Frontenac ResilienceSustainable community and more

My friend Carol’s indoor water lillies are stirring and sending out new shoots, indicating that some secret winter tide has shifted and we’re bound for spring. No doubt the plants can feel the increased sun and lengthening days and we can too. Which is all definitely a good thing and the right time for that annual celebration, the Heritage Days festival, a pack full of ways to honor where we came from and where we are. It’s a good time to acknowledge that we really do stand on the shoulders of pioneers who set the stage for us, and on the long experience, skill and generosity of local first nations people without whom nothing much could have happened.

Taking part in the Festival is a way to feel more connected and at home here, meeting your neighbours of today, just like the early settlers did in their time.

Although Heritage Festival events will be held all over, one centre is Crow Lake Schoolhouse, 1867 Crow Lake Rd. (Hmmm, nice heritage number). Stuff happens inside and out from 10 to 4 PM. For example, Tom Waller of Elm Tree farm, an experienced local commercial gardener, will answer your gardening questions and help you with early planting advice. He’ll talk about heritage and heirloom seeds and how you can get your own. Carol Pepper of the local gardening group GGG, will be there with seed catalogues and knowledgeable gardening help too.

I’ll be there, registering folks like you for a local gardening initiative we call “Abundance Plots.” Abundance Plotters will grow a small extra plot this year – could be just a few square feet – to trade or give away at harvest time. Doing this is a way to extend the trading circle for veggies that many gardeners already have – and that the pioneers certainly used. We’re hoping that those who register will have plenty of produce coming their way; future columns will discuss how to do the canning and preserving that will make more local food a reality. (Is it possible that giving away fresh produce could be overdone as in the joke: “Do you lock your car?” . . . “Not usually, only during zucchini season . . .”?)

Herbalist Cathy Martin will share about traditional herbal medicines, and I imagine she’ll have some with her.

Gerald Stinson who knows a lot about old tools will be at the schoolhouse to show how they work and John DeWagner will demonstrate owner-built bows. Outside Mike Procter and Bob Miller will show and tell some tricks from their wealth of old-time skills, bannock making, tomahawk throwing, rifle and bow making, making fire. I love it that we live in a community where a man who can build a fire from scratch, Mike Procter, is also the speaker at the business breakfast (Friday morning at 8:30 at the Sharbot Lake legion).

It’s the Heritage Festival with some seeds from the past and some of where we’re going. See you there. See event listings in this and last week’s News.