Tim Horgan, owner of ZAP Records in Cobourg, is opening a new record store in downtown Peterborough this June.

And he’s opening the store in the former location of Moondance, which closed at the end of April, at 425 George Street North.

“We’ve known Mike at Moondance forever, shopping his collection like every other record collector, and we were just as surprised when he announced his retirement,” Horgan says.

“After watching the response and talking with people in Peterborough, we knew we had to do what we could to make sure the location continued to be an independent record shop.”

Horgan currently operates ZAP Records at 45 King St. E. in downtown Cobourg. Horgan opened the independent record store in 1991, originally located at 14 King St. E. He moved to the current 1,900-square-foot location, in the former Hoo Lee Gardens restaurant building just west of Victoria Park, in February 2016.

“Mike and Moondance will be missed, and we can obviously never replace him,” Horgan says. “But we hope that Peterborough will be just as excited as we are to keep the torch burning for independent record shops in downtown Peterborough.”

Horgan expects to open ZAP Records Peterborough location before the end of June 2018. He will sell new and previously owned vinyl records, CDs, collectibles, and more. Horgan will also do special orders for customers.

Horgan is also planning to launch an ecommerce website as well as a mobile app later this summer.

Zap Records in downtown Cobourg will continue to operate.

Local farmers — including several who were ousted from the Saturday Peterborough Farmers’ Market — are starting a new Peterborough farmers’ market in June.

The Peterborough Regional Farmers Network (PRFN) made the announcement earlier today (May 11) in Millbrook at Circle Organic Farm.

Along with representatives from the PRFN board, Andrew Flaman and Julie Fleming of Circle Organic were joined Erin and Sam McLean of McLean Berry Farm and Astrid Manske of OtonaBEE Apiary. They are three of the five vendors whose applications for space at the Saturday Peterborough Farmers’ Market were not renewed this year by the board of the Peterborough & District Farmers’ Market Association.

The location of the new market is to be determined.

“We have received overwhelming support from the community and we have multiple offers of locations for the new farmers’ market,” Erin McLean says.

The not-for-profit PRFN will lead the development of the new market. The PRFN board has already created best practice governance models and will consult with members of the community.

“PRFN is looking for people to join various committees to create the new Peterborough farmers’ market,” says Neil Hannam, president of the PRFN board. “Community members and local farmers will join together to run the day-to-day operations of the market and plan for the future.”

The PRFN says the market will have prepared food vendors, artists, musicians, and other vendors.

The market will use the “Verified Farmer” banners developed by the PRFN and will use the organization’s third-party verification program to ensure it maintains at least 51 per cent local farmers. A list of third-party verified local farmers will be made publicly available and will be continually updated.

“The community can come to the new farmers’ market and not wonder where the food came from,” says PRFN board member Peter Hughes. “Instead they can shop with confidence and enjoy all the community benefits of a real local farmers’ market.”

The PRFN says people who are interested in joining the PRFN board or committees should prepare their resume and cover letters for application. Information will be made available on the PRFN website at ptbofarms.com.

Through the website, the PRFN is also welcoming suggestions from the public on the location for the new farmers’ market. The organization will be making further announcements over the next week.

With the addition of this new farmers’ market, there will be three independent farmers’ markets operating in the Peterborough area. The other two markets are the Saturday Peterborough Farmers’ Market, located at the Morrow Building, and the Wednesday Downtown Peterborough Farmers’ Market, located on Charlotte Street.

If you enjoy naturally flavoured vanilla ice cream, you might be disappointed this summer.

There’s a global shortage of vanilla beans from Madagascar, the world’s largest vanilla producer, and the price of natural vanilla extract and paste has skyrocketed — creating a problem for ice cream makers who rely on the natural flavouring for their products.

In fact, some restaurants are reportedly dropping naturally flavoured vanilla ice cream from their menus due to the high cost.

But it’s not just vanilla ice cream that’s threatened.

“It goes in around 22 of our 38 flavours,” explains Shelley Westgarth, owner of Belly Ice Cream in Huntsville. “It’s a key ingredient.”

Westgarth depends on vanilla to flavour her all-natural ice cream, which is available in the Kawarthas at One Fine Food in Peterborough and Foodland in Haliburton.

