Make the most of the summer garden

My favourite part of summer is about to arrive! The late summer and early autumn canning season is about to get under way. Buying local is one of the easiest ways we can lower our carbon footprint since shipped food is such a big part of it. While I prefer to buy organic and local when possible, I’ll take local over organic produce shipped a long way. Beyond just the carbon footprint of conventionally grown vegetables, the fertilizer runoff into our lakes and rivers makes the decision an easy one. Farm runoff made Toledo’s drinking water unsafe to drink last year. This is an environmental catastrophe waiting to happen if we don’t address the issue soon. Toronto’s water supply is also susceptible to the same fate.

One can scour local markets for fresh produce and, if you’re lucky, farmers will often sell “seconds” by the flat. This is produce that might be bruised, shaped oddly, or otherwise imperfect in some way. At steep discounts, this is perfect for sauces, jams, and pickles. Not only is canning a fun weekend activity, it connects children with food and goes a long way towards eating local and helps in sustainability. The investment of a weekend can get me almost an entire year’s worth of roasted pasta sauce (loose recipe below).

By making our own sauces, we save the transportation of pre-packaged goods and the packaging itself which can often amount to a lot of waste (not just the packaging we see, but also the freight packaging we don’t see). The fact that homemade sauce is tastier than anything I’ve ever found in the store is a bonus. Arguably in the making of the sauce itself, mass production is more energy-efficient than small-batch production in your own kitchen, but the crushing down of one glass jar easily undoes that efficiency. As much as we like to think we recycle glass, a lot of it gets tossed in the landfill and even the stuff that is recycled gets crushed down for a new life.

To optimize the summer growing season even more, I will keep the ends and peels of my produce in the freezer. When I peel carrots, potatoes, and the best the summer has to offer, all the scraps get kept until my next batch of stock (which I usually make in the fall and winter when the house could use the heat and humidity). The less food we waste, the greener our kitchen becomes. Food waste is a big contributor to greenhouse gases that often gets overlooked.

As we hit peak summer, enjoy the great local produce. You’ll be supporting local farmers, reducing your carbon footprint, and eating healthy and delicious food! The best stuff rarely makes it to the supermarkets since it tends not to travel or sit well. Our own Bloor Borden Farmers’ Market has a lot of great vendors (all local and some organic). By buying directly from farmers, you are supporting them and get an opportunity to ask about what goes into your food. As a bonus, Jenna the balloon lady makes balloon animals for the kids! The Bloor Borden market is open every Wednesday from 3 to 7 p.m.

Summer roasted pasta sauce (quantities only approximate)

• 4 to 5 pounds heirloom tomatoes (they’re so much sweeter)

• 1 pound summer squash
• 1 bunch carrots
• 2 onions
• 1 bulb garlic
• 1 bunch basil
• 1 hot pepper (optional)
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper

Cut all vegetables into bite-sized pieces. If you prefer, you can skin the tomatoes but I like to leave them on for texture. Chop onion and garlic and mix with vegetables. Drizzle with enough olive oil to coat. Roast in a 350°F oven for about 1 to 1.5 hours until cooked down. Put into sterilized jars and pasteurize.

To pasteurize: Submerge 1 litre jars in boiling water for about 45 minutes. Smaller jars take a bit less time. Once filled, the air will escape the lid and when cool, create a vacuum seal.

Terri Chu is an engineer committed to practical environmentalism. This column is dedicated to helping the community reduce energy use, and help distinguish environmental truths from myths. Send questions, comments, and ideas for future columns to Terri at terri.chu@whyshouldicare.ca.

Central Tech students graduated into advanced apprenticeships

In honour of Central Technical School’s centennial, we thought we’d have a look through the Gleaner archives and pull up some of our favourite pieces. This month, we feature a story that appeared in February 2003 about the cancelling of Tech’s prestigious aircraft program. Keep an eye on our Twitter account, @GleanerNews, where we’ll post other stories that celebrate the school’s historic and storied past.

By Annemarie Brissenden

It’s a part of Toronto that is often forgotten: this city is known for building airplanes.

