Farmettes Doc features Mary Louks

Jeff Green | Dec 13, 2023

Mary Louks and her late husband Don lived quietly for many years at their rural property near Burridge, tending to the land.

That all changed about 20 years ago when they found someone had entered their property, removed some trees, and put up a series of stakes. They soon found that it had not been break-in. Their land had been staked by a licensed Ontario prospector interested in the potential for a graphite deposit underground.

The Louks owned the property, above the ground, but the sub-surface rights were held by the Crown, and since they were open to staking, prospectors could enter the property to pursue their claim on the minerals under the soil.

Soon, Mary and Don met other neighbours whose property had also been staked. Among them were Marilyn and Buddy Crawford and Perter Griesbach. The group they formed, the Bedford Mining Alert, was instrumental in changing the rules around prospecting in Southern Ontario after a five year battle.

Since then, Don has passed and Mary, now 03, continues to live on the property, undisturbed by prospectors.

Last weekend, another set of intruders arrived at her door, but instead of carrying shovels and pickaxes, they had cameras, lights, and microphones.

A film crew led by London based documentary film-maker Colin Field arrived to talk to Mary about a part of life that pre-dated her move to Frontenac County by over 50 years.

Field has been crisscrossing the Province interviewing as many of the remaining Farmerettes that he can find for the film.

He got involved with the Farmerettes story when he heard about a book that was written by Shileyan Engish and Bonnie Sitter, called “Onion Skins and Peach Fuzz, Memories of Ontario Farmerettes” which has already been the inspiration for a play that will be performed at 4th Line Theatre near Peterborough next summer.

CBC Radio in Kitchener did a story about the project this fall which was broadcast across the Province, as part of a campaign to support the project and root out some Farmerettes.

Mary is one of that diminishing number of Ontario women who participated in the Farmerettes program, and last weekend she was filmed to capture her memories of the summer of 1945.

Initiated by the Ontario Farm Service in 1941, the Farmerettes program invited girls in grade 13 to 'lend a hand'. The program was set up to help farms deal with the labour shortage brought on when so many boys were sent off to fight the war in Europe, and ensure the supply that fruits and vegetables kept making it to market.

An account published in the Grain Farmer's of Ontario website describes the deal offered to the 16 and 17 year od girls.

“The Farmerettes worked up to 10 hours a day, earning 25 cents an hour. If they were picking fruit, they made 25 cents per six-quart basket, or if pruning tomatoes, 50 cents per 250-plant row. Room and board cost $4.50 per week. In addition, tasks like weeding large plots of crop land, picking fields of corn and stooking wheat, they helped with meals and did their laundry by hand. Girls in grade 13 with good grades who worked a minimum of six weeks could be exempted from their senior matriculation exams.”

Mary Louks still remembers what picking fruit for 8 hours a day was like.

In the summer of 1945, she her home in Toronto to become a Farmerette.

She remembers the bunkhouse where she stayed in a camp with 45 or 50 other teenagers,and she remembers the work.

“Mostly I picked strawberries for the first month (never much liked them afterwards!) and

got 4 cents a basket. I still remember the large wooden container with a handle which held 8 baskets and which we carted up to the top of the field when it was full. It was a wonderful break to get up off my knees or bottom each time! Peach time came next with its accompanying fearsome itching and rackety ladders,

She also remembers the weekends at the beach

“We spent our weekends mostly down on the lakeshore (about a quarter of a mile’s walk) and covered ourselves in a mixture of baby oil and iodine to get a tan!. No one mentioned sunburn but I learned about it fairly quickly and spent 2 days in agony in my bunk bed slathered in calamine lotion and very little sympathy from the Camp Mother.”

The Farmerettes program remained in place after the end of World War II. It remained in place until 1953

“We are still looking for more Farmerettes to inverview,” said Field. “In addition to the film, we are also building up video archive to capture as many experiences as possible, since most of the women are in their mid-80's to mid 90's at this point.”

Anyone who participated in the program or has information to add can conctact field at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

There is also a Gofundme campaign to support the project - https://www.gofundme.com/f/farmerette-documentary-film and further information is also posted at Bonnie Sitter's website: https://bonniesitterphotography.wordpress.com/