The Brussels Post, 1974-07-24, Page 14picked berries
kitchen.. Glass jars came up from the cellar
shelves. Great kettles simmered on the wood
stove and there was much exchanging of
cherished recipes for preserving fruit that
would provide ample desserts throughout th e
long winter months. In those days a
housewife - looked down her nose at a
neighbour who went to the local store to buy
canned preserves. It was an outright si gn of
shiftlessness and a failure to provide in season
for the months that were ahead.
Vanished along with many other pioneering
virtues are the berrypicking parties. They
were summer pastimes which our parent;
pursued with joy and vigour and nOW an
adventure soon to be written off. The modern
generation in most instances knows nothing pi
its, joys nor its backaches. Today we rely on
the chain stores to provide all that is needed
for the pantry. True they do an excellent and
colourful-if expensive job of it but in the
vanishing of the self-reliant people of
yesterday the country has lost something that
will never be regained.
"Dad,"asks junior today, "why are ripe,
red strawberries white when they are green?"
"Blessings on thee, little man,
Barefoot boy with cheek of tan!
With thy turned-up pantaloons
And thy merry whistled tunes;
With thy red lip, redder still
Kissed by strawberries on the hill;
With the sunshine on thy face
Through thy torn brim's jaunty grace;
From my heart I give thee joy-
I was once a barefoot boy."
YOU CANNOT HELP
SOMEONE ACHIEVE
AN OBJECTIVE.
WITHOUT REACHING
ONE OF YOUR OWN.
6.Residue
7. Shinto
temple
8. Kind
of
food
9. Boleyn
10. High
plateau
14. Char
17, Chinese
weight
unit
18. Bug-
bear
19. Broad
smile
21. Eccle-
sias-
tical
vest-
ment
22. Mores-
by or
Royal
A
27 26
1 9 to
16
22
23 2 26
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17 21 2
3 4 S
11
13
24. Archi- g ...,13AY S ANSWER tec-
tural
pier
26. Ending
for
silver
or
glass
27. Ger-
man
river
28. Flight-
less
bird
30. Jewel
34. Erased
36. Tennis
champ
37. Pronoun
often
misused
38. Boxing's
BenVerititi
40. Zola
novel
42. Allow
43. Caustic
sub-
stance
44. African
antelope
45. Barbarian
46. Held
a
session
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Agri-notes
(By Adrian Vos)
Ag. office says
Corn and beans need rain, Country boy
wheat ready for harvest
Remembering..
City folk can never know the outright yen a
country lad can have for wild berries;
strawberries, raspberries and cranberries.
Doubtless the wild strawberry fills the bill
when it comes to taste, aroma and sheer
soul-satisfying,appetite. It is the first berry of
the summer season, the first and finest of
nature's sweets. Doubltess God could have
made a better berry than the strawberry but
he never did.
On the very doorstep of summer the wild
strawberry comes out and its delicacy and
palate-titilating flavor is never repeated
although the later raspberry has much to
offer.
Strawberry days! How vividly they flash
back in recollection, times spent close to the
earth's surface where tall grasses provide
shelter within which the berry grows to
bursting ripeness nourished by the morning
dew and the bright sun's rays at high noon.
The smell of somewhere, soneone is mowing a
piece of hay. We can hear the clacking of the
mower although it is out of sight behind a
hillock. Cattle browse in the shade of. the
shapely elm.
Whole families went out into the meadows
and bushlands to garner the wild fruit and
there was more to raspberry picking than the
mere returning home with a brimming basket
of the rich, red fruit. . There was they
opportunity to commune with nature but amid
the delights was the only villain, the
ubiquitous mosquito.
What busy times berry picking ushered in !
When the harvest was brought home, what a
nestle and bustle there was around the
Corn and white bean growers
likely have a difference of opinion.
with wheat farmers this week
what they would like to hear from
the weather man.
This observation was made by
Huron's Agricultural
Representative Don Pullen,
"The corn and white beans are
showing a slight moisture
deficiency," Pullen said Monday
from the Ag. Office in Clinton.'
"What we need is a gentle rain,
but certainly not a holocaust."
