CELEBRATING OUR SHARED NATURAL ASSETS

Of the many municipal services, we take for granted – garbage collection, waste water treatment, road works – trees are among those that can go unnoticed until they are gone. When grumbling about property taxes, it is easy to imagine how our communities look if toilets stopped flushing and garbage was left to pile up on our streets.

Recently, an 80-year-old maple was removed from the park by Ben’s house to make way for a new play structure. Neighbours agree that the gap left in its place has taken the shine off what should be an exciting new playground, but it is so often the tree that belongs to “everyone” which we neglect. (see below "ode")

Fortunately, there are good people who care for the trees. Tree Trust (www.treetrust.ca), for example, identifies trees in need of professional care that are outside municipal boundaries but still providing public good. The Guelph chapter recently invested in pruning the high crown of a massive silver maple which happens to shade the play area at Ben’s son Peter’s daycare. Volunteers of the Tree Trust raised the money for these services and planned an event to celebrate. Peter’s daycare class had their own party, singing Happy Birthday to the tree and making cards. 

Guelph Urban Forest Friends (“GUFF”, https://guffguelph.ca/) is another volunteer-run organization celebrating urban trees through education and advocacy. One of their most successful programs is the Notable Trees of Guelph award, where residents can nominate their favourite trees based on the following criteria: ““A noble tree, cherished by the community for its heritage value and as a fine example of its species”. Notable Trees are celebrated with ceremony, marked with a nearby plaque, and added to the public list of notable trees which draws tree lovers from across the city for the admiration these noble trees deserve. This year Ben nominated the mammoth black walnut in the same nearby park. The black walnut is believed to be a “mother tree” to the many black walnuts which characterize the neighbourhood and will be celebrated in the coming month. 

Another Notable Tree of Guelph is a Dawn Redwood planted in 1948 by Len Cullen’s mentor John Weall from seeds collected by Harvard University’s Arnold Arboretum.

Working together is the best way to celebrate and care for the trees we share, and we encourage you to find a group in your community that shares a passion for this valued feature of community life. 

Mark and Ben Cullen

Merchants of Beans and Beauty

Markcullen.com

Cullensfoods.com

Foodandsheltergoods.com

Ode to The Downed Sugar Maple in my Park

Much as trees are worth celebrating, it is also worth mourning their loss. Below is an ode to the Maple Tree of Sunny Acres written by Ben’s neighbour Tom Ewart:

Truth be told, you were never my favorite. After all, your neighbourly cousins are veritable giants, here since before Guelph was Guelph. You possessed neither their stature, nor their reach. You, leaderless, weren't even as tall as you should have been.

And yet I still loved you. I can't even begin to imagine how many others did too – not just today, but going back the perhaps 100 years you lived.

How many children, like mine, found refuge from the rays under your arms; hid behind you from seekers; watered you in a pinch; swung at piñatas you generously dangled?

How many more could have done so but will have to wait patiently until perhaps their grandchildren finally see your successors absorb sufficient carbon from the atmosphere to replace your canopy?

If only we had known of the plans to cut your life short. Was doing so really necessary? Perhaps we may have been able to intervene--not only for you but for all those generations of children, past, present, future.

I wonder what the forester wielding the saw was thinking when they downed you... what the city staff directing the action considered… how often this happens in our parks and public lands... how the mayor and councillors representing the families of all those children feel about the efficacy of their policies and strategies on community engagement, urban canopy, climate adaptation, etc…

One thing is certain: I will deeply miss you, dear Sugar Maple. 

Cullen’s Foods

The prolonged wet weather in Southern Ontario this fall has led to a unique set of challenges for the kidney bean, navy bean, and black bean harvests. Despite now five years of learning and our strongest ever slate of growers, mud and mold have proven unavoidable.

A new processor in Petrolia, Field Farms Marketing, is doing an excellent job of accepting this high-moisture, dirt and weed ridden crop off the field and cleaning it into a saleable product using a brand new cleaning line that includes various sorting screens and an optical sorter which can pick out off-grade beans with outstanding accuracy.

From Saskatchewan we saw a decent yield of chickpeas for the first time in three years, with a truck arriving today, and not a day too soon as we just went out of stock on the old product. 

A big silver maple at Cullen’s Foods grower Mike Holzworth’s farm.