Northumberland Paramedics has handed over the keys for a decommissioned ambulance to Habitat for Humanity Northumberland.

Northumberland County council and Northumberland Paramedics made the donation to Habitat on Wednesday (March 20), after the ambulance served county paramedics and patients for the past six years.

Habitat for Humanity Northumberland will use the vehicle to transport equipment, materials and supplies to building sites in the county, which ultimately helps support the organization’s efforts to build affordable housing.

“We are pleased to see this retired ambulance repurposed to support vital work in our community,” said Northumberland Paramedics Chief Susan Brown in a media release.

“While the ambulance has reached the end of its recommended life cycle with Northumberland Paramedics, we look forward to seeing it put to great use during its retirement. We are proud to support the important efforts of Habitat for Humanity Northumberland to increase affordable housing in Northumberland.”

Melissa Morrison, Habitat for Humanity Northumberland’s community and fund development co-ordinator, prepared the letter to Northumberland Paramedics asking the chief to consider donating the ambulance.

“The need for affordable housing is growing across our communities and we are working even harder to support local families (to) achieve strength, stability and independence through affordable homeownership,” Morrison said in her letter.

“In 2023, the board of directors for Habitat for Humanity Northumberland recognized that we had to increase our efforts to meet that growing need. The board established a strategic goal to see an additional 19 affordable housing units developed through 2023 to 2025. In addition to our homeownership program, we aim to serve 35-plus families through our home repairs suite yearly.”

Habitat for Humanity’s mission is to break the cycle of poverty by promoting homeownership among financially vulnerable individuals and families.

Northumberland Paramedics has previously donated two ambulances to Habitat for Humanity Northumberland and they were well-used and appreciated, Morrison noted.

“The decommissioned ambulances that we received have been the perfect vehicles to meet our unique needs and, ultimately, has helped us support more families across Northumberland County,” Morrison said.

Habitat for Humanity Northumberland CEO Cathy Borowec concurred.

“The ambulance donation will be used to support our home-building program,” Borowec told kawarthaNOW.

“We have one in use now and it helps us to move materials to and from our build sites. We have two sites on the go now, one in Baltimore — our seven-plex net-zero build — and a single family dwelling just starting on Daintry Crescent in Cobourg. The retired ambulances are great for tool storage too.”

Habitat for Humanity Northumberland is currently working on a seven-unit net zero project in Baltimore, which will be the largest Habitat net-zero development in Canada.

Back in 2012, Northumberland County established a bylaw permitting the donation of surplus assets, including retired ambulances.

Donations of retired ambulances from the Northumberland Paramedics fleet are prioritized to support non-profit agencies and community emergency management partners that continue to serve residents across the county, Northumberland County noted.

With three weeks left to go in its annual campaign, the United Way Peterborough & District is only $80,000 away from meeting its goal of raising $1.45 million in advance of a community celebration on April 11.

According to a media release, the success of the campaign to date has been bolstered by strong workplace campaigns including at Trent University, which surpassed its $100,000 goal by raising $117,847, and by fundraising events like this month’s Peterborough Performs benefit concert at Showplace Performance Centre, which raised more than $30,000 for local homelessness initiatives.

“It’s a privilege to see the focus and hard work of volunteers, workplaces, and donors joining in driving to a final goal,” says United Way CEO Jim Russell in the release. “Often it is the last dollars that are hardest to get, and in these final weeks we sense that community momentum in reaching the final destination of 1.45 million.”

To help the United Way with the final six per cent of its goal, you can donate online at www.uwpeterborough.ca, by mail at 277 Stewart Street, Peterborough, ON K9J 3M8 or by calling the office at 705-742-8839.

New donations of $1,200 or more made by the end of March will be matched 100 per cent. Existing donors giving $1,200 or more annually who increase their donation by $300 or more will also have their increase matched.

“I am continuously inspired by the generosity demonstrated by individuals, families, organizations, and businesses in our community,” says the United Way’s 2023 campaign cabinet chair Jim Hendry. “We’re in the final push to raise the last $80,000 and make a positive impact on countless local lives.”

