In the coming weeks, families will be settling into the familiar back-to-school routine.

Returning to school is most often a time when new goals are set, and when new school supplies are purchased.

This year, GreenUP is encouraging students and families to consider how they can incorporate litterless lunches into their school or work routine.

To support waste reduction, GreenUP offers educational programs for students, and sells a variety of products in the GreenUP store that can help you reduce your food packaging waste.

During the upcoming school year GreenUP will be delivering the Recycle Rangers: Planet Protectors Program on behalf of the County of Peterborough, City of Peterborough, City of Kawartha Lakes, and Northumberland County.

The Recycle Rangers: Planet Protectors Program aims to help schools reduce waste by improving recycling habits and increasing composting.

The program challenges students and the school community to become active agents of change. Schools can book a visit from the Recycle Rangers program, where a leader will visit the class and run a dynamic, multimedia puppet presentation that is designed and curriculum-linked for Grade 3, 4, and 5 students.

Last year the program visited 38 schools in four municipalities and reached 3,400 students.

In speaking to teaching and custodial staff, program leaders found that schoolyard composting and blue bin sorting are areas that need the most improvement.

Blue bin contamination — when students don’t finish food and put a half-full container into the blue bin, thus making it unable to be recycled — was identified as one of the main problems at the schools visited.

Based on these findings, the program is starting a new two-year module on Food Waste in the fall. The goal for Recycle Rangers over the next two years is to reduce the amount of classroom food waste by encouraging responsible consumption and litterless lunches.

Responsible consumption means becoming more aware of the food waste we produce.

For example, instead of leaving a yogurt cup half full, the program encourages students to finish it or to consider if they intend to finish the yogurt before they open it.

Becoming responsible consumers will help reduce blue bin contamination and decrease the amount of wasted food and food packaging we produce.

Danica Jarvis, Environmental Education Coordinator at GreenUP, explains that “recent audits in the County of Peterborough found that 15% of our garbage was wasted food by weight.” This would include food that has expired, such as moldy bread and vegetables and fruit that were not consumed in time before going bad.

Sustain Ontario reports that in Canada almost 50% of total food production is wasted at the household level. This has drastic financial implications, and the Recycle Rangers program will also be discussing the economic impact that wasted food has on families.

Knowledgeable staff at the GreenUP store can help you prepare for a litterless lunch, which will allow you to save money and prevent unnecessary waste.

Ausma Clappison, Coordinator of the GreenUP Store and Resource Centre, says that “packing food for a picnic, car trip, or back to school can potentially produce a lot of waste. At the GreenUP store there are a variety of storage choices that are available to help make small changes to how we think about meal packaging and waste reduction. Reusable is the key — nothing goes into a landfill.”

The store offers a wide variety of beverage containers as well as thermoses for hot drinks. Reusable juice boxes are a great substitute for pre-packaged ones. Imagine one juice box per day for the whole school year going into the trash — you can save a lot of waste by switching to a reusable alternative!

Lunch bags of various designs are available, and can be filled with reusable food containers, cutlery, and snack bags that can be washed out and reused. The store carries reusable lids for mason jars, making it easier to use the jar for a beverage, spice shaker, or food storage.

A great substitute for plastic wrap is reusable beeswax paper, sold at the store. The paper, produced by Abeego, can last up to a year with proper care. And, it can be composted instead of thrown into the garbage when it becomes too worn for further use. The whole life-cycle of a product is important, and by choosing products that will biodegrade naturally we can lessen the amount of waste that ends up in a landfill.

If you’re ending off your summer with a camping trip, a weekend up at the cottage, or a picnic in the park, these are great opportunities to try reusable products and plan out litterless meals. When school starts, you’ll be well on your way to preparing healthy, affordable, and environmentally-friendly litterless lunches!

For more information about the Recycle Rangers program, including how to book a school visit and links to curriculum that will help with your classroom planning, visit www.greenup.on.ca or www.recyclerangers.ca.

You can also contact Danica Jarvis at 705-745-3238 ext 216 or by email at danica.jarvis@greenup.on.ca.

To learn more about the products the store offers, you can visit the GreenUP Store at 378 Aylmer St. North in Peterborough, or contact Ausma Clappison during the week by phone at 705-745-3238 ext 222.

This month, food writer Eva Fisher discovers a true Bancroft Beer with The Bancroft Brewing Company, welcomes the sweet corn season with Mclean’s Berry Farm and Fisher’s Farms, talks momos with Karma’s by the River, dines lakeside with Marley’s Bar & Grill, and more.

The Bancroft Brewing Company expands operations

The Bancroft Brewing Company (2 Hastings St. N., Bancroft, 613-334-8154) has a retail store all set up to sell beer by the bottle: hats, t-shirts and glassware are ready to go. The only thing missing? The beer.

That will change on Labour Day weekend, when owner and brewmaster Logan Krupa plans to open his shop with the first batch completed from his new seven hectalitre brewing system.

