Ronald and Diana Coutts
Coutts Country Flavours
County Rd. 18. RR5 Perth. ON K7H 3C7
tel 267–0277 email <couttscountryflavours@live.ca>
Store Summer Hours: Wed.–Sun. 10am–6pm (May-Christmas)
Winter Hours: Fri.–Sun., 10am–6pm
What they sell:
Coutts’ products include grass-fed transitional organic beef (assorted cuts), syrup, produce, products (pickles, relishes, frozen packets) made from their vegetables (from organic, heirloom seed), home baking sweetened with their syrup, preserves and jams sweetened with their syrup, ready-to-eat frozen meals using local and home grown ingredients, pork (starting in July)
Produce from 21 area farmers: hormone and antibiotic free free-run chicken, lamb, buffalo, emu, elk and turkey; grains and flours; hemp chocolate bars; cheese and dairy; berries and apples.
I interviewed Diana and Ron Coutts on their fourth generation farm just as the maple syrup season came to a close in April. There was a good sap run this year, bringing them a 100% crop. Diana expressed a sense of relief as they have experienced a decade of poor sap runs that followed the ice storm in 1999. With 5800 taps, the money they’ve invested in infrastructure, as well as the hours of work that go into every litre of syrup, it is no wonder!
Farming today is an occupation that demands a combination of hard and dedicated work, an enormous amount of creativity, a high level of organization, an astute business sense and, not least of all, tenacity. A farmer I know remarked a few weeks ago that it used to be that “we put a seed in the ground, it grew, and we ate it”. No longer does it appear to be so simple. In order to stay afloat farmers today have to consider an ever-growing list of tasks to be part of their job description. For most small farmers, there are no marketing or accounting departments, no shipping or distribution departments, no management or production teams. Mom and pop and, with luck, the kids, do all of it themselves.
“Diversify!” seems to be the command of the day for small farmers as well as Wall Street investors. With wildly fluctuating markets for meat and commodities often determined by events on the other side of the world, investing all of one’s time and money in infrastructure suitable for producing one product leaves one at the mercy of trade regulations, unpredictable weather, price fluctuations, a fickle market, etc. “Not putting all our eggs in one basket has enabled us to continue on the farm” says Diana. The number of occupations that they sustain on the farm is a bit mind-numbing for someone like me who finds juggling a less significant number of activities challenging at times. Here is their annual “To Do” list: maple syrup, 600 acres of their own farm plus rental acreage in cultivation and pasture, 100–200 head of grass-fed beef cows (Gelphie x Belgium Blue, which apparently produce leaner meat than skinless chicken), pigs (new this year), several acres of vegetable garden, attending farmers markets, baking, canning, cooking, and managing/staffing an on-farm store. Oh, and somehow maintaining family relationships.
The above-mentioned store — Coutts Country Flavours — deserves a bit of a plug here. Now in its third year, Diana says that business is picking up as people become more aware of it. Located on their farm (about 10 minutes south of Perth), it offers a myriad of products, from a wide range of frozen meats (beef, pork, lamb, chicken, turkey, bison, emu, and elk), to Diana’s preserves (sweetened with maple syrup), to ready-to-eat meals (made with ingredients from the farm), and the products of many other local farmers (see list above). Animals are bought directly from farmers and taken by the Coutts straight to a 5-star abattoir in Yarker. They pick up the vacuum-packed meat with their mobile freezer unit and bring it back to the store. Everything they do seems carefully thought out to produce unique, value-added and wide-ranging quality products. Whatever they don’t produce themselves is sourced as locally as possible. Diana is always seeking new producers/growers who can supply product to meet growing customer demands, and she is adamant about paying them what they need to make a profit.
It didn’t used to be that farmers also had to be public educators. Today it seems that this is now another important challenge for farmers to tackle in order to develop a clientele of local buyers, numerous enough and willing to pay what good food is really worth. When people think only in dollars it is hard to compete with box store food prices. But isn’t it a question of values, and about choice? Why do we so often seem to value our cars, computers, booze and cigarettes more than the food that literally builds our bodies and keeps us alive?
I wonder how many people appreciate the magnitude of sheer work that lies behind the smiling faces of the farmers we see in “buy local” campaigns. Perhaps everyone who eats should have to spend time working on a farm just to get a sense of it! I don’t suggest that we show pictures of dour and tired-looking farmers instead, but rather that we somehow understand the reality of what it takes to produce food. An awareness of the special breed of people that steps up to the task, as well as the value of their service to us, needs to become part of the popular zeitgeist. Tough questions are being asked about the future of farming… which also translates to the future of our food. These questions need popular attention and deep consideration. Given the rate at which small farms are disappearing, the dwindling number of young people who view farming as a viable occupation, the challenges that peak oil and climate change present to the earth’s capacity to feed its people, and the current dependence on fossil fuels to transport our food, we need to ask ourselves where our food will come from and who will be growing it in 20–50 years’ time.
Berry Pie
1 pint McGrath’s raspberries (or any other berries)
2 Tbsp corn starch or flour
½ cup Coutts amber maple syrup
Pastry
2 cups flour
½–2/3 cup lard or butter chilled
1 tsp vinegar and a few tsp of cold water
Mix flour and lard/butter with fingers until mix is crumbly. Sprinkle vinegar mixture on top and mix with a fork. Add enough to be able to form a ball.
Divide pastry in half and roll out two balls. Cover the bottom of 9” pie plate. Add berry mix. Cover with other half of pastry. Pinch pastry ends together. Cook at 350 for about 55 minutes.