The United Way will be hosting a community celebration of the campaign from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 11th at The Venue in downtown Peterborough. The event will feature appetizers and a cash bar followed by an awards presentation and the announcement of the final campaign total.

“Everyone is invited to come together to celebrate and honour the caring individuals, engaged organizations, and committed non-profits who worked tirelessly to foster our essential network of local supports in Peterborough City and County,” says Anne Ondercin, the United Way’s director of philanthropy.

The United Way is seeking sponsors for the event, including $5,000 for the presenting sponsor, $2,500 for an award sponsor, and $500 for a table sponsor. Individual tickets cost $25 per person. Sponsorships and tickets are available via www.uwpeterborough.ca/event/2023-campaign-celebration-and-awards/.

In 2022, the United Way’s 20 partner agencies provided 275 programs and initiatives that directly served 46,263 Peterborough residents.

They say learning from past mistakes is one of the most important reasons to study history, but graduate student Holly Benison’s thesis project has her questioning whether we’re doing such a great job of it.

“What does learning from history actually mean?” she asks. “If we have this belief that as time progresses, things are always getting better, why are we still trying to fix the same problems?”

With a bachelor’s degree in history from Bishop’s University in Quebec and graduate certificate in museum management and curatorship from Fleming College in Peterborough, Benison is bringing 19th-century history to social media with a YouTube video series titled “The Backwoods Kitchen” — her thesis project for a master’s degree in public history from Carleton University in Ottawa.

Benison is using the Fitzpatrick House at Lang Pioneer Village Museum in Keene to recreate recipes using tools and techniques outlined in the 1854 book The Female Emigrant’s Guide by Catharine Parr Traill, one of Canada’s most influential writers of the 1800s.

Born in England, Traill and her sister and fellow writer Susanna Moodie emigrated to Canada in 1832 and settled along the eastern shore of Lake Katchewanooka just north of Lakefield. Their brother Colonel Samuel Strickland, who had settled in the area the year prior, is considered the founder of Lakefield (although it wasn’t called Lakefield at the time).

“It has that very unique perspective that this guidebook, cookbook, and survival book was written for a female audience,” Benison says. “It was written in Canada for the specific concerns of our environment — what Indigenous foods we had access to, what won’t grow because the climate is not going to support it, the social customs that were specific to Canada — whereas other cookbooks (of the time) were more general.”

Dressed to the nines in the voluminous dresses of the time period, Benison uses the hearth, dutch oven, and other culinary tools at the Fitzpatrick House — the same ones that would have been used by settlers in the mid-1800s — to create dishes both familiar and unfamiliar by today’s standards, from a pumpkin pie to “mock rice” and, one of her favourites, green corn patties.

Supplying links to scholarly research on the information provided, each episode is bookended with a usually (though not always) satisfying taste test.

“As soon as we let these sites that work go dormant, they’re never coming back,” Benison says, referring to the hearth and other cooking tools at Lang Pioneer Village Museum. “That continued preservation and access and use of those spaces is so incredibly important. We need to remember that as adults, we’re also allowed to have fun and we’re also allowed to play and engage with these spaces. A museum can be a living place. It doesn’t have to be this temple (where we are) quiet and pensive, thinking about the past.”

Throughout the series, Benison is very cautious of recognizing that settlers like Traill were not the first on the land and, without the support of Indigenous peoples, they wouldn’t have held as much of the knowledge as they did.

“In Traill’s book, she already has chapters and pages on Anishinaabe or Mississaugi agricultural practices for wild rice or maple syrup and sugar for hunting,” Benison says as an example. “But, for me, if she writes about it and it’s important to include it, then I’m going to highlight what she says and then do more research and go further with what we now know.”

Benison acknowledges that part of her job as a historian is to critically question the recounts of the time, building on it to supply the best possible information she can to her viewers, rather than a single narrative, as often happens on social media. She notes that while Traill’s writing is considered “progressive,” it certainly holds its limitations.

