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A Region with Roots
BY LAUREN CARTER
Photography by Lauren Carter and Gail Gordon Oliver
Lots of cities boast character, but Peterborough exudes charm. Almost two hundred years ago, the town even enchanted writer Catherine Parr Traill, an older sister of the noted author and poet Susanna Moodie. Newly arrived from Britain, Traill wrote in her 1836 account of homesteading in the area: “It is now time I should give you some account of Peterborough, which… is superior to any place I have yet seen in the Upper Province.”
Situated in the Kawartha Region, Peterborough is the urban heart of an area that boasts glistening lakes, lush forests, and fertile farmers’ fields. North of the city, boaters meander across lakes interconnected by the Trent Severn Waterway, a national historic site running from Lake Ontario to Georgian Bay. At Petroglyphs Provincial Park, visitors can view ancient aboriginal rock carvings while others might combine spelunking at Warsaw Caves with taking in the Lakefield Literary Festival, which takes place every year in mid-July.
In Peterborough proper, there are also lots of options. Posters in the many downtown cafés and restaurants advertise everything from permaculture classes to arts events. Home to some 75,000 residents, the city busily retains both its rural roots and a raucous spirit that is perhaps attributable to the Irish who fled the potato famine for these greener pastures.
I could be biased, of course. Attracted to its reputation as a “hipster” university, I attended the city’s Trent University over a decade ago and soaked up the local culture and natural appeal. After many an all-nighter polishing an essay in my second-year home on Dublin Street, I’d bike down to the river to climb a tree and watch the sun come up. It is a pretty magical place.
That tree I sat in leans over water “that flows both ways,” as writer Margaret Laurence, who lived in nearby Lakefield, described the Otonabee River. It also stands a stone’s throw from the vendors offering tarot readings, pottery, herbal products and other wares during the Peterborough Folk Festival held annually on the last weekend of August. A three-day event, the Saturday of the festival costs nothing to attend and attracts hundreds who listen to live music, dance, and browse booths serving delicious food in the bucolic riverside setting of Nicholls Oval/Rotary Park.
Paddlers are enamoured of the river, and have been for a long time. Once home to several canoe-building companies, the town now celebrates this heritage at the exceptional Canadian Canoe Museum. Climb up past a flowing waterfall to explore a chronological telling of the importance of the canoe in Canadian culture. Starting with sealskin kayaks and other aboriginal styles of canoe construction, the displays continue through fur-trader times to more modern recreational uses. Famous Canadian paddler Bill Mason’s red canvas canoe is here, alongside Pierre Elliott Trudeau’s much photographed buckskin jacket, two of his canoes, and other memorabilia. And food is also an important element. Voyageurs, those hardy men who were the country’s first transport drivers, ate a daily portion of pemmican equal in calories to eleven Big Macs.
If that makes you hungry but you’re looking for a more sustainable and healthful snack, head over to Stickling’s Organic Bakery, a third generation bakery that originated in Germany in 1939. Identified in the window by the Kawartha Choice logo (a sign signifying quality and local products), this artisanal bakery sources its grains from the local area to make spelt muffins, dark rye bread, organic carrot cake and other baked goods. Grab a soup or Hungarian goulash and take your lunch down the street to a bench beside the river or eat inside the comfortable cafe, housed in the old post office. Committed to local culinary heritage, Stickling's has also developed three types of bread and cookies using organic Red Fife wheat grown and milled in nearby Madoc.
"It's a unique grain and a local grain and it's got a story and a history, so it was a no-brainer to begin using it," says owner Michael Walter.
Developed in 1842, this special Canadian wheat was the brainchild of David Fife, who immigrated to the area from Scotland at the age of fifteen. The young farmer soon realized that the climate in his new country was too harsh for traditional European strains of wheat. Through experimentation on seeds sent from Scotland, he came up with Red Fife wheat at his log cabin, which still stands on the current site of Lang Pioneer Village, a ten-minute drive east of Peterborough in Keene.
In the nineteenth-century village recreated from restored existing buildings as well as settlers' structures donated by neighbouring communities, wheat is still ground into flour at the three-storey limestone grist mill built iin 1846 (and used by David Fife), while costumed "villagers" go about their chores in over twenty historical buildings. The blacksmith hammers on his anvil and the local women make candles or weed the kitchen gardens. From Monday to Friday, themed days delve into various facts of pioneer life. On Thursdays, you can learn how the early settlers produced and prepared their own food and on Fridays, find out how materials like onion peels and worn clothing were reused in an age without Wal-Marts. For a break, take afternoon tea at the 14-room Keene Hotel, where rooms once started at 10 cents a night.