Starting in 1915 with a plant on Strachan Avenue, “the city proliferated with aircraft production by the time World War Two came along,” relates Paul Cabot, curator of the Toronto Aerospace Museum. Employing tens of thousands of people, the industry has produced over 11,000 airplanes.

At the centre of this was the aircraft department at Central Technical School.

“It was the only place in the British Empire that offered aircraft at the high school level,” notes former teacher Lawrence Cambion. Students, who spent their days in an aircraft hanger, had the opportunity to work on helicopters, small planes, and engines. It was an advanced technical program that enabled highly skilled graduates to progress immediately into apprenticeship or employment at companies like De Havilland, and build planes like the Curtis Canuck and the Tiger Moth.

Unfortunately, this unique program will no longer take flight.

“Only four kids signed up for the program last year,” reports school principal Rick Tarasuk, who can’t afford to keep aircraft running on such low numbers.

Edward Sedlak, technical director at the school, traces the decline to “demographics,” noting that over the past 10 years, “the student population has changed.”

However, Trustee Christine Ferreira (Ward 10, Trinity-Spadina) blames the declining level of enrolment on “outdated equipment,” admitting “we haven’t been able to keep up the level that students wanted,” because “we haven’t been able to put money into the program.”

Central Tech was built – completely funded by the citizens of Toronto – when it “became obvious,” notes the school’s website, “that if Canada were to hold its proper place in the world’s markets, a skilled labour force, backed by trained technicians, was a prime necessity.”

Ironically, not much has changed since then.

“We’re presently faced with a shortage of skills-trained people in the aviation industry,” says the Aerospace Museum’s Cabot. Rod Jones, executive director of Ontario Aerospace Council, echoes that sentiment. “We expect in four or five years’ time that there will be a shortage of aircraft maintenance people in Canada.” And that shortage will affect one of the country’s most important industries.

According to a sector study on human resources released by the Canadian Aviation Maintenance Council on Nov. 15, Canada’s aviation industry annually boasts over $20 billion in sales, with the nation’s share of this sector accounting for approximately 6 per cent of global revenues. Yet, “it will be increasingly difficult to recruit workers from its traditional foreign sources,” warns the study, and consequently “domestic sources will become increasingly important. The output from Canadian education institutions and the ability of these institutions to meet the demands of the industry will be critical to future employment growth.”

Principal Tarasuk recognizes the job demand that’s “out there for this. But for whatever reason, kids aren’t going for it.”

Don Whitewood, a volunteer at the aerospace museum, says schools need to be more proactive in promoting the trades. “All the technical programs are going down,” says Whitewood, who used to teach sheet metal as well as physics. “The government thinks all students should go to university.”

“If you took aircraft, you learned six different trades: sheet metal, engines, welding, drafting, theory of flight, and instruments,” points out Cambion. He’d like to “force kids to be exposed to it in grade 9. If they’re not exposed to it, they are not going to take it.”

After all, in the end, it will be the kids themselves that determine whether the program will be saved.

“We won’t be running unless a whole bunch of students decide to choose aircraft, “says Sedlak, “and then we’ll have to re-evaluate the whole thing.”

Residents and business-owners vow to battle proposed development

By Annemarie Brissenden

Kensington Market is once again preparing for battle. In what’s becoming an increasingly familiar story in this part of Toronto, an application to replace a non-residential automotive rental facility at College Street and Augusta Avenue with a mixed-use development has the area’s residents and business-owners up in arms.

“We’ll go big, as big as we did for the fight against Walmart. We’ll do the same thing again,” vowed Su Alexanian, chair of the Kensington Market Action Committee (KMAC), which famously prevented RioCan from bringing the discount big box store to Bathurst and Nassau streets.

“In the end it was the developer that backed down.”

Attendees at a community consultation meeting held May 14 were decidedly against the proposal as it stands, citing concerns about height, the sandwiching of lower rise housing between tall buildings, density, and the proposed development’s lack of harmony with the neighbourhood.