VIDEO: Green Corn Patties from 1854 – The Backwoods Kitchen Episode #3

“Only now are we trying to make that separation and make that distinction to say that these ingredients come from thousands of years of agricultural development before contact ever happened,” she says about the knowledge of Indigenous peoples. “They were very well-developed agricultural practices with the sort of philosophies of land and environmental sovereignty and well-being that, when settlers showed up, they didn’t know what was happening.”

As an example, in the text, Traill discusses how essential wild rice is and that it should always be in the pantry. But, when it’s being harvested, lots of the grains fall back into the water. Traill and other settlers assumed this to be a lazy practice on the part of Indigenous wild rice harvesters.

“(Maybe) she didn’t know, but there’s a reason for that,” Benison notes. “It’s part of the land-care practice where, if you let the grains fall back, you re-seed the bed so you can get rice next year. Those grains (also) feed wildlife and waterfowl and promotes a healthy ecosystem.”

Further, wild rice is cultivated in shallow parts of the lake but, in the 1850s when the book was written, the land encroachment and infrastructure projects were re-directing waterways and flooding the lakes. Just a few years after publication, Indigenous peoples were being pushed out of their traditional lands, so the availability of wild rice through trade was dwindling and becoming endangered — something Traill wouldn’t have foreseen as it was in abundance while she was writing her book.

“We know what Traill says — which is an amazing source — but when she says ‘This practice is lazy’ or ‘Wild rice is such a great thing’, it also negates that reality that the land was changing in ways that are completely unprecedented,” Benison explains. “We have to see that other side of things, where the land is changing so fast and in ways that settlers probably didn’t realize the impact of those changes.”

Through her project, Benison is not only educating us about 19th-century and Indigenous food practices but is critically reflecting, herself, on what it even means to be a historian.

“The more that I cook in these spaces and the more that I look at these historical recipes, the more that I feel like they’re not so far away,” she says.

Some of Traill’s advice in the book — like how to clean a rug, for example — is still relevant and useful today, and so are the greater discussions and problems being addressed in the text. Benison notes this is especially evident through how the book showcases the “most basic survival food” for the average farmer.

In the first episode of The Backwoods Kitchen, Benison makes a raspberry vinegar which, she explains, is intended to be an affordable wine substitute. In her book, Traill notes that both raspberries and vinegar were inexpensive products.

“The quantity of raspberries that I need would cost me 15 to 20 dollars in the grocery store,” Benison says. “When it comes to food affordability, which is the big thing that she’s addressing in the book, I’m shocked at the fact that none of it is really relevant anymore.”

Benison adds that today, while we are showing concern for knowing where our food comes from, we often don’t have the same access to land and gardens that settlers did to grow our own.

“(Traill’s) advice just shows that cognitive dissonance, in the way that a lot of people assume that as time goes on, things are bound to get better because we’re learning from the past,” Benison points out.

“But if that were truly the case, would we still be experiencing these same challenges? We’re still trying to contend with the same problems, but the structures around those problems are so different that her answers — her solutions — are not solutions in today’s climate.”

Calling attention to these conversations while making the information accessible is one of the reasons Benison chose to share her thesis through social media rather than simply writing a paper.

“It’s that dissemination and sharing of solid scholarship that’s being produced in the field, but making it so that people can actually know where to find it and learn about that topic that maybe they weren’t interested in before,” she says. “For me, physically embodying elements of history is the best way to learn.”

So far, Benison has posted seven episodes of The Backwoods Kitchen on her YouTube channel at youtube.com/ByGollyMissHolly/. Though she is taking a brief hiatus while completing the other portion of her thesis, another five videos will be launched soon, including one all about the Fitzpatrick House and those who occupied it.

Environment Canada has issued a snowfall warning and winter weather travel advisory for southern Kawarthas region for Friday (March 22).

The snowfall warning is in effect for Northumberland County and the winter weather travel advisory is in effect for southern Peterborough County and southern Kawartha Lakes.

In Northumberland County, light snow is expected to begin Friday morning and intensify late in the afternoon or evening, with snowfall amounts near 15 cm expected and peak snowfall rates of 2 cm per hour possible, before tapering off from west to east late Friday night.

