Read about the people, places, businesses, and history that make Kawarthas Northumberland special
“Observation is probably the biggest thing—noticing small details,” Fred Preddy says. He’s sitting in an evocatively lit parlour, wearing a waistcoat that would have been the height of fashion a century and a half ago. As one of the owner-operators of Escape Maze south of Peterborough, Fred’s used to fielding questions about how the experiences at his interactive gaming facility are designed.
The David Fife cabin is far from the grandest building on the grounds of Lang Pioneer Village. It’s a rustic 18’ x 14’ room, built in the 1825 by new immigrants racing to complete their shelter before the cold hit. Apart from a window into life two hundred years ago, however, the cabin is significant for another reason—it was the first Canadian home of a family that that would leave an indelible mark on agriculture in North America.
Maicey Benjamin “doesn’t do titles”—but as a founding member of the Bobcaygeon Farmers’ Market, he’s been a driving force for one of the area’s most important local food destinations for over a decade. Every Saturday from May to October, the Bobcaygeon Farmers’ Market sets up on the Bobcaygeon Fairground, selling goods grown or produced within
Nothing compares to the taste of fresh fruit—and for a few weeks in summer, Northumberland’s Moore Orchards is like an all-natural candy store. When their pick-your-own strawberry patch is in season visitors come from across the region and beyond, drawn by the quality produce and the chance to connect with the places their food comes from. What doesn’t get picked by customers goes into the local food scene in other ways, including helping Cobourg’s zero-waste grocery store Market & Smør achieve their sustainability goals. It’s a virtuous cycle that benefits both producers and entrepreneurs, not to mention consumers looking to eat healthy and eat local.
If you enjoyed the Meet the Musicians series, you can now listen to the complete recordings that appear in each artist’s video profile. Performing at venues across Kawarthas Northumberland, all six musicians gave heartfelt performances that deserve to be heard in their entirety. Thanks again to Kate Boothman, Beau Dixon, Close Kicks, Cale Crowe, Melissa
Talking about music is like dancing about architecture, so the saying goes. It can be hard for a musician to describe what they do, which is why Kate Boothman invented a new genre to describe her latest album, My Next Mistake. “It’s a really relaxing record about sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll, so we called it massage rock,” she says, laughing. “It’s versatile—it can be played acoustic, it can be played loud electric, but I’m a singer-songwriter, essentially.”
At the start of 2020, Beau Dixon wasn’t sure where his career was headed. Even as a multidisciplinary artist with credits in music, theatre, and television, the closure of so many performance venues was nerve-wracking. “The first few months were very scary—how’s this going to work, what am I going to do, should I go back to school, you know, take up plumbing,” he recalls. In one of the pandemic’s many unpredictable twists, he found himself working on two prestige TV productions instead. “Weirdly enough, this has been the most successful two years of my life, my career, primarily because I landed a TV series called Station Eleven. I had a substantial role in that and another series, a sci-fi series called The Expanse. So that helped during my rainy days.”
We’re used to seeing far-off places in our media. New York lofts, tropical beaches, Icelandic vistas—all perks of living in the Internet age. But it can make it all too easy to forget about the scenery and stories in our own backyard. Darryl James’ Close Kicks project is unabashedly local, and there’s a thrill of recognition in his music videos to seeing our landscapes and streets not as stand-ins for another place or era, but as themselves. Speaking to James and his collaborator Luis Segura, aka Louwop, at Lindsay’s Academy Theatre, it’s clear their commitment to nurturing the local scene runs deep.
Check the shelves in a grocery store on either side of the country, and you’ll find plenty of foods that taste exactly the same as they do here in Ontario. So many experiences these days are standardized for consistency, it’s a real thrill to find something uniquely tied to a place and a community. That’s
A mark of professionalism in music is control over dynamics—the understanding of how to move between quiet and loud for maximum impact. Watching Cale Crowe perform, one thing that stands out is his ability to glide smoothly from a whisper to a roar. The singer-songwriter looks relaxed and comfortable onstage at Cobourg’s Victoria Hall, even as he plays stripped-down acoustic versions of his songs without the loop pedals he usually employs to build more complex arrangements. When he steps off stage, he gives credit to the venue for being especially conducive to live music.
Melissa Payne sits in the front row of Peterborough’s Market Hall, having just stepped off stage after a performance of her song “September Skies.” Like every performer in the Meet the Musicians series she has special connection to the venue, but Payne’s story has a fascinating symmetry.
Music scenes don’t happen automatically. They must be nurtured, week after week and month after month, by disciplined and passionate individuals who offer their energy to the community. They might be musicians themselves, leading a jam or bringing out crowds to a regular residency, or they might be venue owners opening their space to artists. As one of Bobcaygeon’s most active songwriters with a full-time music teaching schedule, Kelly Burrows easily qualifies as a prime mover in the Kawartha Lakes scene.