“The overwhelming response is concern about this application,” said Joe Cressy (Ward 20, Trinity-Spadina). “We had a packed house of more than 200 people [at the meeting], reflective of the diverse neighbourhood.” Among the attendees were representatives of the Kensington Business Improvement Area, KMAC, the Kensington Residents’ Association, the Habord Village Residents’ Association, the Harbord Village Business Improvement Area, and Friends of Kensington Market (FoKM).

As Dominique Russell, chair of FoKM, put it, “the community expressed its concerns fairly clearly at the public meeting. The development doesn’t complement Kensington Market.”

In its current form, the application is summarized on the City of Toronto’s planning site “as a 13- and six-storey mixed-use redevelopment. The College Street building will rise to seven storeys and provide setbacks at the upper levels as it transitions to 13 storeys, with a height of approximately 42 metres. The Augusta Avenue building will have a four-storey base, setbacks at the fifth and sixth levels, and a height of approximately 21 metres.”

Residents of the two buildings, which will be made up of 29 one-bedroom units, 135 two-bedroom units, and eight three-bedroom units, and connected by a bridge at the fifth level, will share the indoor amenity spaces. Cressy highlights several major concerns with the application. At least 10 per cent of every new development in Ward 20 should consist of at least three-bedroom units, and “the height is not in sync with the character of the neighbourhood, particularly on Augusta Avenue.”

Given the local opposition to the application, the developer’s representative, a lawyer with Goodmans, agreed to revise its proposal and attend another public meeting once the changes have been made.

Little is known about the developer itself, though rumours suggest it consists of a consortium based in Hong Kong. That lack of information, combined with open questions about the nature of how to accommodate growth itself, continues to plague the area’s residents, many of whom are wondering whether this type of density makes sense for a neighbourhood like Kensington. “Are there neighbourhoods [like ours] where we shouldn’t be putting up tall towers?” asked Russell. “Would putting up tall towers destroy the reason people come here to hang out?”

Cressy had the same question, but framed it differently. Noting that under the Official Plan, “downtown is zoned for growth,” he questioned whether downtown’s boundaries should extend north of College Street.

“There’s no designation for a neighbourhood that wants to stay the same,” explained Alexanian. “We are one of the most valued neighbourhoods in the city, in the country even, and we have nothing [with which] to protect ourselves.”

She is also concerned about the type of residents the development will attract, another recurring theme throughout the Gleaner’s coverage area. “They are talking about family-sized apartments that are 450 square feet. I’m sorry; that’s not a family apartment.”

“It seems to be really directed at small space living,” added Russell, noting that the common areas were referred to as “study spaces”. She’s quick to point out that “there’s nothing intrinsically wrong with student housing,” and that many students live in the market, but that preserving diversity is essential.

For now, community members are left to ponder these questions, as the application is currently back with the developer, who did not agree to a timeline for revising the application.

“The ball is in their court,” said Cressy.

David Bronskill of Goodman’s LLP, the developer’s representative, did not reply to an interview request.

Popular park will benefit from development dollars

A rendering of the renewal plans for Christie Pits Park reveals improved pathways with new lookouts, a redesigned community hub and stage, and an expanded basketball court. By Harrington McAven Ltd., Courtesy of the City of Toronto

By Annemarie Brissenden and Brian Burchell

It will be a whole new ball game for Christie Pits Park when the bats start swinging next spring. A major revitalization of the park is slated to begin this summer; one that will see safety improvements, new courts, and community enhancements all installed by the time the Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball Club plays its 2016 home opener.

“Christie Pits is a large park that works well, very well, but it’s looking a little shabby and there is an opportunity for some improvements with some new amenities,” said Mike Layton (Ward 19, Trinity-Spadina), whose ward includes the park.

Known as Willowvale Park (a name that local residents never adopted) until 1983, when the City of Toronto officially renamed it Christie Pits Park, the area has a long and storied history. Despite common lore, it does not get its name from William Mellis Christie (“Mr. Christie”), who co-founded the Christie & Brown Cookie Company, but from a tanner who made his living in the area when it was still a sand and gravel quarry. It’s also been a shantytown inhabited by impoverished immigrants and those who escaped slavery along the Underground Railroad, and a waterhole for neighbourhood children, all before it became a park, and the site of the infamous Christie Pits Riots in 1933.

