Southern Frontenac Community Services Corporation (SFCSC) is doing it right! For the first time since 2002, SFCSC is creating a blueprint for the future of children’s, family and seniors’ services to be delivered in the Township of South Frontenac and the City of Kingston north of the 401.

SFCSC will be hosting focus groups throughout our catchment area. Each group is seeking input from the community as to the types, variety and location of services they want to see from the only Community Support Service agency in this area. Types of services currently offered include senior’s services, children’s services, financial support services and family services. What programs in these areas are needed more (or less) in our community? What programs need to be added (or stopped) within our community?

The focus groups are all one hour in length, covering similar information: Thursday, April 22 5:30PM Verona Lions Hall; Monday, April 26 7PM Glenburnie United Church; Wednesday, April 28 1PM Sydenham Town Hall; Monday, May 3, 1PM Perth Road Crafters Hall; and Thursday, May 6, 7PM Sunbury Firehall.

“As a member of the Board of Directors and as chair of the Planning Committee,” says Judy Postma, “I would like to encourage all who reside in this region to take part in the development of a new strategic plan - a new way of doing business. How we care for each other, at all stages of the journey, defines who we are as a community. Come and lay claim to your opportunity to make a lasting difference to your family, your neighbours and your community at one of our focus groups. Then on June 17, Southern Frontenac Community Services Corporation will be unveiling the new strategic plan at our Annual General Meeting. On behalf of our board, staff and volunteers, I invite you to make your voice heard.”

Seniors services currently offered include: frozen Meals on Wheels; Diners Clubs, transportation, home visits, caregiver support, client intervention and assistance, home help, foot care, social/recreational programs, respite, volunteer hospice, good food box and two distinct adult day programs.

Children’s services currently offered include: weekly playgroups, toy lending library, prenatal packages, welcome to newborn, 6-month packages, baby talk drop-in and licensed home child care.

Financial Services include: rent banks, access to affordable housing assistance, housing loss prevention and energy source equipment upgrades as well as our Caring Community fund, Winter Warmth fund and the Share the Warmth fund.

Family services include: transportation, food security (food bank), good food box and referrals for additional support.

For more information, please contact Judy Postma, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or David Townsend, Executive Director, at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Southern Frontenac Community Services Corporation, 4419 George Street, Sydenham. 613-376-6477.

Bald Eagle expert Bud Andress

The Frontenac Stewardship Council and the Kennebec Lake Association hosted bald eagle expert Bud Andress, who began his talk at Oso Hall on July 10 with a quiz to establish some facts about these amazing birds of prey. Who knew, for instance, that the bald eagle beat out the wild turkey to become the national animal symbol of the USA; or that their primary food source is deer carrion; or that female eagles are larger than the males and both sexes take responsibility for raising their young?

Various international groups and associations, like the St. Lawrence Bald Eagle Working Group (SLBEWG), and the Canada-U.S. Lakewide Management Plan of Lake Ontario (LaMPs ) along with the Bald Eagle Platform Partnership (BEPP) and many others, are all working in their own ways to aid in the recovery of these remarkable raptors. Andress summed up the reasons for the increase in nesting pairs of birds on the shores of Lake Ontario, specifically in the 1000 Islands, saying it is largely due to the banning of the pesticide DDT in the US and Canada in the early 1970s. The ban resulted in the decrease of the DDT by-product, DDE, which was the primary cause of thin-shelled egg production by females. These affected eggs broke during the incubation period, killing the embryos within. Ten years after the DDT ban, contaminants still present in the eco-system virtually resulted in “total reproductive failure” in the species along the shores of Lake Ontario.

That all changed in the late 1980s when levels of DDE decreased by half and PCB levels dropped by 80%, allowing reproductive rates to recover steadily. In 1999 the first nesting pair of bald eagles was spotted at the Ivy Lea area on the shores of Lake Ontario, over six decades since they were last spotted there in 1937.

It is now estimated that close to 100 bald eagles are over-wintering in the 1000 Islands, and three nests have been located, which between them have produced 35 eaglets. As a result the eagles, once listed as an endangered species in Ontario, have been recently down-listed to a “species of special concern”. According to Andress, across the border in New York State the birds remain listed as “threatened” and he believes that they will “continue to be so until their populations continue to increase on the south shore of Lake Ontario.”

Mature eagles often return to nests where they were raised and Andress has been working with scientists and volunteers with the SLBEWG and LaMPs group, who are closely monitoring the three nests in the 1000 Islands.

Collecting information on the birds is of primary concern to scientists and conservations groups since their position at the top of the food chain and their sensitivity to toxic chemicals deems them as “a bio-sentinel species” and makes them “a reliable indicator of the general health of aquatic eco-systems in the Great Lakes.”

For these reasons, between 2003 and 2009 and at a cost of $74,000, a total of six fledglings from the three existing 1000 Island nests have been fixed with transmitters, which send out signals to satellites, enabling the birds to be tracked.

With the aid of slides Andress explained the procedure of processing young fledglings.

An experienced tree climber places the young into sacks and removes them from their nests, which can be 6x9 feet in size. Once on the ground each eaglet is banded and measured. Blood and feather samples are taken and a small, lightweight, backpack-like solar-powered transmitter is strapped to its back. These transmitters have a life of four years, after which time the straps naturally rot away, releasing the transmitter from the mature eagle’s back.

To date three of the six birds that have been harnessed with transmitters, named Regal, Mary and Moose, are no longer transmitting signals. The reasons remain generally unknown although Andress said that two weeks after Regal's signal was lost in January 2006 somewhere in St. Lawrence County, New York, an adult eagle was found dead at that same location. It had been shot with a .22. Mary transmitted just one single signal before hers was lost and the third's, Moose's, was last located in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Andress noted that a 50% success rate was anticipated before the program began and he remains hopeful that the work of the SLBEWG and LaMPs will continue to have a positive impact on the species’ continued recovery.

He listed one of their main long term goals- the establishment of 10 new nesting territories on the perimeter of Lake Ontario and the Upper St. Lawrence by 2016.

For Andress the success of the eagles’ continued recovery is a passion. “The bald eagle is a barometer of eco-system health. If they are doing well, that's an indication of how we are doing. Is this a recovery? They definitely seem to be doing well on their own and if we can help that out-even better.”

