Blog

Never Lose Hope ~ An Obituary

                                                  NOTL Local – Feb.25, 2024   It was the video clip of a young boy dancing that gutted me. He was wearing a jacket that was way too big, hands waving in the air, while the band played…

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A Glimpse of Hope for 3 Families

                                         Niagara on the Lake Local , January 6, 2024  Thanks to local residents, the year ended with a glimpse of…

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Ceto Reid Returns Home

                                               The Local, November 22, 2023 It’s been almost 14 months since Ceto Reid, a 20 year veteran…

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Honouring Daniel Brown

                                                 The Local, October 20,2023 There was a sense of anticipation as the emcee of the concert…

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Can I get an Amen?

                                                                          The Local, Sept.25…

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Honouring the Living and Lives Lost

  The Local, July 3, 2023 The story opens with Malaika, a little girl in the Caribbean, who awakens from her sleep after a dream of a flying man carrying a basket of fruit – peaches, apples, and cherries –…

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Over a Half Century of Pickin’ and Grinnin’

        The Local, June 26/2023   Fifty years ago I shared a stage with a number of local musicians for a childrens camp fundraiser organized by John Wiebe at St.Catharines United Mennonite Church. I was especially excited to…

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Grocery Store Chat Lead to Treasured Friendships

  Niagara on the Lake Local, June 22, 2023 It was an appreciative congregation who met on Sunday night for the second last Caribbean Workers Outreach Project church service of the season. Hosted by Bethany Mennonite Church for decades it…

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Cherry Platz

Line a 9×16″ cake pan or 2 smaller ones with parchment paper. Mix dry ingredients together: 2 1/2 C. flour 3 tsp. baking powder 1/2 tsp. baking soda 1/2 tsp. salt 1/2 C sugar Cut in 3/4  cup or shortening….

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Lighting the Way

The Local, Dec.27, 2022 Last weeks storm was one for the books. Thanks to the howling wind and plummeting temperatures my memories of it will be frozen as solid as the water buckets in my chicken coop. Christmas preparations were…

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Ceto Reid Recovering

The Local – Friday, Oct.28 It happened in a split second – metal on bone, laundry scattered, a twisted bike frame on the side of the street, faces blurring in and out of his vision. It had been a hectic…

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Building Community One Block at a Time

The Local, August 4, 2022 Dale Merrill’s life has taken an adventurous turn in recent years, one he likely never could have imagined. He has been a design and build contractor for 40 years, building luxury homes in the U.S….

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Honouring Harvill Maye

The Things We’ve Handed Down – Honouring Harvill Maye                                                                …

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Ready to deliver!

A Caring Community Shines Brightly

For many of us 2022 will be remembered as a time when a caring community shone brightly, despite the second year of COVID related challenges. Last spring the delivery of more than 500 welcome kits to farm workers was a…

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Connection – the Heart of Hearing

  Thump, thump, thump. The noise was a bad omen on a beautiful Sunday afternoon as Kathy Kerr pulled over on a rural stretch of gravel road in Niagara on the Lake. Her tire hopelessly flattened and without a cell…

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A Tale of Two Generations on Niagara Farms

October 29, 2021 by Jane AndresCommunity If you’ve ever visited local farm stands in search of the perfect peach you would likely have met Paul Bent at the colourful Epp farm stand on the Niagara River Parkway. Some locals like…

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The Clarendon Connection – Ernie Bell Retires

October 7, 2021 by Jane Andres  The parish of Clarendon lies in the heart of Jamaica’s mountainous countryside. Few Niagara locals have even heard of this area, yet many of us have been influenced by or benefitted from the “Clarendon…

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Making Connections Enriches the Whole Community

Making connections enriches a community July 22, 2021 by Jane Andres   It’s a Tuesday night and I’m pulling up to the Serlucca farm on Concession 2, the car loaded with groceries. Dan, the farm owner, greets me with a…

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Remembering Gladstone Gussy Pusey

Gladstone Pusey August 30, 1963 – March 18, 2021 Broken Bank, Rock River, Clarendon A gentleman. Hard worker. Dependable. A man of his word. An honourable man. He liked to joke, to add a little levity when the going got tough…

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Time to Think About Welcome Kits!

