Category Archives: Agriculture and Local Food

Tourism goes green at Elmhirst’s Resort

KEENE – Describe something as organic and what comes to mind is chemical free or “all natural.”

Our fascination with natural versus bio-engineered has obscured an older meaning of organic: something that has developed as part of a natural course of events.

Elmhirst’s Resort is organic in both senses.

Across the course of five generations a family farm developed into a thriving hospitality business that wraps together the farm, a resort and conference centre and the Rice Lake shoreline.

Greg Elmhirst, the current general manager, easily reels off the farm and family history. It begins with his great-great-grandfather, a farm and some cottages; sons who took over responsibility for the separate operations; a grandson who bought the resort. Segue to great-uncle Harold who inherited some of the property and later sold it to Greg’s father, mixed in with other family ties and transactions.

The result as it stands today is the resort with its main building, guest centre and conference room, 30 cottages, spa, pool and waterfront area; and the adjoining 210-acre farm, where Greg’s father, Peter, raises beef cattle, ducks and turkeys.

Eighty per cent of the beef served in the resort’s two restaurants comes from those grain-fed cattle. The meat is processed 20 kilometres away at Hilts Butcher Shop and the poultry at Morrison’s Custom Poultry Processing in Omemee. Every slice of duck and turkey Elmhirst’s serves comes from the farm, including the duck topping for poutine at the Wild Blue Yonder Pub.

A large garden near the resort entrance produces up to 8,000 pounds of vegetables and herbs for the restaurants each summer: “Lots of tomatoes, some squash, a tiny bit of corn, sort or ornamental, heirloom style potatoes,” Elmhirst says. “And lots of herbs, basically all the herbs we use.”

Guests appreciate the commitment to locally produced food, he says: “We have more people at Elmhirst’s because of it.”

Guests would be less aware of other ecologicallyvfriendly aspects of the operation.

Not far from the garden is a new, roughly 2,500-square-foot building, open at one end. Inside sits a giant pile of what appears to be wood shavings. It is known as waste wood, ground-up scraps from the production of wooden pallets, furniture and cabinetry.

The waste wood feeds a compact, high efficiency boiler in a separate room at the back of the building. Hot water from the boiler is piped to radiators. Fans blow air across the rads and that warm air heats all the rooms and common areas in the main resort building.

The wood heat system evolved over time – organically, if you will. Elmhirst recalls that it began in the mid-1990s with outdoor, wood-fired boilers where “you just threw a four-foot log in.” The forced air system came later. Switching to wood pellet fuel in 2004 upped the efficiency rating and ended the need to feed logs to the boilers in the middle of the night.

The waste wood boiler, installed last year, burns even cleaner and has reduced heating costs by 75%, Elmhirst says.

Six years ago 11 of the 30 cottages were retrofitted under the federal ecoEnergy Retrofit Homes program. An energy consultant’s report on one cottage showed the upgrades reduced annual greenhouse gas emissions by two tonnes.

Elmhirst’s is also switching to all LED lighting in the cottages and guest rooms. The boats that guests can use are powered by low-emission four-stroke motors. There are two banks of solar panels, ground-mounted at the farm and roof-mounted on the main resort building.

The management team also developed naturally. Greg, whose first position was recreation director fresh out of college, is the de facto COO and CFO. Peter ran the resort until 10 years ago but now concentrates on the farm. Peter’s life partner, Anne Marshall, handles marketing. Greg’s wife, Martina Linde, runs the spa. Steve and Caroline, his brother and sister-in-law, are also involved.

Greg and Martina’s 23-year-old son has indicated he plans to extend the Elmhirst involvement to a sixth generation. That’s the latest development in an organic business model, both old-fashioned and new-age.

This is one of a series of articles commissioned and paid for by Sustainable Peterborough and published in partnership with The Peterborough Examiner. By Jim Hendry, Peterborough Examiner, original article published Saturday, April 23, 2016.