The Bancroft Brewing Company currently sells their beer on draught at their pub, the Bancroft Eatery and Brewpub (4 Bridge St. W., Bancroft, 613-332-3450), but demand is high enough that there isn’t any beer left over to sell in the shop with their current smaller system. Logan makes four different beers, named in homage to the history of the town and the building that the eatery and brewery are housed in.

“This building was built over 100 years ago as a hotel for miners,” Logan says. “There were 40 rooms upstairs and the miners would come to town to work and they’d all stay in the hotel. Bancroft itself is a town built for mining and logging. That’s why I have the Logger’s Ale, the Black Quartz Ale, and the Iron Man Ale.”

But what about the Blonde Lady?

“I was trying to think of a name for a blonde beer and I was struggling. Yellow sapphire … I just couldn’t get anything good. I was bartending so I just said blonde lady to get it going because my girlfriend’s blonde. It stuck after that.”

The new system will allow Logan to use his smaller system to experiment with new beers. One of the first on his list is a lager.

“We’re the mineral capital of Canada so it turns out that Bancroft has good (soft) water for beer. I took a sample down to Mill Street and had them analyze it, they said it’s good for ales but it’s even better for lagers.”

Lagers take nearly twice as long as ales to ferment, so Logan was reluctant to tie down his fermenters to produce one. Now that will change.

Greater production will also allow Logan to market his beer at craft beer festivals. He is looking forward to promoting his beer and Bancroft itself to a larger audience.

“I grew up in Bancroft, I’m proud of my hometown, so when I moved home now I’m home for the long haul. I want to make my town better, so that’s why I named it Bancroft Brewery. I want to help put Bancroft on the map. I want my destination to bring people to Bancroft.”

Local farmers say you’ve probably never tried Peaches and Cream corn

Sweet corn is in season in the Kawarthas and has begun to pop up in farmer’s markets and roadside stands throughout the region.

Mclean Berry Farm (2191 16th Line, Lakefield, 705-657-2134) grows a number of varieties of corn, varying in sweetness, taste, texture and size.

“We grow bi-colour varieties (yellow and white) and straight yellow varieties,” says Erin McLean, daughter of owners Sam and Jane. “Sometimes we also grow white corn too; it all depends on the year.”

This allows them to find a corn to suit each customer’s tastes. One variety that they don’t grow? Peaches and Cream.

Erin says that it’s actually a lot less common than you might think.

“It was one of the first bi-coloured sweet corns so the name stuck, kind of like how we call all tissues Kleenex. Most people haven’t had the original Peaches and Cream; it’d be much tougher and less sweet by today’s standards.”

Barb Fisher from Fisher’s Farms (426 Chipmunk Rd., Janetville, 705-340-1800) agrees. Peaches and Cream is a “hard seed to get a hold of. You don’t see it anymore. Even the grocery stores are starting to call it bicolour.”

The Fishers grow corn from the Gourmet family, a sweet corn that tastes great barbecued in the husk, boiled or even raw.

At Fisher’s Farms, they taste test the corn every day to make sure it is at the peak of sweetness, but certain family members are more serious about the job than others.

“We have a little grandson — he’s almost six — and he’ll walk around eating a cob of corn.”

Barb says that eating corn fresh from the field is a perk of being a farmer that her whole family enjoys.

“They get tired of it for meals. They’ll say ‘no, we had corn in the field this morning.”

Sweet corn should be enjoyed within a few days of harvest for optimal sweetness, and don’t overcook it. Erin suggests “3 to 4 minutes in boiling water is great. The longer you cook it the more starchy and tough it gets. You can actually eat it raw, that’s when it’s most sweet and tender!”

Marley’s Bar & Grill opens in Buckhorn

Joshua Schielke has worked in a lot of restaurants. He has been working in the industry since he was 14, with past experience including catering for Del Mar racetrack in San Diego.

“I think the largest one I did there was a 500 person event in the stalls of the horse track itself.”

Now Joshua makes his home in Buckhorn. He and fiancee Jennifer Mattucci own Marley’s Bar and Grill (17 Fire Rt. 82, Buckhorn, 705-657-3232), which opened on the Canada Day weekend.

“We literally had about six days to get in, renovate and get it going,” Joshua says.

The menu includes ribs, mussels, fresh local corn on the cob, and Joshua’s favourite menu item, a chicken breast sandwich. The chicken is marinated in cilantro garlic and lemon juice then grilled and served on ciabatta bread with goat cheese and avocado on top with a fresh lemon garlic aioli.

“Within the month we’ve already changed our menu twice. We kept the things that worked but we kept trying specials and seeing what people liked.”

Live music has been an important part of the business’s success thus far.

“It’s a place on the lake, it’s a boater’s paradise here. There couldn’t be a better place to have music.”

Marley’s Bar and Grill is open seasonally May through October on the shores of Catalina Bay.

Karma’s by the River thrives in Campbellford

“In my whole life I never decided myself. I always had someone decide for me.”

When Karma Phuntshok — who already owns Karma’s Cafe in Peterborough — decided to open a second restaurant in Campbellford, it wasn’t part of a grand business plan.

“Wherever the wind blows, I go with that,” Karma explains.

