Yearly Archives: 2019

A Legacy Lives On In a Beloved Community

Posted on by Jane Andres

  NOTL Local – October 31, 2020 It’s a balmy evening in September and I’m walking with my dog towards a brilliantly hued sunset on Wall Rd. In the distance I can see the headlights of a little silver pickup…

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Hurricane Season

Posted on by Jane Andres

  The NOTL Local – Sept.26 September offers a welcome change for those who have been dealing with peach fuzz, long work days, heat and humidity for the past 3 months. For our neighbours on the farms this time of…

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2019 Peach Pickers Picnic

Posted on by Jane Andres

  The NOTL Local -August 22 Almost 800 meals served! Music and laughter spilling out of the tent and into the picnic grounds. Friends reunited and friendships kindled. The tantalizing aroma of jerk chicken. Lord Mayor Betty Disero twirling on…

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Gearing Up for the 2019 Peach Pickers Picnic

Posted on by Jane Andres

It is a perfect Sunday evening, only a week away from the Peach Pickers Picnic. We’ve been distributing posters and dinner tickets to the 75 plus farms in Niagara on the Lake for about 5 weeks now, averaging 2 farms…

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It Started with a Spark

Posted on by Jane Andres

  Niagara Workers Welcome   This week the magic happened. It started with a tiny flicker, a momentary reflection catching my eye in a little pond tucked deep among the ferns. A second tiny flash hovered over the path and…

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Anneliese Pankratz: Portrait of a Caring Community

Posted on by Jane Andres

  It was a beautiful evening in fall and I was enjoying a quiet time puttering about in my front yard when I heard it. It was a muffled crack followed by an onslaught of men’s excited voices, then abruptly…

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The Gift of Being Seen

Posted on by Jane Andres

  In our B and B guest room there is a little basket with a unique contraption tucked in amongst a collection of loose photos. The stereograph was a gift from my husband years ago, a low tech wonder. It…

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Easter Thoughts

Posted on by Jane Andres

  It is an early April morning and the sun’s rays are hitting the top of the ridge at Kentish, Jamaica, where the lush green sugar cane is heavy with dew. The sunlight moves slowly, a cascade of gold and…

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In Memory of Debbie Wiecha

Posted on by Jane Andres

Dufferin Grove Organic Farmers market – April 3, 2019 In Memory of Debbie Wiecha Our market community grieves the loss of Debbie Wiecha, a long-time vendor famous for her amazing organic peaches and fragrant lavender, and much-loved for her generosity…

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Remembering a Name

Posted on by Jane Andres

Remembering a name forges human connection The NOTL Local – March 28, 2019 by Jane Andres                             Visiting  Juan Del Bolas Mountain in St.Catherine, Jamaica, Jane Andres took this…

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Robert Jupiter of Palatine Hill

Posted on by Jane Andres

A Hero in Our Own Back Yard The NOTL Local – February 23, 2019 by Jane Andres   For many years my daily dog-walking expeditions involved sloshing through the Four Mile Creek with a pair of rubber boots and visiting the old Servos…

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Reliving Good Times on the Farm

Posted on by Jane Andres

The NOTL Local February 6, 2019 by Jane Andres It had all the feels of a long anticipated reunion, the adults hugging and laughing as the children watched with shy smiles, waiting to be introduced. Indeed it was a special kind of…

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Thanking a Farmer’s Worker

Posted on by Jane Andres

Eating Niagara – September 5, 2015 By Tiffany Mayer   A pile of photographs sits on Jane Andres’s dining room table.In them, faces beam out at the viewer: middle school-aged students wear caps and gowns to mark the successful end of…

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Inviting Our Guests to Dinner

Posted on by Jane Andres

Niagara Food : A Flavourful History of the Peninsula’s Bounty  By Tiffany Mayer   Advertisements  

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Lessons and Legacies in Our Back Yard: Part 2

Posted on by Jane Andres

Harriet’s Legacies: Race, Historical Memory and Futures in Canada Brock University 2015 In May 2005 I was invited to help with the music at a church service for Caribbean workers. CWOP, the Caribbean Workers Outreach Project, was run by Grace United Church…

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Lessons and Legacies in Our Back Yard : Part 1

Posted on by Jane Andres

Harriet’s Legacies: Race, Historical Memory and Futures in Canada Brock University 2015 We live in Niagara-on-the-Lake within walking distance to the shores of Lake Ontario.  If you take the path down into the valley behind our home you will find rich bottom…

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Stories Beyond the Mist

Posted on by Jane Andres

A Collection of Foggy Day Rambles The Last Remnants – Ice House and Cemetery This stone structure was the last remnant of the settlement on Palatine Hill. It had been attached to a wooden building which would have originally been…

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Caramelized Apple French Toast

Posted on by Jane Andres

  One of my most requested recipes! 1 Cup brown sugar 1/2 cup butter 2 tbsp. maple syrup 1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts 3 tart local apples , peeled and sliced 4 eggs 1 cup half and half 1/4 tsp pure…

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Stories Beyond the Mist

Posted on by Jane Andres

A Collection of Foggy Day Rambles Whispers from the Past Over two hundred years ago you would have heard the voices of young John, Daniel or Maggie Servos as they played along the banks searching for crayfish or swinging buckets…

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Stories Beyond the Mist

Posted on by Jane Andres

A Collection of Foggy Day Rambles The Road to Palatine Hill The only route to Palatine Hill from the town of Niagara on the Lake was via Four Mile Creek Rd. until the mid 1800s when the Lake Rd. bridge was built. Four Mile…

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Stories Beyond the Mist

Posted on by Jane Andres

Four Mile Meanderings As the Four Mile Creek nears Lake Ontario it twists and turns through the floodplain, intersecting tender fruit orchards and vineyards. Originally a lake bed, the rich topsoil along the Four Mile watershed is some of the…

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Stories Beyond the Mist

Posted on by Jane Andres

A Collection of Foggy Day Rambles Beasts and Birds: A Touch of the Wild                         There still exists a path frequented by deer and coyote from Palatine Hill down…

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Stories Beyond the Mist

Posted on by Jane Andres

A Collection of Foggy Day Rambles   If you take a walk down to the Four Mile Creek behind Applewood Hollow you will notice a wooded rise on the opposite bank. On the top of the ridge, nestled in the…

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Niagara concert welcomes migrant farm workers : Toronto Star

Posted on by Jane Andres

By NICHOLAS KEUNG   Friday, May 3, 2013 It is not often migrant farm workers get to party and go to a concert after a long day of back-bending labour in the field.Certainly not a concert dedicated to them, with black gospel, reggae and R&B…

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A Debt of Gratitude – May 2008

Posted on by Jane Andres

Beyond Ordinary Living Magazine  May 2008 By Jane Andres It is four in the morning and a city lies resting. On its southern shore it is bordered by the sea, mercurial waves lapping at its shores at this early hour….

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