Local author continues 'Farmerette' research through summer of plays
BY SHAWN LOUGHLIN
Tonight, Friday, Aug. 16, Onion Skins and Peach Fuzz: The Farmerettes opens at the Blyth Festival’s Harvest Stage - a long journey to the stage for a story that began as a book co-written by Exeter’s Bonnie Sitter.
Sitter and Shirleyan English came together to write the book on which Alison Lawrence’s play is based back in 2019. Sitter’s connection to the long-forgotten Farmerettes - a group of young women who came together across the province as part of the war effort to tend to Ontario’s farms during World War II as many men went overseas to fight - began with a humble article in The Rural Voice, The Citizen’s sister publication.
Sitter’s involvement with the group dates back several years when she found a picture in her late husband’s possessions. She had never heard of the Farmerettes and decided to investigate further, and once she began looking into it, she was immediately interested in learning all she could.
Connecting with numerous Farmerettes from all over the province, Sitter wrote the aforementioned article, which would serve to connect her not only with many Farmerettes, but with English, who would eventually become the co-author of her book.
This curiosity eventually led to Sitter writing a book with Shirleyan English, telling the stories of numerous Farmerettes called Onion Skins and Peach Fuzz: Memories of Ontario Farmerettes.
English, who was a farmerette herself, saw the article and then wrote a letter to the editor. She said she was moved by the story and then told her own story about working on the Sitter farm in Thedford in the early 1950s. That was the connection Sitter was looking for and the two women soon began speaking and working together.
This has since become a passion project for Sitter, who has committed much of her life to connecting with living Farmerettes, gathering their information and pictures and urging them to tell their stories. In addition to the book, which has become somewhat of a local bestseller, she is working on a documentary and, with all of the new material she’s taken in over the past five years, it’s not absurd to think that another book could be coming our way one day.
For Sitter, however, this summer has been all about the story of the Farmerettes on stage. The play, a co-commission between the Blyth Festival and 4th Line Theatre, an outdoor theatre company about 30 kilometres southwest of Peterborough, premiered at 4th Line earlier this summer and Sitter was there for every performance.
Speaking with The Citizen on Monday, Sitter said that her summer spent attending the 4th Line theatre has been the “most amazing experience” and that she couldn’t be happier with what has been happening with the story she has helped to tell.
There, she had an opportunity to meet with the cast and the crew, telling them about her role in writing the book and her continued efforts to speak with Farmerettes across Ontario. She said she loved seeing the production for the first time, surely displaying a smile from ear to ear during that very first production.
And while Sitter enjoyed seeing the show and speaking with the cast members, her real work has continued. She has worked at each show to meet Farmerettes and set up times to talk with them, meeting a number of new people at the shows.
As she’s mentioned before, just like veterans of the Second World War, Farmerettes are aging and are becoming increasingly hard to come by. Sitter said she met women who were 96 and 98 years old, even connecting with someone who is just weeks away from celebrating her 101st birthday.
Now, she’s looking ahead to the show coming home and being produced at the Blyth Festival. When The Citizen has spoken with Sitter over the years about the possibility of a play hitting the stage, she always hoped that it would be produced in Blyth.
She plans on being in attendance at all of the Festival productions and even has a handful of dates bookmarked when she is expecting some of the Farmerettes with whom she’s connected over the years, including Jean Brett, a 99-year-old former Farmerette who has been a big supporter of the Festival over the years.
In recent years, she has stayed at the Hotel Lux in Blyth and befriended owners Shane Yerema and Colleen Jordan, which is why Yerema and Jordan donated $1,000 to the documentary project earlier this year when a fundraising concert was held at Memorial Hall in Blyth.
Two preview performances of Onion Skins and Peach Fuzz went ahead on Wednesday and Thursday ahead of tonight’s opening performance. The show then continues on the Harvest Stage until Aug. 31 with a short stint in Memorial Hall from Sept. 3-7.