Niagara on the Lake Local,  December 11, 2020 2020 will always be remembered as a year of extraordinary challenges. In Niagara on the Lake it will also be remembered as a time when a caring community shone brightly! The delivery…

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Jamaican Injured in Niagara Needs Help

Niagara on the Lake Local, October 8,2020 By Penny Coles ( Edited version )   Two Niagara-on-the-Lake families are seeking a permanent solution for a Jamaican farmworker who was seriously injured in a 2008 workplace accident here. The story of…

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Connecting Libraries in Niagara and Jamaica

NOTL Local, October 2, 2020 https://notllocal.com/2020/10/02/library-books-for-kids-heading-to-jamaica/ In February 2012 Jodie Godwin, her 12 year old daughter Leah and I had the opportunity to visit Jamaica.  The purpose of the trip was to meet the families of the men who worked…

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Paperback Pals

The NOTL Local ~ October 2, 2020 It’s no exaggeration that this past season has been fraught with unforeseen challenges for everyone. There were also many times this past summer when a bright sunbeam would slip through a fissure in…

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Together We Can Create a Welcoming Community

The Niagara on the Lake Local Part 3, June 29 Until the last quarter century, most of early black history in Niagara on the Lake was buried in obscure documents or barely acknowledged by one of our town’s foremost historians,…

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The Joy of Connection – Part 2

The Niagara on the Lake Local, June 22 https://notllocal.com/2020/06/25/farm-worker-struggles-to-get-permanent-resident-status/   It never gets easier. There is a price to be paid for families that are separated for eight months of the year. Men and women working here on the temporary…

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The Joy of Connection: Part 1

There has been much in the news lately regarding the systemic racism which most of us who have grown up in a white dominated culture have been blissfully unaware of, yet benefited from. We have a lot to process, especially…

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Everything Good So Far

  This year marks a 15 year anniversary celebrating treasured friendships with our Jamaican neighbours. It was in spring 2005 that I was invited to assist with the music at a little church service for Caribbean farm workers. The CWOP …

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Rhubarb Orange Muffins

One of the first signs of spring is the bright red leaves of rhubarb poking up in our garden! Rhubarb Orange Muffins Topping: 1/4 Cup brown sugar 1 Tbsp. orange zest 1/2 tsp. cinnamon Batter 2 Cups flour 1/2 cup sugar…

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The Local – Feb.20, 2020

In the February 12 edition of The Local I took the readers to visit a mountaintop high up in the clouds of St. Catherine, Jamaica with Uton and Linnette Bell. Since that experience in 2008, I have had the privilege…

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A Visit with Mr.Bell

  The NOTL Local~ Feb 12   It was a golden morning in Spanishtown, Jamaica. The brilliant sunshine and rapturous birdsong erased any memories of the dull winter my friend Jodie Godwin and I had left behind in Niagara. We…

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In Memory of Debbie Wiecha

The Niagara on the Lake Local – May 10, 2019  The police officer leaned in closer to the squad car radio, listening in disbelief. Dispatch was requesting backup for a traffic situation. An excited driver had just reported a woolly…

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Reflections on My Father, Ruben Friesen

“They say such nice things about people at their funerals that it makes me sad that I’m going to miss mine by just a few days.” ~ Garrison Keiller My father, Ruben Friesen, passed away on Dec.11 at 94 years of…

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A Legacy Lives On In a Beloved Community

  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

  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

  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

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

  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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The Gift of Being Seen

  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

  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

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

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

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

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

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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Lessons and Legacies in Our Back Yard: Part 2

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

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

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

  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

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

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

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

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

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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A Debt of Gratitude – May 2008

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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