Innehållsförteckning för Winter 2020 från Harrowsmith

One of the best-kept secrets of the outdoors is the sky at night. Even most cottagers don’t venture out after dark. There is almost nothing to see outside when you first step out from a lit room, as the illumination suddenly drops by 100,000 times! And yes, the mosquitoes take only about 10 minutes to find you—about the amount of time your eyes need to adapt to the darkness. If you survive long enough for the bugs to start feeding, you may see only a few stars twinkling through the dense tree canopy. This is where urbanites may have it over cottagers: few mosquitoes and fewer trees. When astronomy clubs announce they will be setting up telescopes at shopping mall parking lots, they can attract hundreds of people. There can…

A species of yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae is the organism responsible for the lift in breads and the thrill in champagne, and while the individuals are not visible to the naked eye, when grouped together, they can be seen as that whitish film on grape skins. There are hundreds of species of yeast (a microscopic, unicellular fungus), with many strains within each group, from tasty good guys to illness-causing bad guys. Before industrialized food production, bakeries and breweries worked together, with the brewer delivering the yeasty foam from the brew kettle—known as barm—to the baker, to use as a leavening agent. And while yeast residue has been scraped off the insides of ancient wine, mead and beer amphora (the earliest of these jars or vases dates back to 7000 to 6600…

There is something magical about a loaf of sourdough bread. Warm, chewy and nourishing, it is the ultimate comfort food that reminds us, at some primordial level, of log cabins, coureurs de bois, and our grandmothers’ kitchens. And 2020 was definitely a year when we needed to be comforted. The COVID-19 pandemic caused physical, financial and emotional hardships not seen since the Second World War, and the whole nation was forced to slow down and pause. But for all that sadness and loss, one of the unexpected benefits of the crisis was a return to the kitchen for millions of Canadians. With most restaurants closed and an unexpected windfall of extra time, families from Toronto to Tuktoyaktuk, Northwest Territories, dusted off long-forgotten cookbooks and conjured up everything from scrumptious soufflés…

What if you could live a cheaper, cleaner, more enjoyable and more sustainable life? Small community enterprises are making this possible by making a big impact in their cities, promoting community spirit and encouraging community involvement, using the principles of a “sharing economy.” The term sharing economy has been around since the early 2000s and really evolved after the financial crash of 2008. The sharing economy is a form of collaborative consumption, often done through online platforms, such as Uber and Airbnb, to name a couple. The concept allows people to lend or rent underused items, services and even housing. April Rinne, founder and principal of April Worldwide, wrote a paper on the subject for the 2017 World Economic Forum. In it, Rinne defines the sharing economy as a “focus…

At Harrowsmith, we’ve always been keenly aware of the power of community. This bringing together of like-minded individuals toward a common goal, whether it be as small as a family farm or as big as a province-wide initiative geared toward making our footprint on this planet more gentle and sustainable. Despite the hardships the novel coronavirus has brought down, it’s been heartening to see communities far and wide pulling together, delivering PPE (personal protective equipment) supplies to those in need, acknowledging front-line workers for their sacrifices, and sharing their bounty and resources and fundraising. From Little Free Libraries to eco-villages, in this issue we take a look at local initiatives that build and grow communities. Across Canada, 4-H youth come together to strengthen their personal leadership skills while making an…

It’s the kind of success every musician dreams of—landing a track on a TV show and breaking their music worldwide. Add to that the ethereal appeal of Jill Barber and the whole plot twist takes on surreal proportions. But that’s pretty much what happened to the three-time Juno nominee and mother whose song “Chances” appeared in the pilot episode of the massive television hit Orange Is the New Black, which eventually resulted in a certified gold record for her album Chances (2010). About a decade ago, the anglophone singer-songwriter started performing in French, beginning with a show at the Montreal Jazz Festival, where she surprised her audience with a French translation performance of one of her songs. This past summer, Barber, whose career has seen award-winning turns in indie-folk, jazz…

The biggest difference between professional growers and home gardeners is planning and design. Comparing professional market growers and home gardeners is important, for I truly believe that every grower should take their garden seriously like a pro. Food security, community beautification, family nutrition and other garden benefits are worth professional intention by any and all growers, no matter their scale or experience. Professional growers know they only get one shot at a successful spring, summer and fall and that each growing season only comes around once a year. This means a lifelong gardener only gets 30 to 50 tries at perfecting their production in-season. Compare that to a master musician who can practise hundreds of times before a single concert. Professional growers know that good planning and design sets them…

Reiner Hoyer is an award-winning Toronto contractor with 30-plus years of experience, and his favourite project is the one he built for himself and his wife, Melanie. Hoyer’s house brings together enough leading-edge construction technology that the structure requires no outside supplemental heat. Even when temperatures drop to –10ºC outdoors, the thermometer still reads a cozy 23ºC inside, thanks to nothing more than the incidental heat given off by high-efficiency lighting, small rooftop solar collectors, cooking and body heat. No furnace, no baseboard heaters, no gas fireplace necessary. Hoyer’s house is gorgeous, too. There’s no glass greenhouse look here. The indoor air quality is fresh and healthy, and anyone can build a house like this for 5 to 10 percent more than the cost of an ordinary custom home. All…

