FARM STORE LOVE

As Mama Country and I continue to assimilate to Grey County culture, one of the things we’ve made a conscious effort to do is patronize local farm stores. We’ve been getting to know some local farmers, many of whom are actually our neighbours, and trying their products.

So far, we’ve enjoyed food from Pure Music Garlic, Secret Lands Farm, Ace Hill Acres, and Azure Highlands Homestead.

We’ve been so pleased with what we’ve purchased and are excited that there’s so much more available in terms of fresh vegetables and meat. Better yet, it’s all within a thirty-minute drive from our home just outside Flesherton.

As we endeavour to promote and support our local Producers and Farm Stores, we’re happy to introduce our newest Editorial Contributor to Hello Country Magazine; Lorraine Irwin from Pure Music Garlic. Read her first story on page 26.

By: Papa Country

We have so many great sources of local nutritious and delicious food! We encourage our readers to do some exploring in your neighbourhood and shop local!

Family Matters

I remember the day Paul came home with a little brown bag with just five bulbs of garlic. He called them Music and he was thinking about growing garlic. That was 14 years ago and now we grow some of Canada’s best certified organic garlic, but before I continue on how those same five bulbs grew to 50,000 bulbs, let me say that it’svbeen a long road and a lot of going back to family roots.

My husband was always a farmer. His parents were farmers and his grandparents were farmers. The same could be said for me except I could kill house plants and hated the thought of weeding, Paul had a natural green thumb. He also had a full-time job as an airline pilot that required him to be away for days at a time and I worked full-time in the hospitality industry and ran our 2 kids everywhere to help balance the lifestyle we thought we all wanted.

Paul grew up on a 100-acre farm in Caledon with his mom and dad (who was also an airline pilot). His mom had a little market garden with fresh veggies and chickens. He grew up learning how to fix cars, fly airplanes and working up the land in crops.

I grew up in Bracebridge on 50 acres of rock and water where my dad worked at the Muskoka airport and my mother was a stay-at-home mom who tended to everything else. I always remember that my brother could play sports and other stuff but all that was offered to me were Girl Guides and learning how to knit, crochet, preserve food by canning, and baking. I hated being a girl back then. I told myself that I would never bake or can any vegetables let alone weed a garden and harvest. Knitting was a waste of time and who ever wanted to needlepoint? I was going to move to the big city. Unfortunately, I lost my mom in my late teens and all I had were memories of my selfish thoughts and wasted time.

Many years later, I met Paul and we started to have adventures together. We even sailed with his parents in some of the mostbeautiful and remote parts of the world and it was Paul’s mom who seemed to pick up the reigns where my mom had left off. She reminded me that the boat was your home and always needed work, to live life in the moment and learn to adapt to any situations, there was always a farmer to buy food from and that you had to preserve it to make it last. Also, your family was your lifeline so keep the communications open so you can survive together. What I’msaying is that all those girly things I hated as a child were valuable life lessons that I now use every day.

Go back to your roots, and start growing…

PAUL & LORRAINE IRWIN

Owners, Boars Rock Farm & Pure Music Garlic Products www.puremusicgarlic.com

Lorraine Irwin is a mother, a wife, a theatre buff and the owner of Pure Music Garlic Products. She makes all of her garlic products using Organic Garlic grown on their farm (Boars Rock Farm). Check out her ad on Page 7.

PURE MUSIC GARLIC PRODUCTS puremusicgarlic@gmail.com puremusicgarlic.com @puremusicgarlic (519) 942-5410

BOARS ROCK FARM 136407 Grey Road 12, Grey Highlands boarsrockfarm.ca @boarsrockfarm

The journey to Grey Highlands for Camille Watts began in Chicago, where she was born, but it had stops in New Jersey and Atlanta early on. At eight years of age, in her music class at school in Atlanta, she picked up a flute, and that was it. Her parents found her a mentor, and thus began a ten-year training process. By the time she was fourteen, while studying at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, she was already a professional. She joined the Atlanta and later, the Denver Symphony Orchestras as a flutist and solo piccoloist. There, she remained until 1990, when she moved to Toronto, “fleeing Reagan” in her words. She began playing both instruments for the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. She has taught flute and piccolo for the National Youth Orchestra and teaches at the University of Toronto in the Faculty of Music.

Her husband, Jeff Reynolds, also teaches at the university, and has been doing so for well over 30 years, specializing in Trumpet and Conducting. He holds a PhD in Music Education, and the thesis he submitted reveals his creative streak. It involved his writing a fifteen- minute play, “The A.I. Blues”, with original blues music serving as the prologue and epilogue of the work. He has been a trumpet player worked for various orchestras and chamber ensembles. Over the years, he has been a part of the Victoria Symphony, the Calgary Philharmonic, the Orchestra of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, and closer to home, the Hamilton Philharmonic, where he worked with conductor Boris Brott. Theatre buffs may have also heard his work during his years as a member of the orchestra for the Stratford Festival. Among his favourite performances were from the works of Bela Bartok and Gustav Mahler. When asked how a musician maintains enthusiasm when performing a work twenty or thirty times, he responds that beyond one’s professionalism, there should always be “total immersion”. The result of this is always excitement “in the moment”. Those who might wish to discover what he means might want to read his book, “Trumpet for Dummies”.

KEVIN ARTHUR LAND

Owner, Speaking Volumes Books and Audio 12 Toronto Street, Flesherton kevinarthurland@gmail.com

piece, and after 46 years, he could not believe it was his own. He likens the feeling to seeing a video of yourself from the distant past and having the sensation that you did not look like that, and usually, it proved to be better than you remember.

These days, he can be found at home in Grey County with Camille, his favourite accompanist, enjoying the music both within and without. They look forward to connecting with the land, the people, and the history. As they do, the soundtrack of their lives continues to play, whether it be Miles Davis, Michel Petrucianni, Antonio Carlos Jobim, and Ali Farka Toure - a current favourite.

Kevin Arthur Land is a playwright, screenwriter, arts educator, and the owner of Speaking Volumes Books and Audio in Flesherton. www.kevinarthurland.ca

Through all this, the composer in him has remained. Beyond his classical training, he has long nurtured a passion for jazz and the blues. In 1974, during his time at the University of Victoria, while working with a jazz ensemble which he founded, he wrote the jazz chart for “Good Time Blues”. Although he does not usually revisit his work from the past, he had the occasion some time ago to listen to the