It is no wonder then that the park — at 8.9 hectares and filled with amenities — is due for a facelift.

A cultural hub for local residents, Christie Pits features the Alex Duff Memorial Pool, three baseball diamonds, basketball and volleyball courts, a community garden, a children’s playground and labyrinth, and an ice rink.

It is also, with its steep sloped sides, a favourite spot for tobogganing.

“Improving the pathways are a major priority,” said Layton. The paved pathways throughout the park are a safety hazard, broken in some parts and too steep in others. Their renewal also provides an opportunity to install some look-out points to the park’s bowl below.

Another safety improvement, raising better fencing for the baseball diamonds, will begin after the baseball season closes this fall.

An amalgamated basketball court is also planned, and will be installed in the area currently occupied by the volleyball court, which explained Layton, “has fallen into disuse and basketball has become very popular”.

The park’s renewal isn’t just limited to the sports amenities.

To date, event organizers for a planned performance needed to “bring their own stages”, which is inconvenient to say the least. The revitalization, however, will feature a new permanent stage that Layton said “will cement this important cultural component of the park’s use”.

A bit of retooling will update the park so that it suits contemporary tastes and uses. That, along with “the pizza oven and an enhanced community hub, are also key components of the facelift,” said Layton.

“The changes are welcome,” said Emily Reid, festival director and lead programmer of the Christie Pits Film Festival. “It shows the park is well used, and though many of the improvements are peripheral to our specific use, the lookouts will provide patrons of our event a new vantage point to view films we exhibit. We were happy with the level of consultation, and they made sure that the new stage plan would not interfere with our screen set-up.”

According to Layton, funding for the revitalization is largely provided by the city’s ten-year parks capital renewal budget, along with some Section 42 money, a provision of the The Ontario Planning Act that allows municipalities to ask developers to set aside money or land to create new parkland.

Simple, tasty, and healthy

I try very hard to bring the right little seasonal gift to anyone I visit in their home for a BBQ, or summer gathering. Unless it is an assigned dish for a potluck or a BYOB, I am loath to arrive with yet another little package of shortbread cookies. No point competing with the hosts’ Aunt Martha.

So I splurge and bring nuts — the bigger and the more expensive, like pecans and walnuts and macadamias, the better. Surprisingly enough, the best roasted nuts I ever bought were from a little shop in Ramallah two years ago. I used to give my dog nuts casually until someone told me they were really bad for them. Who knew? Well, nuts are good for me, especially walnuts. A lot of information is coming out all the time about their health value.

Remember to toast any nuts as you use them in your recipes and freeze them in well-sealed baggies until you do.

Praline nuts

Ingredients

• 1 1/3 cup fine white sugar or castor sugar (castor sugar can be made by fine grinding white sugar in a food processor)
• 1 generous cup of any nuts: walnuts, pecans, hazelnuts, cashews, macadamias, brazil nuts

Directions:

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Put sugar into a saucepan and warm over a low heat. Shake the pan to dissolve evenly. Keep a close eye on the pan and cook until the sugar is a dark golden brown. Pour in nuts and stir once with a wooden spoon.

Dip the bottom of the pan quickly in and out of cold water to stop the sugar burning.

Pour the praline onto your baking parchment sheet and spread out evenly.

Wash the pan and spoon immediately in warm water or leave to soak.

Cool for 20 minutes and then break into pieces.

Seal tightly in a tin or jar.

Cherry, macadamia, and coconut granola

Ingredients

• 4 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
• 2 cups unsweetened coconut
• 6 tablespoons golden brown sugar
• 2 cups macadamia nuts lightly roasted
• 1/2 cup light vegetable oil
• 1/3 cup light liquid honey
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 1/2 cups dried cherries, halved

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit.

Toss the oats, coconut, sugar, and nuts together in a large bowl. Pour the vegetable oil and honey over this mixture. Add the cinnamon, and stir with a wooden spoon until all the oats and nuts are coated with the liquid. Pour onto a parchment papered sheet pan. Bake, stirring occasionally with a spatula, until the mixture turns a nice, even golden brown, about 20 to 25 minutes. Add the cherries and cook for 10 more minutes.

granola from the oven and allow to cool, stirring occasionally. Store the cooled granola in an airtight container. Makes approximately 10 cups.

