Robert Paterson's Weblog

Who are the "New Rurals?" - the smart folks who are leaving the city and moving to the country

This is Knowlton - where I live today.

150 years ago my great grandfather left the family farm and walked to Montreal - where the jobs and the opportunity were. He was early in the powerful trend from rural to urban. Many think that this trend still continues. In the developing world it does. BUT there is a trickle back now that might become as flood as the Job world dies. 

Are you going to be one of these new rurals? In this post you will find the profile. You may find yourself!

This is 30 seconds from the heart of downtown. 

We look at trend in the context of where I live - in Knowlton in the Eastern Townships in Quebec - we are an hour's drive from Montreal. 

The new rurals are not really a retirement group. Nor are they rural folk. They work and they come from the city. 

• 60% of the new rurals used to live in Suburban Montreal
• 92% lived in an urban setting for a significant part of their lives (19+ years)
• They are very well educated - 74% have a university degree
• 83% of the new rurals are 40 years old or older. 17% are young adults between 25 - 39 years of age
• 56% are retired or semi retired - 41% still work
• Among those who still work 68.3% are self employed
• 83% of the new rurals migrated to the country because of the attraction of rural life.
• Access to the web is another key issue

My great grandfather had to put up with a very poor quality of life when he first arrived in Montreal. His main goal was to find work and opportunity and that only existed in the city. 

But today, IF YOU HAVE THE RIGHT SKILLS, you can work anywhere and the opportunity depends on your network - that may mot be in your city but all over the world. For instance, my son who lives in Montreal is in Minneapolis this weekend  at a conference of his peers. His peers congregate online or at conferences. They do not live next door to him in Montreal. 90% of his peers do not live in Montreal. His work does not anchor him in the city. I think being 33 does - for now!

I live 30 seconds walk from the Marina on a street where the dog and the grandchildren can run around with no fear of being run over. 

Now you can make the quality of life the main issue.

For instance, I met a couple on the trail this week. They had just moved from Old Montreal. They told me that they had not had a proper night's sleep in the 5 years in their old place - it was so noisy. They had made the choice to have a better quality of life. Their dog, mine and another all met on the trail that day. For us it is often the dog and not the child that provides the entree to a new relationship. They are musicians. 

Most new rural migrants work for themselves. They don't commute to Montreal for work. Though they might go to town for fun.

Check us out. What have you to lose? Your life?

(This data comes from a research paper - Nouvel population dans La Quebec rural - Le cas de la municipalitie regionale de comte (MRC) de Brome- Missisquoi 20018 by Guamond, Lauri, Simard and Myriam)

Barnes - Our General Store - an old idea whose time has come again

This is Barnes - our local General Store in Knowlton. Once upon a time every community had a general store. Not only was a place of commerce but the hub of the community. But big boxes and commuting has destroyed the concept.

But not here and what is happening here is a timely model.

Barnes is also a Home Hardware outlet. So while it has the footprint of a small general store, it is in reality a vast store with every type of hardware.

Dennis has also become the "Paint Guy" for the entire region. Barnes is also a Benjamin Moore outlet. Most people here buy their pain from Dennis - who of course not only stocks everything but is very knowledgeable. People come even from Montreal for advice.

Barnes also stocks a lot of the local food from the local meat producers and when the market closes - is the key outlet for Foodies.

And it is our Depanner and so the source of beer and snacks.

Oh and it is also in walking distance of most of town.

Do you have a general store like this near you?

Why are so many Islanders fat and so few Quebec Townshippers?

It is obvious in the short time I have been here in Knowlton in the Townships, that most people here are not fat.

The local junior school is just up the road and I have yet to see an obese child. I have not seen a single obese person in the last 4 weeks here. 

This is a rural area. People drive all over. In the larger centres there are the usual Fast Food stations.

It is painfully obvious that this is not PEI where most people are at least well covered and many are obese. 

So why the difference? 

It is surely not that different than PEI other than the ancestry of the people. Here they are mainly English and French. On PEI they are mainly Scots and Irish. Ancestry is important. 

We can't change who we are. But here is a clue that may help Islanders.

More and more evidence is available that shows that we are strongly influenced by our networks. If you have fat or thin friends they influence you. Here is a summary of this concept. 

