Blogs
More and more people are interested in heritage vegetables and some are discovered heritage apples. The townships along the Bay of Quinte had some of the earliest apple orchards in Upper Canada. You can still find ancient apple trees in farm yards or along field boundaries.
County of Hastings Historical Altas 1878
Terry Marsden of the Sustainable Places Research Institute and School of City and Regional Planning, University of Cardiff, Wales spoke at the Sustainable Local Food Systems in Europe and the Americas: Lessons for Policy and Practice conference in Ottawa on March 3. He highlighted the issues facing society; peak oil, water shortages, competition for land, loss of biodiversity, loss of topsoil, green house gases and the huge waste of food. He calls for a transition into an ecologically based economy, with water and waste minimization, and low carbon use.
Prof. Marsden describes the current agricultural system as being in crisis with the introduction of genetically modified organisms, and a growing divide between urban and rural. He calls for a transition or re-grounding to a new, more locally based system.
Much of what he said in Ottawa is in this paper Food System Futures: system transformations and constructed marginalities.
Harvest Hastings members met the Food Security Network of Hastings and Prince Edward counties at Grills Orchards on February 17 to find new ways of making local food available to those facing food insecurity,
We built a new small barn last year and as we did I was not at all clear how water would be supplied for the animals all year.
What is a city? A question I was asked as part of a university entrance interview some forty years ago. I was reminded of it the other day as I was cleaning the barn.
In our race to consume and grow we have become more remote and have been losing track of our actions and the consequences... At the same time as we consume more we rely more on others resulting in, it seems, more buffering.
I am focusing this two-part installment on things remote due to its core importance to everything else I want to explore on this journey. In this and subsequent discussions I will advocate for a judicious and ethical use of buffers as, you will see, we need them just not too many of them.
Journeys have a beginning
Basically, we only really have one journey, the journey of life. Of course along the path there are many twists and turns, ups and downs. Life, learning and doing is not a linear, straight-as-an-arrow, process.
For me this blog represents a mini-journey, an exploration of thoughts, ideas and actions. Others began aspects of this journey a long time ago. I am just now hopping on for the ride and together, if you join with me, we will see where it leads.
Bill West of Stirling Creamery won the The William C. West Memorial Trophy – Stirling Creamery Award, awarded to the buttermaker with the highest scoring butter on exhibition at the British Empire Cheese Show on Thursday December 2. Stirling Creamery unsalted butter was given 98.65 points.
Jim Pedersen, Hastings Stewardship Council co-ordinator and professional forestry consultant Herman Ebbers led a tour of Jack and Christiane Locke’s woodlot near Hoard’s Station. This was part of the very successful 2010 Trenton Woodlot Conference on November 19.
The Locke family had owned the broadleaved woodlot since 1855. The 35 acres woodlot had been harvested in 1970 and had had a light harvest in 1995. Jim Pedersen and Herman Ebbers had prepared a Managed Forest Prescription for Jack and Christiane Locke, whose long term objective is to have a healthy and productive forest as part of working farm and to supply firewood for themselves.