Andress recommends anyone who happens to observe any “unusual” bald eagle sightings to report them to the Ministry of Natural Resources. By “unusual” he means any nesting activity, or unusual feeding activity as well as any obvious over-wintering roost sights.

For up to date information on the location of Hal, Phyllis and Spirit, the three bald eagles who continue to transmit signals, visit the Bird Studies Canada website at www.bsc-eoc.org and click on destination eagle/eagle tracker.

This year’s Hands on Harvest Guide to Local Products has arrived!

There has been a change in funding for this project in the last year. The County of Frontenac has accepted a proposal to cover the costs of printing the brochure and a group of volunteers has continued to gather the information and carry on the on the work of creating and updating The Guide to Local Products that was started in 2007.

Hopefully, if you are a producer, you made it to the list and if you didn’t but would like to be included, you will find all the information you will need on the brochure. We strongly recommend that you save this brochure so that you will have it handy when you feel the urge to take a tour down our country roads to see all the great products our neighbours have available. Call ahead so that you are not disappointed. We hope to see our community continue to support its store owners and restaurants, so to this end, they are included here again this year.

Check out the local markets, or make a visit to your neighbourhood farm. There is no way to really explain what an experience it is unless you have tried it. It’s the simple pleasure of seeing where your food comes from. Best of all you will get to create a relationship with the producers themselves…you will learn about the farm where you buy your meat, eggs, plants, honey or whatever you purchase. You will find that the animals are healthy and cared for and that the vegetables are fresh and vigorous.

Simply put, you will learn a lot about who grew your food and how it was grown. Take the family along as well, as it’s a very educational experience and one the kids won’t forget it. It’s simply amazing how many products are available. If you haven’t checked it out before, this may be the summer to do it.

A Visit at River’s Bend Farm By Christina Wotherspoon

As soon as you arrive at River’s Bend Farm there is no reason to wonder how it earned its name. One can’t help but to stop and gaze at the Mississippi River that runs by Bill and Ellen Raeburn’s farm, providing a beautiful backdrop for both home and work. They care for chickens, cattle, horses, bees, geese, and ducks, but their primary efforts are dedicated to raising North Country Cheviot and Suffolk sheep.

Working with the animals is one of the best aspects of living on the farm for both Ellen and Bill. The look on their face as they watch a lamb jump and play in the field makes this apparent. It’s amazing to see that after years of working with the land and animals, Bill and Ellen still approach what they do with a sense of excitement and curiosity.

With all the time and care that goes into raising these animals, of course it’s difficult to part with them when the time comes. Sometimes you can't help but get attached, but it is this level of caring and commitment that makes a small family farm like this so special. They seem to have found a way to accept this harsh aspect of farm life by trying to keep the bigger picture in mind from the beginning - that they are raising these animals for meat. Great efforts are made so that the animals have a high quality of life, from the beginning until the very end.

One of the other big challenges of living on the farm is being at a distance from the hardware store. (along with most everything else) This makes it very important to make lists and plan ahead in advance of making a trip to town. People who are used to life in the country can surely relate to this problem. When you have the responsibility of caring for and protecting a large number of animals, that tractor part, bag of feed, or piece of fencing can play a critical role on the farm. Waiting for another day to make the trip can be a big problem.

Bill and Ellen are not the only protectors of the sheep. They also have a donkey that lives with the sheep and will chase off predators such as wolves and coyotes. I had heard that donkeys are good protector animals but I didn't realize how tough they can really be. They discourage predators from coming close and they will chase, bite and kick anything that comes too close. Another important worker on the farm is Kate, the Border collie. She was at our side as we moved around the farm, keeping an eye on everyone and everything. Like the donkey, she deters predators and will chase after them if needed, but she also lets Bill know when a predator is in the barnyard, will herd errant sheep, and is a constant companion.

In the near future, Kate will have an additional job as a trainer for a new Border collie puppy, although it’s hard to imagine another dog that could do her job nearly as well.

As well as managing all the animals, the Raeburns also have a large garden where they grow a lot of their own food. And on top of that they are also helping other people to be able to do the same thing by creating a community garden. They have made arrangements with neighbours who would like to be able to garden but who don’t have any arable land available. There are a couple of families who live on the other side of the Mississippi River and paddle to the garden to plant their vegetables in the fertile ground at the Raeburn farm. There is deer fence around the entire garden and a source of water is also available. This is the second year that the community garden is underway on the Raeburn farm, with great success for all concerned.

There is an adventurous spirit at the Raeburns’ as the season starts up, with talk of the new and different crops being attempted each year.

The community garden is a one that may catch on even more, as people discover the joys and benefits of gardening and growing their own food. When the gardeners arrive from across the river, they carefully find their way up from the shore to the garden and leave the same way.

This is an apt expression of the idea of having a small ecological footprint in food production. 

Raised with Love on Tiraislin Farm by Kirsten Jackson

Taking care of farm animals is a big challenge. Especially when you grow to love them, and then sooner or later, having to turn them into food.

I know for a fact that Rosemary Kralik would agree with me. Rosemary has been working on Tiraislin Farm, where she lives, for ten years now. Her number one goal is to make sure all the animals have a great life and are very happy before their life is over. Rosemary decides that if the animals haven't had a great life on the farm, that she will keep them on the farm for another year or two. When it comes for the animals’ time, it is a very gentle process. When the animals are injured, Rosemary tends to them herself, if the injuries are very serious or something she can't fix, a vet comes out to the farm. Rosemary has about 100 animals including: 24 Highland cattle, 35 sheep, 22 lambs, 8 goats, 1 donkey, 1 guanaco, 50 chickens, 20 yaks and nine horses. The meat that Rosemary sells is yak, Highland beef, and lamb. It costs $15 a pound. Rosemary believes that it's not enough just to have healthy animals, they also need to be loved. This is the real value in her products.

Sumac – A Tasty Treat By Joyce Bigelow

The sumac seed head makes a delightfully tart and refreshing drink with a light pink colour. It is delicious hot or cold, and is easy to prepare, nutritious, unique and free. This beverage has been called sumac-ade, sumac lemonade, Indian lemonade, sumac tea and probably other names that I haven’t heard yet. Whatever people call it, they find it is delicious as lemonade.

