part of long weekend festivities and seem harmless for those without livestock. Unfortunately, fireworks and their accompanying loud noises and bright colors can cause trouble for farmers and producers. That vacantlooking corner lot which seems far from town is often near farm properties with livestock. If you’ve ever had a dog terrified of fireworks, you can imagine how scared livestock can be of the booms and crackles in the sky. It’s hard to remove fireworks from long weekend celebrations, but their harm can be mitigated by having good relationships with your neighbors. Instead of assuming they know that they are causing your livestock to be distressed and being frustrated, take the time to educate them. They are likely unaware that their celebrations are hindering the well-being of your sheep, cows, horses and other livestock. Additionally, ask them to notify you when they plan to set fireworks off so you can make the decision how to house your livestock that evening to ensure their safety.
BCFA 2022 MEETINGS • August 22 • September 26 • October 24 • November 28
If your neighbours’ setting off fireworks is sporadic and not tied to a special occasion and they are not receptive to the distress they cause your livestock, you may have to contact your municipality. Some municipalities have firework bylaws already in place that regulate the sale and use of fireworks in the municipality. If your municipality doesn’t have a by-law in place already, it is beneficial to call if you are experiencing issues. The more calls received the more likely they are to act. If they don’t receive calls, they will assume there is no issue.
Furthermore, a more immediate option would be to contact the OPP non-emergency number at 1-888310-1122. It is important to educate new-tothe-area neighbours on rural living and the realities of being in proximity to farm businesses. When new people move into your community, be sure to go visit to welcome them and make that initial connection. It is important to keep the lines of communication open. ◊ – Submitted by Joanne Hughes, MSR Grey Bruce
~ Save the date! ~
BCFA ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING October 28 – 7:00 p.m. Klages Mill, Chesley, Ontario
The Building Careers and Futures in Agriculture is a financial assistance program for students entering or currently pursuing a post-secondary education with an emphasis on agriculture. The program is available to students seeking a post-secondary school agricultural career or agriculturally-oriented educational opportunity. Deadline Approaching – August 31, 2022 Go to bcfabursary.com to apply
* The Rural Voice is provided to OFA Members in Bruce County by the BCFA.
August 2022 77
Perth County Federation of Agriculture Email: perthcountyfedofag@gmail.com Website: www.perthcountyfarmers.ca Office: 1-833-229-6834 Julie Danen, President: 519-801-9200
Many ideas need to be heard to help board function well The power of the meeting is something we may have taken for granted before the COVID-19 restrictions. As I was reflecting on what to include in this month’s article, I thought of how meetings have been a part of my life for over 30 years. He started out in 4-H wondering what parliamentary procedure had to do with showing a dairy calf or fixing a small engine. Little did I know that what I learned in those early teen years would still be used today to aid myself on how to properly conduct and participate in meetings. I have been involved with many organizations over the years. The common theme within all groups is the need for people to gather and discuss the possible goals and outcomes that are desired to be reached. The boards that I am a part of have done a great job of staying motivated and meeting in an online or virtual meeting space. I feel that a board of directors could likely save a lot of time and resources by meeting in a virtual format to make decisions on day-to-day operations or previously discussed issues. The challenge that soon came to my attention was how to read the room when new ideas were presented. Another problem is that sometimes the new idea is not presented due to the lack of time in the meeting structure, or the ability of the presenter to portray or even bring forward the idea. We all have different personality traits. Some of us are dreamers, some are starters and some of us are closers or finishers. It is also possible that we can be well-rounded and good at everything (I am not that person). The ability to gather in a room and have discussions to get the meeting done sets the stage for the most important part of meeting “THE MEETING AFTER THE MEETING”. Many of us know that time spent
after a meeting is where many new ideas can be conceived. The dreamer can share a concept that seems far fetched but with some tweaking and modifications of the group, a worthwhile concept can be developed to share with the board in a future meeting. Many of us have been to our parliament buildings and possibly observed a question period or at least seen the bantering on the news. I have heard many people talk about how this time is a complete waste of taxpayer dollars. As I am thinking about post-pandemic meetings and how boards should operate in the future, I recall a statement from an MPP in Toronto: “Question period is a scheduled time that the house must meet and gather in one room. This enables conversations and meetings to happen outside of the actual question period. ‘The meeting after the meeting’.” Without this time period, our elected officials would not have as much opportunity to meet with each other, as meetings would be scheduled throughout the day and doors would be closed, schedules would conflict and ideas would not be shared. The restrictions of the past few years have been challenging for groups and boards to attract willing volunteers. Virtual meetings do not allow for the social and fellowship skills which develop the trust and respect required to hatch a new idea or test the waters.
