In 1912 the eccentric (and fictional) Canadian inventor, Thaddeus Barnes set out on a unique journey across Canada. His mission? To hide six copper cylinders containing pieces of a brass key. The fully assembled key would unlock Barnes’ safe, a safe full of his...
Yvonne Bambrick has been on a bike since she was a baby. On the back of her father's bike, a few decades back. But now she gets around Toronto under her own steam, and in her own words. Bambrick is the author of the Urban Cycling Survival Guide. It's an introduction...
Musgrave runs the Copper Beech guest house there. She often spices up her homecooking with hints, accompaniments and condiments made from the native ingredients of Haidi Gwaii, foraged from the sea, meadows and forests nearby, or, more often as not, dropped on her doorstep by a grateful neighbour.
John Bladen Bentley isn't in a hurry. This is a man who spends five days making a single photographic print. A man who has spent 15 years of his life perfecting a form of colour printing from the 19th century. Who measures chemicals to the microgram and can see days...
It is, perhaps, the only place in Canada where you can buy a bacteria-killing, see-through garden hose, heritage tomato seeds and plant pots made from cow poop. The vendors at the Guelph Organic Conference and Trade Show offered a remarkable variety of organic...
The little, blue Dymo label on the metal door belies what's just behind it. But in an nondescript alley in mid-town Toronto, a former tool and die shop has been transformed into the Espresso Institute of North America. The institute is the work of Ezra Braves, a...
Dr. J. David Richardson is a Viking with a heart of gold. The retired Dundas, Ontario family doctor now runs Christieview Farm, just outside of Hamilton, Ontario. And, he's using his rural perch, on the lip of the Christie Conversation Area, to help folks recover from...
Winter is here, and for too many Canadians that means a lot of time spent being inactive inside. While we humans may not hibernate per se, nothing seems more natural on a cold winter’s night than to bundle up inside with a good book or in front of the TV, with a...
I remember surviving it all…
We dropped by the One of a Kind Show and Sale in Toronto this week. We were looking for artists and craftspeople who were doing something a little different or making good use of recycled material. We found them. From a former pig farmer who now does cycle sculptures...
Alpacas are gentle animal with hair that makes wool on par with cashmere.
Back in 1874 Barry Bogle's ancestors farmed the land of Safari Road just to get by. Now a sixth generation does the same to keep the birds of Hamilton thriving through the winter. High in the rafters of Barry Bogle's wild birdseed barn is an old rack lifter. It's a...
Karen Poncelet fills us in on the future of the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair and her hopes for a royal visit for its centennial. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVQ_MGL4ntg&t=6s
Though not native to North America, the diminutive honeybee has become an important aspect of this continent’s agriculture and biodiversity. And now this species is facing some serious threats. Apis mellifera is also known as the western honeybee and European...
If you were a cow, you could do far worse than find yourself at the Joe Loewith & Sons dairy farm in Lynden, Ontario. The 100-acre property is as close to a bovine spa as you can get. The 850 herd of Summitholm Holsteins are fed a careful diet of high nutrient...