He said that the wheat has
been doing very well and should
be ready for harvesting the end of
this week.
"Wheat growers would argue
that we don't need rain because
of the harvesting," he said.
Although the hay crop was
behind. schedule, most of it has
now been harvested. Pullen said
that any hay cut towards the end
of the harvesting would be ideally
sun cured and high in vitamins.
Some problems have b een
encountered in white beans, due
to continued wet fields. Many
farmers were forced to plant a
second time.
The corn crop is expected to be.
excellent,, with the recent• hot
weather a contributing factor to
good growth.
With plantings of corn slowed
by the weather, a small number of
acres in Huron have been
diverted to white beans.
Cereal grains are expected to
yield only at a normal rate at the
best.
According to Clinton officials
soya beans continue to be of a
minority acreage in Huron. This
is because a variety. has not yet
been found that will perform well
in this area.
More flax acreage has been
planted in Huron this year
according to Don Pullen. He gave
a price increase as the main
reason for more acres of flax.
The acreage of pasture was
reduced considerably this year
when more land was plowed for
beans and corn due to the higher
prices of the two crops.
In summing up the crop,
situation, Pullen said, "we may
have had some setbacks here but
we don't really know how
fortunate we are. EasternOntario
has had rain almost every day and
they appear to be in for the third
bad year in a row."
The only way I can see to keep
some of the 'cost of eating down,
is to prepare more food at home:
The cost of labour in restaurants
is going up together with the
labour cost in packing houses and
retail stores as well as the cost to
the farmer. If subsidy is the
answer, we farmers don't want it.
We want a fair return for our
product. Maybe labour in other
parts of the food chain should be
subsidized.
CROSSWORD PUZZLE
29
30
47 46
49
SO
Classified
Ads
In
The
Brussels
Post
get
the
job
done
...make
you
money
phone
887-6641.
Those people who are down on
Agriculture Minist er Eugene
Whelan, for his statements that
Canadian food prices are a
bargain, had better do some
research before offering criticism.
Food prices everywhere in the
world are higher than here in
Canada. Of course this is small,
consolation for those on low
incomes. But the fact remains. It
appears from here that a great
many lower income families have
the same problem as those on
high incomes, they often have
their priorities wrong. What
should come first, food or
recreation? It seems that in many
cases recreation comes first, or
the case of beer. It makes me
tired when I see an interview on
television with a colour set in the'
background of a room with small
children and a woman whose
husband has left her, crying that
she can't feed her children
properly. I believe everything she
says, but the problem lies not
with high food costs. It lies with
low income, coupled with a lack of
household management skill.
Usually this woman looks fat,
probably because of a wrong diet,
as potato chips And soft drinks.
One can ask: "Why shouldn't the
poor have a right to a bottle of
pop?"And I can' ask: "Why
shouldn't irbe a cool-aid type of
drink or better yet a glass of
milk?" If the income is too low to
buy nourishing food, the income
problem should be remedied.. If
household management is at
fault 3 this should be corrected. If
priorities are wrong, social
advisors should advise them. But
Whelan is right, food in Canada is
the greatest bargain in the world .
Slot only does it cost less here
than anywhere else', but it also
takes a lower percentage of Out
incenrie. In most countries it takes
well over 50% of their income for
food while here it hovers around
the 20% mark Let's be grateful
and accept the probability that for
the time being our standard of
living will not further increase.,
ACROSS
1. Light wood
6. Indian
state
11, Spirit in
"The
Tempest"
12, Beamed
13, Banshee's
relatives
15. Bikini part
16. Pasture
17, Dress
20. Pitfall
23. Taj Mahal
city
25. Hot-air
artist
29. Gaelic war
cry
(3wds.)
31. Of the
season be-
fore Easter
32. Corner
33. Surrounded
by
35. Geological
time
division
36. Beard on
wheat
b. Buddhist
sect
41. Cudgels
from Cork
47. Sweet stuff
48. Playboy's
znalady
49, Behave
theatrically
50. intimidate
1. tternainder
(abbr.)
2. you
me?"with
3. Back talk
4. One of.
PeOle
5. 'Watchful
14-6-11011g Iiiti*M014 Mitt ".%