This snow may have a significant impact on the evening commute in urban areas. Visibility may be suddenly reduced at times in heavy snow. Surfaces such as highways, roads, walkways, and parking lots may become difficult to navigate due to accumulating snow.

In southern Peterborough County and southern Kawartha Lakes, light snow is expected to begin Friday afternoon and intensify in the evening, with snowfall amounts of 5 to 10 cm expected, before tapering off from west to east late Friday night or early Saturday morning.

Motorists should expect hazardous winter driving conditions and adjust travel plans accordingly. Poor weather conditions may contribute to transportation delays.Be prepared to adjust your driving with changing road conditions.

The good news is that any snow won’t stick around, with the weekend forecast calling for sunny skies and temperatures above freezing.

New Canadians took pride in plating their unique food creations during a contest in Northumberland County on Tuesday (March 19) to impress grocers and retailers.

Four entrepreneurs from the second cohort of the Newcomers’ Food Entrepreneur Program pitched their products to a panel of judges at the Ontario Agri-Food Venture Centre (OAFVC) in Colborne.

Kabirat Agunbiade and Dawood Abdulsalam of Ottawa won the 2024 Newcomers’ Food Entrepreneur Program Pitch Competition trophy and complimentary services from the OAFVC, valued at $500, for their ‘Harvestroot Blend’ beverage — a plant-based blend of coconut, tigernut, date, and ginger that can be enjoyed on its own or added to protein shakes, coffee, tea, and cereal.

The Northumberland County program is an important opportunity for new Canadians, said Mandy Martin, Township of Cramahe mayor and county councillor.

“On behalf of county council, I would like to congratulate all the participants who competed,” the mayor stated in a media release.

“It was inspiring to see how they have transformed innovative ideas into tangible, retail-ready products. This program is an excellent opportunity for new Canadians to share their skills and grow meaningful connections in the community to help them turn their entrepreneurial dreams into reality.”

Their products, developed through the six-week entrepreneurial program, were assessed based on creativity, taste, texture, cost, marketing, and presentation.

The Newcomers’ Food Entrepreneur Program, offered by Northumberland County Settlement Services and supported by Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada, is a free program open to new Canadians interested in turning their small-batch recipe into a scalable recipe for retail sale.

Throughout the program, participants learn how to finance, package, label, and market their food products, with the help of industry experts and OAFVC facilities and staff.

“The support from the Newcomers’ Food Entrepreneur Program and OAFVC was very helpful,” said pitch competition winner Agunbiade.

“When I first signed up for the program, I didn’t think I would actually get this far. The virtual education and training along the way was very helpful. The program was zero cost to be a part of and allowed me to get my product up and running. I am very thankful for this opportunity.”

The other competitors were Takahiro Takehana and Madoka Takehana of ‘Pastry Kukki’ in Cobourg with a Japanese gluten-free cheesecake, Sabrina Zaman and Nafis Muntasir of ‘& Natural’ in Bowmanville with a healthy drink powder, and Rajesh Kumar of ‘Pinni, Healthy Harmony’ in Toronto with nutritious and healthy nut protein balls.

For more information about the Newcomers’ Food Entrepreneur Program or other support available to new Canadians, contact Northumberland County Settlement Services at 905-375-7047.

The OAFVC is a not-for-profit small-batch food processing facility, developed by Northumberland County with support from the Ontario government, that offers production support to food entrepreneurs and farmers.

Businesses best suited for launching production at the OAFVC include those looking for economic sustainability through shared production and storage spaces, and those seeking a way to continue scaling up production while working out the details of moving into a suitable facility or partnering with a co-manufacturer, the county noted.

Participants work with clients who have a proven production process. The centre provides access to safe, clean, food manufacturing spaces and qualified production support staff.

“Clients join our network of food entrepreneurs and industry supporters whose unique experiences and resources help the OAFVC drive opportunities for innovation that benefit all,” the county said about the program.

