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About Schmidt and The $4,100 Heifer |
Raw-milkman has friends in pink palaces
Shinan Govani, National Post
Published: Saturday, March 03, 2007
The tiff over fromage shifted to Woodbridge last week. On Saturday, in a scene right out of Charlotte's Web meets Patton meets Like Water for Chocolate, a few hundred gathered at the Cilento Winery in the delightful 905. There were not one but two celebrity chefs -- masters Jamie Kennedy and Michael Stadtlander. There was one beleaguered but ballsy farmer, Michael Schmidt -- who is not only our Patton, but come to think of it, Ontario's answer to Erin Brockovich. There was all-organic cuisine and, we hasten to add, one pretty pricey cow.
But before I get to the matter of bovines and their going rates, let me stress that this was no ordinary hoedown. There were political under-and-over-tones. Schmidt, you may have heard, is the farmer who has been fighting the good fight ever since his farm was raided by Ministry of Natural Resources officers last November.
The man's crime? Acting as a rawmilk dealer for about 150 families, and since 1994, selling shares in cows to Ontario foodies so they can legally get their unpasteurized fix. (Because, as all my gourmet friends tell me, there is no milk moustache like an unpasteurized milk moustache!)
Chastened in the name of "public health," the German-Canadian Schmidt has been making a lot of noise, finding a lot of new allies, preparing to go to court, c/o the ubiquitous Clayton Ruby, and, at one point, even attempted an only-one- glass-of-raw-milk-a-day hunger strike!
And as Stephen Sondheim wrote, in the case of this passionate farmer: I'm Still Here!
Fast-forward to last week's event, dubbed The Big Big Benefit. Because, well, legal fees must be paid. And because it was also a prime opportunity for Schmidt to lead a haystack concert. Raw talent is what he's got, especially when it comes to conducting, as he did that night with his Barn Chamber Orchestra!
But, yes, leave it to a cow to upstage a farmer, even a celebrity farmer. When one went up for auction, the contest was heated, and the bully ended up going for a good $4,100. And as Schmidt now recalls, as the bidding got going, one of the bidders realized that her dear uncle was the auctioneer!
"Judging by the intensity of the bidding," he tells me, "the raw-milk stock market could be the investment of the future."
FYI: Among the milk man's high-profile customers is Kate Sorbara, the wife of the Ontario Finance Minister. She and her husband are big fans of this raw-milk stuff, and even own a share in a requisite cow. Greg Sorbara, for one, continues to find himself at odds with his own government over the issue -- something that, no doubt, haunts him every time he looks into a bowl of cereal.
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