2015 Report Card

The 2015 Report Card is now available; it is Sustainable Peterborough’s 4th Report Card! It highlights just a sampling of our numerous collective accomplishments. For a full listing of all the sustainable successes reported by our partner organizations, please visit our Sustainable Activities Database.

If you would like a few paper copies of the Report Card, please contact us.

No trees were harmed in the printing of our Report Card. The 2015 Report Card was printed on FSC certified 100% recycled paper, using vegetable inks!

Going to EcoSchool

Even from the outside Holy Cross Secondary School doesn’t seem like a typical high school. Once a medical supply factory, the building was “repurposed” in the late 1990s as a school and the Catholic school board’s head office.

Think of it as a large-scale example of recycling – a view that meshes nicely with a bone deep emphasis on environmental responsibility that makes Holy Cross anything but typical on the inside.

Julia Taylor and Mike Halloran are science teachers who help cultivate that green vision. They teach environmental science, organize an Eco School club and appear to function as the school’s environmental conscience at the staff level.

Their enthusiasm has spread across the school community. As a result, Holy Cross has qualified for platinum designation by the Ontario EcoSchools program.

EcoSchools success is based on school-wide commitment. Points are awarded for performance in each of a variety of categories and the total number of points earned translates to bronze, silver, gold or platinum status.

Holy Cross has been an EcoSchool for six years. Five straight years of gold certification qualified the school to apply for the platinum level when it was introduced for the first time last year.

There are nearly 1,800 registered EcoSchools in the province. Holy Cross is one of about 70 designated platinum.

Kyle Morton had a direct hand in that success. A Grade 12 student, Morton spent the fall term working on the EcoSchools certification application and other green projects as his co-op placement.

Morton and Grade 10 students Jose Uy and Emmanuel Pinto are members of the Holy Cross Eco School club. During a late afternoon interview in the empty school cafeteria they talk about some of the projects they’re involved in.

Morton steps out to retrieve one of their composting mini-bins. Attached to the sides of large blue recycling barrels that sit in the cafeteria during lunch periods, the mini-bins are wrapped in green construction paper and emblazoned with the Eco School club name. Students who are already recycling paper and plastic toss food scraps into the mini-bins.

Cafeteria composting is one result of an ongoing waste audit overseen by two Trent University environmental science majors. During the audit Jose and Emmanuel were garbage pickers – mining the school’s garbage for organic waste. A weigh-in of their collected treasure showed that composting would make a difference and the green bin project was born.

It’s one of many the school has taken on. A $1,000 grant from Toyota (students wrote the grant application) paid for 10 native shade trees that were planted behind the bleachers next to the track and athletics field. Water fountains that refill personal drinking bottles and record the number of disposal bottles saved are expected to arrive soon.

There is a butterfly garden on the property and a green roof garden accessible from a second floor hallway. Coming soon: a beehive for the green roof that Taylor said will “have a huge educational component. That leads into our pollinators and importance of pollinators and plants on the property.”

But the project with the biggest impact is a community garden developed in partnership with Calvary Church and the Peterborough Community Garden Network. It is located on the church property next door to Holy Cross.

Special education students collect compost that fertilizes the garden. A construction class built the garden shed. Students start seedlings in the school greenhouse and dozens more are involved in spring planting. Kawartha Food Share and various food banks reap some of the harvest.

Taylor and Halloran estimate that as many as 180 students – nearly a third of the entire school population – are involved in some way.

They say the real benefit of the Eco School approach will come as students inspired by something like the garden project develop a life-long interest in environmental stewardship.

“I kind of see what we are doing as planting seeds,” Taylor explains. “You eventually hope that some of the kids … who hadn’t given that a thought before, maybe it’s something they’ll consider down the road.”

Sustainable Peterborough Partnership Recognition Awards

In order to recognize the numerous sustainable achievements of our partners, Sustainable
Peterborough launched of the Sustainable Peterborough Partnership
Recognition Awards in 2015!

There were eleven winners, one in each of Sustainable Peterborough’s theme areas, and
three honourable mentions. Awards were presented during the Sustainable Peterborough
Partnership Recognition Awards and Climate Change Action Plan Launch Event on March 1,
2016 at Market Hall.