When I mention making sumac tea, many people ask, “Isn’t sumac poisonous?” Poison sumac, however, is very different from the true sumacs and is, fortunately, less common. All of the true (edible) sumacs, like the Staghorn Sumac, have dark reddish or purple fruit borne in erect, tight clusters. The surface of the fruit is fuzzy or grainy. The poison sumac, Toxicodendron vernix, is in a different genus (along with poison ivy and poison oak). This shrub has berries that are whitish, waxy, hairless, and hang in loose, grape-like clusters. They are quite unlike the red seed heads (berries) of the edible sumacs. Poison sumac also differs in that it rarely grows in dense, pure stands, such as are common at the edges of fields in our area, and in that it inhabits swamps rather than dry areas.

Preparing the tea is simple. First, pick the berries. I usually use six to eight average-sized clusters for a pitcher of sumac tea. The large clusters of sumac "berries" are so easy to collect that in just a few moments you can have enough for a pitcher. These berries are just seeds covered with a thin coating of hairy substance, which holds the flavour. I usually snap off the twig just below the fruit by bending it quickly, but pruning shears or a knife work, too. If you pick the berry heads before they are ripe, dark red and mature, they will not have developed their flavour and will produce a bitter brew. But don’t wait until the rain washes out their flavour, either. Usually, the first clusters are ready sometime in July, with the prime time being in early August. Sometimes a white, sticky substance coats the berry heads. Don’t let this scare you, it also holds good sumac flavour. To enjoy this refreshing summer beverage in the middle of winter, you can pick the heads in prime time and dry them, so you don't have to worry about using washed-out berries. Remember: do not wash the red seed head, for the flavour is contained in water-soluble crystals on the outside of the berries.

After you pick the berries, you may prepare the tea two different ways:

Take the berry clusters, crush them up a little with your hand while putting them into a pitcher, pour cold water over them and then let the pitcher sit in a cool place, such as your refrigerator, for one to two hours. Your taste buds will know how long. Keep the water cold to prevent bitterness. Strain the results through a fine strainer or cloth to remove the seeds and hairs and serve sweetened to your taste with sugar, honey, maple syrup, etc.

Some people say that pouring boiling or hot water over the berries makes for poor flavour, for it leaches tannin from the stems, causing the drink to become bitter. However, I prepare it this way all the time, for a nice hot tea. Cover the seed heads with boiling water and allow to steep. I leave it up to an hour for a concentrated base, which can be diluted with ice for sumac-ade. Strain the brew through a cloth. The resulting pinkish liquid should then be sweetened to taste and diluted if too strongly flavoured.

The tartness of sumac is partly due to ascorbic acid (vitamin C) so there is also a health incentive to drink this beverage.

What else can you do with sumac? I sometimes make a potent sumac concentrate by soaking four batches of berry heads in the same water, one after the other, for one-half hour each. This concentrate makes a wonderful and very tart jelly. It can also be boiled with wild apples, elderberry and other that need a touch of tartness to liven them up in jam or jelly. Also, the young, thick, tender tips of sumac shoots (especially staghorn) in early summer can be peeled and eaten raw or cooked. They are sweet and delicious, much like raspberry stalks. I understand the berries make a delicious wine, too. Sumac can be dried, crushed and used as a spice. You can finely grind the sumac berries in a coffee grinder and use it for seasoning salads and it is great sprinkled over fish and grilled. And last but not least:

Sumac Meringue Pie

Combine: 2 cups sumac tea (prepared as above), 1 1/2 c. sugar, 1/2 tsp. salt, 6 tbsp. cornstarch

Cook in double boiler whisking constantly until thick. Beat 4 egg yolks; add a little of the hot mixture. Stir and pour back into double boiler. Cook and stir 2 minutes longer.

Remove from heat. Add 2 tablespoons butter; cool. Pour into baked pie shell.

Top with meringue prepared by beating 4 egg whites with 6 tablespoons sugar and ½ tsp vanilla. Bake at 350 degrees until browned.

One warning - since sumac is related to cashews and mangoes, anyone allergic to those foods should avoid it, or proceed with caution.

The sumac is a wonderful tree, deserving of much more attention. Unfortunately, the fact that it shares names with a tree with a bad reputation has made many avoid it. That leaves more for us, but either way there's plenty of sumac to go around as it grows like a weed around here. Why not try some this summer?

A note from Growers in this year’s guide:

If you live in Central or North Frontenac, you will find a copy of the Hands on Harvest Guide in this week’s Frontenac News. It is also available at retail outlets throughout the region, and as a .pdf file at Frontenacnews.ca.

Some of the producers in the guide had some comments about the work they do and the goods that they make. They are reprinted below (the numbers correspond to their location in the guide).

#9 Zigrid and Gordon McCarthy:

The agriculture that we do represents our personal need for clean food, grown with care, and served fresh.

Our excess is sold upon availability to a privileged few. We develop new relationships through this contact.

People live in such a fast paced world. We have time, and we are so blessed. We just pass it on.

- Gordon McCarthy

#10 Silent Valley Alpaca Farm

At Silent Valley, we think of the Alpacas as the soft secret of the valley. These beautiful, intelligent and intriguing animals range over 400 acres of historic farmland. People visit us just for fun. The feel of the Alpaca fleece is sensuous, soft, and exquisitely luxurious. At Silent Valley Alpacas, we have a newly renovated ranch store in the Matter-o-Thyme Cabin.  We invite you to visit our website at www.silentvalleyalpaca.ca . We hold a Natural Fibre Festival on the September Labour Day Weekend. 

- Robert and Hanne Quigley

#11 D&M General Store

This year we are celebrating the 100th year of our family's traditional maple syrup operation!

#12 Lorie’s Home Baking

Our Products are made with natural local honey, eggs, fruit and unbleached flour.

#16 Ravensfield

I work with biodynamic principles because I believe that is the most holistic and the best way to grow the highest quality food and at the same time bio-remediate the earth. It is a completely mixed farm – animals are an essential dynamic. We need the energy from the manure that is going into the crop.

