Ontario Grain Farmer November 2024

29 ONTARIO GRAIN FARMER NOVEMBER 2024 Thedford, Ontario. Sitter and English connected after Sitter wrote a piece for the Rural Voice about the Farmerettes, and together, they worked to bring the stories of more than 300 women to life in a book called Onion Skins and Peach Fuzz: Memories of Ontario Farmerettes. “I thought from the beginning that it was more than a book,” says Sitter, who witnessed the story of the Farmerettes come to life as a play debuted at the Blyth Festival and the Fourth Line Theatre in 2024. Written by Canadian playwright Alison Lawerence, the play presents a fictionalized retelling of the experiences of the Farmerettes. Next up for Sitter is working with a local documentarian, Colin Field, to produce a documentary about the Farmerettes. “Their voices and memories needed to be recorded,” says Sitter. “You see lots of senior men having their stories being made into documentaries, but you rarely see senior women being interviewed and recalling their lives.” Sitter and Field are currently raising funds to produce the documentary, which she hopes to release later this year, and they will enter it into film and documentary festivals. Grain Farmers of Ontario is supporting the documentary. GOOD IN EVERY CLASSROOM Grain Farmers of Ontario’s Good in Every Classroom program helps make curriculum-linked resources about food and farming available to Ontario students and teachers. Since 2021, Good in Every Classroom has partnered with Sitter to help students commemorate Remembrance Day and learn about World War II history by telling the story of the Farmerettes. Resources include a video, discussion guide, literacy activity packs, art projects, and cursive writing examples using actual letters from Farmerettes written during their time working on farms. Like Sitter, Ontario students using the Farmerette resources have been astonished that this piece of Ontario history was almost lost. “The students in my class really appreciated [learning about the Farmerettes],” says Anne Gagnier, an Ottawa Carleton District School Board teacher. “They had a lot of comments like “How come I didn’t know about them? What they did was really important.” GET IN TOUCH Sitter is eager to connect with people who have experience working as Farmerettes or want to learn more about how to help bring history to life. They can contact her at bonnie.sitter@gmail.com or 519-235-1909.• A lot of them had never been more than seven miles from home. So this was adventure calling. “By the end of the summer, the girls were in tears, not wanting to say goodbye to the new friends, and the farmer was saying, ‘I couldn’t have done it without you. I hope you’ll come again next year.’“

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