Of course one can always add more salt or sugar to taste, especially before cooling the recipes down. There is something so yummy about the savoury embracing the sweet.

Seaton Village resident Susan Oppenheim is Java Mama, an independent coffee roaster, baker, avid traveller, and activist. She is the mother of three adult children and the grandmother of three. Susan can be reached by email: javamama.susan@gmail.com.

Line dry your clothes year round

Over the last few years I’ve noticed more and more of my Annex neighbours embracing the drying line over the electric dryer. It’s one of life’s simple pleasures to just admire clothes swaying in the wind on a warm summer day.

I hope that more and more of my neighbours are also embracing the indoor drying rack. It makes so little sense to create heat in an electric dryer only to vent that warm moist air outside.

Meanwhile, cold air heated up by our furnaces creates an uncomfortably dry environment that we have to find ways to humidify. While one appliance rejects heat and moisture, we employ another appliance to create both. This is what I call a waste of energy.

Instead, we could simply line dry our clothes indoors. We save energy in the form of heating and we get a bonus natural humidifier. Our clothes are happier because there’s less wear and tear on them from being heated and tumbled, and our electric bills are happier (perhaps not the electric utility, but you will be happier with the lower bill).

A bonus for anyone with cats is an instant kitty fort as your sheets get draped over an array of chairs.

Dryers also necessitate the use of dryer sheets or some other form of static control. These dryer sheets are the source of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), some of which are known to cause cancer and other adverse health effects. That “fresh scent” is actually a mixture of chemicals containing about 25 VOCs (as measured by one study).

By ditching the dryer, we can eliminate one more cause of chemical pollution in our homes. (In truth most “fresh” smelling cleaners are chemical stews of not-so-healthy things, so I really don’t recommend chemical masks for odours of any sort.)

For big heavy items such as coats, pillows, and comforters where line drying isn’t practical, try replacing chemical-laced dryer sheets with a good old-fashioned tennis ball or two.

This will keep the clothes soft and fluffy without nearly the same amount of chemical release. Keep the heat moderate on the dryer too so that the fibres in the clothes aren’t abused as much and will tend to last longer. We often forget how much clothes are a burden to the environment. Everything from growing the fibres (cotton) to mining them out of wells, or in our case tar sands, imparts a large footprint.

Dying our garments with bright beautiful colours often leaves poor countries that make these products with contaminated drinking water. As attractive as a crimson red dress might be, imagine having to drink water that colour. This is the reality many people who don’t get to choose what colour dress they want to wear that evening face.

Taking care of our clothing and having it last longer means that we do less damage to the earth and to our fellow human beings.

Terri Chu is an engineer committed to practical environmentalism. This column is dedicated to helping the community reduce energy use, and help distinguish environmental truths from myths.

Send questions, comments, and ideas for future columns to Terri at terri.chu@whyshouldicare.ca.

Westbank Corp. has submitted its building application to the City of Toronto for the redevelopment of the Honest Ed’s site and the adjoining Mirvish Village. The store has been saying a long goodbye for some time now but it’s finally slated for closure Dec. 31, 2016. Though the building application is in, it is far from complete. It’s a complex site given the elaborate plans the Vancouver-based developer Westbank has very publicly mused about. Still Westbank is anxious to move forward before the mood of enthusiasm for the project wanes.

The proposed 1,000 residential units, half of which are two-bedroom or more, are going to be rental, not condos as was widely believed. This has caused a small tsunami in the minds of some residents. In terms of density, it’s an additional 3,500 residents in the Annex and their future impact on the area is unknown. The rental element has conjured up in the minds of some that the “wrong element” will take residence. There is an uncomfortable xenophobic sound to that sentiment.

Rental accommodation is what this city needs. According to Employment and Social Development Canada, Toronto’s rental vacancy rate stood at a scant 1.7 per cent in 2014. While no up-to-date figures are available on the subject, creating extra space at a major intersection and on a subway line could be argued as fulfilling an acute need.