- Titia Posthuma

#17 Mountain Grove Seed Company and Spah Beauty Products

My focus is on providing local, historic and heirloom seed that has grown in the area for generations, much of which originated from my great-grandmother’s farm. Each year I continue to broaden my selection. I am a member of Seeds of Diversity, the Canadian seed exchange. I love providing beauty products that are all-natural and my focus is on creams, lotions and moisturizers made with pure cocoa and shea butters and local beeswax.

- Dawn Morden

#18 Elm Tree Farm

We are a family farm that specializes in growing a wide variety of fine organic produce. Our “home-style” gardens are filled with exotic salad greens and gourmet vegetables. The quality of our produce comes from the use of biodynamic preparations on our gardens and compost; growing open-pollinated heirloom cultivars selected for great taste and mineralization of the soil.

The more nutritious the soil, the more flavourful the food! We are working towards growing food year round as well as providing ‘put up’ food. We have also begun to teach people how to do this kind of gardening on a smaller scale.

- Tom Waller and Allaine Nordin

#19 Bill MacDonald

We are fully equipped and insured to help you with judicious and sustainable management of your forest resources

- Bill MacDonald

#22 Dragonfly Herbs

Growing herbs for sustainability.

Add a few herbs to your vegetable or flower gardens. Harvest them to dry just before they flower for the best flavor and high oil content. Using herbs during the winter months gives you an extra health boost at a time when flu and colds abound. Using local or your own herbs ensures that you are getting a quality product and one that is grown to your specifications without pesticides. Taking “herbal medicine” can help to alleviate or prevent a health problem but using herbs in our foods on a daily basis adds to the health benefits we get from eating locally sourced foods.”

- Kathy Martin

#23 Community Herb Garden

What is an Herb?

The Old Farmer’s Almanac Book of Wisdom says, “Botanically, an herb is a plant …... that naturally dies to the ground, having no persistent stem structure. For most gardeners, an herb is any plant grown principally for its flavour, fragrance or medicinal properties.”

At the herb garden we focus mainly on the second definition, as this is where most people’s interest and needs lie. However visitors to the garden will also find a bed of indigenous herbs (wild flowers) under the botanical definition as well as other useful plants. The garden is, after all, a teaching garden as well as a source of fresh herbs that you might otherwise have to go outside of the community to find.

Plants are labeled and most have a description sheet as to their traditional or recommended uses. If you are not sure, visit on Wednesday mornings, when the volunteers are at the garden, working.

During salad season especially, you can’t beat fresh herbs for flavour.

- Sally Angle

#27 Ludwig Ratzinger

Our chocolate bars are made from "noble-grade" Criollo, Trinitario and Wild Cocoa beans from selected suppliers in Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Madagascar and the Dominican Republic. The chocolate is manufactured in Switzerland under the highest quality standards.

- Ludwig Ratzinger

 #29 Steeles Apiaries

Our honey is natural, local, and not pasteurized. The bees go to the wildflowers and that gives the honey a unique flavour. The landowners and farmers who live nearby are happy about the pollination that the bees provide, and the cottagers are happy to get a local product from us. I love the work - I grew up on a farm and this just feels natural.

- Keith Steele

#30 Audrey and Earl Bain

“We enjoy what we do… getting back to the basics of growing our own food as well as some for others.

- Audrey Bain

Hands on Harvest Brochure (PDF 333 Kb)

Steven McNevin and Dr. Martyn Obbard at the bear seminar sponsored by the Frontenac Stewardship Council.

The term “research scientist” generally invokes a mental image of someone peering into a microscope or poring over documents and files. The image usually doesn’t include standing in the path of an angry bear who feels its space has been invaded and who, after putting on an intimidating display of its displeasure, is charging at the intruder.

Although Dr. Martyn Obbard, a research scientist with the Ministry of Natural Resources, has undoubtedly done his share of the former, his long-term research into the lives and behaviour of bears has also included standing in the path of a charging bear “to see what would happen”, as he told the audience at a presentation on June 19 at the Northbrook Lions Hall. The talk was sponsored by the Frontenac and Hastings stewardship councils.

Since 1989 Dr. Obbard has conducted research on black bears in the Boreal forest near Chapleau, on the Bruce Peninsula, and most recently in Algonquin Park and vicinity. 

Bears doing these “bluff charges”, as Obbard called the behaviour, “always stopped - sometimes right in front of you, but they always stopped,” he said, explaining that what humans construe as aggressive behaviour is mainly to scare away the intruder.

Dr. Obbard’s talk was liberally illustrated with slides that he had taken of bears engaged in various activities, including eating dandelions and clover, which are among their main food sources in the spring, when the protein content of these plants is at its highest. Bears’ digestive systems are like ours; they do not have multiple stomachs to enable them to digest plants later in the year when the cellulose content is higher.

In relating his only encounter with a “predator” bear, he showed a slide he had taken of a bear eating clover. Without any snorting or display of anger, the same bear had started to stalk him with cold intent and ended up chasing him around his truck several times – he said he doesn’t know why it never occurred to him to jump into the truck – before he picked up a shovel and hit it over the head. While being chased he remembered a conversation with a fellow bear researcher, who said that the main thing when faced with a predator bear was to “disrupt its train of thought”, which the shovel did.

One of the focuses of Martyn Obbard’s talk was the feeding patterns of bears. Food is the main cause of human-bear conflicts. He said it is a popular myth that bears are starving when they come out of their dens. He said that if the previous year had a good supply of food they are usually in pretty good shape. However, they continue to lose body mass over the next few months before starting to gain it again. The food supply in the spring consists mostly of grasses, sedges, horsetails and nuts from the previous year, and does not vary much in timing or abundance from year to year. The summer and fall food supplies, however, can vary considerably.

Bears take between 8 to 10% of moose calves and are able to take down adult moose as well, though occasionally the moose will kill them.

Bears are driven to feed and gain weight because the bigger and stronger males are the ones that are chosen as mates by the females.

In some years bears double or even triple their weight before den up. One female that Obbard weighed went from 90 lb. to 270 lb. in one season.

The females range over 20 to 25 square kilometers, and the males perhaps 5 - 10 times that area. Once bears discover a food source, they remember it and will return to it.

