Vaudeville Returns

If you had been at our Roxy Theatre when it was still the Grand Opera House you might well have been there to see a Vaudeville show - a full bill of a dozen or so acts that could have included trained dogs, an opera singer, tap dancers and an Arctic explorer. A uniquely North American form of entertainment, vaudeville was created to capitalize on a growing middle class as potential audience, offering something for everyone, including women and children. In the elegant theatres in which vaudeville flourished, the rowdy behavior of patrons of earlier bawdier entertainment was discouraged by ushers with white gloves, passing out notices such as the following on silver trays “Gentlemen will kindly avoid the stamping of feet and pounding of canes on the floor, and greatly oblige the Management.” I know all of this because my assistant Kelda is fascinated by Vaudeville. Her big beautiful singing voice was made for those songs and those pre-amplification stages.

Kelda is originally from Calgary, with a stop at the University of Lethbridge to get a degree in vocal music. She came to Owen Sound a year ago after finishing an Otesha tour, cycling across the prairies with a group of like-minded young people, making community presentations about sustainability. While initially she might have answered the question “Why did you come to Owen Sound?” with “because it’s not Calgary”, I think she has made herself at home in our community.

Kelda sings in two local choirs, was part of Owen Sound’s second annual Buskerfest both as a committee member and a performer, and voted and worked as a poll clerk in our municipal election. She brought her experiences from Katimavik, Otesha, the Arusha Centre (look it up) and Community Foods to Owen Sound and has already grown basketsful of vegetables in a local community garden and is an active member of the Local Motive project. And she can pretty well run our store single-handed.

Now Kelda has a new project. It started with a door she bought from the Habitat for Humanity Re-Store that had a brass plaque - “Cozy Knook”. We may argue about the spelling or the merits of alliteration, but we agree about what will go on behind that door. Fully approved by our Public Health Unit, Kelda’s Kitchen will be a welcoming place for a community kitchen, for starters. Six or eight people - singles or couples, seniors or families – can get together to cook and share a meal, do the dishes together and take home a serving or two of leftovers for another day. Chef’s demonstrations and cooking classes can be held there – bread baking, perogie making, cake decorating, stock and soups, cooking for special diets. The kitchen will be outfitted with a pressure canner and freezers for preserving the harvest. Local farmers and growers can come in and talk about the food they grow and how best to store it, and local cooks and chefs can show us how to bring out its best taste. If people want to make food for fundraisers, or to test a little food business idea, the Kitchen will be a perfect place.

Kelda has already had interest from some folks at the Billy Bishop Museum for heritage cooking groups and Community Living for basic cooking classes. Not to mention the enthusiasm of the neighbours who keep asking when it is opening. She has been accumulating equipment from sinks and stoves to a pasta maker and dehydrator, and offers from Canadian Tire money to work bees. The folks from the Big Carrot in Toronto have such confidence in Kelda’s idea that they have given her a grant from their “Carrot Cache” – enough to pay for the permits and drawings and some of the labour.

So what does all this have to with Vaudeville? Because Saturday, November 13 some friends of Kelda’s Kitchen are putting on a Vaudeville show at St. George’s Parish Hall at 7:00 p.m. to help raise a little more money for the plumbing and wiring and drywalling that will make the Kitchen a reality. As befits the spirit of the Kitchen, the show is pay-what-you-can and the whole family can come and enjoy for a small donation. Wonderful talented members of our community are offering their time to sing, dance and play their music. Come expecting to be amazed and delighted. But remember, “Please don't talk during acts, as it annoys those about you, and prevents a perfect hearing of the entertainment. The Management^.”

Groceries and Vaudeville

We want to know your favourite foods at Around the Sound. Or have we yet to bring in your personal "best ever"? Fill in a ballot at the store with your favourite thing in the store AND the one great thing you would like us to find for you. Add your contact information and we'll put on the amount you spent that day and enter it in the draw. If your name is picked at the Vaudeville Show on November 13, you will win that much again in groceries ...FREE!

Oh, did I mention the Vaudeville Show? It's Saturday, November 13 at 7 p.m. at St. George's Hall - music, dance, magic and more for the whole family. Ragtime, mentalism, tango - you can only guess what's in store! Pay whatever you can - all proceeds will go to Kelda's Kozy Knook - the community kitchen being built at Around the Sound.

