Food Day at Niagara College's International Education Week - 14 November 2011

It all started with a tweet by @AwesomeRedhead: "International Buffet today at Niagara College's Niagara on the Lake Campus. If you're around come check it out! Starts at 11:30".

So off we went at 12:30 to the Niagara on the Lake campus of Niagara College. The event was part of the series of events taking place Nov. 14-18, 2011 and is part of Niagara College's Bachelor of Business Hospitality (BABH) program. The college will be hosting a series of events at its Welland and Niagara-on-the-Lake campuses all week long, celebrating the unique cultures and traditions that international students bring to the college’s educational experience. Here is a link for more information.

We arrived and followed the young crowd to what we found to be, and this explains the large number going there, free food. It turned out to be very tasty free food. The student participants acquitted their duties well with confidence and charm.

We thank the students and staff for putting on such a pleasant event. I gather that it was a success and I encourage the Niagara community to support the efforts of the students. 

Please forgive the poor sound quality of the video below. The acoustics were very challenging with the large number of people in such an acoustically lively room.

A Movie about Peak Oil and the Future of Farming

A while back I watched the movie, "A Farm for the Future", a BBC documentary, by Rebecca Hosking. Which is available on YouTube at no cost.

Part 1

The film explores nature film maker Rebecca Hosking's return to the small family farm where she grew up and her search for a post "fossil fuel" era agriculture. Having watched the film, I'd recommend it to anyone who eats, not just farmers and kitchen gardeners.

For those of you without the time or means to watch it, Rebecca has also written an excellent article in the Daily Mail newspaper about her quest for a post peak oil agriculture.
There is no doubt in my mind that Rebecca has opened a lot of minds to the unsustainability of our present food system with this film. Take this excerpt from Rebecca's conversation in the film with permaculturist Patrick Whitefield:

"But it will work only if we have a lot more growers. Some reports estimate it's going to take as many as 12million, although currently we have 11million gardeners. A food-growing system based on natural ecology appeals to my naturalist side. But the farmer's daughter in me needed a bit more convincing. Could permaculture feed Britain? I asked Patrick Whitefield, Britain's leading expert in permaculture.
'Good question,' he said. 'A better question would be, "Can present methods go on feeding Britain?" In the long term, it is certain that present methods can't because they are so entirely dependent on fossil-fuel energy. So we haven't got any choice other than to find something different.'
The more permaculture people I met, the more hopeful I became that we can find a way out of this mess if we start preparing for peak oil now."

Along the way, Rebecca also meets and introduces her audience to Ben and Charlotte Hollins - the brother and sister team who now run the innovative Fordhall Farm in Shropshire - and talks about their native plant based no-till pasture system. She talks with peak oil experts Richard Heinberg and Colin Campbell and visits Martin Crawford of the Agroforestry Research Trust. She also visits the small property of Chris and Lynn Dixon - who have pioneered their low input, bio-diverse permaculture based land management techniques in the hills of their Welsh property for years.
For folks like me who have been following permaculture and other food movements, it's really wonderful to see that Ms. Hosking's film has been greeted by a wide and receptive audience.  
Why can't we start today by just stopping the herbicides and grass lawns and adding in white (Dutch) clover? Clover is a wonderful nitrogen fixer and is known to be involved in the production of glomalin. Glomalin is key to a fertile soil. Here is an informative pamphlet that was sent to me by Joan Gussow on glomalin. If you have want great friable and verdant soil, glomalin is key.  Also, glomalin is believed to be an effective sequesterer of carbon, not an insignificant characteristic. 
Now we just have to see how many of us are willing to roll up their sleeves, get their hands dirty, and start planting.

More about Peak Oil and Agriculture
Jeremy Leggett on Peak Oil and Agriculture
Food and Farming after Peak Oil: BBC Wales Takes a Long Hard Look
BBC's Gardening Guru on Peak Oil and Climate Change
More about Permaculture
Permaculture Activist
Backyard Permaculture in Oregon
Sheet Mulching and More
Bountiful Backyards: Edible Landscape Design
A Permaculture Mini-Movie 
Permablitz: Near Instant Permaculture for the Burbs
More useful links  
Is glomalin holding your farm together? Yes, it is!
 Portland Peak Oil Activists and Local Politicians Work Together
The Greenest Village in Britain? Chew Magna’s Go Zero Project
Community Solutions to Coming Challenges: Peak Moment TV
Transition Town Plants Up Nut Trees for Food Security
The Transition Handbook
The Virtual Orchard Project

Annual Bazaar at Centre Immaculée-Conception - Saturday, Nov 5th

The Catholic Women's League of the Paroisse Immaculée-Conception had their annual bazaar on Saturday. We stopped by and purchased a few tickets for the draws.

Annual Bazaar  -  Here is a map to the bazaar.

Saturday, November 5^th

9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Centre Immaculée-Conception

99-101 Garnet Street, St. Catharines

There was a penny sale, raffles, baked goods, light lunch, Christmas decorations and much more.

 

Craft Fair at Hernders Estate Wines - 4 November 2011

We went off to check out the annual Craft Fair at Hernders Estate Wines. It is taking place Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 10am-5pm.

I was heartened to see that many of the crafts are made by local craftspeople and to my relief, it wasn't at all like a flea market.

We took a few some video of the displayed, wares and interviewed some of the craftspeople. It was obvious that most of them really enjoyed making their crafts.

Part 1

Part 2

Comments and reviews of the craft fair are welcome

Hernder Estate Wines
1607 8th Avenue, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada L2R 6P7
Tel 905-684-3300      
www.Hernder.com
Google Map