With so many of us housebound during the COVID-19 pandemic and social distancing, the question of homes and housing affordability is relevant now more than ever. One organization looking to bring affordable homeownership to those who might otherwise not have access to safe and affordable housing is Habitat for Humanity. Habitat for Humanity partners with working, low-income families to help them build strength, stability and independence through affordable homeownership. Families are not given free homes; instead, they pay an affordable mortgage geared to their income, as well as put in up to 500 volunteer hours with their local Habitat. “This typically involves helping build their own home or the homes of others in the program, volunteering in their local Habitat ReStore, or taking classes in personal finance, home maintenance and…

Yeast is a key component in wine creation. It’s the organism that converts a grape’s sugar into alcohol, and sparkling wines—champagne, Prosecco, cava—often get a double dose of the lively stuff. You might be wondering how the bubbles in sparkling drinks are created. In the case of commercial beers and soda pop, carbon dioxide gas is added to the bottled beverage. With wines, carbon dioxide is a byproduct of fermentation, and when it’s trapped, it results in those lovely bubbles. This is how yeast works to make breads rise too: It eats the sugars, makes gas, and creates lift and a bubbly interior crumb. There are two commonly used methods for creating sparkling wine. The first is the Charmat method, or the tank method, which is widely used in the…

There are brave heroes across the world who serve and protect our country in many forms and levels. However, when our military community and their families need support and protection, who is there to lift them up? Based in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, Natalie Forcier, a retired master corporal, faced challenges with her mental well-being after her medical release from the Canadian Army. Growing up in the small northern community of St. Isidore-de-Bellevue, Saskatchewan, she was intrigued at an early age by the possibility of serving her country. By age 18, she had joined the military as a medical technician and went on to serve for 14 years. In 2008, she was deployed to Afghanistan, where she worked for over half a year. She returned to Afghanistan in 2010 for an…

Anna Olson Kitchen We’ve all seen Anna Olson, Canada’s baking sweetheart, create beautiful and yummy dishes on television and have savoured every moment of it. And who wouldn’t, with her positive and common-sense approach in the kitchen. Having her in our own kitchens might be out of the question, but you can still enjoy her influence, thanks to her cookware—durable, classic white glazed porcelain that will give your dinner an elegant feel on the table, whether you’re serving a simple casserole or a holiday soufflé. You can bake, roast and serve with this 12-piece porcelain oven-to-table set, which includes exclusive access to some of Anna’s favourite recipes. Available at Hudson’s Bay. annaolson.ca Mohawk College’s Zero-Carbon Building Two years ago, the Canada Green Building Council introduced the Zero Carbon Building Standard…

It’s times like these that we really notice the world around us—the family we’ve created, the friendships we’ve nurtured. Without the busyness of work as usual, we return to the people and things that really count: our relationships, our health, our community. When our editor-in-chief, Jules Torti, came up with the themes for our 2020 issues, there was no novel coronavirus in our sightlines. She couldn’t have predicted how the world would show up during a pandemic and that the word community would take on more significance than it had for as long as many of us can remember. And yet, as we adjust to our ever-changing normal, there couldn’t be a more fitting theme for our Winter 2020/21 issue than “community.” We may all be socially distancing, but as…

Gardening is a deeply personal experience, and one that is made for sharing. It is true that a gardener develops a relationship with their garden. Knowing where the sun does or does not shine, what the different soil types around the yard are, and anticipating growth, colour and change throughout the seasons—these are some of the joys in solitude that any gardener will be familiar with. Yet there is a generously social aspect to gardening as well: Garden parties, public gardens, and meals and memories shared over a backyard harvest are some examples of where we come together socially over gardening. These aspects of gardening are more important now. Studies show that one in five Canadians identify as being lonely. There are various contributing factors: an aging population (which means…

Everything old is new again, and that’s certainly the case for 4-H, which may well be having one of its strongest seasons yet. The non-profit youth development organization came to Canada in 1913 and now spans 70 countries worldwide and 10 provinces across Canada. The mission: to empower youth to be responsible, caring and contributing leaders that effect positive change in the world around them, with a vision to see thriving communities in partnership with youth leaders. So what does that mean, really? The organization provides opportunities for youth to master skills and learn responsibility, leadership development, planning and decision making, and gain a sense of purpose and positive values. Programs are organized within 4-H’s four leadership development pillars: community engagement and communications; science and technology; sustainable agriculture and food…

It almost seems impossible, doesn’t it? A utopia where everyone knows one another, respects one another and supports one another? All while living as responsibly and as sustainably as possible? And yet, in intentional communities across the country and indeed the world, like-minded citizens are coming together to create this ideal “eco-village” for themselves. According to the Global Ecovillage Network, an eco-village is an intentional, traditional or urban community that is consciously designed through locally owned participatory processes in all four dimensions of sustainability (social, cultural, ecological and economical) to regenerate social and natural environments. In 1996, environmentalist Joan Bokaer developed the vision for the first eco-village, which would eventually be built on the outskirts of Ithaca, New York. The concept can now be found in thousands of urban and…