Georgetown Horticultural Society Friends

Greetings to our Georgetown Horticultural Society friends!

Here is the solution for the puzzle in our ad in your delightful 2016/17 Yearbook:

and hey... thanks for playing along!

Canada Day 2016!

Canada has a great history and July 1st is the time to celebrate it - Happy Canada Day everybody! Here are some fun facts about this amazing country and it's people:

1. "O Canada,” originally named “Chant National,” was written by Adolphe-Basile Routhier (French lyrics) and Calixa Lavallée (music) and first performed in Quebec City in 1880. The song was approved by the Parliament of Canada in 1967 as the unofficial national anthem and adopted officially on July 1, 1980.

2. The border between Canada and the United States is officially known as the International Boundary. At 5,525 miles, including 1,538 miles between Canada and Alaska, it is the world's longest border between two nations.

3. At 3,855,103 square miles, Canada is the second largest country in the world, behind Russia.

4. In 1642, a group of religious mystics from France were inspired by a vision to build a missionary city in the Canadian wilderness. Led by Paul de Chomedey de Maisonneuve and an Ursuline nun name Jeanne Mance, they founded Montreal.

5. While ice hockey is Canada's most prevalent sport, lacrosse is the country's official sport. The modern game of ice hockey was developed in Canada, based on games that have been played since the tenth century. The rules were first published in the Montreal Gazette in 1877.

6. Canada has the longest coastline of any single country in the world at 151,600 miles.

7. In 1527, John Rut of St. John's, Newfoundland, sent a letter to King Henry VIII—the first letter sent from North America.

8. Charles Fenerty, a poet from Halifax, Nova Scotia, was the first person to use wood fibers to make paper. He started experimenting in 1839 and produced paper from wood pulp in 1841.

9. Canadians have made many important inventions, including Kerosene, the electron microscope, the electronic organ, insulin, the IMAX film system, the snowmobile, and the electric cooking range.

10. Manitou Lake on Manitoulin Island in Lake Huron is the world's largest lake within a lake (41.1 square miles).

And now you know! Hope you learned something fun! I did.

D E F Gs of Foodie Figures of Speech

Pepper your language with these expressions your grandparents used... people will wonder, but it will be delicious fun!

Different kettle of fish
If something is a different kettle of fish, it is very different from the other things referenced. 

Duck soup
(USA) If something is duck soup, it is very easy. 

Easy as pie
If something is easy as pie, it is very easy indeed. 

Easy peasy
(UK) If something is easy peasy, it is very easy indeed. ('Easy peasy, lemon squeezy' is also used.) 

Eat humble pie
If someone apologises and shows a lot of contrition for something they have done, they eat humble pie. 

Eat someone alive
If you eat someone alive, you defeat or beat them comprehensively. 

Egg on your face
If someone has egg on their face, they are made to look foolish or embarrassed. 

Fall off the turnip truck
(USA) If someone has just fallen off the turnip truck, they are uninformed, naive and gullible. (Often used in the negative) 

Fine words butter no parsnips
This idiom means that it's easy to talk, but talk is not action. 

Finger in the pie
If you have a finger in the pie, you have an interest in something.

Food for thought
If something is food for thought, it is worth thinking about or considering seriously. 

Forbidden fruit
Something enjoyable that is illegal or immoral is forbidden fruit. 

From soup to nuts
If you do something from soup to nuts, you do it from the beginning right to the very end. 

Full of beans 
If someone's full of beans, they are very energetic. 

Glutton for punishment
If a person is described as a glutton for punishment, he happily accepts jobs and tasks that most people would try to get out of. 

Go fry an egg
(USA) This is used to tell someone to go away and leave you alone. 

Gone pear-shaped
(UK) If things have gone pear-shaped they have either gone wrong or produced an unexpected and unwanted result. 

Good egg
A person who can be relied on is a good egg. Bad egg is the opposite. 

Grain of salt
If you should take something with a grain of salt, you shouldn't accept it as true without looking more carefully at it. ('pinch of salt' is an alternative) 

Gravy train
If someone is on the gravy train, they have found and easy way to make lots of money. 

Memories of A Movable Feast

Marissa, Mandy and Marcia...                                                         with Deborah (2014)

Deborah Palmer for years gave her own wonderful variety of cooking-together-classes in her Georgetown home and later in the cooking studio above Foodstuffs.

