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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2015-08-27, Page 1CitizenTh e $1.25 GST included Serving the communities of Blyth and Brussels and northern Huron County Thursday, August 27, 2015 Volume 31 No. 33 SPORTS - Pg. 20 Local signed to London Lakers hockey team FUNDING - Pg. 17 Several local hospitals receive government funding Publications Mail Agreement No. 40050141 Return Undeliverable Items to North Huron Publishing Company Inc., P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, ON N0G 1H0 INSIDE THIS WEEK: Eye of the tiger Sjoerd Jan De Boer employed intense focus and laser precision at this year’s Huron County Ploughing Match, held in Ashfield-Colborne-Wawanosh on Thursday and Friday, making sure he kept his line straight in the fields. No question that his focus and attention to detail helped him net a handful of the match’s most pretigious awards, including Huron Junior Champion, which also earned him the Warden’s Award, and the McGavin Family Award. Despite questionable weather on the first day of the match, it has been deemed a success by all involved. For more pictures from the event, see pages 10 and 11. (Denny Scott photo) Ploughing Match triumphs despite poor weather Garden at Blyth begins to boost local economy The Garden at Blyth is becoming a big part of the village with lots of people taking advantage of it, including local businesses that are beginning to reap the benefits of its harvest. Part of the Canadian Centre for Rural Creativity (CCRC) at the former Blyth Public School, the garden has been producing vegetables that are now finding their way to local restaurants and retailers to become a part of the local economy. Karen Stewart, Administrator at Blyth Arts & Cultural Initiative 14/19 Inc., the organization behind the CCRC, said that the year has been a good first for the garden. “We’re trying to measure the yield right now to figure out how we’re going to look at future programming,” she said. “We’re looking at what the local businesses want and what they can use. So far we’ve been showing up at their doors with everything from swiss chard to summer melons.” Jason Rutledge, chef and owner of the Blyth Inn, said that he has been receiving kale, cabbage, zucchini and herbs and said the quality of the produce was apparent. “It’s been awesome,” he said. “It’s so fresh. You can tell they’ve just cut it and brought it right to us.” He said that the fact the produce is growing locally and not shipped in from out of the country is great and also said that having such “handy” ingredients has stirred some creativity in him. Upon the produce being delivered by 14/19 Project Director Peter Smith, Rutledge has begun devising a way to utilize what he has been given which drives him to create new and exciting dishes. Rutledge also said that it has helped him with a plan to create a new menu for October that will feature a lot of healthier choices such as kale and quinoa. The garden has also become the site of several special programming events through the CCRC that offer new experiences in the area. Stewart explained that yoga has been offered there and will be again. She said the instructor had commented that the area was good as a quiet, reflective meditation space for those involved. The Fashion Arts Program, which also ran at the CCRC recently, could also be looking to take advantage of the space in the area. Stewart explained that program head and Blyth Festival familiar face Jennifer Triemstra-Johnston had noted that many people are doing their own cloth dying locally. “She suggested that we look at growing wildflowers for our own dyes,” Stewart said. “Those are the kinds of ideas that we need people coming to us with.” Visitors to the Blyth Festival are also making use of the garden. Some tourists to the area have visited and monitored the progress the garden has made. She also said that an entire bus full of visitors from the Festival came to the garden. “People are discovering it,” she said. “It wasn’t intended to be a tourism destination, but it’s great that it is. As more people visit, more will hear about the garden site and will become curious about it.” Stewart explained that the success of the garden is going to hinge on community members becoming involved. She said the group needs a buy-in from the local community that involves not only participation, but ideas about how to grow and use the space. “We want people to utilize what we have here and we want them to bring ideas and reconnect with each other and the practices,” she said. “Until people tell us where they want to go, we don’t know what to focus on.” Dave Rankine, the designer of the garden, also held a three-day course about Celtic philosophy, which played heavily into the design of the garden. He focused on sacred geometry which Rick Elliott, who is a key volunteer at the garden, said he found very interesting and enlightening. Elliott also made an announcement about the garden last week, stating that a special rainwater collection system had been implemented to help make the garden more sustainable. The sealed system, meaning it can’t be accessed by anything except the rainwater coming into it, ties into the school’s roof system. In the first rain after setting it up last week, the system captured 1,600 gallons of rain according to Elliott. After being expanded, he expects that the rains later in the week The 88th annual Huron County Ploughing Match held at the Hayden family farm on Division Line near Port Albert was a success despite some bad weather according to Huron County Plowmen’s Association President Neil Vincent. “I think things went surprisingly well,” he said. “There was just enough inclement weather that people couldn’t combine their small grains, so I think we got more people out because of the showers that we had in the mornings.” Vincent didn’t know if the number of competitors was up or down, but he did say that the money collected at the gate was higher than previous years, which was good because of changes made to the event elsewhere. “We did some different things with the meals since we normally have a volunteer group handle the meal and then the profits are handled by the groups,” he said. “We couldn’t find a community group to do the breakfast on Friday and the lunches on Thursday and Friday.” Vincent explained that a private business was brought in to handle the meals, aside from the banquet, and he understood the business did well. As far as the ploughing was concerned, Vincent said that things could not have been better. “There was wind, but not like at the International [Plowing Match] in Dashwood in 1999, called the Dust Match, when the wind kicked all the dirt in the air,” he said. “The weather here co-operated. It was questionable at times, but everything worked out. “The land ploughed beautifully when the competitors were out,” he said. Vincent said he isn’t the most versed individual in ploughing and credited many volunteers, including the Dodds and McGavin clans, for their assistance in getting the day going. As far as awards are concerned, Paul Dodds walked away with the Senior Champion title with Brian McGavin, who is at the Canadian Plowing Match at Wolfe Island, Ontario, this week, taking the reserve spot. Sjoerd Jan De Boer was the Junior Champion. He also received the McGavin Family Award for having the highest score in classes 2-4 (previous winners ineligible) and the Warden Award for junior plow person (previous winners ineligible). Lucas Townsend was named the Huron Junior Reserve as well as the Banana Split Class, the Top Plow Person and the William Leeming Memorial Award for Top Finish. The Don Dodds Award for the highest visitor score went to Tom Evans. Best Going Plow Team was captured by Scott Thomas while Antique Plowing Champion was earned by Harold Walker. The Val Lea Farms Award, sponsored by John and Mary Becker for the youngest plough person, was awarded to Ben Speer. The most original restored antique tractor award went to Randy and Jean Pentland for their Ford 740 1955 while the most original unrestored on display went to Ben Miltenburg for his MM44 Special. The Ross Gordon Memorial Award for the Top Crown went to Craig Baan. The Citizen Celebrating 30 Years 1985~2015 By Denny Scott The Citizen By Denny Scott The Citizen Continued on page 16