Is farming a vocation?  A calling?  An occupation?  A l ifestyle?  Maybe all of these things?  What draws people to farming?  Is it the comforting assurance at the start of a day that you have more work ahead of you than you can manage?  Or is it the delicious anticipation that something will happen today that you had not expected?  Today, we head to Birch Bark Farm in pastoral Pasadena, which is a dandy backdrop to play around with some of these questions, and to chat about transitioning a backyard garden into a career.  Richard Butt shows us around his farm - we’re on a tour of fields, a forest glade, a caterpillar tunnel, a packing station, greenhouses – some completed, some under construction.  And all of this in the brisk air of an autumn afternoon in the Humber Valley.

By the way, it was a farmer who chose the name Pasadena for that community – naming it after a well-known California city.  Maybe it was in hopes that the agriculture would be equally prosperous in those two regions.  The thing is, in the other Pasadena, they get over 4,200 hours of sunshine per year.  In the NL Pasadena, the sun shines about 1,800 hours.  But don’t focus on that difference.  Rather, focus on the amazing things one can grow with just 1800 hours of sunlight!

Fit To Eat S2E26 Richard Butt

Having spent most of my life in an academic setting (the first 12 years against my will, then another four decades with my willing consent...), I've always felt that September was really the beginning of a new year.  There were new mentors, new books to read, new courses to take, new friends to meet, new random and obscure rules to learn to sidestep, and new hoops to jump through (after your "mentors" set them on fire).  So Happy New Year everyone!

As a way of celebrating, here's another episode of September Rambles!  I have frenetic Slovak dances, Scottish rural romantics, Irish "pure drop" session tunes, school holiday trad bands, appalachian old-time inspirations, Waterloo bluegrass, East Coast fiddle stylings, harmonious odes to fall fairs, Glasgow hipster prowess, and Newfoundland thrash-trad.  From musicians such as Radim Zenkl & Leo Chern, Malinky, Kevin Rowsome, Seamus Shannon, Fiárock, Tim & Mollie O’Brien, Rescue Junction, Kendra MacGillivray, Quartette, ímar, and Kelly Russell & the Planks.  Set aside that homework for an hour and join me.

Routes & Branches & Beyond show # 336 2024 09 12

Shelves can be pretty handy things.  They can introduce order to chaos.  On the other hand, they can sometimes result in being a touch random as well - I have a few shelves like that.  One of them is piled with various slips of papers, old theatre programs, notes about upcoming events, and CDs that I stuffed there thinking, "I should play this on the show someday!"  This is finally that day here on Routes & Branches & Beyond, when I do show on "Clearing the Shelf."  

We'll hear Djangoesque Newfoundland fiddle on guitars, Irish circus trad, Norfolk County bluegrass, Western homecoming folk, Appalachian gospel, genre-crossing stories of the human race, early French electric folk Stan on the Island, and Irish clear-cutting laments.  All from musicians such as Duane Andrews & Craig Young, Kíla, Northern City Limits, The JD Edwards Band, Valerie Smith & Liberty Pike, Maura O’Connell, Malicorne, Joey Kitson, Eileen McGann, Rawlins Cross, and The Chieftains.  Put down that book on de-cluttering and join me.

Routes & Branches & Beyond show # 342 2024 10 24

lemonade pie

like a hedgehog

Oct 27th

Georgian Bay Roots #419 October 27th 2024 (with Kelly)

Today on Routes & Branches & Beyond it is another episode of "Clearing the Shelf" - where I play some CDs that have been lounging on a "to be played on the radio" shelf.  It is a bit of a cluttered shelf.  Maybe reflecting the cluttered shelf of my mind?  Who knows.  But I have heard that a clean office is a sign of an empty mind.  So I'm not sure about the clutter-to-creativity correlation - I think the science is still not sure of that relationship.

That said, today you'll hear the usual mix,including climate change tunes from Scotland, the cello of resilience, Bach goes to a Cape Breton kitchen party, songs to remember Ron Hynes, reels on the tin sandwich, Irish piano hornpipes, evocative rural roads, inter-celtic siblings, bagpipes on the rave floor, and symphonic abandon.  From musicians such as Breabach, Jocelyn Petit & Ellen Gira, Puirt a Baroque, Silver Wolf Band, Alan Doyle & the Dardanelles, Tommy Basker, Geraldine Cotter, Clancy, O’Connell & Clancy, Relativity, Rare Air, and the Barra Macneils & Sympony Nova Scotia.  Pull up a stool and join me.

Routes & Branches & Beyond show # 343 2024 10 31

This is Episode 420 of Georgian Bay Roots Radio, hosted by Lloyd Lemon that was released on November 3, 2024. Episode 416 is sponsored by The Georgian Bay Folk Society.

In this episode Lloyd features an interview between Jon Farmer and Juno Award winning performer from Summerfolk 49 – David Francey.  The interview is accompanied by music discussed by David Francey, including Terra Spencer is featured on his 2023 release, The Breath Between.  The final segment of the show features artists from live shows that Lloyd has enjoyed since Summerfolk, including Jeff Rogers, The Legendary Downchild Blues Band, and Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band.

Georgian Bay Roots Radio

Georgian Bay Roots Episode 420 - November 3, 2024

I have been watching the continued conspiracy of seeing cleanliness as being a quality of the highest order - even transcendent!  How this odd linkage of the holy and the neat came about escapes me.  Some are distracted by conspiracies of world domination by the Trilateral Commission or the Knights Templar, or that family down the street who are never out in their front yard and who don't decorate for Hallowe'en.  But I think we should be concerned about the conspiracy of cleanliness - due to the nefarious actions of the Multinational Industrial Soap Powder Complex!  Beware their tactics.  However, that warning aside, today on Routes & Branches & Beyond I'm cleaning off a shelf of CDs that I've been meaning to play for awhile.  But I don't expect that this will make me any more holy!

I'll have indispensible instrumentalists, swirling border pipes, raging fiddles, Shetland hurricanes, dances for feeder mice, vintage swing with a grin, Cape Verdean morna legends, shady newgrass explorations, songs radio doesn't like, Scottish introspection, and Portuguese jazz waltzes from Newfoundland.  From musicians like JP Cormier, Cantrip, Failte, the Old-Time Liberation Front, My Sweet Patootie, The Warblers, Cesaria Evora, Jerry Garcia & David Grisman & Tony Rice, Kathleen Edwards, Michael McGovern, and Duane Andrews.  Put down that soap powder and join me.

Fit To Eat S2E26 Richard Butt

Ivan Emke