To learn more about the services available at the OAFVC to support food entrepreneurs, visit oafvc.ca.

This spring, the City of Peterborough is encouraging residents and visitors to get outside and discover the abundance of biodiversity that exists within their own backyards through participation in the four-day City Nature Challenge.

On Friday, April 26th and Saturday, April 27th, the challenge will launch with a community bio-blitz at Peterborough GreenUP’s Ecology Park and neighbouring areas including Beavermead Park and Farmcrest Park. Both days between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m., volunteers from the Peterborough Field Naturalists will be on-site to share knowledge, help with species identification, and host educational walks led by local experts.

Throughout the weekend and until Monday, April 29th, all data collected within the city’s boundaries and uploaded to the “City Nature Challenge 2024: Peterborough” project on the iNaturalist app or website will count towards Peterborough’s official submission to the competition.

“This place is a special place of biodiversity with city parks that have such natural trails, waterways, wetlands, and all the species and habitats that go along with it,” says city councillor Joy Lachica, who assures she is maintaining the role of environmental liaison under Peterborough’s new portfolio chair by-law.

“It’s so wonderful that the City Nature Challenge is family-centric and something that adults who are children at heart and their children can participate in together.”

In its second year of participation, the City of Peterborough is hopeful to surpass last year’s recorded observations. Including just one rainy day with the Peterborough Field Naturalist on-site at Jackson’s Park, the local challenge resulted in 37 participants, 574 observations, and 298 species.

Globally, the challenge featured over 1.8 million observations (almost 75,000 of which were in Canada) and more than 57,000 species.

“You don’t have to be an expert to be a citizen scientist, just an enthusiastic person who wants to be outdoors and learn about what’s around you,” says Kim Zippel, former city councillor and event organizer with the Peterborough Field Naturalists.

iNaturalist does exactly what its name suggests, turning anyone into a naturalist.

By simply taking photos of the sighting and detailing as much as possible about the observation — documenting the size, colour, and surrounding ecology — participants can immediately upload data into the project through the mobile app or add it later through the iNaturalist website.

The species data-sharing platform then makes it easy to identify anything from a Carolinian tree to lichen, cardinals, mammal scat, or even a stump that’s been chewed by a beaver — all of which and more can be found around Ecology Park.

VIDEO: How to Make an Observation on iNaturalist

Through iNaturalist, participants can also browse other local findings, learn more about each of their observations, and connect with a community of citizen scientists.

“If we have an entire city going out and looking in every nook and cranny across that geographical area, all of a sudden, we have so much data,” says Zippel. “There’s no limitation to the capacity of the community. That’s why citizen science is so important.”

After the four-day bio-blitz, all observations added to the City Nature Challenge will be verified through the “Research Grade” identification on iNaturalist through confirmation by at least two other users in the app. Final counts and totals for participants, species, and observations will be announced by City Nature Challenge in May 2024.

Even well beyond the City Nature Challenge, however, the collected data helps local researchers understand patterns and changes in species populations and behaviours over time. Documentation of endangered or at-risk species sightings, tracking migratory patterns based on temperatures and the movement of invasive species can impact decisions when it comes to city planning and species protection efforts.

“If we can identify where species are, we know how best to interact when we are impacting the land,” says Zippel.

“It contributes to a wider picture of what’s really happening and what we need to be doing in terms of climate change adaptation and mitigation, because we certainly know other living things are impacted as well as humans,” adds Lachica. “It can help us really protect, preserve, sustain, and support species in our own backyards and in our neighbourhoods.”

Participants can learn even more about how ecosystems within Peterborough have played an effect on each other over time by visiting the pavilion at Ecology Park over the two-day gathering. Opening with a welcoming from Lachica and Mayor Jeff Leal, the Peterborough Field Naturalists will be on-site to assist participants with species identification and using iNaturalist as they make their observations, alongside other immersive activities.

On Friday, April 26th at 11:30 a.m., Carlotta James of Three Sisters Natural Landscapes will be leading a family-friendly walk all about pollinators, highlighting the city’s role as a Bee City while, at 1 p.m., the Otonabee Region Conservation Authority will share knowledge of the Meade Creek history and ecology.

