This year’s awards banquet, put on by the Waterloo-Wellington local of the National Farmers Union (NFU) of Ontario, drew about 100 people to the Arthur Legion on March 28 to celebrate farmers and food.
As in past years, awards were presented in three categories: Sustainable Farming Award, Future Farmer of the Year and a Barn Restoration/Preservation award.
With four or five nominees in each of the categories, the judges had quite a task in choosing the three winners. This year’s judges were Wim DenHartog, Gord Flewwelling and Cathy Hansen (Future Farmer), Bob Wilson, Laverne Martin and Chris Lennox (Barn Preservation) and Paul Day, Anne Loeffler and Johann Kleinsasser (Sustainable Farming).
By 6:30, there was a buzz in the air as guests socialized over the lively music played by local folk trio Callisto and started on a first course of fresh focaccia flatbread and a mixed green salad with goat cheese, along with a hearty bowl of Russian cabbage borscht.
Waterloo-Wellington NFU president, and recently elected NFU-O president, John Sutherland welcomed everyone and introduced the sponsors and guests of honour.
Harvey Thomson introduced the Food Cycle Ride to raise money for the Centre Wellington food bank. He cited the fact 10 per cent of the township had used the food bank at least once in the past year and also shared plans for utilizing a commercial kitchen to create nutritious flash frozen foods for those that need it.
This year’s ride will start in Elora on May 26 and they hope to raise at least $10,000. More information can be found at www.foodcycleride.ca
Chris Jess, chef instructor of Centre Wellington District High School’s Food School then introduced the local menu and spoke of his excitement to cook for farmers. He hoped that the hard work of farmers would be preserved in the integrity of the food that he served back to them. And indeed it was. The second course of beef stew, roasted potatoes and vegetables was a delight and the apple tart dessert served with Mapleton’s Organic ice cream rounded off an exquisite meal.
Over coffee, the AGM portion of the evening was held. Secretary Elizabeth Leapple read last year’s minutes and treasurer Martin DeGroot presented the financial report. The local is pleased to have a number of new faces elected to the board this year.
Linda Leapple was elected to the president’s position and Ron Weber to the position of vice president. Elected to the position of women’s advisor is Jenn Pfenning and to the role of youth advisor, her son Andreas Pfenning.
The award nominees were introduced by their respective judges. Paul Day, Anne Loeffler and Johann Kleinsasser judged the Sustainable Farming category and nominated for this award were Theresa Schumalis of The Garden Party, a small scale CSA model farm in Waterloo County; Pfennings, a large scale organic farm and distribution centre near New Hamburg; dairy farmers Jim and Brian Zantinge; and Stewart Wright and family who run a dairy and cash crop operation, and have been very active in planting windbreaks.
The Sustainable Farming award went to the Pfennings.
The Future Farmer category was judged by Wim DenHartog, Gord Flewwelling and Cathy Hansen The nominees for Future Farmer were Richard Piller and Jaclyn Saunders, Derek Henderson, Selene Richens, who runs a CSA and market garden in Wellington North, and Hayden Lorentz, a farmer very active in the farming community and still completing his certificate at Ridgetown Campus.
The winner of the Future Farmer award was Selene Richens.
The nominees for the Barn Preservation award were the Flaherty’s in Erin, Craig and June Switzer of Erin, Rodney White, Roxanne Morrison, and the Kenilworth Barn. This category was judged by Bob Wilson, Laverne Martin and Chris Lennox and the award went to Craig and June Switzer.
The awards themselves were designed by area high school students.
Both the Future Farmer and Barn Preservation awards were watercolour paintings done by students from Our Lady of Lourdes and JF Ross in Guelph.
A number of creative awards for Sustainable Farming were designed and made by Bill Spira’s design technology students in Erin District High School, so Ek and Jenn Pfenning were lucky enough to have the choice of which design to take home with them.
The awards were presented to winners by MPP Randy Pettapiece and Wellington North’s Mayor Raymond Tout, as Warden Chris White was unable to attend. Tout also read greetings to each winner from MP Michael Chong.
The speaker for the evening was Paul Kozak, the provincial apiarist for OMAFRA. His presentation outlined the enormous economic and agronomic importance of bees in Ontario and went on to describe some of the issues associated with bee colony collapses. He focused especially on the bee kill issues of April and May 2012 and confirmed that the research had pointed to acute pesticide poisoning, in particular neonicotinoids, as the culprit in this case.
He was optimistic that solutions could be found due to a number of important institutions in Ontario, including the University of Guelph and its Knowledge Technology Transfer (KTT) program along with the Ontario Beekeepers’ Association.
The current board thanked outgoing president John Sutherland and vice-president Kim Delaney for their service to the Waterloo/Wellington Local National Farmers Union Ontario and the evening concluded with a draw.
