Rotary Club's Rural Awareness Day

Jul 18, 2013

In an effort to educate city folk and non-farmers about where their food comes from, the Rotary Club of Kingston held their second annual Rural Awareness Day event on July 14. The event was organized by the Rotary Club's Rural committee and was headed up by Frontenac 4H Club leader and Rotarian Darlene Clement with the assistance of Neal Dick, Jim Perry, Denny Buchanan and Keith McLean.

The tour’s first stop was at Sun Harvest Greenhouses, where visitors toured their hydroponic tomato growing operation.

The second stop was the Cumpson family's Sonset Farm in Inverary where guests were treated to a tractor wagon tour of the 750-acre organic farm, a walking tour of their organic dairy barn, and up close and personal visits with a number diary and beef cattle. Guests also had a chance to see pigs and chickens and to pet one very tame orphaned sheep. They toured Sonset’s farm gate store located right beside the main farm house, where the Cumpsons sell a wide assortment of homegrown meat, eggs, spelt flour and seasonal veggies. The store also contains a plethora of educational materials about the importance of local food and local organic farming. Also on site at the event was Maple, a larger than life artificial dairy cow, on which guests had a chance to test their milking abilities.

Ongoing games took place throughout the day and included tug-o’-war games and sack races, all played on the green grassy fields surrounding the picturesque property. Local bee keeper Bill Lake Jr. was on hand with a hive of his bees. He educated guests on the art of bee keeping and passed out samples of his local honey.

A free sumptuous farmers lunch was provided courtesy of many local growers in the area. It included barbequed burgers courtesy of the Frontenac Cattleman’s Association, local tomatoes courtesy of Sun Harvest and many other delicious dishes, comestibles and fresh flowers, much of it prepared by members of the Frontenac 4H Club. This was the Rotary Club’s second Rural Awareness Day, which was begun last year in memory of Larry Ritchie, a long time Rotarian who believed strongly in the importance of supporting and promoting rural farming and farmers.

4H leader Darlene Clement, who grew up on a diary farm near Inverary and currently leads numerous 4H groups, initiated the event. She said it helps to educate kids about where their food comes from. “We just wanted to have a day to celebrate rural farm life and rural farming. It's important that people appreciate all of the work that local farmers do and I'm always shocked at how so many people don't know where their food comes from. People don't realize that farming is hard work and that it is 24/7. We want to encourage people to buy as much locally produced food as possible to support their local farmers.”

Dianne Dowling, president of the Local 316 National Farmer's Union, had a display of the local’s ongoing activities in the area set up. She said the tours help people who have no connection to a farm to see how they operate, the investment and hard work involved. “This event is great way for people to connect to farmers and to put a face on the local farming business,” she said.

Over 130 visitors enjoyed the day, including one special guest, Arada Limsirichai of Thailand, who is a foreign exchange student being sponsored by the Kingston Rotary Club. She was impressed by the difference between farming here in South Frontenac compared to her village, Nakhon Nayok, which is located in central Thailand. “In Thailand farmers concentrate on usually just one or two products; here farmers do many more things.”

Youngsters were front and center at the tour, with many young 4H members showing off their prize-winning animals. Nine-year-old 4H member Grant Perry of the Perry Maine-Anjou Farm had a chance to show off his one-year-old black Maine Anjou bull, which recently won grand champion at the Odessa Fair on July 11.