It does not matter whether it’s an agriculture, community, sport or church group, I feel that it’s a necessary function for people to gather and share. Events or change will not happen as quickly without people gathering. Whether we are organizing a fundraiser to support our children’s soccer team or coming together to influence government policy, the common thread is that we gather and spark conversations which leads to ideas. Every organization struggled prior to the pandemic to attract a group of people to gather and share ideas. Today there are large voids in many groups that need your help. Please consider being a part of a group. For a board to function well many ideas need to be heard and considered. You, as a reader, have the ability to influence our next base of people and create change that we all can be proud of. ◊ – Submitted by Daryl Terpstra
We wish you a safe harvest season!
Please keep safety top of mind!
Save the Date! Perth County Federation of Agriculture
Harvest Gala In Person!
November 19, 2022
* The Rural Voice is provided to OFA Members in Perth County by the PCFA.
78 The Rural Voice
Index 100.1 FM The Ranch ....................19 A.G. Hayter Contracting Ltd ......44 Argyle Marine & Small Engines..70 Artisanal Chicken Program ........50 Belore Trailers ............................70 Bernie McGlynn/SB Flooring ....65 Bervie Supply Energy Ltd ............9 Bester Wood Products................65 Bio-Ag ............................................4 Blyth Festival ..............................28 Boonstoppel, Dave & Elly ..........53 BP Dust Control ..........................70 Bruce County Plowing Match ....49 Canadian Co-op. Wool Growers 44 Chalmers Fuels ............................41 Clinton Skating Club ..................53 Cover Crops ..........................58,60 Crafters Corner ............................10 CropQuest Inc ............................67 Cross Country Eavestrough..........7 DJ Henry Homes & Renovations 70 DL Distributing ............................69 Easy Lift Doors ............................66 Egger Farms ................................71 FACTS ........................................72 Fairs ..................................20,23,24 Farm to Table ..............................17 Fieldwalker Agronomy ................69 Gerber’s Workwear........................9 Grey-Bruce Construction ..........55 GRK Products ..............................12 Grober Nutrition ................Cover 4 Hanover Honda..............................8 Hardi ............................................50 Harold Jones Enterprises ..........70 Hill & Hills Farms ................Cover 2 Honey ....................................34, 36 Hunter Steel Sales..............Cover 5 Huron Commodities ....................16 Huron County Plowing Match ..30,31 Huron Perth Public Health......7, 73 Huron Pioneer Thresher Reunion 33 JA Porter Holdings ......................48 Keith Siemon Farm Systems Ltd 71 Kenpal Farm Products ................48 Kingwood Bins ............................44 KMM Farm Drainage ..................43 Kraemer Concrete Ltd ................69 Kuepfer Farm Drainage ..............70 LAC ..............................................71 Lakeside Shelving & Racking ....53 Lambton Heritage Museum ..Cover 4 Lands & Forest Consulting ........65 Live Landscape ..........................57 Lucknow Auto Parts Supply ......69 Lucknow’s Music in the Fields ..Cover 7 Mapleview Agri............................46 Marquardt Farm Drainage Ltd ......7 Martin Farm Wagons ..................43 Martin’s Nursery ..........................55 Marvin L Smith ..............................2 McIntee Realtor - Steve Nixon ..70 Michael’s Stabling ......................57 Morris Sachs Silo Construction ..48
