Blogging at the Big Dog

The family farm, which has provided Bulkley Valley residents with local food choices for more than a century, has died.
It was 107.
The farm suffered a non-lethal but life-threatening case of Regulatory Disease (RD) in 2004 when the B.C. government enacted its new Food Safety Act and Meat Inspection Regulation. It finally succumbed to complications of RD including corporate land-ownership, globalization, biotechnology and genetic engineering in September 2007.
Those that knew the family farm well remembered it as a generous and environmentally-friendly provider.
“I always enjoyed knowing where my food was coming from, how it was produced and that copious quantities of chemicals and fossil fuels didn’t need to be used to bring it to my table,” said the health-conscious consumer, a close friend of the family farm.
The farm was born in 1900 when Gabriel Lacroix became the first non-Aboriginal settler of the Valley, setting up an operation on the east side of the Bulkley River.
He was soon joined by the Fred Heal family arriving in 1903 to farm on the east side of Tyee (now Tyhee) Lake.
As the area prospered with the founding of Smithers in 1913 as the divisional headquarters of the Grand Trunk Railroad, the family farm flourished.
In 1919, it gave birth to a strapping child, the Fall Fair. It became a grandparent to the Smithers Farmers’ Market in 1992.
The family farm is predeceased by its cousins the pot luck dinner and children’s adventure camp, which also recently passed away from bad cases of RD.
It is survived by brother wild game hunting, although Regulatory Disease is known to be genetically carried and many fear it is only a matter of time before wild game is also diagnosed.
Also barely hanging on are ailing relatives personal freedom and free speech, which are suffering from a particularly virulent strain of RD known as political correctness.
In memory of the family farm, a great-grandchild, the Northwest Premium Meat Co-op, will begin operations later in the fall.
The Co-op intends to honour its deceased forebear by pooling the resources of formerly independent producers to keep local food options available.
An open funeral will be held on Saturday Sept. 22 starting at 1 p.m. at the provincial government building on Alfred Avenue.
In lieu of flowers, mourners are asked to send a letter of protest to Bulkley Valley-Stikine MLA Dennis MacKay.

I love this time of year.
The long days, the beautiful weather, the promise of summer.
Oh yeah, and another Midsummer Festival controversy.
Last year, it was about camping. The folks who run the annual folk fest didn not like some of the folks who were ruining the folksy atmosphere with their rowdy behaviour.
They wanted to bring it back to a more family-oriented affair, like it was when they started 23 years ago, they said.
It was. A real, nice, mellow time. Except for that girl at the coffee hut. She was a little high-strung. Hmmm, caffeine-related perhaps?
I was worried about the camping thing and I said so in this space. Quite honestly I may have misjudged the character of the fest.
In any event, this year Mother Nature intervened. As discussed last week, she can be quite stern even to a bunch of mellow, folksy folks.
She left the Fall Fair grounds unsuitable for Midsummer and folk music society folks were forced to go pleading to Town council for an alternate site.
The natural spot? Obviously Heritage Park. It is where Midsummer started and where the Fall Fair used to be held too.
Five years ago, the last time the mighty Bulkley jumped its banks, so did Midsummer, right back to Heritage Park.
It wasn’t going to be easy. In an unprecedented show of opposition to a motion on the table, mayor Jim Davidson, handed the council meeting over to deputy mayor Cress Farrow.
After an extended debate — mostly Davidson and Coun. Bill Goodacre going head-to-head, surprise, surprise — the final vote was 4-3 in favour with Farrow and Coun. Jo Ann Groves joining the mayor in opposition, surprise, surprise.
Seems the folk festival folks weren’t the only folks who had noticed the black eye the rowdy folks had given to the little hometown festival.
Folks like farmer Jim sure didn’t want to see them kind of shenanigans going on right in the heart of town.
He certainly didn’t like my suggestion regarding a permanent relocation of the event.
George Stokes didn’t mind it though, saying it’s a constantly evolving event.
Joan Belford, one of this year’s coordinators was also circumspect, saying they wanted to use it as an opportunity to prove to Jim and other like-minded folks, that a bunch of music-loving hippies ain’t so bad, after all.
I, on the other hand, have no such diplomatic handcuffs. The Midsummer Festival should be permanently moved to Heritage Park.
In fact, the Town should endeavour to attract many more events to hold in the old fair grounds.
Food events spring to mind, like the 100 Mile House Garlic Festival, mmmmmm.
Isn’t this what we keep talking about? Revitalizing downtown?
If Midsummer goes as smoothly as last year, I’d say the door will be open.