Normally bears produce cubs every two years, which stay with their mothers until they are yearlings. They are chased away before the birth of the new cubs. However, even after mating and fertilization occurs, in a poor food year, the females may fail to reproduce. Bears have the ability to delay the implantation of the fertilized egg in the uterus, and if the mother is in poor shape, the eggs are simply reabsorbed. A poor food year will produce breeding synchrony in the females, meaning they will all fail to reproduce. However, if the next year is good, they will all have litters, which will result in a population explosion of yearlings the following year. This can cause peaks in bear-human conflicts.

Presently, because of a food failure in 1995, most females are having cubs in odd-numbered years. Most of the “nuisance bears” are yearlings and young males, and over 50% of bear-human conflicts are over improperly stored garbage. Obbard commented that it’s ironic because by definition, garbage is something we don’t want ourselves; yet when the bears do want it, humans get very upset.

During a question period after the talk, Dr. Obbard was asked whether the cancellation of the spring bear hunt has resulted in an increase in the bear population. The questioner said that some groups have pointed to an increase in the number of reported human-bear conflicts since the cancellation. Obbard replied that while bears have been pushing southward, province-wide, there’s very little evidence that the population has changed overall since 1998. He said that only since 2004, when the Bear Wise program was instituted, has there been a central reporting number and with it a mechanism for keeping track of conflicts. Before then complaints were written on pieces of paper, which were discarded after the season. He said that every year between 6200 and 6300 bears (out of a population of roughly 100,000 bears) are harvested, which is about 200 fewer than when the spring hunt was in place.

After Dr. Obbard’s talk, Steven McNevin of the Ministry of Natural Resources’ Bear Wise program gave a presentation that reinforced much of what Dr. Obbard had said about the importance of removing all bear attractants. He said that if the MNR is called and asked to trap and relocate or destroy a bear, they will not do so unless the attractant is removed, because either the bear will return or another one will take its place. He said the ministry tries to be helpful to people in identifying and removing attractants, and also recognizes that farmers may have a more difficult time keeping their areas free of attractants.

One member of the audience commented that while the main message of the presenters is “Don’t feed the bears”, every one of us feeds them by using landfills and so causes them to become habituated to humans. Dr. Obbard agreed and said that some townships have started to use electric fencing, which is an effective deterrent.

His main advice on how to protect oneself in a bear encounter is to use pepper spray, which he said is available from outdoor stores. He also advised people to carry Foxpro whistles - and yes, to yell, to wave one’s arms, and make oneself appear as big as possible to the bear.

Sharbot Lake’s Summer Book Club with a Difference: (l-r) Christine, Crystal, Sara, Diane, Glenys, Helen and Bee (missing is Shirley Peruniak)

A recent visit to the Sharbot Lake Summer Book Club with a Difference on June 4 was a great help in suggesting some possible summer reads.

Before the Sharbot Lake Public Library’s open hours, eight women gathered around a table at the branch and launched into an informal and interesting discussion of the world of books.

The club is open to everyone and participants are invited to speak about what they are currently reading, which allows listeners to take away ample food for thought regarding their next book picks.

First up was Bee Zawisza who spoke about The Fatherland, a first novel by Robert Harris, a fiction on the outcome of World War 2 in which Germany won and Hitler survived. The mystery unfolds as Detective March, assisted by a feisty young female journalist, discovers the body of a Nazi official. Together they unravel a Nazi conspiracy that began in WW2. In Bee’s words, “I’m not usually into war stories but it’s a very good mystery.”

Gloria Jenkyn, a fan of historical fiction, reviewed The Heretic’s Wife by Brenda Rickman Vantrease, a tale about the selling of books on the Lutheran reformation during the reign of Henry VIII when he is pulling away from the Pope in the hopes of marrying Anne Boleyn. “The book really brings the history to life and I simply can’t get my nose out of it.”

Diane Yerxa spoke next about La’s Orchestra Saves the World by Alexander McCall Smith, perhaps best known for his popular series The #1 Ladies Detective Agency. This story is about a recently widowed woman who starts up an amateur orchestra to "soothe her broken heart" and in the process meets a Polish flautist and refugee who joins the group. The story evolves as the orchestra disbands at the war’s end and La is forced to move ahead in her life. Diane found it a very enjoyable read.

Sharbot Lake librarian Sarah Carpenter, who hosted the event, spoke about Endless Feasts, a collection of food writing compiled by Ruth Reichl, the former editor of the now defunct Gourmet Magazine. “It’s as much a history lesson as it is about food because certain stories date back to prohibition and other periods in history.” Sarah especially enjoyed Madhur Jaffrey’s "magical account" of the huge family picnic excursions that she and her 50 plus member family undertook in India back when she was a young child, a common Indian tradition at that time.

Helen Coulombe spoke about Kane River, the story of five generations of black women in the southern United States in Louisiana and the occurrence of “bleaching”, a term used in the book to describe the interracial relationships between black slaves and the white families for whom they worked. Helen came across the book when she was wintering in Florida and that book led her to another on the same subject called The Help by Kathryn Stockett who writes of her childhood being brought up by a black maid while her white parents lived a high society kind of life. Helen said that both books were fascinating and shocking reads.

The Sex Life of Cannibals by J. Maarten Troost was reviewed by Christine Patterson who usually prefers reading non-fiction. She clarified the fact that the book’s title is somewhat misleading. The book is an account of the two years a husband and wife spent on the Gilbert Islands, which humorously shatters many common idyllic myths about life on the Pacific Islands. Christine described the author Troost as “a young Bill Bryson” and said she will definitely be searching out more titles by the former.

Glenys Bender spoke about Anita Rau Badami’s Can You Hear the Night Bird Call? which traces the lives of three families through the political turmoil and historical events of East India from 1928-1986. Glenys spoke of the way the author allows the reader to become attached to these characters, making the real events in India during that time even more so. She pointed out the fact that the title recalls an old Indian myth where "the night bird’s call is a portent of death”, which adds great suspense as the novel unfolds.

Shirley Peruniak discussed Out Stealing Horses by Norwegian writer Per Petterson, a story about the German occupation of Norway and the plight of two families there involved in the smuggling of secret documents into Sweden. It’s a suspenseful story and Shirley commented, “The interesting thing was the writing and the length of the sentences, which I’m not sure is typical of the Norwegian language, or just this author.” Her description was so enjoyed by members of her book club that many want to purchase the book.