Nature’s Wave Inc ........................14 Nuclear Waste Management Org..79 Nuhn Forage................................50 OFA ................................................4 Ontario Standardbred Adoption 48 Perth County Plowing Match ....2,3 Preserve and Store ......................11 RBC Ag West ..............................28 Ridgeway Metals ........................69 RKM Grain ..................................70 Rural Voice Books ..............Cover 6 Rural Voice Subscription....Cover 5 Sauble Beach Motorsports ................19,26,53,67 Schmidt’s Farm Drainage............73
Schweiss Doors ..........................57 Seifried Farm Equipment ............63 Sew & Save Centre ....................55 Sharp’s Creek Forge......................7 Steffen Well Drilling ....................69 Stratford Agri Analysis ................41 Superior Barn Painting ......Cover 3 SWO Diesel ........................Cover 3 Townsley Barn Painting ..............72 Travelling Local ......................13,15 Triple P Consulting ......................19 Trouw Nutrition ............Back Cover Waddell Engineering Ltd ............26 WD Hopper & Sons Ltd ..............26 Wehrmann Grain & Seeds Ltd....70
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August 2022 79
HURON
42 First Avenue, Clinton, Ontario N0M 1L0 519-482-9642 or 1-800-511-1135
County Federation of Agriculture NEWSLETTER
Coleman speaks of challenges that exist in farming
Website: www.hcfa.on.ca Email: ofahuron@tcc.on.ca
Upcoming Events August 1 - Civic holiday! August 18-19 - Huron County Plowing Match and Queen of the Furrow competition, hosted by Warden Glen McNeil and landowners Brian and Annette MacKenzie (Amalgamation Acres Farm near St. Helens in ACW). August 19-21 - Bayfield Fair. For details visit: bayfieldfair.ca August 26-27 - Zurich Bean Festival. For details visit: beanfest.ca September 9-11 - Huron Pioneer Thresher Reunion, Blyth. For details visit: blythsteamshow.com Huron County Federation of Agriculture
BOARD MEETING
The Century Farm Show Episode 7: Coleman Farm By Jeanette Schramm (Huron Perth Junior Farmers) The Century Farm Show is a docuseries created by Huron Perth Junior Farmers in partnership with the Huron Heritage Fund, Lake Affect Media and The Staysh. Our goal is to highlight the enduring legacy of the Century Farms of Huron and Perth Counties; the series consists of 12 videos that each feature a different family, their farm, and their history. Catch a new episode at the end of each month in 2022 by visiting the Huron Perth Junior Farmers’ Facebook page (@huronperthjf). The seventh Century Farm in our series is the Coleman Farm, a 100-acre beef and seed grower operation owned by Les Coleman. It was originally purchased by Les’
great-grandfather in the early 1900s and has been managed in turn by his father, uncle, brother and himself. Like many other farms, the history of the Coleman Farm is defined by community and family teamwork. More recently, Les built the current barn in which they house chickens, sheep, cattle, and a miniature horse. Although he speaks matter-of-factly (and with some humour) about the challenges that can exist in farming, Les acknowledges the rewards of helping to feed the world. To hear Les share the stories of his Century Farm, check out this episode on the Huron Perth Junior Farmers’ Facebook page - episode aired on July 28. Thanks to The Andersons Inc. of Hensall for generously sponsoring this episode. ◊
HCFA Director profile: Ian Scott
Ian Scott has been the HCFA director for North Huron (East Wawanosh Township) for many years. Ian and his brothers operate a woodlot, beef and cropping operation near Blyth. Historically Ian was the president of the East Wawanosh Federation of Agriculture and he has served on HCFA committees many times (including the Executive and Public Relations Committees). In 2021 Ian and his brothers won the 2021 Huron County Outstanding Contribution to Agriculture award.
