This September we'll be hosting a series of three Swing-dance workshops! Join instructor Rob Porter for three sessions starting Sept 13 @ 7pm at the Sky Dragon Centre. You will be learning East-Coast Jive (aka "the Jitterbug") style of swing dance, which is geared towards medium-to-fast-tempo swing music and is easy for anyone able-bodied to learn quickly.

 

This summer, HSR passengers will be going the distance to meet their City’s hardworking farmers; many city folks will discover first-hand that it can be a short distance indeed, from "field-to-fork". The newly developed “Rural Routes” countryside bus tours offers monthly farm excursions and is a collaborative projected being presented by Hamilton Eat Local, Smart Commute, Hamilton Street Railway (HSR), and Tourism Hamilton. These tours will provide Hamilton's public transit users with access to some of the area’s most dynamic farms; promote imaginative ways of using the City’s public transit system as a viable means to commute; and get urbanites excited about 'agri-tourism' by showing off the lush and beautiful countryside that surrounds our 'steel' city.

Karen Burson of Hamilton's Eat Local is so excited about this event that she can barely sit still while she's describing it. "As someone who decided a long time ago that I would rather be a transit-user than a driver," she enthuses, "I have been frustrated about the fact that the only way to visit the farms that I love has been by car. It seemed to me that there are a lot of Hamilton residents who might be just as eager as I am to find a way to get out of the City once in a while".

Inspired by a student-led environmental bus tour project called "Seed to Scrap" which took place in Fall 2008, and by a gastronomic tour of the Niagara region that had been organized by Slow Food Canada, Burson believed that a tour that explores Hamilton's agriculturally rich outskirts was a compelling idea. Each month’s Rural Routes tour will offer a unique program developed by the host farm. Each will also offer an on-farm market stand so participants can purchase a variety of seasonal fruits, vegetables, meats, and more before boarding the bus for the return trip to the City. The tours will run on selected Saturday afternoons from 1:00pm to 3:30pm. The pick up point for each tour is the Bread & Roses Cafe at the Sky Dragon Centre (27 King William St.). This innovative cafe will be offering Rural Routes ticket holders a free cup of their organic, fair trade coffee which is roasted in-house (which is about as local as coffee can get)! Adult tickets are only $5 for each trip while children and seniors tickets cost only $2 each. Here is a look at the schedule:

• June 12: Rural Routes will take passengers to ManoRun Organic Farm located in Copetown. ManoRun is well-known for their relationship with the Ancaster Old Mill. Denise Trigatti, farmer at ManoRun, will lead passengers through a herb garden discovery, livestock milking demonstration, and a talk about the joys of growing and eating food that is both local and organic.

• July 10: Morden’s Organic Farm and Farm Store located in Dundas will be the next destination. Morden’s is a co-operative of local farmers who bring their meats, dairy and seasonal fruits and vegetables to this health-food hub. Sandy Morden, owner and operator of Morden’s, will provide a tour of the farm and a visit with the farm animals.

• August 21: Rural Routes travels to Puddicombe Estate Farm & Winery of Stoney Creek, where staff will teach visitors the correct way of caring for peaches including canning and freezing techniques. There will be fresh corn in season available for purchase as well, so don't miss out on this traditional family treat.

• September 11: Carluke Orchards in Ancaster welcomes you. One of Hamilton’s best-known apple orchards will offer Rural Routes passengers wagon rides and guided walking tours. They are also well known for their tasty farm-baked apple pies.

Tickets will be available at Bread and Roses Café at the SkyDragon Centre (27 King William St.). There may be tickets available on the day of the tour at the pickup point, but seats are limited! For more information about Rural Routes, please visit www.smartcommute.ca/hamilton or call Hamilton Eat Local at 905-549-0900.

Would you like to start a peace café in your community soon?

Maybe you don't currently call it a "peace café", maybe it's a worker co-operative café or coffeehouse or community centre, maybe it's a public outreach centre or a general public education centre. There's many terminologies that can be used to describe the idea.

Today I'm in Waterloo at the Wilfred Laurier University's Global Citizenship Conference, to present on peace cafés and I've found yet another group working on something similar. The approaches to creating a space for community engagement and empowerment are as varied as the communities within a city, region, province, state, or as varied as cultures worldwide. There is no one way of doing it, no cookie cutter that will work everywhere like a franchise. (Not that any franchise can work anywhere...)

As I said there's many approaches, most of which follow the path of forming a group of interest, finding a space of interest, and working together with a common cause and common values. A peace café may be something which exists only at certain times at first (event-based approach) or may exist where food and drink aren't yet necessarily available (someone's office with a self-serve kitchenette), or may travel as a meeting concept (like conversation cafés). Maybe it's a concept you'd like to connect to similar kinds of businesses (like a bed & breakfast, an inn, etc.).

Do any of these things sound like something you're involved with? Or want to be? If we don't know about you yet, perhaps you should contact us -- info AT peacecafe.ca.

No scope is too small. Some might be too big, but never too small.