The discussion ended rather abruptly as regular library customers began trickling in. Two more book club meetings will take place at the Sharbot Lake branch on July 9 and August 6, both at 1PM; at the Arden Branch on June 22 (anything goes), July 20 (mystery) and August 17 (non-fiction).

Over 30 years ago, David Hahn was working as a school teacher in Toronto. David came from a farming background from the Kitchener area, and he and his wife Leslie were in agreement that the city was not where they wanted to raise their two children.

So they began to consider moving away from Toronto, but his father's farm was a small one and David knew he did not want really want to return to a traditional farm, he wanted something else.

So, after seeing an ad in the Toronto Star promoting a “Naturalist’s Paradise” in the Westport area, they decided to pack up the kids and take a look.

What they found was a 200 acre property that had been farmed for 60 or 70 years in the latter part of the 19th and early part of the 20th Century but, being located on the Canadian Shield, it fell prey to the same fate that befell hundreds of settlement farms in the Frontenac spur of the shield, as families moved away in search of an easier life.

It was not the loose patchwork of low-lying fields surrounded by hardwood forest that attracted David Hahn to the property, it was the forest itself. Before he even started to figure out how the land would be able to support a young family, David was sold on the land itself, and on the hardwoods that it supported.

“My dad's woodlot was 7 acres on an 85 acre farm. We had one red oak. I watched it all my childhood. When I came here and there were all these beautiful red oaks, it really impressed me.

“We made enough from the sale of our house in Toronto to buy the land and build a house here, provided I did the building myself, and I didn't have any carpentry skills. But I learned,” David said.

Leslie took a job with the Kingston Children's Aid Society, based in Sharbot Lake, and David built the house. “I cut and milled wood to build the house, then cut wood to heat it and to sell, and learned techniques for managing a woodlot. We also grew our own food, and I hunted a deer in the fall,” he recalls.

Their lives changed profoundly in the late 1980s, when Leslie developed leukemia and died in 1988. David has since remarried, to Marion Watkins.

During the '80s, David also developed an interest in local politics. He spent six years on Bedford Council, the last three as Reeve, until he lost the election to Carl Barr in 1991. He kept his hand in the political world indirectly through the '90s, working on the Collin's Creek watershed plan for the Cataraqui Region Conservation from 1992-94, and for the Frontenac/Lanark Maple Producers’ Association, co-ordinating clean-up crews in sugar bushes after the 1998 ice storm.

Since 2001, David has been back on council, this time in South Frontenac as a Bedford District representative.

Meanwhile, work developing Forest Farm has continued.

Trails into the maple bush were developed, and competing underbrush and trees have been thinned to encourage younger maples to come on. The sugar shack has been improved over the years and up to 1,000 litres of maple syrup are produced at Forest Farm on a good year.

The 200 acre property buts up against 200 acres of crown land to the north and 400 acres to the east, as well as a 200 acre retreat to the west, and a 200 acre property to the south that has also been left in a wild state.

“All told, we are surrounded by 1,000 acres of wilderness, so there is a lot of wildlife in my back yard.”

About ten years ago, Forest Farm expanded from a woodlot/maple syrup operation to a new crop, garlic. Garlic fit in at Forest Farm for several reasons. Because of its location, there are none of the large fields on Forest Farm to grow cereal crops or pasture large numbers of cattle, but there are small pockets of fertile land in some of the valleys. Over the years, gardens had already been developed on these pockets, and garlic does not require a lot of space.

With help from Maberly's Garlic Guru Paul Pospisil, David has not only learned how to grow garlic, he has been able to grow a mix of varieties that have proven to be very popular at garlic festivals.

He also keeps chickens, and uses the chicken manure to make rich compost for the garlic beds, which are rotated annually. It's garlic in year one, vegetables in year two, and a fallow year for the beds. There are three now, and a fourth, larger bed is being developed.

One of the good things about growing garlic is the fact that the labour is concentrated in about a one-month time frame in mid-summer, which fits in well with maple syrup and managing a woodlot, neither of which require work in the middle of the summer. Marketing garlic has been greatly enhanced throughout the region through the development of garlic festivals, and it is at the Perth Festival that most of Forest Farm's garlic is sold.

The Verona Garlic Festival on Labour Day weekend is another marketing opportunity.

This year a new product is being added at Forest Farm: power. When the MicroFIT program was announced last September, it brought an added incentive to something that had already been on David Hahn's mind, the energy sustainability of his operation. With a brand new 10 kw photovoltaic solar system in place, Forest Farm is now producing power for the hydro grid.

“Sustainability is our watchword,” Hahn said. “Our goal is to see the forest and the fields in a more healthy productive condition than when we came here. The farm’s heating needs have largely been supplied from burning biomass (firewood!) produced on the farm. We now also produce about as much electricity on the farm from a renewable source as we need to operate the farm.”

When he answered the ad in the Toronto Star so many years ago, the ideas of sustainable farming, local food, and food sovereignty were not part of anyone's vocabulary.

Thirty years later, all the decisions about land use, about jumping into organic farming and joining in with the local food movement and working with the National Farmers' Union, have put David Hahn and Forest Farm into the forefront of the alternative farming movement that is springing up in the Kingston and Frontenac regions. “The farmers that I've met through the National Farmer's Union and the local food movement are now my strongest community,” he says.

Answering that ad put David Hahn onto a path that has changed his life, and through his community participation it has changed the lives of others as well.

Photo: Participants, staff and volunteers at the New Leaf Link Educational Centre in Sydenham,l-r- Kyla, Sam, Ian, Margo, Claire, Christian, Paul, Karin, Joel, Jo and Amy.

Launched just around 18 months ago, New Leaf Link (NeLL), is fast becoming a program of choice for adults with developmental disabilities in South Frontenac and beyond.

Run out of the St. Paul's Anglican church in Sydenham, New Leak Link is a non-profit charitable organization designed for the community inclusion of adults with developmental and intellectual disabilities that include autism, Down syndrome, acquired brain injuries, and other neurological disorders. The centre has seen its clientele double in just over a year and currently is serving eight adults who are enrolled in the program, which offers two full days per week of educational programming designed to promote well being, independence, health and employable skills for its clients.

Programming falls under the umbrella of three main areas: functional skills and literacy, arts and crafts, health and recreation.