His friend Rob Wood bought a property in Campbellford and encouraged him to start a second restaurant. Karma liked the idea of having a friend as a landlord and he wanted to try something new. And, almost serendipitously, Karma’s by the River (18 Bridge St. W., Campbellford, 705-947-2165) was born.

The menu is a blend of Himalayan, Tibetan, and Thai cuisine similar to his other restaurant, Karma’s Cafe (217 Hunter St. W., Peterborough, 705-748-5451), with a few key differences. One of these is the addition of vegetarian momos.

“Traditionally the Tibetan momo contains meat, but people do make vegetarian momos a long way back.”

The vegetarian momo contains potatoes, cheese, mushrooms, carrots, cilantro, and onions.

Also new to the menu are shrimp tempura and a momo soup. Karma even offers a sandwich with beef satay and caramelized onions on a bun fresh from Dooher’s bakery, another great Campbellford business.

Karma’s by the River has been open since May 1st, and in that time Karma has really come to enjoy the town.

“It’s a very welcoming and nice community.”

Bobcaygeon Craft Beer and Food Festival debuting at Kawartha Settler’s Village

Kawartha Settler’s Village in Bobcaygeon is hosting the first ever Bobcaygeon Craft Beer and Food Festival on Saturday, August 20th from 12 to 7 pm.

Six craft breweries will be pouring over 20 types of beer. Haliburton Highlands Brewing, Bobcaygeon Brewing Company, Collective Arts Brewing, Old Flame Brewing Company, Brock Street Brewing and Smithavens Brewing Company will be in attendance.

Food vendors will also be on hand including Abbey Gardens, Into the Blue Bakery, Born2eat, Sugar and Spice Catering, Grant’s Butcher Shop and Cheese Please Pieter.

Tickets can be purchased for $15 in advance at Settler’s Village or online at bobcaygeonbeerfestival.ca.

Tickets cost $20 at the door and include a 6-oz tasting glass and two drink tokens. Admission for designated drivers is $10.

Astronomers say 2016 will be an exceptional year for viewing the annual Perseid meteor shower this month, with an “outburst” of the meteors — between 150 and 200 per hour, double the usual rate — expected overnight on Thursday, August 11th and Friday, August 12th.

Every year from late July to early August, Earth plows through the interplanetary debris left behind by comet Swift-Tuttle when it passed close to Earth (the last time was in 1992). When the particles of debris — which can be as small as a grain of sand or as big as a pea — slam into the Earth’s atmosphere at around 210,000 kilometres per hour, they heat up to 1,650 degrees Celsius and are vapourized in a burst of heat and light, resulting in a “shooting star.”

The Earth goes through the densest area of the comet’s debris field between midnight and sunrise on Friday, August 12, which is when astronomers expect the meteor outburst to happen. In Peterborough and The Kawarthas, the best time to see them is after 1 a.m. on Friday morning (after the moon has set) up until the pre-dawn hours.

The meteors are called the Perseids because they appear to originate from the northeast sky in the direction of the constellation of Perseus.

The ability to see the meteor shower peak depends on whether the skies remain clear. As of the date of this story, cloudy periods are expected overnight on Thursday and Friday. However, if if skies are cloudy during the peak of the shower this week, you can continue to see the meteors until August 26th.

If you live in Peterborough and can’t get out of the city to view the peak of the meteor shower, you can join the Peterborough Astronomical Association at 8:30 p.m. on Friday, August 12th until the wee hours of Saturday morning on top of Armour Hill at Asburnham Memorial Park.

The event is free and open to the public, with parking available in the lower lot opposite the Peterborough Museum and Archives (for safety reasons, Armour Hill itself will be closed to vehicles). While optical aids aren’t needed to see the Perseids, the association will also have telescopes set up to view other wonders of the night sky, weather permitting. Note that if the skies are too cloudy or if it’s raining, the event will be cancelled.

If you take any photos or video of the meteor shower, please share them with us at editor@kawarthanow.com, or on our social media channels (Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter).

Tips for viewing the Perseid meteor shower

• Find the darkest place you can, away from any light pollution, with as much open sky as possible. Rural areas away from city lights with few buildings or trees are the best. If you can’t get away from your city, find a park or golf course.
• Lie on your back and take in as much of the night sky as possible. You don’t have to face Perseus (to the northeast) to see the meteor shower, but the more sky you can see, the better your chances.
• Be prepared to stay outside for at least an hour. It takes 20-30 minutes for your eyes to adjust to the darkness, and the meteors come in spurts and lulls; so the longer you wait, the more you’ll see. If the outburst happens as expected, there’ll be an average of two to three meteors per minute. Some of these will be faint and some will be bright streaks.
• Stay awake. The Perseids are typically best between midnight and dawn, with the hours before dawn being the best time. During the peak night, the early morning of August 12th, wait until the moon sets at 1 a.m.
• Watch online! If you can’t get to a good location to view the meteor shower, or if skies are cloudy, you can view the shower online. Slooh.com will have a live stream starting at 8 p.m. on Thursday, August 11th, and NASA will broadcast the meteor shower live via Ustream overnight on August 11th and 12th and August 12th and 13th, beginning at 10 p.m.