We are at a crossroads. Pressure to accommodate a growing population will naturally find an outlet in tall buildings built near subway lines. This is sensible and consistent with the view that urban sprawl represents bad planning, because it is damaging to the environment, and is an inefficient use of all forms of infrastructure.

It’s a myth that all renters don’t care about community values and are not “house proud” because they have no stake in the game. This view fails to recognize that many condos out there contain tenants who are renting from owners who may not even live in the country. In contrast, Westbank plans to be an on-site landlord.

The idea of renting instead of buying so you can live where you want is a quality of life decision that has merit. Buying a house in the Annex these days is arguably a financially unattainable goal for the vast majority of people. Rental vacancies in Toronto are low, and these 1,000, many suitable for families, would be a very welcome addition to the urban inventory.

Architect Gregory Henriquez’s recent visit to the Palmerston Area Residents’ Association (PARA) Annual General Meeting fanned the flames of area residents’ increasing anxiety about the project when he mused about the high percentage of affordable housing in his other developments and the provisions he had previously made for clean injection sites and accommodating the homeless. God forbid we should provide shelter to those that lack it. The PARA executive and the architect agreed at the outset that they would not answer questions about the Honest Ed’s project, only general ones about his portfolio of work. This was an error in judgment that allowed a suspicious audience to “cut and paste” the architect’s socially progressive track record onto this pending development.

It has been argued that this is another St. James Town in the making. Built in the sixties and seventies, well off the beaten track, poorly constructed with no amenities, and overpopulated with 25,000 people, St. James Town is a massive planning failure. The Westbank development is no island like St. James Town. It is located at a core intersection of Bathurst and Bloor streets, right on the subway, filled with amenities, and envisaged to be built to a high standard where the builder plans to be the long-term owner-operator. This is what sets this development apart. This is not a build it and run proposition.

Lumping all developers into the same camp is a blunt instrument approach, which does not encourage developers to propose creative, civic-minded projects. It’s time to set cynicism aside and respond to this proposal with the same positive spirit it offers us.

The Bloor-Annex Business Improvement Area (BABIA) has endorsed Westbank Corp.’s proposal for the redevelopment of the large area at the southwest corner of Bloor and Bathurst streets that includes Mirvish Village and Honest Ed’s.

“We have been deeply engaged with the developer and recognize its outreach to the community,” said Brian Burchell, chair of the BABIA, and publisher of this newspaper. “At the outset, we set some principles that we hoped the developer would meet.”

Those principles include: the preservation of Mirvish Village both in terms of its built form and the unique nature of its shopping, dining, and cultural experience; pursuing small owner-operator tenants for its retail spaces; broad consultation with the community; and developing a destination space that would draw people to the community thereby benefiting the BABIA membership.

According to Burchell, Westbank Corp. has met these conditions, and as such has earned the organization’s endorsement, even though Westbank hasn’t yet officially submitted an application to the City of Toronto.

“We have this one opportunity to comment,” explained Burchell. “We are prohibited under city bylaws governing BIAs from commenting once the application is in the hands of the city.”

Burchell’s big concern is that the area would become something like Yorkville, “which has no soul, whereas Mirvish Village has it in spades”.

With the Westbank development, Burchell added, the area will continue to be “a destination in itself. It will be the BABIA’s new western flank, and we welcome it on our doorstep.”

—Annemarie Brissenden/Gleaner News

A settlement has been reached regarding the future of 484 Spadina Ave., home to the Waverley Hotel and Silver Dollar Room.

The Wynn Group of Companies’ application to build a 22-storey private student residence on the site had been decried by local residents, who had raised concerns about the proposed height, the heritage value of the Silver Dollar Room, and the precedent such a development would set for the area.

Although the City of Toronto denied the developer’s application, it was under appeal at the Ontario Municipal Board.

Under the terms of the settlement, the building will be reduced from 22 to 15 storeys, or 69 to 52 metres, and will incorporate height step-downs and setbacks that will emphasize the architecture of the Silver Dollar Room, which will be restored and maintained in its existing location.

—Annemarie Brissenden/Gleaner News