It’s surely a week to celebrate farming.
On our front page this week is a photograph from a ceremony recognizing a member of a prominent Mapleton farm family, Deborah Whale, as an Ontario Agricultural Hall of Fame inductee.
Plaques recognizing Whale and other local inductees in the Ontario Agriculture Hall of Fame were unveiled along on the wall of the Wellington County Museum during the Harvest Home Festival on Sept. 25. A director with the Ontario Agricultural Hall of Fame Association, Whale, the first woman to be inducted, has been a leader in the agricultural industry for many years. The Whale family of Clovermead Farms in Mapleton was one of 35 Ontario families recognized in 2013 by the Ontario Plowmen’s Association (OPA) and BMO Bank of Montreal for their outstanding contributions to the Ontario agricultural sector. Clovermead Farms, run by Bruce and Deborah Whale and their son Korb, is a 475-acre dairy and cropping operation. In 2012, the Whales added an anaerobic digester to turn methane into biogas to generate energy.
This week, a Palmerston-area family, the Connells, were recognized with the Ontario Farm Family Award for their progressive farm management, land stewardship and rural citizenry. The Connells’ award was presented during the International Plowing Match and Rural Expo, held just down the road in Minto and involving many local residents as volunteers and exhibitors. The match drew thousands to the region to celebrate agriculture and remind us of its importance to the lives of both urban and rural residents.
It’s easy to take the farming sector for granted when you drive by the rolling fields and ever-changing landscape every day, so reminders like these help us all keep its value in perspective.
