The Rural Voice, 2019-08, Page 10This isn’t the column I originally
planned to write for this month.
Good news can make you change
course like that.
The column I’d intended to write
for August was prompted by looking
at the back of a pickle jar a few
months ago and seeing that the
pickles had been imported from
India. It seemed like one of the
ludicrous examples of globalization
and it reminded me of my own small
role in the pickle business many,
many years ago.
Things were tough in farming in
the 1950s when my pickle adventure
occurred. During World War II
farmers had geared up to feed Britain
but after the war Britain was broke
and couldn’t afford to buy Canadian
farm products any more. Both
demand and prices in Canada went
bust. It’s no coincidence that many of
the collective marketing measures
adopted by Canadian farmers such as
the Ontario Pork Producers’
Marketing Board originated in the
post-war era.
For returning soldiers who wanted
to be farmers like my father, times
were even tougher. He wasn’t
coming home to take over the family
farm like many other returning
veterans. He was starting from
scratch, and serving your nation in
the armed forces wasn’t a way to
have saved a good nest egg to get
you through the start-up years. Cash
was always scarce and I remember
tension building every fall as the
adults wondered where the money
would come from to pay the property
tax.
My bachelor uncle had his own
farm but he lived with us. One spring
he heard about the opportunity to
grow cucumbers for the Bick’s pickle
company. It sounded like a way to
maximize the returns from an acre of
the farm so he signed the contract.
My uncle had a job working in the
local Co-op’s fertilizer blending plant
in the spring and that spring he badly
injured his back and spent the
summer in a striker bed in a city
hospital. My father already had taken
an off-farm job that involved shift-
work so many days he wasn’t
available for pickle duty. It was left
to my mother, who had one artificial
leg, me, at nine or 10, and my brother
who was four years younger, to weed
and pick the cucumbers. I remember
it as the summer from hell. I’m sure
it was worse for my mother, who had
the responsibility for the job while
still looking after two kids.
As if picking an acre of
cucumbers wasn’t bad enough, the
company needed them small, so put a
premium on smaller sizes. It meant it
took far more cucumbers to fill a
sack and that if you missed a
cucumber today – and with kids
picking that would be almost a
certainty – it would grow too large
and be virtually worthless a couple of
days later.
When the picking was completed,
we’d drive to Teeswater where
Bick’s had a receiving depot and
we’d watch as the sacks of
cucumbers were dumped and graded.
I never heard the financial results
but I’m sure it wasn’t worth the
effort. It probably worked better for
neighbours down the road when they
signed up. A Dutch immigrant
family, they had five kids, most of
them older than my brother and I.
In planning this column I’d
intended to bemoan the fact that it’s
hard to find any Canadian-grown
pickles these days. Bick’s was
bought out by U.S.-based J.M.
Smucker which moved production to
the U.S. in 2010. But then I saw a
story that Quebec-based Whyte’s
Foods had bought a Wallaceburg
factory and was converting it to
process pickles. It was estimated
upwards of 600 acres would be
needed to grow cucumbers for the
new plant when it reaches full
production next summer.
So I’ll be able to buy Canadian
pickles after all. I’m just glad I don’t
have to pick them.◊
6 The Rural Voice
Soon I’ll be able
to get a Canadian
pickle again
Keith is former
publisher of
The Rural
Voice.
He lives near
Blyth, ON.
Keith Roulston
2019
BRUCE COUNTY
PLOWING MATCH
Friday, August 30
Host John Husk
4388 Highway 9, Kincardine
(west of Kinloss)
Call 519-395-5248
for details
BEEF BBQ $20.00
FRIDAY AT NOON
(Call 519-395-5248 for Advance Tickets)
AGRICULTURAL DEMOS & DISPLAYS
Contacts: Pres. Byron Monk
519-363-3153
Sec./Treas. John Gillespie
519-395-5248 or
jgilles@hurontel.on.ca
Queen of the Furrow
Registration by August 15th
Call John Gillespie
519-395-5248 to register
Plowing starts at 10 am
Plowing Classes including
Horses, Junior, Antique,
IPM Plowers, Reversible Plows,
Queen of the Furrow Competition
DON’T MISS THE ANNUAL
2019 Sponsors
County of Bruce • Municipality of Kincardine
• Ontario Plowmen’s Association
• Bruce County Women’s Institute
• Wark Milk Transport
• Connect Equipment Corp.
• Bruce County Federation of Agriculture
• Enbridge Community Grant
• FCC • Paisley Vet Clinic • TD Bank
• Teeswater Concrete
www.brucecountyplowmen.ca