Back in Peterborough, more history and another option for a unique afternoon tea outing can be found at Hutchison House, home of the town's first physician. Surrounded by period vegetable and herb gardens and a white picket fence, this 172-year-old limestone house is also staffed by costumed guides demonstrating life in an earlier era. Displays include medical instruments and an 1840s cooking hearth or keeping room, where tea is held daily (except Monday) when the weather is too cool or rainy to have it outdoors on the garden terrace. "We serve fresh-baked scones with homemade butter," says Gale Fewings, the museum curator.
"And we make our own jam with whatever is in season." Flavours include rhubarb-ginger, raspberry, strawberry and peach.
Clearly rooted in its agricultural past, Peterborough is also making strides towards a future free from dependency on fossil fuels. Recently, the city became the country's first official Transition Town, a project originating in the U.K. that encourages wideranging and committed actions towards sustainability. In Peterborough, you'll not only find fantastic historical sites, a great art gallery, lots of music and theatrical events and a surprising range of fabulous restaurants, but also an independent currency (the LETS Exchange) and a not-for-profit organization called Peterborough GreenUp which provides education, resources and support to encourage environmentally healthy lifestyle habits.
One of Peterborough GreenUp's most unique projects is the Ecology Garden, located at the edge of Beavermeade Park on the east side of the river. Modern-day homesteaders can study at a compost clinic, learn about growing herbs and vegetables, examine the lowwater garden, and wander through the grassland area lush with native species while their kids play in the children's garden. Knowledgeable staff and volunteers can answer questions and on market days, gardeners can buy mushroom compost, clover lawn seed, Muskie fish emulsion, noninvasive exotic flowers, and more.
After such an educational afternoon, grab a pint of refreshing Red Fife Wheat Ale at the Olde Stone Brewing Company before dinner at one of several restaurants recommended by Kawartha Choice. Before the day is done you might want to drive to nearby Millbrook, a quaint community where 4th Line Theatre stages locally relevant stories at the artistic director's family farm. This summer, audience members can settle in at the barnyard stage for The Right Road to Pontypool, about a nearby town that became a summer haven for Toronto's working-class Jews in the early 1900s, or amble out to the meadow stage to watch Welcome Death, a Victorian murder mystery set in Millbrook.
Alternately, you could just call it a day. Not surprisingly, unique accommodations abound in the area, including the Robin's Nest Retreat, a strawbale wellness retreat and B&B a half hour away in Norwood, where massages and facials are offered. Possibly the perfect place for the locavore is Elmhirst's Resort on Rice Lake, where herbs and vegetables are harvested fresh from the resort's garden, free-range hens lay the eggs served for breakfast, Black Angus cattle bred exclusively for Elmhirst's use graze on the surrounding 240 acres, and Ontario-only wines and beers accompany scrumptious meals in the Hearthside Dining Room and the Wild Blue Yonder Pub. Relax with a glass of wine on a cottage deck or your own private dock overlooking the lake and let the mooing cows act as your alarm clock.
With so much to do and see and eat, a little restful sleep under the Kawartha stars is something those early settlers would surely have appreciated...
RESOURCES
Kawartha Choice FarmFresh
www.kawarthachoice.com
Peterborough & the Kawarthas Tourism
1400 Crawford Drive
(705) 742-2201
www.thekawarthas.net
Canadian Canoe Museum
910 Monaghan Road
1-866-342-2663
www.canoemuseum.ca
Ecology Park
Ashburnham Drive
(705) 745-3238
www.ecologypark.greenup.on.ca
Elmhirst’s Resort
1045 Settlers Line, Keene
1-800-461-1940
www.elmhirst.com
4th Line Theatre
779 Zion Line, Millbrook
1-800-814-0055
www.4thlinetheatre.on.ca
Hutchison House Museum
270 Brock Street
1-866-743-9710
www.nexicom.net/~history
Lakefield Literary Festival
July 17-19, 2009
www.lakefieldliteraryfestival.com
Lang Pioneer Village
104 Lang Rd., Keene
1-866-289-5264
www.langpioneervillage.ca
The Olde Stone Brewing Company
380 George Street North
(705) 745-0495
www.ptbo.igs.net/~theguide/oldstone.htm
Peterborough Folk Festival
August 28-30, 2009
www.ptbofolkfest.ca
Petroglyphs Provincial Park
Woodview, Ontario
(705) 877-2552
www.ontarioparks.com/English/petr.html
Robin’s Nest Retreat
1150 County Road 40, Norwood
(705) 639-2284
www.robinsnestretreat.com
Stickling’s Organic Bakery
191 Charlotte St.
(705) 748-3618
www.sticklingsbakery.com
Trent Severn Waterway
1-888-773-8888
www.pc.gc.ca/trent
Warsaw Caves Conservation Area
1-877-816-7604
www.warsawcaves.com
Lauren Carter writes, gardens, paddles and prepares good food at her home in Orillia, Ontario. Visit her virtually at www.laurencarter.ca.
© Edible Toronto, Summer 2009
All rights reserved.
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