In 2019, people have some of the same problems that our pioneers had in the 1830s. We are so busy working to keep food on the table and the wolves away from the door we sometimes forget the most important things in life.
When I look back over my 70 some years, I have almost forgotten about that first car I owned, the first tractor that had a real cab and a heater to help make the fall plowing a bit more enjoyable, the six furrow plow that my grandfather never even dreamed about was only used for a few years and was replaced by an 18 foot combination disc-chisel which was replaced by no-till and chemical weed control. The awards and medals that our farm won for production and innovation are barely a memory.
The two things we never forget are a few great meals we have had over our lifetime and the good friends that are there no matter what.
I have had my share of steak in my life. The toughest and worst steak that I eventually cut up and chewed my way through was in an exclusive restaurant in Montreal. The two best steaks were at a little diner in Morris, Man. where you were presented with a raw steak and you cooked it yourself over a large charcoal pit in the middle of the restaurant, and at Fred Meilleur’s hotel in Chapeau Que.
My mom made the best homemade waffles. My daughter makes the best cookies using her grandmother’s recipe. My neighbour George made the best pork and beans in an old black, cast iron bean pot. He always used brown sugar and put a coarsely cut onion in it too.
Our local chef Phillippe Lamontagne and his family served a meal fit for a king on Feb. 9. It was all made from locally grown and sourced produce some which I would have never tried if I didn’t know the chef. The signs of an excellent meal is when the plates are returned empty and no one reaches for an antacid after. The plates were returned empty and so were the wine glasses.
Too often we eat or nibble on food or treats that are manufactured in factories from what we cannot even pronounce the name of. Then we wash it down with some sugar flavoured water. Often, about an hour after when our tummy gets upset; we ask our self, “What was in that anyway?” Too many of the items on our grocery shelves are masquerading as foods we associate with healthy and tasty, like cheesy taste, buttery flavour, or even milk when there isn’t even a trace of a cow anywhere near.
The most valuable things we will ever have in our life are our friends. They are the ones that you can work with, party with, cry with and are there for you when your world falls apart. The colour of their skin, their religion, political preference, age, gender or the language they speak is not important.
I once had a cattle breeder friend as a mentor who said “A good cow is never a bad colour!” True friends are never a bad colour.
May you have many friends and guard them as your most precious assets.
Chris Judd is a farmer in Clarendon on land that has been in his family for generations. gladcrest@gmail.com
