Ahead of the season-opening play Onion Skins & Peach Fuzz: The Farmerettes in July, Millbrook’s 4th Line Theatre is partnering with the Peterborough Museum & Archives to host an event inviting community members to share stories and learn about the women in the region who toiled on farms during World War II.
Held on Sunday, June 9th from 1 to 2:30 p.m. “Memories of the Farmerettes” will include a discussion between Kim Blackwell, 4th Line Theatre’s managing artistic director. and Bonnie Sitter, the co-author of the 2019 book Onion Skins & Peach Fuzz: Memories of Ontario Farmerettes upon which the play is based.
“Bonnie is such a dynamic and energetic human, and her mission in life right now is to elevate the stories of the Farmerettes,” says Blackwell. “Nobody’s ever heard of them, unless you are a farmer, so it’s really almost a completely unknown part of Ontario’s history.”
“Farmerettes” is the term given to the young women who worked on farms across Canada during World War II, keeping the troops and all Canadians fed while the young men who normally worked the farms were fighting overseas. Often travelling far from home and most with no previous farming experience, the women spent long hours weeding, hoeing, and harvesting, but many of the surviving Farmerettes — who are all in their 90s now — continue to look back at the time as the best summers of their lives.
“This was a chance for them to get away from home and live on their own and have some freedom, maybe for the first time in their lives,” says Blackwell. “Once they get there and they’re out from under the thumbs of family and they’re in the much bigger world, they can start to think about what they, as human beings, really want.”
For many women, the summers away were life-changing, often resulting in meeting the men they would later marry, or wanting to stay in farming long-term.
VIDEO: Bonnie Sitter on the Farmerettes
“It was really hard physical work that they were doing, but their bodies were strong and healthy,” says Blackwell. “The stories they tell are about picking strawberries eight to 10 hours a day and then getting up into the trees for cherries, knocking the peaches over and being covered in the peach fuzz — an incredible irritant — and smelling like onions. It was really back-breaking physically tough work in the hot sun.”
“Memories of the Farmerettes” calls for local farmers, community members, and more to share stories, memorabilia, and photos about Farmerettes, while inviting others to listen to the often-overlooked histories, including Ontario’s agricultural and rural histories. Some people may have had a Farmerette in their family or as a neighbour, or perhaps a local farming family hosted a Farmerette.
“We’re trying to activate and access and partner with women in our region,” says Blackwell. “This is a springboard to really celebrating and acknowledging and digging into the women who work in farming in our region.”
Last year, 4th Line Theatre hosted a similar event at the Kitchener Public Library, where the public was invited to share stories and memories.
“There aren’t as many Farmerettes anymore, but there’s a lot of families,” says Blackwell. “And we found as well that there were a lot of families who didn’t even know their moms were Farmerettes, because people just did their thing and then got on with the business of living their lives.”
The “Memories of the Farmerettes” community gathering comes ahead of the world premiere of Onion Skins & Peach Fuzz: The Farmerettes by playwright Alison Lawrence, based on the 2019 book by Sitter and Shirleyan English. Directed by Autumn Smith, the outdoor production will be staged at Winslow Farm Mondays to Saturdays at 6 p.m. from July 1 to 20.
A resident of Exeter north of London in southwestern Ontario, Sitter first became aware of the Farmerettes when she found an old photograph of three young girls dressed in farm work clothes with “Farmerettes 1946” written on the back.
She did some research and wrote a story in 2018 that found its way to London resident and former journalist Shirleyan English, who it turns out had worked as a Farmerette on the Sitter’s farm in Thedford and was planning to write her own book about the Farmerettes. The two women eventually teamed up to write a book together, featuring a collection of photos, letters, and memories from Farmerettes across the country.
“Many of the Farmerettes do talk about it being the summer of their life, and I think that’s the number one theme,” says Blackwell about the play. “The really interesting part for Alison Lawrence was finding some tension and drama but, when you put people together in a situation where there is physical and mental challenges with the backdrop of the Second World War, she was able to find lots of great stuff.”
With two of the actresses performing in the play of Japanese descent, the play also references Japanese internments during World War II, when some 21,000 Japanese Canadians living on the coast in British Columbia were detained and dispossessed of their property on the assumption their loyalties were with Japan. Many of the interned families were sent to labour camps and some ended up working on farms in Ontario.
The play is structured with six young actresses playing a multitude of roles, with each act centred around different Farmerettes. Included in the cast are 4th Line veteran Rebecca Birrell (The Tilco Strike) and Aimée Gordon, who worked a few seasons as a member of 4th Line Theatre’s Young Company project where young performers work alongside industry professionals and will be making her 4th Line debut.
Joining them at Winslow Farm for the first time are Reena Goze, Carina Sălăjan, Alicia Salvador, and Megan Murphy (not to be confused with the local filmmaker and performer).
Like many Canadians, Blackwell admits she didn’t know about the Farmerettes but has learned a lot since a donor first suggested 4th Line produce a play based on the popular book.
“I always love stories of little-known Canadian and Ontario histories so this fits in perfectly with that,” she says. “We always try at 4th Line to educate, entertain, and enthrall audiences. I think this play will do all three of those things and it is quite joyful as well, so we will continue to honour that history.”
While the “Memories of the Farmerettes” community gathering at the Peterborough Museum & Archives (300 Hunter St. E.) is free to attend, seating is very limited. To reserve a seat, call 4th Line theatre’s Box Office at 705-932-4445 or email boxoffice@4thlinetheatre.on.ca.
