Farm Tour in Vermont

Back in mid-July 2019 I had the pleasure of being invited to participate in a conference called the Rural Quadrennial. It is held every four years in Britain, Canada or the USA and participation is restricted to scholars from those nations. There is, however, the possibility for occasional Australian and New Zealand people to be included and I have now been invited to four such events over the years. In sequence they were Halifax (Nova Scotia), Spokane (Washington State), Brandon (Manitoba), and just recently Burlington (Vermont). On this occasion I got in via being made an honorary Canadian! Each conference has interesting paper sessions, but this post will focus  on the four and half days we spent on the road visiting farms and farming communities. Such tours are central to all these conferences and highly valued.

This post focuses on some the farms. Late on Monday 15th July we headed off the Bread and Butter Farm to see its approaches to farming and community development and, subsequently have an evening meal there.





















Here we have the suitably rustic entrance to the bead and butter farm, a plaque stating the community values of the enterprise, and warning sign about roaming kiddos. This farm is about ethically and ecologically sound food production, strengthening the local community and school education. Let's a look around the farm.






















Farm produce ranges a wide range of veggies and livestock, especially in this case little piglets.







And the business serves food out of doors - fine for the summer's day we were there.

The following day we started our from Burlington for what's called the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. We visited the Laggis Bothers farm. It's partly a dairy with around 500 cows located on about 1500 acres (c. 600 Ha.) of prime hill-top land. It's a small operation by Australian standards. But the farm also produces a variety of 'green' produce. Here's the owner addressing his audience and a view of some of the farm buildings.

This last one shows the 'cow shed' and we can take a peek inside.

And, of course, the winters get very cold in the far north-east of the USA, so we found a shed stacked high with dry feed for the long winter months.

And the remaining pictures show the surrounding countryside and some of the veggies being grown.

All up, it was an interesting sample of what seemed to us a good model of local agriculture.

The third farm visit was, for me, a bit of a surprise. I like to eat Belgian waffles coated in maple syrup, usually Canadian in origin. I've always associated that lovely ingredient with, of course, Canada. After all, the maple leaf is the national emblem enshrined in that country;s flag.  Well, the next farm we visited in Vermont was called the Bread Loaf View Farm and its main output we found to be maple syrup. We saw the farm's maple abundant maple trees of varying ages, the collection of their sap, and its subsequent processing into the syrup one buys in the shop.


Here's the farm's mascot at the entrance. And we made our way to the Sugarhouse to meet up with our hosts. And I took a quick peek inside.

The we headed off into the forest of maple trees to learn about their growth patterns,

and how holes were drilled into the bark, tubes were inserted to draw of the syrupy flow, and networked to drain a strong uptake of the product - see below.


 Eventually the sap reaches a tank back at HQ and from there it is taken into the Sugarhouse to be refined into the final syrup product.
























Here we can members of our party watching the refining process, while below a shelf was stacked with samples of the final product.











As we exited from the building on our back to our bus I was taken by this sketch of what the farm looked like maybe a century or so ago. I'd have to agree that the processing system has improved significantly between then and now.













That's all I'm posting about farms in Vermont, but in the next few days we'll see many of the other interesting dimensions of rural life in the USA, assuming I find time to wade through hundreds of pictures I took.

AS

Our First Rotary Car Boot Sale

I belong to the Armidale North branch of Rotary and am on the branch's executive as organiser of the youth directorate. Our branch often attempts new money making enterprises to fund our charitable activities, and on Sunday 8th September - a little over a week ago - we held our first car boot sale at the Armidale Showground in partnership with the Showground Trust.

Basically, we invited anyone in Armidale and its surrounding districts to pay us a small fee to come to the show-ground with wares they wished to sell or even give away and distribute them either from a car boot or small fold-away table or any other merchandising contraption. Club members helped with the set-up in a variety of ways and provided both breakfast and morning eats culminating in sausage sandwiches before the lunch-time closure of the event. Another food supplier produced some rather good ice-cream, which I also tried. So we had a Rotary 'chef' to do the cooking.

We intended this first sale to be a try-out of the idea and it worked quite well in the sense that we made a profit, part of which was shared  with the Showground Trust. They were happy too, since the facility we used is mainly used for infrequent agricultural events. It['s our intention to hold this car-boot sale once a month on the third Sunday. The timing means that Armidale now has Sunday commercial events every week throughout the month, except perhaps those months with 5 Sundays. The first and third Sundays are the popular farmers' markets down on the Creeklands.  And the last Sunday sees the Markets is the Mall, where suppliers deliver much more varied goods than the farmers' markets. Let's hope for our sake that selling or otherwise disposing of surplus household items also becomes a must-see event.

If Armidale's households match ours in having a large surplus of unused items we should do well. Tome will tell.

