|  A couple of weeks ago I had the chance to visit a dairy farm in Brant County, southwest of Toronto. It was a beautiful farm with a state of the art robotic milking system – which basically means, the cows decide for themselves when they’re ready to be milked and the machine takes care of it, saving a lot of time and work for farmer Chris Vandenberg.
Now this in itself was cool as I had never seen one of these set ups before, even though they are starting to become more in Ontario. But what really tweaked my interest, as a self-professed social media and new technology geek, was that some of Chris’ cows have their own Twitter accounts and are merrily tweeting away as they go about their daily lives! Continue reading Cows that moo…and tweet!  The rise of the local food movement has also increased urban interest in growing food in the city. Generally, this means a small garden or some planters for tomatoes, carrots, some herbs and the like. But for some more adventurous types, this drive to “grow your own” also includes eggs – and it’s not as easy to care for chickens as you might think. Continue reading Backyard chicken checklist
Here’s one for the “you’ve got to be kidding me!” file… I read this article on the website of Farmers Weekly, an agricultural publication in the United Kingdom. According to the story, a UK dairy farmer has been found liable for injuries suffered by a walker who was attacked by his cattle while walking across his fields in 2003. Continue reading Farmer faces fine over cow attack An interesting headline grabbed my eye while I was riding the Underground in London last week: “Anger at strawberry growers – Wimbeldon’s fruit farm is berry ugly”. Anger? At berry growers? I found that hard to fathom so I had to read the story and what I read left me shaking my head. Continue reading Strawberry farmers ruining idyllic countryside? Canada’s six prison farms are at the centre of a national controversy. But not for reasons one might assume. Last winter, Corrections Canada, which has responsibility for the institutions, suddenly announced it would be closing the facilities by 2010, citing high costs. Continue reading Campaign launched to save Canada’s prison farms  I love bacon – in fact, I’m a fan of pork in general.
And especially right now, after hog farmers have taken a beating over the unfortunately named “swine flu” which was actually really H1N1 influenza, I’m supportive of any efforts to promote it and develop new market opportunities. So I was intrigued when I stumbled across the “10 craziest products inspired by bacon” list on the internet yesterday. Continue reading Ten craziest products inspired by bacon  Breakfast is my favourite meal of the day. There’s just nothing like bacon and eggs (and coffee of course!!) to get me set for the day – especially on the weekend or when I’m travelling and have a bit more time to indulge myself.
However, being on the road means the hunt for the perfect breakfast is always on – and often, there’s not much to go on. But I’m looking forward to the results of a new Egg Farmers of Ontario initiative to help me with that. Continue reading Where’s your favourite Ontario breakfast spot? | |
