This month, food writer Eva Fisher takes a brain freeze tour of the Kawarthas, looks at the future of food in Peterborough with Nourish, get a dose of caffeine with Caffeina, and discusses award-winning wine with Jewel Just Fine Wines.
Four locally made frozen treats you may not have tried
Dessert inspires innovation. It’s often eaten in celebration and doesn’t need to fulfil the nutritional standards of a meal. In the heat of the summer people in our community are reinventing ice cream, popsicles, and even freezies — and some of them are even healthy for you.
Here are four very worth it ways to get brain freeze this summer:
Popsicles by Peterpops (225 Charlotte St., Peterborough, 705-957-5264)
Peterpops popsicles are hand crafted with local and organic ingredients. According to cofounder Marjorie McDonald, “we blend fresh fruit with herbs and spices creating flavour combinations that will excite your taste buds and leave you savouring every last drip.”
Their most popular flavour is Coconut Raspberry Cardamom. “We’ve been ordered to ‘never stop making them’ by at least one customer.”
They frequently experiment with new flavours including beet chocolate and strawberry balsamic. They also make smaller pops especially for kids. These have longer handles, making them easier to grip, and don’t contain any added sugar.
Watch for their cooler trike at local events and farmers’ markets.
Freezies by The Sweet Kitchen (Cottingham Cr., Lindsay, 705-878-5139)
The Sweet Kitchen sells their freezies at the Lindsay Farmers’ Market every Saturday.
Fruit flavours are made by blending fruit with fresh lemon and a small amount of simple syrup. They also make a root beer float freezie with A&W root beer and home made vanilla ice milk.
Their next plan is to create a coffee freezie using Trebilcock coffee from Pickering, caramel, and cream.
Gelato by Kettle Drums (224 Hunter St. W., Peterborough, 705-874-1500)
At Kettle Drums they make their gelato in house, with a focus on unique flavours and fruits that are in season.
This includes “night at the movies”, a blend of hot buttered popcorn and M&Ms. They have also created and served chai tea, french vanilla cognac and classic strawberry gelato, to name a few.
It’s only available at their restaurant, and best enjoyed on their patio.
NICEcream by Chimp Treats (Peterborough, 705-861-0032)
It’s made entirely out of bananas, but creator Brooke Hammer has made a creamy ice cream like treat that tastes decadent.
“We achieve that with a mix of freezing, blending, and adding air in the process without it melting at any point in time. That’s the unique part that makes it not turn into an icy brick when you freeze it.”
Brooke has plans to develop strawberry and mango flavours. She will be releasing a locally grown strawberry flavour at this year’s Peterborough Exhibition in partnership with McLean Berry Farm. They will be creating a fruit only banana split with strawberry and banana NICEcreams with fresh strawberries on top.
Chimp Treats currently sells their banana NICEcream at the Silver Bean, Amuse, Joanne’s Place, and Sobeys in Peterborough.
Jewel Just Fine Wines wins bronze at international competition
Jordon Hale, owner of Jewel Just Fine Wines (180 Clifford Rd., Douro, 705-652-3643) and her team recently won an international award for their Nebbiolo.
The wine won bronze at the 2016 Wine Maker International Wine Competition. According to Jordon the judges described it as “very dark almost opaque in colour, clean, with firm tannins, dark fruit and berry flavours, with a spiciness.”
Nebbiolo is made with the same variety of grapes as a Barolo, but they don’t have to be grown in the specific northern Italian villages designated to produce Barolo. Jordon’s Nebbiolo was made using pure must (juice containing seeds, skins and stems) from Mosti Mondial in Quebec.
They source grape must from around the world with a regional focus. Although that particular Nebbiolo was a limited edition, other Mosti Mondial prizewinners are available at Jewel Just Fine Wines, including plenty of other big reds.
“Do you like a smoky big fatty? I do … only if it’s red wine” Jordon jokes.
Jordon lends her expertise to every customer who makes wine with her, but her enjoyment of her work goes beyond making award winning wines.
“We spend time with every customer when they come in to bottle their wine and we get into some really fantastic conversations. We have a lot of fun, a lot of laughs, we solve the world’s problems, if I was queen or king. We share recipes.”
Have your say and make Peterborough an Edible City
Food is a vital and very personal part of our day to day lives; that is obvious. The Nourish Project and the Peterborough Food Action Network are hosting public discussions to get people talking about the future of food in Peterborough.
Joëlle Favreau, project manager of the YWCA Peterborough Haliburton’s Nourish Project, would like to see food included in the official city plan.
“Traditionally food has not been seen as a theme for municipalities to be engaged in. Every city is going to talk about, for instance, transportation as being an important issue to them. But food has been looked at from the perspective of the province or the feds. And yet if you look at what’s happening in Peterborough the municipality is involved in food related issues.”
At the first Edible City event, held on July 4th, the Nourish team asked people to divide themselves into six groups based on their interests: health, education, sustainable economic development, community and culture, the environment, and social justice. The groups used these themes to frame discussion about what an edible neighbourhood would look like.
At the next event Joëlle and her team’s plan is to broaden the discussion to envision an edible city. “We feel that there is more and more interest around food and that when you bring people together there can be some great conversations.”
Recently the Peterborough city council proposed banning backyard chickens. This is an example of municipal government becoming involved in food issues, and it demonstrates the potential for our local government to restrict our ability to raise our own food, to be connected to what we eat. That is just one reason why it’s so important to include food in our city plan.
Have your say at Edible City Part 2 on Monday, July 18th from 7 to 9 p.m. at Peterborough Public Health (185 King St., Peterborough, 705-743-1000).
Caffeina opens on Hunter Street
There’s a new place to wake up in the Hunter Street Cafe District. Caffeina Espresso and Chai Bar (144 Hunter St. W., Peterborough, 705-808-4822) opened its doors on June 20th.
The centrepiece of the new coffee shop is a gleaming Victoria Arduino White Eagle espresso machine from Florence Italy. According to Caffeina president Renee Bowler, it’s one of three in Canada. They use coffee from Propellor Coffee in Toronto, a super premium award-winning micro roaster that promises “zero defect coffee.”
The food rotates daily and will evolve while maintaining a local focus, so you can expect new items every time you go. House-made baked goods include cookies and scones. These often feature ingredients from area farmers, such as their garlic scape and goat cheese scones. They have also made bagel bombs: a pocket of bagel dough with cream cheese filling.
To supplement their store-made offerings they bring in cannolis, brownies, and more from local bakers and artisans.
Caffeina is open Monday to Friday from 7:45 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. To 2 p.m.
