[2023-08-31] Upper Canada Village August 2023
Chris and I returned to Upper Canada Village today, our second visit this summer, making our season's passes worth the investment. It was a perfect day: sunny, temperate and not too busy.
One of our first stops was the sawmill, my husband's favourite building. There, we met David who handed us a fistful of sawdust from the white pine he and his colleague were milling today. He pointed out that pine contains a lot of moisture (the sawdust stuck together like cookie dough in my hand), so once the boards are milled, they will sit outside for a year to dry. David contrasted this with ash, a much drier wood. "You can cut an ash tree and burn it the same day," he said. When they recently milled ash, David said he wore a mask because of the fine, dry sawdust emitted as the log was cut. He told us that the sawmill can cut logs as large as 1 metre in diameter, though on this day, the logs appeared to be about half that size. The trees are sourced from a woodlot just south of Algonquin Park. In addition to pine and ash, they mill oak, beech and birch. David was very forthcoming with information. It's been my experience (with few exceptions) that the more you engage with the people who work at Upper Canada Village, the more they reciprocate—sharing knowledge, stories and demonstrations that are incredibly fascinating. I don't remember everything David told me, but I remember (as Maya Angelou said) how he made me feel: welcome, important, interesting. I always learn something new at the sawmill. Indeed, I learn something new at every stop in the Village, even though I've visited at least 20 times.
Next up was the flour mill, one of my favourite places in the Village. Every interpreter at Upper Canada Village focuses on something a little different. Today, Allan talked about the technology used to get the wheat berries a farmer would bring to the mill through the milling process. Farmers would arrive at the flour mill with their threshed wheat berries, having separated them from the chaff and straw by beating the wheat with a flail on the floor of their barn. The miller would weigh the wheat berries, which would then be moved to the top floor of the mill via elevators, equipped with a series of metal scoops. Allan explained that the elevators could move as much grain as half a dozen men, in less time. Once on the top floor, the wheat berries would be fed into a smutter, a device for cleaning smut (a wheat disease) and other impurities from the berries. From there, the clean wheat would be fed into a hopper and then sent to the stone grinder. The resulting whole grain flour would be bagged. To obtain white flour, the whole grain flour would be passed through a sifter, which would remove the middlings, shorts and bran. Farmers who brought 800 pounds of wheat to the mill would leave with 800 pounds of whole grain flour or 400 pounds of white flour if the farmer had the money to pay for the grinding. If not, the miller would retain 12% of the farmer's wheat as compensation. The miller would grind this wheat into flour, then transport it via train to markets outside the community so as not to compete with local farmers who would sell some of their flour to make money to buy goods.
On most recent trips to Upper Canada Village, the cheese factory has been closed. But today it was open. I learned from the interpreter, Ashley, that it's open from Wednesdays to Sundays. I was doubly lucky today as they were making cheese. Ashley noted that cheese was Canada's second highest export product to Europe, second only to lumber. Canadian Cheddar was coloured orange to distinguish it from European Cheddar, she said, adding that the orange colour came from annatto, the fruit of the achiote tree in Brazil. She went on to explain the cheesemaking process. Milk is mixed with rennet (an enzyme produced in the stomach of a calf) and heated to 40°C in a water bath to ensure even heating and no scalding of the milk; the rennet causes the milk to be separated into solid curds and liquid whey. The loose blocks of cheese resulting from this process are cut and stacked several times; the pressure of the stacked cheese helps to drive out more whey. The next step is to put the cheese through a device that cuts it into curds, which are then salted to add flavour. Finally, the curds are put into a round press and left to sit overnight, resulting in a round block of Cheddar. The Cheddar round is aged 4 months for mild Cheddar and over two years for extra old Cheddar. Ashley explained that 900 pounds of milk (about 400 litres) will produce 90 pounds of cheese.
We visited the yarn maker. Shirley informed us that she had been bored of spinning white wool so decided this morning to make multicoloured wool. She explained that Harris Tweed, famously worn by Queen Elizabeth II, was a blend of multicoloured wool and a solid (often dark gray), creating the classic colour-flecked tone of the material. The wool fibres (multicoloured and gray) were carded together then spun into yarn. She noted that the only tweed produced in Harris, Scotland, can be called Harris Tweed (akin to champagne produced in the Champagne region of France). Shirley said that weavers were men and spinners were women. It would take seven spinners to supply sufficient yarn to keep one weaver busy at the loom. Shirley stated that women who did not have families of their own would spend their days spinning yarn, hence the term spinster.
We stopped in at the Ross Farm House to check on the progress of the Village quilt. Sandy explained that the quilt, depicting the various buildings in Upper Canada Village, has been several years in the making. Numerous members of the staff contributed a square featuring one building, along with additional details, such as people. The quilt is expected to be completed next summer.
In addition to being informative, Upper Canada Village is peaceful. And if you love horses, this is the weekend to go, as the Village will be celebrating its Horse Lovers' Weekend from September 2 to 4.