On Saturday, April 27th, the 11:30 a.m. tree walk will be led by Vern Bastable, director of GreenUP Ecology Park and landscape programs, while the 1 p.m. walk will be led by naturalist and author Drew Monkman.

“Most cities don’t have very large green spaces right in the middle that people can access,” says Bastable. “Ecology Park is a unique spot in that there’s also some interesting plants that have been planted over the years. It’s a spot where you can see some species that you might not see in other places.”

Since the City Nature Challenge is all about friendly competition, the City of Peterborough will also be hosting a Mayors’ Challenge, inviting the City of Kingston and its mayor Bryan Paterson to participate in some good-natured rivalry.

While the goal is to surpass last year’s statistics, Zippel notes it will also be interesting to analyze this year’s findings in comparison to last year’s, both because of the change of location for the bio-blitz and this year’s early spring.

“I think we’re going to see bird species that we didn’t see last year,” Zippel says. “We might be able to identify more easily some tree and plant species because they might be already budding.”

The findings could also be largely weather dependent and, with the fluctuating temperatures this year, part of the fun is seeing what the landscapes will bring out, especially when you go looking to find the things you might not typically pay attention to.

“When you plan an outdoor event based on nature, you never know what you’re going to get,” Zippel notes.

Visit peterborough.ca/CNC for more information on Peterborough’s City Nature Challenge.

Peterborough County-City Paramedics (PCCP) and Peterborough County have wrapped up their “Blankets for People” initiative with a warm response from the Peterborough community.

The event organizers, PCCP and the county, collected blankets and sleeping bags, which were donated by residents at a variety of drop-off locations this winter. Community members made a total of more than 1,500 donations to support people who are experiencing homelessness locally.

Craig Jones, PCPP deputy chief, community programs and emergency management, thanked residents for their “unwavering” support of the Blankets for People 2024 campaign.

“In the harsh cold of winter, experiencing homelessness becomes an even more formidable challenge,” Jones said in a media release.

“Your contributions go beyond blankets; they provide solace, hope, and a tangible reminder that our community stands together in solidarity. Your generosity blankets those in need with more than just warmth — it offers kindness, understanding, and a shared commitment to making a difference.”

PCCP and the county acknowledged the support of the City of Peterborough, One City Peterborough, and Windsor’s Drycleaning Centre. Windsor’s served as a drop-off location and its staff ensured all the blankets and sleeping bags were thoroughly cleaned and ready for distribution.

The blankets were then delivered to the Trinity Community Centre, located at 360 Reid St. in Peterborough, and circulated to those in need.

Blankets for People is an annual campaign. This year saw the addition of various “pop-up” locations throughout the county through which blankets could be donated. Through these pop-up locations, residents were encouraged to fill an ambulance with blanket donations.

That component of the campaign was very successful, Tracie Bertrand, manager of communications for Peterborough County, told kawarthaNOW.

“The enthusiastic response from township staff across all eight townships was truly heartening,” Bertrand said. “Collaborating with our townships, we decided to host these events on weekends, one in each township, at community centres, coinciding with public skates.”

“The support from the community was overwhelming, with over 700 blankets and sleeping bags collected, comprising almost half of the total donations.”

At several locations, the ambulance was filled to capacity, and councillors and mayors were on site to highlight the community-wide effort, Bertrand added.

“This initiative not only underscored the generosity of Peterborough County residents but also emphasized the importance of addressing the needs of those experiencing cold weather challenges throughout the region,” she said.

“We extend our gratitude to our township partners and their communities for their invaluable contributions. By facilitating a more accessible means of donating and receiving warmth, we aspire to have made a meaningful impact this year.”

Residents who have winter items they wish to donate can take their donations to Peterborough Action for Tiny Homes (PATH), located at 385 Lansdowne St., on Wednesdays between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m., or by appointment by emailing pathrfh@gmail.com. The items will contribute to PATH’s new “Ready for Home” pilot program.