Things come, go, and come again - From the Cluttered Desk with Keith Roulston

My weekend was dominated by my proofreading duties for the February issue of The Rural Voice (farm readers will get this issue in a couple of weeks). Among the many fascinating stories it contains were two instances of on-farm cheese-making operations.
In both cases, these were families that were first generation in Canada. The Hans Weber family at Stonetown Cheese, near St. Marys, won the Overall Grand Champion Artisan Cheese Award at the Royal Winter Fair in Toronto. Meanwhile the Nicolas Zoldenrik family, originally from Holland, produces Gouda cheese at their Mt. Elgin farm.

 

It’s been fascinating to watch the evolution of the cheese-making business over the years. A century ago, when farmers travelled by horse and wagon (or sleigh), there were cheese factories all over. I remember when farmers meeting at a Farm Forum meeting north of Blyth decided they needed a new market for their milk. They began a cheese factory on Dinsley Street East that eventually merged with a poultry co-operative in Wingham for the beginnings of Gay Lea Foods.

 

The cheese that almost all cheesemakers made in those days was cheddar. One by one those cheesemakers disappeared. I grew up north of Lucknow where some farmers still shipped milk to Pine River Cheese along Lake Huron at Pine River. The factory closed at one point, but was then revived.

 

When I was in high school, many of my town-based friends had jobs packing butter at the Silverwoods Dairy creamery in Lucknow. In 1984, the company was bought by Ault Foods and the Lucknow plant was closed.

 

Such was the story as the cheese-making plants and creameries were bought up and closed by giant companies. There was less variety for consumers and less choice for farmers.

 

But in more recent times, as editor of The Rural Voice, I often proofread stories on new cheesemakers who came into fashion in the last 20 or 30 years. Like the two mentioned above, most came from Europe and produced cheeses that weren’t common in the Canada of the past. Many, like the two mentioned in next month’s Rural Voice, are people who moved here from Europe and started cheese factories that made use of milk from their own dairy cattle. Obviously they have much larger herds of cattle than farmers when I was growing up.

 

The other thing that’s interesting in recent years is the growth of breweries and wineries.

 

When I first went to Ryerson (now Toronto Metropolitan University - TMU) I lived in a residence that looked across the street at a Carling Brewery. That brewery soon closed and Ryerson bought the property to expand (Ryerson had 3,500 students at the time and TMU has 50,000 students today).

 

Later, after I moved back to this part of Ontario, there would be strikes at the big breweries. People would flock from the cities to buy beer from Formosa Spring Brewery.

 

Like the cheese business, breweries centralized. Labatt Brewing Company, the gigantic London company that once owned Silverwoods Dairy, was bought in 1995 by Belgian Interbrew, then further amalgamated in 2004 with Brazilian HM Brew and finally in 2009 was bought by American giant Anheuser-Busch.

 

But as the large breweries amalgamated and offered less choice, small breweries and wineries began to spring up. I remember Bayfield Berry Farm setting up a new collection of fruit wines. The Huron Beaches website lists six wine and cider makers and four breweries - just in Huron County.

 

I remember 10 years or so ago when I was still working, when Blyth’s main street was closed off for an hour or so. We wondered why, for a while, then there was a strange parade as a cow was walked down the middle of the street and filmed. We were mystified for a while and then we were invited to a special evening where the Cowbell Brewery was introduced.

 

Unlike many of the new breweries which were small, one-person-or-so operations, Cowbell would be a major addition to the community. When the brewery opened in 2017, it was in a huge barn-like structure at the corner of County Roads 4 and 25, with a full-scale restaurant and special meeting rooms. Helicopters brought visitors from Grand Bend in summer. The beer is available all over the province and, currently, a special warehouse has been erected to facilitate shipping.

 

So much has changed in the history of rural Ontario. Co-operatives began creameries and cheese factories, then big companies bought them up and closed them down. Now hard-working individuals are starting new companies. Little breweries and wineries have also taken advantage of the creativity of individuals.

 

Thank goodness for these hardy individuals who bring such variety to our rural life.