Elmvale Maple Syrup Festival

A Volunteer Lead Community Fundraising Event

The Elmvale Maple Syrup Festival is a fundraising day which supports needs within the community. All proceeds from this one day event are turned back to our schools, children’s music programs, library support, arena and community hall projects, girl guides and scouts, as well as helping many other projects where other financial sources are not available. Many volunteers and many, many hours of planning and behind the scenes effort have gone into preparing for this day. For over 4 decades, committees have sat and wondered what they could do to make the next Maple Syrup Festival better than the year before.

For many ex-Elmvalites and Georgian Bay Cottagers, the Festival Day develops into a HOME-COMING WEEKEND. What a great time to visit with friends and families as well as have a fun day at the Festival!

We thank all our volunteer helpers for their efforts in putting this day together for you. It is this selfless group who make the Festival possible; the planning committee who meet every month for 10 months; the men, women and children who tirelessly participate each year on Festival Day; the local businesses and organizations who donate so much, such as parking space, flowers, prizes etc.

Sincere thanks to our Sponsors and Partners whose financial support contributes to the success of our great Festival. We hope you enjoy yourself and come back to visit Elmvale and the beautiful country life we offer here.  http://www.emsf.ca/

Food Synergy

Elmvale Maple Syrup Festival

Sugar Bush Tours

Be sure to take a trip to our local sugar bush to see first hand how maple syrup is made. This year’s bus transportation to “Greenlaw Maples” and “Lalonde’s Sugar Bush” has been arranged.

Tickets are available at the Sugar Shack Information Booth located at the entrance at Yonge Street and Queen Street.

Bus Tickets  •  $5.00 a person and FREE for children under 12

.http://www.emsf.ca/events/sugar-bush/

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Sweet Potato & Curried Red Lentil Pizza

Ingredients

• ¾ cup (180 mL) dry red lentils
• 1½ cups water
• 1 tbsp. olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 small onion, chopped
• ½ small eggplant, diced
• 1 lb sweet potato, cubed
• 1 can Italian Style diced tomatoes, un-drained
• 1 tsp. ground ginger
• 1½ tsp. curry powder
• 1½ tbsp. ground cumin
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 (12 inch) thin prebaked whole wheat pizza crust
• ¼ cup grated Romano cheese

Directions

• Combine the lentils and water in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer over low heat for about 20 minutes, or until tender. Drain, and set aside.
• Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Spray a pizza pan with non-stick cooking spray.
• Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat. Stir in garlic and onion; cook until soft and slightly browned. Stir in eggplant and sweet potato. Pour about ½ cup of liquid from canned tomatoes. Simmer until juices are absorbed.
• Stir in tomatoes, ginger, curry powder, cumin, salt and pepper; simmer until sweet potato begins to soften, about 15 to 20 minutes. (If juices cook off before potatoes are fully cooked, stir in a small amount of water, and cover.)
• Place pizza crust on pizza pan. Spread the lentils evenly across the surface of the crust out to the edges. Spread sweet potato mixture evenly on top, and sprinkle with cheese.
• Bake in the preheated oven until the edges are browned, about 10 to 13 minutes.

Nutritional information

• Per Serving (1 slice)
• Calories 189
• Protein 8.5g
• Carbohydrates 30.5g
• Fibre 7.1g
• Sugars 5.8g
• Fat 4.4g
• Cholesterol 4.6mg
• Potassium 587.1mg
• Sodium 216.1mg
• Vitamin A 36%
• Vitamin C 11%
• Calcium 10%
• Folate 7%
• Iron 53%
• Zinc 4%

http://www.lentils.ca/recipes/sweet-potato-and-curried-red-lentil-pizza

Tomato Pesto Grilled Cheese Sandwich

Tomato Pesto Grilled Cheese Sandwich

2 slices thick cut bread (I used a chewy sourdough)
2 oz. shredded fontina
1 oz. shredded smoked gouda
1 oz. or 1 slice swiss
4 slices tomato (I usually use heirloom, but this time I used a Baka Brown)
1 tbsp. basil pesto (homemade, but jarred is fine too)
2 tbsp. garlic butter

Instructions:

1. Heat your BBQ/grill, setting your knobs to medium or a temperature of 350-400˚F
2. Spread one side of each of the pieces of bread with the garlic butter. Place the bread buttered side down. Grill until golden.
3. Spread the other side of the pieces of bread and place buttered side down and grill.
4. Layer on the swiss and fontina.
5. Place slices of tomato on top of the cheese and spread or dollop on the pesto.
6. Top with the gouda and place another slice of bread on top grilled side down.
7. Grill over medium heat on each side until golden. If the cheese isn't fully melted turn off the heat and leave on the grill with the cover closed until the desired meltiness has been achieved!