Congratulations to all the winners and thank you for your continued commitment to sustainability:

Agriculture and Local Food

Elmhirst’s Resort – winner

Elmhirst’s Resort is committed to sustainability and displays a strong “living off of the land”
mentality. They strongly believe in providing customers with the freshest food and produce
harvested directly from 240 acres of their land. They provide customers with a seasonal menu
that features hydroponic garden herbs and preserved heirloom tomatoes in the winter, locally
bred and raised cattle and duck, and 100% local grape wines, among other items. Elmhirst’s
strive to involve local farmers and producers from the surrounding community in their food
production processes as much as possible.

By the Bushel Community Food Co-operative – honourable mention

By the Bushel Community Food Co-operative is an innovative co-operative. Small-scale food
producers and processors, dedicated staff and a community of consumers work together
toward rebuilding our relationship to the land, healthy, sustainable, ecologically-responsible
food and community. In 2015, their 13 growers were operating within 100 kms.

Climate Change

For Our Grandchildren (4RG) – winner

For Our Grandchildren (4RG) actively encourages younger generations to become more
engaged participants in a greener community and climate change issues. In November 2015,
4RG collaborated with other local organizations to host a community meeting supporting the
Global Climate March and the COP21 conference being held at the same time in Paris. The
meeting encouraged community members to consider decisive actions to reduce the
production of carbon emissions that are contributing to climate change. Citizens who attended
the event were encouraged to take part in a post card writing campaign to be delivered to six
political leaders at all levels of government.

Cultural Assets

Lang Pioneer Village – winner

Lang Pioneer Village serves to protect and promote the rural history of Peterborough County.
The museum has become a regional leader in the preservation and interpretation of our
cultural assets. In 2015, Lang partnered with Hiawatha and Curve Lake First Nations to
establish the Aabnaabin First Nations site at the museum. Lang also completed a shoreline
naturalization project in partnership with the Otonabee Region Conservation Authority, Tree
Canada and Siemens Canada. They planted 272 trees and shrubs. Species included
shellbark hickory, hazelnut, chestnut, elderberry and chokecherry which were used by early
settlers for food, furniture, shelter, and dyes. Collectively, these projects provide great
opportunities for future programs.

Economic Development & Employment

Transition Town Peterborough – winner

The focus of Transition Town Peterborough is on reducing our dependence on fossil fuels
while increasing local resilience and self-sufficiency with economic localization. In an effort to
build the local economy, they introduced the local currency called Kawartha Loons. In
collaboration with other community organizations, Transition Town Peterborough runs several
successful annual events that bring together the community, food growers and producers, local
artisans, entertainers and health practitioners in order to build and support the local economy.
In 2015, Transition Town Peterborough, in collaboration with Farms at Work, successfully
spearheaded the initiative to declare September as Local Food Month in an effort to bring
awareness to local food providers and strengthen the local economy.

Energy

Township of Douro-Dummer – winner

The Township of Douro-Dummer has consistently been a leader in municipal energy
management. It was the first municipality to implement an energy management plan and
strategy. They have retrofitted their facilities for energy efficiency and, in 2015, completed the
conversion to LED streetlights. Their energy efficiency improvements have resulted in cost
savings and greenhouse gas emissions reduction. The Township of Douro-Dummer continues
to lead by example.

Healthy Communities

Camp Kawartha – winner

Camp Kawartha has been involved in numerous innovative stewardship initiatives over the
past decade. Reaching over 11,000 participants per year, the camp teaches children, youth
and adults about sustainable living, habitat protection and environmental responsibility. New in
2015, the Camp offered 5 one-week environment camps and two weeks of kindercamp at the
Environment Centre. This resulted in an additional 250 campers learning about nature,sustainability and stewardship. Thanks to a grant from the Gainey Foundation and a crowd source funding campaign, new nature playscapes structures were designed and constructed at the Camp Kawartha Environment Centre in 2015.