Monday, August 22 8:00 p.m. Vanastra office
Save the date! Huron County Federation of Agriculture
ANNUAL/REGIONAL MEETING October 27, 2022
Holmesville Community Centre Tickets available at the office
Send in your nominations! We are collecting nominations for the yearly 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’s or group’s contribution(s) to agriculture and rural life in Huron County. The nomination must be signed by the nominator.
Send nominations to the HCFA office Deadline is September 19
The Rural Voice is provided to all OFA members in Huron County by the Huron County Federation of Agriculture
80 The Rural Voice
“The Magazine of Agricultural Life”
$25
for 12 issues
$45
for 24 issues
Already have a subscription? Add a digital monthly copy for $10 a year! Call 519-523-4311 to pay by credit card or mail a cheque made payable to: North Huron Publishing Inc. to Box 429, Blyth, ON N0M 1H0
Supplying the agricultural industry needs since 1977! • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Angle Channel Hot and cold rolled bars Tool steel Beams Rebar Concrete reinforcing mesh Mechanical tubes Black pipe Galvanized pipe Sheet and Plate Bar grating Welded wire mesh Grip strut Precision ground shafting
* NEW * Now Stocking • Hog & Cattle Panels • Various livestock penning sizes available Services offered: • Saw cutting • Punching • Rebar cutting and bending • Custom welded columns and beams • Priming • Galvanizing OPEN: Monday - Friday 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM
www.huntersteel.ca 519-273-3151 500 Lorne Ave. E., Stratford
Summertime Reading
BACKROADS OF ONTARIO 6TH EDITION From afternoon outings to weekend excursions, this latest edition features 33 backroad adventures, each illustrated with colour photos and accompanied by a map. $29.95
The Old Farmer’s Almanac For Kids Tons of fun for everyone. This all-new Old Farmer’s Almanac for Kids has even more of what you’ve always loved: animals, astronomy, friends on the farm, weird weather, perplexing puzzles and cool comics. $10.95
THE TIME OF OUR LIVES: Stories of Huron County in the Post-War Years The post-war years in Huron County have been the times of our lives. David Yates shares stories about a time of dynamic change when Huron County was at the crossroads of an older, rural way of life and a modern, affluent, technologically advanced society. $25.00
SAM Sam Johnstone is a pretty, talented girl who has been troubled by her name since the day she started kindergarten. Sam falls in love, but her name and the things she learns in a secret letter prevent her from accepting the proposal. $24.00
The Rural Reading Room Specializing in Rural Living & Local Authors
HORSE GAMES & PUZZLES For the young person who loves all things horses, this book has 102 brain teasers, word games, jokes and riddles, picture puzzles, matches and logic tests in 130 pages of fun. $14.95
DANCE OF THE HAPPY SHADES This is the book that earned Alice Munro a devoted readership, revealing the countryside of Southwestern Ontario and its many small sufferings and unanticipated emotions. $20.00 Total
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BACKROADS OF ONTARIO (6TH EDITION) THE OLD FARMER’S ALMANAC FOR KIDS HORSE GAMES & PUZZLES HOMEMADE & HAND-ME_DOWNS THE TIME OF OUR LIVES SAM DANCE OF THE HAPPY SHADES THE SEASON FOR STRAWBERRIES Check out huroncitizen.ca for more books
HOMEMADE & HAND-ME-DOWNS Arnold Mathers’ stories have been entertaining Rural Voice readers for years. This new collection of 46 stories includes 17 which haven’t been published in previous books. Mathers sees the humour in the way we were. $24.00
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THE SEASON FOR STRAWBERRIES Newly established as the parish’s first female pastor, Aleda struggles with feelings of inadequacy and questions the relevance of her ministry as she faces all the characters and challenges, large and small, that define village life. What happens when the strawberry social is threatened, and when a tragedy shakes the village to its core? $20.00
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