Deborah moved to Ottawa in 2014, where she still cooked with JAZZ.FM in the background, thanks to the internet. In 2011 she wrote about how much she loved music and cooking as solitary - and social - joys. Here are Deborah's words, exactly as she wrote them :)

Just had a concert by Bill Evans drop in my vault. I have loved his take on jazz for decades, so serene, so meaningful. I knew so little about him. And why did I need to know? Ross Porter from JAZZ.FM radio led an interview with Bill Evans while Evans was driving. It was curious, quiet, candid, and sad. Bill Evans’ music stands alone.
 
I have learned of many other pianists who are playing their way from the fluences of Bill Evans. This concert was 1975. In 1975 in Toronto I had no jazz friends until Joseph, my husband now for thirty-something years. 

This preamble closes on jazz, music, mindful music, and loud, screaming, head-filling music. I need it when I miss it, in cooking classes. I always get to pick; if my students choose, it’s from my CD stash. Music is THE ingredient in every recipe. I miss everything in our classes, especially my friends the cooks. I deplore to ever balance editing, the hours of shopping, one place to another to find another elusive product; once found, the consideration—how to make it available. The balance of class and prep, tipped to hours of cleanup. 

During each class is always some of the best time in my life. Every bit is worth it; I feel I created a party every time for ten or twelve friends. To watch the dynamics in the room, the pleasure in their decision making, changing things to suit, then tasting, considering—that’s just cooking as it should be. For me, to watch a room of people come together is the best. It worked so well, if I left the room for fifteen minutes no one would notice. My reward IS that.

Twelve years; so many stories, so many friends, so many great evenings. I am making a change to pen and paper to find the key to let it out. I think of Our Feasts, see faces and recall wonderful funny nights, laughter and cheers, success for all, and great simple food. I have been told a number of times that our classes have changed a career path, or opened one wide. Parents have let me know that their sons have found a path to cooking schools and programs. Cooking is work, no doubt, but it is satisfaction every day to create and enjoy and know others find joy in what we cooks do. Find the place that feeds your muse.

I made the scene and let it go on its merry way. I am so glad.

Listen to Mr. Evans as long as we can hear or feel the vibrations.

A B Cs of Foodie Figures of Speech

Idiomatic expressions using food are abundant in English - and probably every other language as well, given food's importance to our lives. Many of these have been borrowed from a tasty web-site called usingenglish.com

About as useful as a chocolate teapot
Someone or something that is of no practical use is about as useful as a chocolate teapot. 

Alike as two peas
If people or things are as alike as two peas, they are identical. 

All the tea in China
If someone won't do something for all the tea in China, they won't do it no matter how much money they are offered. 

All your eggs in one basket
If you put all your eggs in one basket, you risk everything at once, instead of trying to spread the risk. (This is often used as a negative imperative- 'Don't put all your eggs in one basket'.) 

Apple of your eye
Something or, more often, someone that is very special to you is the 'apple of your' eye. 

As cool as a cucumber
If someone is as cool as a cucumber, they don't get worried by anything. 

Back to the salt mine
If someone says they have to go back to the salt mine, they have to return to work. 

Bad egg
A person who cannot be trusted is a bad egg. Good egg is the opposite. 

Banana republic
Banana republic is a term used for small countries that are dependent on a single crop or resource and governed badly by a corrupt elite. 

Banana skin
(UK) A banana skin is something that is an embarrassment or causes problems. 

Bear fruit
If something bears fruit, it produces positive results. 

Best thing since sliced bread
If something is the best thing since sliced bread, it is excellent. ('The greatest thing since sliced bread' is also used.) 

Big Apple
(USA) The Big Apple is New York. 

Big cheese
The big cheese is the boss. 

Bread and butter
Bread and butter issues are ones that affect people directly and in a very important way. 

Breadwinner
Used to describe the person that earns the most money. For example - She's the breadwinner in the family. 

Bring home the bacon
A person who brings home the bacon earns the money that a family live on. 

Butter wouldn't melt in their mouth
If someone looks as if butter wouldn't melt in their mouth, they look very innocent. 

Cake's not worth the candle
If someone says that the cake's not worth the candle, they mean that the result will not be worth the effort put in to achieve it. 

Carrot and stick
If someone offers a carrot and stick, they offer an incentive to do something combined with the threat of punishment. 

Chalk and cheese
Things, or people, that are like chalk and cheese are very different and have nothing in common. 

Cheap as chips
(UK) If something is very inexpensive, it is as cheap as chips. 

Cherry pick
If people cherry pick, they choose things that support their position, while ignoring things that contradict it. 

Chew the cud
If you chew the cud, you think carefully about something. 

Chew the fat
If you chew the fat with someone, you talk at leisure with them. 

Cook up a storm
If someone cooks up a storm, they cause a big fuss or generate a lot of talk about something. 