You can see from these pictures that the large open-sided 'shed' where we held the sale was ideal for the purpose. It had lots of light and space for participants and also provided good cover should it have rained. The latter is extremely rare at the moment as we're experiencing probably the worst drought in the last two centuries ... and remember that Armidale wasn't settled until the 1830s!

The goods on sale included everything from clothing, machinery and equipment, foods, household goods and so on. I, for example, bought a dozen guaranteed cage-free eggs!

And this stall had a lolly distribution machine at the near end, which rather interested me. However, the fact that we're crowded with stuff eventually put me off the idea.

Here's our Secretary, Joyce, seeking to raise interest in Rotary ideals, and you might notice the BBQ behind her where a local medic, who shall remain nameless, practiced his skills at cooking eggs and sausages.

And, finally, here's the quite popular ice-dream stall.

Let's hope this turns into a regular event for Armidale and district households! Remind me to take a selfie the next time around!

AS

Squash Reunion

On Saturday 17 August, Dot and I were invited to a Squash players' reunion at the Armidale Bowling Club. It brought together people who were playing the game back in the 1960's and !970's, which included Dot. It was a time for reminiscences about who won tournaments, who tended to play against each other, who were friends and even enemies, and who organised what.

It was a lovely evening for both of us, although Dot knew far more people there than I did. The Bowling club put on a decent meal and for much of the time we nattered to others at our table. But there was vigorous discussion of the past as we stood around before the meal and, while were eating, a screen provided historic photos of many different people and occasions.

Here are some of the photos I took of the occasion, many from the table where we were seated.

A happy duo.

The screen I mentioned earlier showing one player on a squash court.

More of the room. Each table hosted about 10 guests.

Here's Dot again on the left and, to the right, a Selfie I took. I think you'll recognise the bloke involved. I suppose you might say I'm wearing hippie gear again - referring back to the previous post. I think that our age we shouldn't be conservative but keep on trying new things.




















We had speeches from various participants. And, after those at the end of the meal, we had an opportunity to roam the memorabilia stacked on the edge of the dining room.


There were lots of trophies and newspaper clippings going back over 50 years.
















And there were also several honour boards recording excellent squash achievements.

One sad thing occurs to me. Squash used to have a large following. However, few seem to play it these days. Our university's Sports Union has great facilities, but the squash courts have been reduced from 3 to 2. Moreover those courts are used only infrequently.

What's gone wrong?

AS

Dot's Hippie 74th

On the 27th August, Dot celebrated her 74th birthday with a party at home with some of her friends. At this time, Dot was recovering from her hip-replacement operation at our local private hospital, having returned home after discharge from that institution on Friday 23rd August.

In view of her surgery, Dot suggested having a hippie party, with people wearing hippie gear and each of us was provided with hip badges. Mine had 'Groovy' inscribed upon it. Well, our guests, with the exception of Rebecca, were let's say elderly so not much hippie gear was on display. I, however, wore one of my sleeveless shirts in honour of the occasion and Bec provided some groovy decorations for our dining area.

It was a festive occasion with lot's of nice food on the table, carefully selected presents, some vigorous discussion and reminiscences, and of course a rendition of 'happy birthday to you'. Still in recovery mode, Dot managed the occasion well.

Here are some views of the occasion I, and others, took with my mobile phone. Notice the banner Beck provided hanging from the window slats.

And here's the selfie that Bec took of us all together.

I also took a selfie showing the Groovy badge pinned to my shirt.

And, for a laugh on the part of my readers, I'll add an embarrassing picture of me having apparently gone to sleep at the table! Ouch!

AS

An Unusual but Brilliant Concert

I love Armidale's vibrant musical life and last Saturday I attended yet another inspiring concert. We had two highly accomplished performers, John Bell and Simon Tedeschi. John worked an  artistic director and administrator and actor with many different organisations: Royal Shakespeare Company, Nimrod Theatre (which he founded along with Bell Shakespeare), Opera Australia, and the Sydney Theatre Company. He's played most of the major roles in Shakespeare's plays over the years and he's about to star in Moliere's "The Miser". For all this work he was awarded the Order of Australia (AO) and, remarkably, the Order of the British Empire (OBE).

His co-performer is equally accomplished. He's performed on the piano in most of the renowned concert halls of North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. And he's performed for an amazing array of world leaders, including George W Bush, Vladimir Putin, Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama! And, get this. He first performed a Mozart piano concerto at the Sydney Opera House at the age of 9. Yes, that's not a misprint. He has also recorded a variety of works for posterity and won many overseas awards including the New York Young Jewish Pianist Award.

Here are the two performers, one a musician and the other an actor - a strange combination for a musical evening.

