Full articles below plus sneak peeks! Rural Delivery December 2010

Stepping back to go forward
Glass milk bottles are making a comeback
by Nina Linton
A reminder of bygone days no longer, the glass milk bottle is making a swift comeback across the nation; several independent dairies are offering consumers a packaging choice other than waxed paper or plastic. Once a staple of home doorsteps, the . . .


Old horse, new tricks
Pioneer bridges the gap between horse power and modern machinery
The high-stakes world of Holstein judging
The northeastern Ohio countryside of rolling hills, farms, and upland forests is interrupted at a point by a large, neatly landscaped yard fronting an equally large and neat one-storey building behind a sign reading “Pioneer Equipment Inc.” Everything is so neat and orderly. There’s no smoke coming from a stack, no cars in the parking lot. Must be Sunday. Nope. Indoors the factory is humming with bonneted women in the office and . . .

HAND MOWING contest

Sneak Peeks

The right equipment
Antique Farm Equipment Museum expands
Until about a decade and a half ago showing antique farm equipment at the Nova Scotia Provincial Exhibition was a yearly, impermanent affair. A tent went up. Farm implements and machines, sitting around the grounds and often left to the elements, were dragged into place. And for a week or so visitors could get a . . .



What now, brown cow?
by Beth Saunders
One moonlit night in late spring, a brown and white Holstein cow got restless. Escaping from her pasture, and no doubt spurred on by hormones (having recently been impregnated), she went looking for adventure. She made the rounds of our recently-seeded vegetable garden, checked out. . .



Food sustainability storms Newfoundland
by Alison Dyer
As hurricane Igor ripped through theisland of Newfoundland with powerful winds and heavy rain, leaving dozens of communities cut off from the outside world, one fact became readily apparent: Food, particularly fresh produce, would run out within just a few days. While food and other essentials eventually made their way into these communities from larger. . .



Meet the McAffees
This mixed farm operation includes purebred Charolais herd
by George Fullerton
When you visit the McAffee farm at Knoxford, New Brunswick, it is readily apparent that you are sharing the time with a committed farm family. Three generations of the family are currently active in this mixed farm operation, and some of the farm land has been occupied by four generations of McAffees. While Jack McAffee and his son Jeff jointly manage the Charolais cattle and. . .



Factory farming
Engines of expansion
A company needs capital to grow. And, as of late, the global finance industry, which sits on most of the world’s money, has been eager to funnel its investment into meat production in the South (developing countries). Since the financial crisis of 2008, private investors, from hedge funds to pension funds, have developed a big appetite for equity stakes in meat and dairy companies. . .



Foray finds fungus among us
The search for Nova Scotia’s wild mushrooms
by Zara Fischer-Harrison
From early spring to late fall the forests of Atlantic Canada are alive with mushrooms, hundreds of kinds. In late September the burgeoning Nova Scotia Mycological Society proved the point once again with the completion of its third annual mushroom foray. On a mission to collect and identify all mushroom species growing across. . .



Disappearing farms
Where will we get our food when the local growers have all gone?
by Peter Brennan
I was pleased to see the article about Barn swallows in October’s Rural Delivery. As I mentioned last year they seem to be slowly coming back in the Bouchette area of Quebec.
I just about lost my breakfast when I read the letter from Leslie Sike. I would love to meet this person, ask a few questions and have a chat. I wonder what. . .



Big band music
by Fred Isenor
While looking for the song “If I Could Paint A Memory” as requested by Alice Tucker in the October issue, I found I didn’t have it on any of my big band records. When all else fails I turn on the computer – it was a big WWll hit in England, written by Reg Morgan and Charlie Chester and published in 1942. The hit version was by the Eric Winstone Band with vocals by Alan Kane. This version can be listened to. . .