Obesity can spread from person to person, much like a virus, according to researchers. When one person gains weight, close friends tend to gain weight too.

Their study, published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine, involved a detailed analysis of a large social network of 12,067 people who had been closely followed for 32 years, from 1971 until 2003. The investigators knew who was friends with whom, as well as who was a spouse or sibling or neighbor, and they knew how much each person weighed at various times over three decades.

That let them watch what happened over the years as people became obese. Did their friends also become obese? Did family members? Or neighbors?

The answer, the researchers report, was that people were most likely to become obese when a friend became obese. That increased one's chances of becoming obese by 57 percent.

There was no effect when a neighbor gained or lost weight, however, and family members had less of an influence than friends. It did not even matter if the friend was hundreds of miles away - the influence remained. And the greatest influence of all was between mutual close friends. There, if one became obese, the other had a 171 percent increased chance of becoming obese too.

The same effect seemed to occur for weight loss, the investigators say, but since most people were gaining, not losing, over the 32 years, the result was an obesity epidemic.

So - following this - if Islanders can work to get a critical mass of people to lose weight - the whole process can start to unwind.

I am sure that the issue is even more complex but this may help get a start. 

Dinner in our new garden

It's 7pm on Sept 5th

Where I live now #Knowlton

The red dot is close to where we live now. The larger lake is Brome Lake.

My local hamburger and drink stop - regretfully closing for the season this weekend - 1 minute walk

Small places and community - Waving and Stopping in the Street - Size Matters!

This morning the school bus driver waved at me as I walked the dog. When I meet people on the trail with the dog, the form is to stop and say a few words. Knowlton, population 5,600, is at a scale where you cannot ignore people.

Asking for a plumber - having a problem installing the  washing machine - my goto guy Dennis at the General Store - Barnes - called a pal and gave our address as "pres de Mdme Blackwood". Having a General Store that has EVERYTHING and using this kind of addressing is also a sign of "Right Scale"

So as many of us seek better and healthier communities, my move to Knowlton has brought a key fact up. Size matters. There is a gradient of population size that drives a personal response.

The school bus driver and Dennis don't know me. But I elicit this response not because of anything about me but because of the size of the community.

So in Toronto, the norm is to put on social armour to protect us from the overwhlem of all the people.

I bet that there is a gradient here as there is for social groupings. As we struggle to design community, we will need to find out what this scale is.

Any thoughts?

Exploring Local Food In Knowlton - Highland Beef from Jadhore #resiliency

Last night we had two steaks from Maple Lea Farm who raise Highland Cattle.

Wow! I think the best steak I have yet had anywhere. And to think they are just around the corner.

Highland Cattle fit well on the local landscape and can and do live outside all year. They also are wonderful mothers and rarely need a vet. If you think dogs, Highland Cattle are Coyotes to the Pekinese. For we have bred animals that can only live in a barn now and who depend on us entirely.

The opportunity is to change the economics of ainmals by moving away from the "Pekinese" and going back to the "Coyote" Work with animals that fit the world and not the barn.

Then you avoid all the costs of the dependency and you get a better product.

For it is the same with the Meat King Chicken. Most of the chicken we eat is from this one breed that is market ready in 8 weeks. By 10 weeks, most cannot walk they are so big. They are so stupid that they cannot forage. It is the same with a Berkshire Pig or a Black Faced Sheep. More on the Berkshire here.

The new farmer mainly sells direct to their customers. Thus capturing more margin here too. Here is a list of vendors at the Knowlton Local Market. At Jadhore, you can buy half a cow and so get your costs down too - I plan to go in with a few friends and do this.

 

Exploring Local Food In Knowlton - YES!

I knew this would be good and it is. The Knowlton Farmer's market is in an open space 5 minutes walk from our new home. It has a strong focus on meat. There is a chicken/egg/rabbit stall. A Lamb stall. A Pork stall and a Highland Cattle stall + a Trout stall. Paleo heaven. 

"Organic free range" eggs in the Metro - $6.95 a dozen. Real eggs in the market $3.00.

And CHEESE!!!! This is cheese heaven. My peril is that the baguettes are to die for - literally. So I will have to learn to have my runny stinky goat cheese on its own.

And talking about perils: one of the perils of growing veggies here are deer. Need more coyotes! But the peril of livestock, especially lamb are the local coyotes - a no win situation.