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Rescue Flowers from Frost

What you can do to save spring flowers from freezing temperatures, snow, and sleet.

My tulips and daffodils are just about to bloom, but our forecast is for freezing temperatures, snow, and sleet. What can I do to save the flowers? —C. J. O’Brien, Acton, Massachusetts

The good news is that flowering bulbs are remarkably resilient. Most will not be fazed by limited periods of cold weather, says Steve Zwiep, Parks Department supervisor for the city of Holland, Michigan, home of the annual Tulip Time Festival. “We’ve had snow a foot deep and packed around the tulips. When the snow melted, the tulip buds were fine and ready to go,” Zwiep says. The risk of damage is greatest, he explains, when the plants are blooming.

Before the buds open, both daffodils and tulips are fairly immune to the cold, but open flowers are more sensitive to frosts and freezes. “Freezing temperatures overnight with warming during the day usually doesn’t cause any problems,” says Zwiep, who has grown literally millions of tulips over the years, both in his family’s greenhouse business and for the city of Holland. “Once [tulip] stamens start showing, the flowers become sensitive to prolonged frost and may be damaged by the cold.”

By “prolonged,” he means round-the-clock low temperatures lasting for several days. He recommends covering small areas of blooming flowers with a sheet (supported by plant stakes to avoid breaking stems) during the nights when such conditions occur. “You can also use a sprinkler to spray water on the flowers to prevent injury, as growers in Florida do to protect the blossoms on fruit trees,” he adds.

The Holland, Michigan, 2011 Tulip Time Festival will be held May 7 to 14 and will feature parades, celebrations of the city’s Dutch heritage and culture, and 6 million tulips.

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Starting Wildflower Seeds

Tossing seeds onto snow might result in an instant bird feeding frenzy rather than a naturalized garden come spring. Some seeds, including many native wildflower seeds, need a moist chilling period (below 45°F for about 60 to 90 days) to break dormancy. The process is called cold stratification, and it can be done several ways, including sowing seed outside into beds in autumn, planting flats of seeds in coldframes, and chilling seeds in the refrigerator.

"Broadcasting seeds on snow could work, but I don't see any real point in it," says William Cullina, author and nursery director of the New England Wild Flower Society. "You'd have better luck preparing a site in fall, before the first snow, and sowing the seeds then." Wildflowers often grow in poor soils and difficult climates, but they still benefit from a well-prepared seedbed. A raised bed filled with high-quality topsoil provides the best environment, but a garden bed with well-draining, fine-textured soil will work fine, too. In either situation, dig in 1 to 2 inches of finished compost before sowing.

Cullina suggests sowing rows of seeds in late fall and covering the seeds very lightly with soil or hay. "In spring, you'll see the seedlings come up in rows, and then you can thin them and transplant them." This method produces successful results with minimal hassle. Columbine (Aquilegia spp.), blue stars (Amsonia spp.), and members of the aster family (Asteraceae), including Joe Pye weed (Eupatorium spp.) and blazing star (Liatris spp.), generally germinate well with this method, Cullina says. I recommend that you also contact a local wildflower organization and ask about wildflowers that grow well from seed in your area (try the McHenry County Defenders Wildflower Preservation and Propagation Committee; 815-338-0393, mcdef.org).

If you'd like to try the other cold stratification methods mentioned above, I encourage you to read Cullina's book The New England Wild Flower Society Guide to Growing and Propagating Wildflowers of the United States and Canada (Houghton Mifflin, 2000). With several detailed propagation techniques and profiles of a vast array of native wildflowers, it's a wonderful resource for anyone interested in dipping their toe (or entire self) into the sea of wildflower propagation.

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