But, when you see the program you can that this concert involves Tedeschi playing a series of piano works by Schubert intermingled with Bell reciting poems written by John Keats. Schubert and Keats had, in a way, much in common. They were contemporaries, but probably never met each other. Keats' and Schubert's lives were horribly short: 1795 - 1821 for the former and 1797 - 1828 for the latter. Keats reached 25 and Schubert 31, just 56 years of age combined. Both came from lower-down the social pecking order. Keats' father was an inn-keeper, while Schubert's was a teacher. And Keats' famous poetry was written in just 6 years. Both K and S were, however, key early romantics who influenced that genre through much of the 19th century.

Strange or not, our performers were truly excellent and won great applause from the large audience in Armidale's town hall. They alternated their genres and kept the audience rapt. Of course, Keats had the same effect on latter 19th century poets like Alfred Lord Tennyson, Algernon Charles Swinburne, and the Pre-Raphaelites, who praised him hugely, such that he's now regarded as the most quoted of all English poets. Likewise, Schubert became regarded as one of the greatest composers of early 19th century. He managed to compose over 1,500 works during his short life.

What our audience appreciated were the commentaries of both performers on the works they performed or recited and their role and status in driving the genre of Romanticism in the 19th century.

Armidale has a highly educated work-force that laps up such cultural highlights and I'm proud to be part of this genre. The combination of music and poetry was so well done that maybe others will try it.

This is my third post of today and the harbinger of things to come. I've been off-air so to speak for about 6 weeks, three of which were spent in the USA again - added to the four weeks in May-June. And you'll soon discover that I roamed that country across the north starting from Burlington in Vermont - just South of the Canadian border and Montreal. I spent another week in the Mid-West based at Saint Paul (a twin city with Minneapolis), but roaming widely through both Wisconsin and  Minnesota. And, unsurprisingly, I spent another week with family in Seattle. It was a glorious, but tiring trip.

AS

What do you think of this little town?

I've just been reading about one of the strangest towns on our planet. It's a little place called Cooladdi, which is located on the Diamentina Development Road 826 km (c. 515 miles) west of Brisbane in southern Queensland. This little place had a post-office and associated post-code, a pub, a restaurant, a motel and a grocery store. These facilities enable Cooladdi to be called a 'town', despite the fact that it has no school, police station, bank, or mobile phone connection!

What is more surprising is its population size. The total resident population of this town is 3 (yes, 3) but I gather there's a fair through traffic of tourists and local farmers. And these three people are all members of one family. Also surprising is that the services indicated are all located in one tiny cluster alongside the Diamentina road which also serves as a main street. Perhaps 'main street' is a misnomer since it is the only street in town! The cluster of buildings is known as the Fox Trap. That's also odd as foxes are not native to Australia.

If you click on the following URL you'll a lovely picture of this prospering little community:
https://goo.gl/maps/SEJQL5NRAJs4jAc7A .

Cooladdi, by the way, is an aboriginal word meaning 'black duck'. Back in the early 19th century it was home to over 270 people but, like so many outback places, residents have just died or disbursed, and larger places, like Charleville 100 km to the east, have siphoned off service provision. There is a smattering of deserted buildings, rusted abandoned cars, a decrepit tennis court, and even a railway platform on a long abandoned line.

Australia has hundreds of small places that are dying or dead, and Armidale's region is no exception. We have such nearby places as Wandsworth, Dundee, Glencoe and Ben Lomond - all named after places in Britain - and I doubt if their combined populations are greater than 20!

AS

Extreme Drought

Hi Folks,

We're in the middle of what might be the worst drought ever for the Armidale region. We have had virtually no rain now for the last 3 months and the year's total to date so far in 2019 is perhaps only 35% of normal rain.

Have look at this map, which explores the gory details of this drought event for the whole country. Hardly anywhere is above average rainfall for the last 3 months and most places are drought affected.

And the Armidale district is now deep red in colour - the worst on record. Who knows when it's going to end! The cause seems to be related to a massive southward shift in pressure systems over places like ours that are roughly 30 degrees south. Put another way, high pressure systems are normally located close to Alice Springs in the middle of the country. This year, those systems have been displaced southwards by c. 1500 km (800 miles) and are located well south of the continent much of the time.

This means that the vigorous frontal systems coming in from the southern ocean have also been displaced south. While they often reach as far north as Armidale dropping quite a bit of rain, this year they've only impacted the south-west of the continent (Perth),  south-western Victoria, Tasmania and, strangely, the Sydney region.

Worse still, the monthly rain projection for our district is close to zero. Indeed, one forecast I've seen suggests that we'll be in drought until 2021!!! Already, Armidale is on level 4 (out of 5) water restrictions and we cannot legally water our garden or plants. I now take a shower only 2-3 times a week rather than daily. Some lucky people have added water tanks to their homes or have access to bore water and can by-pass at least some of the effects of water use restriction.

AS