The Rural Voice, 2003-07, Page 3•
About this issue
Choosing the path less followed
Our July issue has traditionally been the issue we devote
to alternatives in agriculture. For many years that meant
livestock like emu before they fell into disfavour but there
are other ways of thinking about alternatives.
Take Mike and Marlene O'Brien of Bayfield. This
young couple decided to battle upstream from the current
of the accepted wisdom in agriculture. From the very
beginning they decided they wanted to farm on a smaller
scale but take their products right to the mouth of the
consumer. While others specialize in fewer and fewer
crops, they went in the opposite direction, creating a farm
with more than a dozen varieties of fruit so that the
consumer would always have variety when he or she came
to their farm store and restaurant. While others looked for
efficiency in letting others take over part of the food chain,
they wanted to prepare food from scratch, as much as
possible using their own fruit and vegetables.
We visited Bayfield Berry Farm to discuss the ideas and
the success, so far, of this creative, energetic couple.
There can be no alternatives if the rules are such that
only one way of doing things is allowed. For producers of
many specialty lines of meats, the main stream just won't
work, with processing going on in a handful of huge
processing plants. They need the small-scale abattoirs that
have traditionally been part of the Ontario countryside but
which are under increasing pressure because of new,
tougher regulations which often seem to have little to do
with real food safety and have everything to do with red
tape. A meeting recently discussed the issue and we were
there to hear the latest in the situation.
Speaking of alternatives, people in the cities can now
and then teach us some lessons about producing food. A
group from Huron County's Field to Table committee
visited FoodShare in Toronto to learn from the grandaddy
of the good food box programs. While in the concrete
jungle, however, they saw an innovative food growing
operation that produces some of the food for those boxes
and earns money to help pay for the program, by even
creating its own soil. It's a fascinating lesson in what
nature, with help of some ingenuity can produce.
From the time fanners first started cultivating crops,
observing the effects of nature has always led to
improvements. This kind of natural observation has a name
and Larry Drew this month looks at the value of phenology.
and the enjoyment that it can bring to living in nature.0
Update
Waiting for the corn
So you think this spring's cold weather is going to make
it hard to have the corn knee-high by the first of July? How
about eye -high by the 25th of July. That's opening day for
the Ontario Corn Maze at Newton, featured in our August
2002 issue.
The corn has been a worry, admitted Nelly Hofer on one
of the first warm days in mid-June. At least they were able
to find a spell of weather dry enough to get the crop
planted.
Last season was another successful year for Nelly and
Ernst Hofer and their farm entertainment attraction. People
now know what to expect, Nelly says, knowing they can
come back each year and have a new maze experience.
This year Ernst is currently working to add a farmers'
mini -golf course. It's still in development so Nelly says she
doesn't know exactly what will turn out but it will have a
farm theme and she suspects that various pieces of old farm
machinery will be among the challenges for golfers.
The maze is open seven days a week. You can check out
hours of operation on their website www.ontariomaze.com.0
'°°Rural Voice
Published monthly by:
The Rural Voice,
Box 429, Blyth, Ontario,
NOM 1H0
Telephone: 519-523-4311 (fax 523-9140).
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A division of North Huron Publishing Company Inc.
Editor & Publisher: Keith Roulston
Editorial advisory committee:
Bev Hill, farmer, Huron Cty;
Diane O'Shea, farmer, Middlesex Cty.;
Gerald Poechman, farmer, Bruce Cty.
Contributing writers:
Bonnie Gropp, Carol Riemer, Ralph
Pearce, Bob Reid, Mervyn Erb, Sandra
Orr, Janice Becker, Larry Drew
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Gerry Fortune
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Merle Gunby
Production co-ordinator:
Joan Caldwell
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Dianne Josling
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