On Wednesdays participants take part in the Entrepreneurial Arts ll program, which is designed to combine arts teaching with the development of entrepreneurial and computing skills. Participants work under the guidance of a variety of artist/mentors to develop their skills in abstract art, printmaking, photography and computing. Currently participants are working with artist/mentor Howard Smith and are learning about photography, how to take photos and how to create their own slide shows.

On Thursdays Jo Lyon instructs the Food for all Seasons ll program, through which participants learn about nutrition, menu planning, food preparation and more. Different themes are introduced weekly. When I visited the centre on Sept. 30 participants were gathered in the kitchen preparing Memories of Childhood Rice Pudding and later would be updating their individually kept food journals.

Health and fitness are also an integral part of the Food for all Seasons program and new to the program this year is a personal fitness component that is run every other Thursday by Dawn Sheldrick, a therapist who specializes in adapting exercise programs to people with disabilities.

Dr. Karin Steiner, the founding executive director of NeLL and her son Nicholas, both participate in the program, Steiner as staff and Nicholas as a participant. Steiner attributed the increase in enrollment this year to the fact that word is getting out. “When Nicholas graduated from school two years ago there was no programming for him in the community. This year three of our new participants have just graduated from school this past June which is exciting especially since now there is local programming available to them.”

Steiner continued, “The increase in participants shows that there is real need for our services and I'm quite sure that we have not even really begun to tap into the people who need our programs in this area.”

Steiner also emphasized the fact that NeLL receives no government funding and operates solely on the generous donations of individual donors, service clubs and some grants.

Volunteers are instrumental in allowing the educational programming to take place and Steiner said, “We cannot do what we do here without them”. Mrs. Catherine Burrell and Ms. Margo Gallagher have dedicated countless volunteer hours to the program and NeLL welcomes new volunteer Mr. Roy Huntly this year.

Steiner informs me that NeLL is always on the look out for new volunteers who can join the team on a regular basis, but also invites volunteers with specialized knowledge and skills be it in arts, crafts, health, fitness,or cooking to make a guest appearance.

New and just launched in August is NeLL's website where potential clients of volunteers can learn more about the centre and its various programs. Included on the site are examples of art products produced by participants. Donations can be made online via Canada Helps, a service that manages online donations for charities.

All donations go solely towards programming costs.

For more information visit www.newleaflink.ca

Editorial by Jeff Green

Two weeks ago, Kingston General Hospital (KGH) awarded its food contract to a company that will prepare individual plates of food in Hamilton and ship them to Kingston to be reheated.

Local food advocates and even Kingston City Council had urged the Board of Directors of KGH, a group of unpaid volunteers, to reconsider, to try to turn KGH into an example of local agriculture providing healthy food to sick patients at a reasonable price. The board ignored these pleas to reconsider and awarded the contract to a Mississauga-based company called COMPASS - so named, it seems, to underscore the fact that they need one to find Kingston.

The KGH board has been reluctant to come out and say it, but they had no choice but to choose Compass or another similar off-site service provider for the food service contract at the hospital.

The initial press release from the hospital included the following statement: “KGH’s independent procurement arm, Shared Support Services of Southeastern Ontario (3SO), administered the procurement process on behalf of the hospital according to mandatory provincial guidelines. Five vendors submitted proposals in response to 3SO’s request for proposals.”

That initial press release and a longer statement by Chris Cunningham, the chair of the KGH board of directors, talks about many of the issues that were raised, and many of the interested parties who were involved, from the local food movement, to hospital staff, patients, even workers who will be affected by the change. Cunningham also referenced the fact that the hospital board had followed a “provincially mandated process” to find a food service provider.

However, there was one entity that neither Chris Cunningham nor the KGH public relations department mentioned, the Local Health Integration Network of South East Ontario (a.k.a. the South East LHIN)

This does not mean that the LHIN had nothing to do with the decision to look elsewhere for food rather than preparing it on-site; it means that the KGH board chose not to reveal the fact that the entire process was dictated by the South East LHIN. They preferred to take the flak from the public and leave the LHIN out of it because the LHIN, and not the public, controls their funding.

That “independent procurement arm, the Shared Support Services of Southeast Ontario (3SO)” is a classic LHIN creation.

The South East LHIN controls the funding for KGH, long- term care facilities, the Community Care Access Centre, homecare providers, and even community agencies delivering meals on wheels, throughout Kingston, Frontenac, Leeds Grenville, L&A and Hastings counties. The mission they have been given by the Ontario Ministry of Health is to save health care dollars by ensuring that efficiencies are found in the system.

Gerogina Thompson, the founding chair of the South East LHIN, who like all LHIN board members was a provincial appointee, likes to talk about how health care providers are too loyal to their own institutions and lose site of patient care. “They are stuck in silos,” she is fond of saying.

The LHIN has used its authority to force these providers to look outside their walls, to share their buying power with other institutions within the local LHIN or the province as a whole to save money.

So, if in the end the food at a hospital in Kingston or Toronto or Ottawa is all prepared and portioned out in a kind of food factory in Mississauga at a really good price, the LHINs have done their job.

I’ve never met Chris Cunningham, but I expect he joined the hospital board out of loyalty to his local hospital. I expect as well that he takes a financial loss by being the chair of the KGH board, but he has ended up wearing a decision that his board was forced to make by people who are well paid to run the health care system. The LHIN is taking no heat, and the McGuinty government, the author of this scenario, is politically removed from it entirely. Something about this doesn’t feel right.

The LHINs model is one of centralization and a curtailing of the authority of local boards to determine local practices. This is not only happening in health care; it is happening in all government departments.

In 2012, a provincially mandated request for proposal system will be faced by school bus drivers in our region. It will likely eliminate most if not all of the local school bus operators in favour of three large multi-national bus companies. In that case, the local school boards and the Tri-Board bus service (which serves the Limestone, Hastings, and Catholic district school boards) will be overseeing a process that they did not choose and do not favour.

It’s going to be déjà vu all over again.

Photo: New Farm Project panelists l-r: Wendy Luella Perkins, Paul Bowman, Bob Lovelace, and Tibrata Gillies

Over 120 foodies, farmers and others interested in local farming and food production gathered at the Golden Links hall in Harrowsmith on Nov.28 for the National Farmers’ Union's (NFU) New Farm Project's annual Fall Gathering.