While artificial vanilla extract is available — it’s used in 95 per cent of commercial foods that have vanilla flavouring — it doesn’t have the same taste as natural vanilla, which is also used by bakeries.

In addition, the artificial version isn’t a great option for artisanal ice cream makers and bakers who market their naturally flavoured products.

Most artificial vanilla extracts are made from synthetic vanillin (vanillin is the chemical in the vanilla bean that creates the flavour). Synthetic vanillin is made from guaiacol or lignin, naturally occurring organic compounds in wood, that come mainly from by-products of the paper industry.

Still, that’s more palatable than what happened in the olden days, when artificial vanilla flavouring came from castoreum — a musky liquid secreted from the anal sacs of beavers.

For Westgarth, the high cost of natural vanilla is definitely affecting her business. It now costs around $800 per kilogram, 12 times more than it cost a few years ago and $120 more than the price for a kilogram of silver.

“I’ve resorted to buying small amounts in retail, rather than bulk, which is the most expensive way to buy it,” Westgarth says. “To give you some perspective, one bottle of Costco Madagascar vanilla extract used to sell for $7.99. Last time I was there, it was $38.99.”

There a few reasons why natural vanilla is in such short supply and so expensive.

The tropical island nation of Madagascar, off the southeast coast of Africa, produces 80 per cent of the world’s vanilla. Crop yields this year are lower than expected, after a cyclone last March damaged many of the plantations.

Climate change — which has resulted in cooler temperatures and less rain — has also affected the crops. And there are also fewer farmers growing vanilla. Between 2005 and early 2014, there was a glut and many farmers in Madagascar switched to other crops.

Like the world’s most expensive spice saffron, vanilla is a spice harvested from a species of orchid. Also like saffron, vanilla is one of the most labour-intensive crops in the world — grown, harvested, and processed entirely by hand.

Vanilla comes from the fruit of the vanilla orchid (the only edible orchid fruit), which grows best in the moist tropical regions near the equator. It takes up to two years before a newly planted vine of the vanilla orchid flowers. The short-lived flowers must then be hand pollinated, producing the vanilla bean months later.

The beans remain on the vine to ripen for up to nine months before they are harvested by hand. The harvested beans then go through a curing, drying, and resting process that takes up to six months. In total, it takes up to 15 months from when the orchid flowers to when the vanilla beans are ready for sale.

The vanilla orchid is native to the Americas, originating in what is now Mexico, Central America, northern South America, and the Caribbean. The bean was sacred to the Indigenous peoples of the area, who used vanilla as a fragrance in temples and as a flavouring in beverages.

In the 19th century, Mexico had a monopoly on vanilla production but today it only produces 30 to 35 tons of unprocessed vanilla annually. Other countries producing small amounts of vanilla include Costa Rica, Guatemala, Uganda, Kenya, China, India, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Tonga, Fiji, Tahiti, Hawaii and other Pacific Islands.

And don’t blame the farmers in Madagascar for the high price of vanilla. As with many crops grown in third-world countries, farmers make pennies on the dollar for their beans. Most of the price is due to profits taken by middlemen and speculators who invest in vanilla.

For her part, Westgarth is still looking for other ways to secure a vanilla supply.

“I’ve been looking around for decent options and there are none,” she says. “We might just need to get really creative and find other ways of flavouring things.”

Hopefully Westgarth can find a flavouring alternative, but ice cream makers and bakeries who rely on vanilla may only have two options left: either increase their prices to cover the higher cost of vanilla, or switch to artificial vanilla flavouring.

We also asked the two largest ice cream makers in the Kawarthas — Kawartha Dairy in Bobcaygeon and Central Smith Creamery in Peterborough — for how the higher cost of vanilla is affecting their businesses, but neither replied. We will update this story if we receive further information.

VIDEO: The Secrets of Vanilla

A pistol used during Second World War was among the 2,192 firearms collected by police during the gun amnesty program in April.

The Ontario Provincial Police collected 689 guns — including 267 rifles, 156 shotguns, 113 prohibited firearms, and 62 other guns such as replica and vintage weapons — along with 12,615 pieces of ammunition.

Municipal police forces across Ontario collected 1,503 guns.

The City of Kawartha Lakes Police Service collected 20 non-restricted long guns, one restricted handgun, one prohibited handgun, one prohibited weapon (a “butterfly” knife) and several hundred rounds of ammunition.