Seeds for Justice, a Kawartha World Issues Centre Youth Program – honourable
mention

Seeds for Justice is a youth-led program that brings youth together around common interests
and projects, with a focus on empowerment to affect individual lives and local communities
while building a culture of volunteerism and global citizenship. In 2015 over 300 youth had an
opportunity to build confidence, knowledge, skills and experience.

Land Use Planning

Otonabee Region Conservation Authority – winner

In 2015, the Otonabee Region Conservation Authority (ORCA) updated the Watershed
Planning and Regulation Policy Manual. The updated manual resulted in a document that is
easy to understand and to use. It consolidates all of ORCA’s watershed planning and
regulatory policies. This document also provides municipalities, applicants and their agents,
private landowners, special interest groups and ORCA staff with a clear understanding of
ORCA’s role, mandate, responsibilities and requirements regarding permit and planning
applications. At the same time, it offers an updated, comprehensive and complete set of
watershed planning and regulatory policies that can be incorporated into Official Plans and
Zoning By-laws.

Natural Assets

Kawartha Land Trust – winner

Kawartha Land Trust is dedicated to protecting the forests, fields, wetlands and shorelines of
the Kawarthas. Boyd Island, a 1,170 acre island, is the largest undeveloped and unprotected
island in Southern Ontario. It is home to unspoiled wetlands, old-growth forests, wildlife and a
wide variety of plant species. It has rich historic, natural and cultural value to the region, as
well as to the indigenous community which can trace back use of the island some 10,000
years. To ensure the island’s protection, Kawartha Land Trust urged the community to achieve
a fundraising goal of $1,000,000 in 2015. Nearly 600 pledges were received to accomplish the
goal of preventing private development on the island. Now preserved and protected, the island
will remain a great natural asset for many generations to come.

Transportation

Peterborough County/City Paramedics – winner

In 2015 Peterborough County/City Paramedics have demonstrated leadership in sustainable
transportation initiatives by implementing the ECO-run system in vehicles to reduce idling time.
The ECO-run system enabled them to reduce excessive idling time by 26%, thereby saving
1,918 litres of fuel, 8,717 pounds of CO2 and amounting to a cost savings of nearly $2,500.

Waste

The Food Forest – winner

The Food Forest Café’s produces less than 1 bag of garbage per week! Since the restaurant
is plant-based, they are able to compost 100% of leftover food and scraps. In 2015 they
expanded their composting program by donating nearly 90 gallons of kitchen scraps per week
to local farmers and gardeners, including St. Peter’s Secondary School for their garden.
Furthermore, the Food Forest is able to compost all paper products, since they exclusively use
unbleached biodegradable paper products and napkins. In renovating their new downtown
location in 2015, they re-used and re-purposed pre-existing materials. They continue to
encourage customers to bring their own takeout containers or charge a small fee for
biodegradable containers.

Holy Cross Secondary School – honourable mention

In 2015 Holy Cross Catholic Secondary School earned a Platinum level certification from
Ontario EcoSchools. In partnership with Calvary Church, the school maintains a community
garden that has helped the school reduce their amount of green waste, as cafeteria and
garden green waste is being repurposed and used in the form of compost.

Water

GreenUP – winner

In 2015, GreenUP ran the Depave Paradise project with support from Green Communities
Canada, RBC Blue Water Project, Sammy and Sons Ltd, the City of Peterborough, other local
organizations and volunteers. In the parking lot of Wireless Solutions over 250m2 of asphalt
were removed and a large rain garden with 730 native plants and trees was planted. The
project aids in storm water management and water quality improvement by allowing 178,000
liters of water per year to be diverted from the grey stormwater infrastructure by soaking into
the ground and naturally removing 23kg of contaminants annually. Depave Paradise is helping
to reduce risks of flooding while creating habitat, green space and building community.

Food Map is Live!

The Community Services Map displays the location and provides basic information about community programs and agencies in the City and County of Peterborough. The Community Services Map now contains a new Food Map (for food related information in the City and the County) that provides information such as farmers’ markets, community gardens, food banks, and much more!