Initiated through the NFU’s local 316 in 2008, the goald of the New Farm Project (NFP) is to find new ways to encourage farming to meet the increasing demand for local food.

The project is sponsored by Heifer International and is designed to build farm community and capacity through three primary objectives. First by supporting farmers through gifts of training, livestock, seed and other farm equipment. Each year the NFP aims to support both new and established farmers and this year alone a total of 12 new farmers participated. The project’s second objective is to establish CRAFT Kingston, a farmers’ training network and internship program made available to those considering a career in farming.

The third objective is to build local food system capacity thorough promotion, marketing, distribution and public education by hosting various community events and programs.

A number of new workshops were held this past year on a variety of topics, including production economics, goat milk soap making, scything, agri-tourism, pastured poultry, greenhouses and sweet potatoes.

Paul Bowman, leader of the local Entheos spiritual community, moderated this year’s panel discussion on the topic: The Spirit of Farming, Food and Community.

Retired First Nations chief Bob Lovelace, activist and professor at Queens University spoke first and highlighted the idea that everyone has within them the roots of an indigenous way of life, one where people learn from the land and develop life styles that are knowledge-based. He cited the important needs for 1) new revolutionary ideas to redesign the political structures in which we currently live, and 2) for us to become stewards rather than merely citizens.

Tibrata Gillies, passionate farmer, chef, and culinary professor at St. Lawrence College, begun by stating, “Food is my life's work and my life mission; it's my way of giving back to the world.” She focused on the sacredness of food, how every living thing on this earth depends on it and its uncanny, centuries-old ability to build sharing, community and peace in the world. “All of us have a sacred role to play which is a choice we all have to make and no matter your role, we all have the ability to maximize the vitality of food at every step of the way.”

Singer, songwriter and minister Wendy Luella Perkins was the panel’s final speaker and she compared a store-bought red grapefruit to a locally grown squash, saying how little we know about the veritable “United Nations” array of products food that fill store shelves and how often people who delight in these apparent choices are in fact buying into a corporate, unethical sham. “We've given our power over to a global food system that privileges corporate interests over people, bank accounts over health, and shareholders rights over public rights.”

While the panel raised a number of serious concerns facing local farmers and foodies, a scrumptious lunch was shared by all, and the overall feeling of the day was one of camaraderie and celebration.

This year the NFU Local 316's New Farm Project was named the regional award winner of the Premier's Award for Agri-Food Innovation Excellence.

Upcoming in the new year the NFP is offering a 5 part course in Jan/Feb, 2011 to help new and aspiring farmers explore their new farm dream. A number of workshops including online marketing and website tips, practical skills for fruit tree production, small scale grain production, cover crops and green manures, poultry processing and medicinal herbs will also be offered. For more information please visit www.nfu.newfarmproject.ca

Also to note: The Local 316 will be holding their AGM on Dec. 9, 7:30pm at the Sydenham Town hall and Aric McBay will speak on the topic of “Building Community Resilience”. Everyone is welcome to attend. New members are welcome (and need not be farmers).

Photo: author Tom Pawlick at Oso Hall

On November 16, Tom Pawlick, award-winning journalist, editor and author of a number of books including his most recent, “The war in the Country: How the Fight to Save Rural Life will Shape our Future”, spoke to a full house at Oso hall in Sharbot Lake.

The event was organized by Sharbot Lake resident Janina Fisher, who introduced Pawlick.

He began by describing a history of government control of farm land centuries ago in Europe. This history provided a background to understanding what Pawlick said has been happening over the last 50 years in North America. “This is a very old idea and right now in Canada there are six or seven large multi-national corporate food industry players who have decided that they want to dominate world-wide,” said Pawlick.

Pawlick said that these businesses are doing this through “cost price squeeze” - controlling prices at both ends, and are now taking that control to the next level. “As always happens when greed is the dominant factor, the companies now want to control everything in the middle. Thus we are seeing a concerted effort by every multi-national corporation in the world including Canada and the US to take over absolutely everything to do with the food production industry, including the land,” he said.

According to Pawlick, politicians benefit from the purses of these companies, and as politicians form the government, they are creating legislation designed to undermine every small entity in their way, i.e. family farms, cheese factories, health food stores, farmers’ markets and small abattoirs.

“Governments respond very quickly to what these big corporations want by passing a whole bunch of regulations for the environment and for public health, which to the average City Joe seem right but which are designed to put small scale food producers out of business,” he said.

He cited the example of a friend of his who owned a successful butcher shop for 20 years but was forced to close after the government slapped the shop with $20,000 worth of “unnecessary overhauls”.

Pawlick also spoke of small-scale egg farmers who are forced to have on-site grading stations if they want to consider expanding their production. “What most people don’t realize is that grading eggs only sorts them by size; that is all. Grading has absolutely nothing to do with health.”

Palwick then cited an incident involving a small family poultry operation that was deemed to be breaking government regulations and was stormed by a SWAT team. The team hauled away their entire flock, injuring and killing a number of the birds by attempting to stuff them into a truck too small to house them.

Vegetables came next as Pawlick cited statistics gathered over a 56-year period that showed a drastic drop in the flavour and nutritional value of vegetables.

Regarding huge multi-national cattle farms like the feed lots in Texas, Pawlick’s statistics and facts led him to compare them to concentration camps. “The way these animals are housed and treated is an abomination, a crime - and I hesitate to use this word, a sin.”

Though in some ways Pawlick was preaching to the converted, he did shine a light on the steps that concerned groups, consumers and producers can take.

He paid heed to local efforts like those of the National Farmers Union’s Local 316 chapter who are leading the way in developing a strong local food system and he encouraged support for these systems and others like local farmers’ markets, CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farms and other groups.

But he said that supporting local agriculture is not enough, political action is needed, and he would like to see some seemingly unlikely coalitions develop. “The NFU needs to work with political groups such as the Ontario Landowners Association to really make some changes happen. Why not?” he asked.

Following the meeting a sign up sheet was passed around to begin a local area coalition group. A follow-up meeting will take place on December 5 at Oso hall from 2-5pm. For more information contact Janina Fisher at 613-279-2288.