The Peterborough Police Service collected 29 guns, including 16 rifles, six shotguns, and seven handguns. One of the handguns was an FN Browning Model 1922 semi-automatic pistol, which police sent to the Hastings and Prince Edward Regimental Museum as it has historical value.

Manufactured by Fabrique Nationale of Belgium, the FN Browning Model 1922 was intended for the military and police and was adopted by several European countries (including Holland, Greece, Romania, France, Denmark, and Finland) for use before and during World War II.

Most of the guns and ammunition surrendered to police will be destroyed, but some will be retained for historical, educational, or training purposes.

Although the gun amnesty officially ended at the end of April, police will continue to accept submissions from the public.

Interested gun owners may call the OPP at 1-888-310-1122 or their local police service’s non-emergency lines to arrange for officers to attend and safely retrieve the weapons. Police remind the public to never deliver guns, ammunition, or military ordinance directly to a police station. Always call first and wait for the police to arrive.

Police are asking for the public’s help in tracing the last movements of a 32-year-old Cobourg man whose body was recovered yesterday (May 9) from Lake Ontario.

At around 6 p.m. on Wednesday, the Northumberland detachment of the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) responded to a report of a man who was in distress in the water at Cobourg’s West Beach, located just west of Victoria Park.

The Cobourg Fire Department and the Canadian Coast Guard arrived at the scene with their marine vessels and began the search for the man, who was no longer visible. The Joint Rescue Coordination Centre (JRCC) from 8 Wing Trenton later arrived with a helicopter to assist in the search efforts.

The body of a man was recovered from Lake Ontario around 200 metres off shore. Although his vital signs were absent, he was transported by ambulance to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced deceased.

The man was later identified as Ryan John-Roger Zinke, age 32 of Cobourg, and investigators are asking for the public’s help in tracing his last movements. He is described as Caucasian, 5 8″ (173cm), 145lbs (66kg) with a thin build. He was last seen wearing athletic shorts and no shirt.

Zinke was known to frequent the Cobourg beach area.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Cobourg OPP Detachment at 905-372-5421 or toll free at 1-888-310-1122.

If you wish to remain anonymous, you may call the Peterborough/Northumberland Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS), where you may be eligible for a cash reward of up to $2,000 and not have to appear in court.

The investigation is being conducted by detectives from the Northumberland Crime Unit under the direction of Detective Inspector Paul Rosato of the OPP Criminal Investigation Branch.

While it is unknown what happened to Zinke, the water temperature of Lake Ontario on May 9th was around 14°C (56°F). According to the U.S. National Center for Cold Water Safety, water at this temperature is very dangerous and can result in total loss of breathing control.

Sudden immersion in water of this temperature can result in gasping and hyperventilating, which can result in a person inhaling water into their lungs. The first warm days of spring are a particularly dangerous time of year, as people may be tempted to enter the water.

The Township of Selwyn is one of three municipalities in the Kawarthas receiving funding under Ontario’s Community Transportation Grant Program.

Selwyn will be receiving $1,488,400 over five years to pilot a rural transportation service serving Bridgenorth, Curve Lake, Ennismore, and Lakefield. The service is slated to begin in spring 2019.

“Safe, reliable transportation provide great benefits to all members of the public, regardless of the demographic,” says Mary Smith, Mayor of Selwyn Township.

“This initiative will improve access to employment and education, medical appointments and services and improve inter-regional connectivity. We hope that this pilot will serve as an example of how great collaboration and partnership can help to solve rural issues for other small communities.”

Selwyn will work with partners Curve Lake First Nation, Community Care Peterborough, and Peterborough Social Services to develop the service.

Details of routes and fares are to be completed, and a bus carrier will be selected through a competitive process. Routes will be planned to coordinate with the City of Peterborough transit system, to provide users with improved access to locations throughout the City of Peterborough as well as inter-regional connectivity, whether through GO Transit or Greyhound Transit Services.

In addition to Selwyn Township, Bancroft will receive $500,000 and Northumberland will receive $497,200 under the Community Transportation Grant Program. Details of those projects are not yet available.

Through the Community Transportation Grant program, Ontario is provide 40 municipalities with $30 million over five years for improved transportation services within and between communities to make it easier for people to get around, including seniors, students, youths, persons with disabilities and others.