Of LadySlippers and Local Foods
It's an article written by Atlantic Canada's Garden Writer and Blomidon resident Jodi Delong. Jodi is also editor/producer of the Canning Gazette and a regular at the ArtCan Gallery & Cafe where I used to work.
(I'll add it to my friends section when I have a bit more time.)
'This comes from her garden email newsletter, which she sends out across the
region. In it she's made several requests of her readers. As you'll see in the last
few paragraphs, Rural Delivery magazine's publisher and Jodi are planning to start
a column profiling local producers and value-added suppliers in the region, in
an effort to help support our producers. I think it's a worthwhile thing to do.'
___________________________________
Dear friends and gentle gardeners:
Yes, it’s me again, already. Only this time, I’m not talking so much about
gardening, as asking for your help with a couple of things that are going on in
our neck of the woods. I’ll also ask your patience if you’re not interested in
these matters, please and just to delete this email and not worry about it. The
three things have to do with a problem on the Avon Penisula Watershed in Hants
County, the whole ‘Eating Local’ movement, and a request for sources of locally
produced foods—meats, produce, value-added items—for a section we hope to be
doing in Rural Delivery Magazine. I’ll explain further as we go along here.
Yesterday I received an email from a friend and colleague, asking for my help
and support with the potential development of another strip mine. A
multinational gypsum company that already operates a huge stripmine down near
Windsor, Hants County, has been buying up land and plans to open another mine,
on lands that are part of the unique watershed system of the Avon Peninsula, a
spit of land bounded by three rivers; the Avon, the St. Croix, and the
Kennetcook. The lands are socalled calcareous woodlands, and are home to a
number of unique and rare wildflowers, including yellow ladyslippers, ramshead
orchids, and other wild orchids. The peninsula also is home to a number of farms
and other dwellings, and development of this mine will destroy farming and
ecotourism opportunities as well as a way of life and unique ecosystem.
Now, I don’t have all the details yet. The Avon Peninsula Watershed Preservation
Society has a website at www.apwps.ca, and you can visit it and get more details
as well as information on what we as citizens can do. I’ve signed the petition
already, and have written a piece on my blog about this; plus I promised the
organizers of the society that I’d spread the word as best I can. So I’m letting
you know about this situation—yet another one where the government is allowing
big business to do whatever it wants in this province, regardless of the cost to
our quality of lives or environmental impacts. If you’re willing to help by
signing the petition or writing letters, that would be a marvelous thing.
Second thing. Many of you know that I’m passionate about supporting local
business, especially local farmers—the people who feed us. As those of us who
live in NS know, things aren’t good for local farmers and many are hitting
crisis situations. The pork industry is on the verge of collapse without help
from the government to help them reinvent and stabilize themselves; and Maple
Leaf Poultry has announced the closure of its plant in Canard at the end of
April, at the cost of over 400 jobs and countless ripple effects to our local
community. These are just two things that are causing concern, not only to
farmers but to those of us who feel we must support local producers.
What can we do? BUY LOCAL. Put pressure on your grocery store. Take pork, for
example. The Superstore/Saveeasy stores in this province sell ‘seasoned’
pork—that’s pork with salt already on it, great for retaining water in the meat
and making it heavier than it should be—and it sure as blazes isn’t Nova Scotian
Pork. The beef comes mostly from out west, or the US. The Co-op and Valufood
stores, on the other hand, go out of their way to carry local meats and
products, and they’re also marked as such. Ask your grocery why they’re bringing
in apples from Washington when Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley is the heart of
apple production for our region.
What does local mean? To me, it goes thusly; from my community first, then my
county, then my province, then the Atlantic provinces. Not Ontario, Quebec or BC
(no offence meant to any of these regions or their producers, of course.) We’re
hearing more and more about climate change; how many carbon units, or whatever
they’re called, are caused by hauling tractor trailers of food in from
elsewhere. Do we NEED California strawberries in January?
I know of people who are making a conscious effort to eat local as much as
possible. Some are even taking up with the Hundred Mile Challenge. (see the
website at 100milediet.org for info on what this is.) Again, I’m not going to
preach or scold, just ask people to think about this, and think about what it
would mean if our farmers—our neighbours and friends, for many of us—were all
forced out of business and we HAD to rely on food supplies from elsewhere.
That’s all.
Finally, if you currently deal with a local farmer, farmers market, farm market,
or a small business that creates valueadded products from farm produced foods,
please send me the contact information for these businesses. I’ve been talking
to Dirk van Loon, publisher of Rural Delivery and three other rural life
magazines, about what we could do in the pages of RD to help support such local
businesses. During the BSE crisis of several years ago, Dirk began running a
directory of local beef producers in each magazine, so that people could buy
direct from the farmers. We thought we’d go further with this, and I expect to
be starting a regular feature in the magazine, doing brief profiles of a few
such businesses each issue. Places like Fox Hill Cheese House, a dairy farm that
value adds its milk into cheese, yogourt and quark; the Village Meat Shop in
Canning, where the owners purchase as much meat as they can directly from local
farmers, and also smoke their own hams, bacon and pork chops, and make pepperoni
and sausage; Farmer John’s Herbs, also in Canning, where the farmer has
developed a line of dried, packaged herbs but also stuffing and sauce mixes…I
know there are dozens of such businesses throughout Atlantic Canada, and I’m
asking for your help in finding them. Please send business names, names and
phone numbers, website info if you know it, to me, and I’ll take it from there
to collate a list, and work my way through interviewing the various businesses.
It’ll be beneficial both to the producers and to us as consumers/customers.
Thank you to all of you for listening, and for helping if you can.
Stay warm in this chilly air…
Cheers, jodi