Around the Sound Local Food Market is open 10 until 7 Wednesday to Friday and Saturday 9 to 5 at 685 6th Street East at the 7th Avenue lights. Call us at 370-2333 or email at aroundsoundfood@gmail.com

Food is a community affair

When Around the Sound moved to its new location on 6th Street East at 7th Avenue in Owen Sound it was with a view to having a kitchen in the store for cooking classes, chef demonstrations, and a space where someone could test the market for Grandma's great recipe before investing in a processing space. We also wanted to have a place where we could have Community Kitchens where folks could cook a meal together and take home a serving for the freezer. Kelda's Kitchen gets closer to reality but we need a few things yet. We need a person with a BCIN (?) number to look over our drawings so the city can give us a building permit. We need some people handy with drywall and wood.
And we need people to come to Kelda's Vaudeville Show in mid-November to help us pay for the good people who will install our sinks, outlets and vents.
Give us a call if you want to be part of this great community food project.

In a jam...or a pickle

Everybody has a favourite part of a Fall Fair. For some it is the horse show, or tractor pull or the rides or the dance. For me it is the work that people do at home, working all year on a beautiful quilt or sweater. Watering and weeding to produce a beautiful squash or tomato. And getting out grandmother's recipe book, stained on the very best pages, to make the chili sauce or apple pie or strawberry jam.
Then going to the fair and looking at the competition, holding your breath to see if there is a ribbon on your jar.
As we drive to the Fair we see pumpkins and cornstalks in the field and tomatoes and squash for sale at the end of the laneway. Turkeys are enjoying their last few weeks before Thanksgiving, and you could eat far more than your apple a day to keep the doctor away. But come February, you will be happy that you made all that applesauce, pickled those beets, canned those tomatoes and froze the corn. It is a long winter, and good local food will come out of the pantry and the cold cellar and freezer. Put it away now while it is plentiful and you'll be smiling all winter.

Being Green Farm Comes to Town

Farmer Tarrah Young describes their Green Being Farm as "a little bit of heaven in Neustadt". Who knew? She and partner Nathan Carey chose their farmstead carefully, knowing they wanted to have a full range of pasture-fed animals and a big vegetable garden. The property had a swimming pool - the perfect spot for a huge cold storage for their winter vegetables. On Thursday, September 16 at 7 p.m., Tarrah will come to Around the Sound to show us pictures of the farm, talk about their happy chickens, and bring samples of the organic produce from their garden. She will tell us about Community Shared Agriculture, and you will have an opportunity to be part of the farm by signing up for a bi-weekly share of the stored harvest all winter, plus farm fresh eggs, meats and prepared foods made with Green Being ingredients. Everyone is welcome on the 16th - come along and join the fun.

How eggsasperating!

Kellogg’s has issued a nationwide voluntary recall of Froot Loops in the United States. Finally, I thought. The company has recognized the folly of its ways and refused to expose children to their atrocious spelling any longer. But no, the recall is because of an 'uncharacteristic off-flavor and smell coming from the liner of the packages'. Kellogg’s has not identified the substance that causes the smell but says it is commonly used in the waxy resins used to coat cheese and cucumbers. Why am I not reassured?
As long as you did not pick up your Froot Loops (or Apple Jacks, or Corn Pops) on a recent trip to the States, you need have no fear. None of the affected product appears on the Health Canada recall list. (Our national health watch dog does, however, want Canadians to be aware of the clear and present danger of counterfeit Viagra and “small pieces of metal” in certain chocolate chip cookies, so keep up your guard.)
The smelly substance in the foil cereal liners no doubt accounts for the “Better Before” dates of the recalled packages - March 26 through June 22, 2011. Do people really buy cereal seven to ten months in advance? Do they have cases of emergency Corn Pops in the basement to avoid temper tantrums at the breakfast table?
On a far more serious note, the number of eggs in the recent recall in the United States has now reached half a billion, and news reports say it may be the largest egg recall for salmonella in the past ten years. It “may” be?? The affected eggs could carry any of thirteen brand names, are suspected in illness in at least fourteen states, and might have been made into anything from meringue pie in a restaurant to the pudding in a senior’s home. But all the eggs came from two “farms”. Apparently the owner of the larger facility had paid $2 million in fines in 1997 for health and safety violations on his farm in Maine, where the national labour secretary called the conditions “simply atrocious”. He moved on to Iowa, where in 2000 he was designated the first ever “habitual violator” of environmental regulations. And they are still wondering how salmonella bacteria might have found its way into the eggs.
It would be nice to sit here in Grey-Bruce and feel smug that none of these salmonella- laced eggs were sold here. This time. But we are not immune. There are hundreds of dozens of American eggs being trucked into Owen Sound every week, and they are subject to no more scrutiny than the recalled eggs.

Summerfolk Food

A few years ago, the Summerfolk folks decided to showcase local food at the festival. Food vendors now use lots of local food in their offerings. The merchandise tent includes a new feature, In My Backyard, where festival goers can buy local food products for snacks, camping and souvenirs.

And this year, look for food demonstrations and samples at the Grey Bruce Agricultural and Culinary Association's booth on the west side of the food area all weekend.