Couch potato
A couch potato is an extremely idle or lazy person who chooses to spend most of their leisure time horizontal in front of the TV and eats a diet that is mainly junk food. 

Crack a nut with a sledgehammer
If you use a sledgehammer to crack a nut, you apply too much force to achieve a result. ('Jackhammer' is also used.) 

Cream of the crop
The cream of the crop is the best there is. 

Crème de la crème
The crème de la crème is the very best of something. 

Curate's egg
(UK) If something is a bit of a curate's egg, it is only good in parts. 

Curry favour
If people try to curry favour, they try to get people to support them. 

Cut the mustard
(UK) If somebody or something doesn't cut the mustard, they fail or it fails to reach the required standard. 

Foodstuffs in the Community

Each year Foodstuffs is invited to contribute to many local charities and fundraisers. We are proud to be able to give in a small way. Here are some of the wonderful organizations we have helped in recent times:

• St. Andrew's United Church - Georgetown Hospital Foundation
• Halton Food for Thought - Annual Breakfast Gala
• Halton Hills Christian School - Students in the Workplace
• Halton Hills Christian School - Dinner and Auction Fundraiser
• Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation
• ALS walk Fundraiser
• Park Public School - Family Fun Day - to subsidize school trips and improve technology
• Georgetown Horticultural Society Fundraiser
• Maple Nursery School - Silent Auction Fundraiser
• CASHH - Gifts for volunteers
• GDHS - Glen Williams Duck race - Swim Team Fundraiser
• GDHS - Silent Auction Fundraiser
• GDHS - Children's Brick by Brick Program
• Norval United Church - Summer Day Camps Silent Auction Fundraiser
• Tim Hortons Camp Day Fundraiser
• Crop Out Autism - Autism Ontario - Halton Chapter Fundraiser
• Bella Tan - Bread Basket Fundraiser
• St. John's United Church - Annual Christmas Bazaar Fundraiser
• Canadian Federation of University Women - Fall Fashion Show Fundraiser
• Girl Guides - Breakfast with Santa Fundraiser
• Royal Canadian Legion - Silent Auction Fundraiser
• Norval Presbytarian Church - Lucy Maud Montgomery
• Dr. John Dougan Centre for Mental Health - Annual Christmas party
• Georgetown Library Fundraiser
• St. Bridget Catholic School - Family Pasta Night Raffle
• Gaudeamus Choirs of Halton Hills - In Support of Relay for Life, Halton Hills Earth Day
• Canadian Cancer Society - Relay for Life
• Milton Community Centre - Annual Fun Fair Fundraiser
• Georgetown Hospital Foundation
• Cancer Assistance Services of Halton Hills
• Georgetown Agriculture Society - Silent Auction Fundraiser
• Kinsmen Club of Georgetown - Cystic Fibrosis Canada
• Bruce Trail Conservancy - Raffle prize for "footsteps" of trail
• United Way of Halton Hills - Improving Lives in Our Caring Community
• Pineview Public School - Silent Auction Fundraiser
• My Sister's Pink Pajama Party - The Weekend to End Women's Cancers
• George Kennedy School - Healthy Snack Program
• St. Alban Anglican Church - In support of Outreach Programs
• St. Alban Anglican Church - Annual Christmas Bazaar
• The Royal Canadian Legion
• Union Presbyterian Church - Building Fund
• Extendicare Halton Hills - Silent Auction 
• St. John's Anglican Church - Annual Christmas Bazaar
• The Way We Were - Little Black Dress Event for CASHH
• Elizabeth's - Home For The Holidays Fashion Show
• Limehouse Memorial Hall - Maintenance and Projects
• Feet In Motion - Spring into Motion Road Race - Canadian Tire Jumpstart Program
• Georgetown's Rock'N Roll'N Classics - Georgetown Hospital
• Wiseass Golf Tournament - Colon Cancer
• Christ the King Catholic School - Summer Blast Carnival - CtK Cares Charity
• Christ the King Catholic School - Walk for ALS
• Gardiner Public School - Eco Fun Fair Silent Auction Fundraiser
• The Old Seed House Garden - Theatre Night - Restoration of the historic stone wall
• Knights Of Columbus Golf Tournament - in support of CASHH
• Joseph Gibbons Public School - Fun Fair Silent Auction Fundraiser
• Sexual Assault & Violence Intervention Services (SAVIS) - Silent Auction
• President's Cup Golf Tournament - Georgetown Hospital Foundation
• Memorial Fundraiser for Cathy Turner

If you see any errors or omissions concerning your community organization, please let us know