Dear Editor
The season of our bountiful fall suppers has now come and gone, a tradition that started 100 years ago. In all that time how often have we country and small town women given anyone food poisoning?
We are proud of what we produce and always take our best to fall suppers, potluck suppers or large family gatherings.
Yet the department of health, so called, doesn't believe that. In the last few years they have been after farmers' markets and fall suppers. A few weeks ago a well known contributor who sends thoughtful pieces to this newspaper and others told how the town of Eatonia held its last fall supper because the kitchen supposedly wasn't deemed good enough by those department officials who seem to be vindicating their own existence by pretending to be concerned about our health, or our habits.
I've no doubt the fall supper was a main fundraiser for Eatonia.
At the risk of invoking the ire of restaurant owners, I've seen some kitchens in these establishments that have made my skin crawl. I know someone who has suffered food poisoning five times after eating at restaurants, but never at events such as potluck suppers. That is until one unsuspecting person took along a crab dip bought that day from a store and taken straight to a supper, where it laid several people low.
And we never had a turkey supper shut down because of an outbreak of E.coli. We leave that to supposedly government inspected, large meat plants and imported greens in the grocery stories.
It just seems like one more example of cutting and gutting the West, like the destruction of the PFRA system or the Indian Head Tree Nursery. It seems government has never heard of, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."
We must fight back.
And by the way, when those health experts came our way, some of us decided to take their course.
Needless to say, cleanliness is important, but we weren't impressed with our so-called teachers and caught them out on one or two things. Then we wrote our tests.
It seems we all missed one question, but we'll never know which one, as our test papers were not returned. It was likely one so vital that since we answered incorrectly we'll end up poisoning someone at our next public meal.
Meanwhile, we received certificates saying local organizations could handle food if we are present. I can't find mine. Maybe if I ever clean house, it'll show up.
And I'll close by saying that a few years ago, in a certain large Saskatchewan city, caterers brought in food every day to a part of a building that is now closed off, possibly condemned, and would set it out for peoples' noon meal where it sat and sat with pigeons flying overhead.
Where were those puffed up health people?
Around here, we took the pigeons out of the kitchen years ago.
Christine Pike
Waseca
