Line a large, rimmed cookie sheet (about 13-by-18-inch) with parchment, or grease with cooking spray.
Heat broth and water in a large pot over medium until just simmering. Slowly whisk in cornmeal and ½ tsp chili powder. Cook, whisking constantly, until thickened and bubbly, 1–2 minutes.
Pour onto prepared sheet, and use a spatula to smooth the polenta into an even, thin layer. Let stand at room temperature until set, about 20 minutes.
Heat oil in a large pot over medium. Add onion and salt, and cook, covered, 3 minutes or until onions are starting to soften. Add mushrooms, zucchini, and garlic, and cook, uncovered, 8–12 minutes or until vegetables are golden and there’s very little moisture left in the pot. Add beef, and cook 3–5 minutes or until cooked through. Stir in chili powder, cumin, and cayenne.
Drain one can of tomatoes, then add tomatoes plus additional can (and juice), crushing them with a spoon. Simmer until thickened, about 15–20 minutes. Stir in beans.
Spread one-third of beef mixture in the bottom of a 9-by-13-inch baking dish. Top with ½ cup cheese. Cut polenta in half crosswise. Place one half over cheese. Top with another third of beef mixture and another ½ cup cheese. Top with the remaining polenta and remaining beef mixture. Sprinkle with remaining cheese. If making ahead, cool to room temperature, then cover tightly with foil, and refrigerate up to 2 days, or freeze.
Preheat oven to 350°F. Bake, covered (25–35 minutes if going straight to oven, 50–70 minutes if from the fridge) until piping hot. Uncover, and broil 3–6 minutes until the cheese is golden. Let stand 5–10 minutes before serving.
Notes
A frozen lasagna makes for easy transport. To reheat from frozen, cook at 300°F for about 3 hours, then broil as per recipe.
Have you heard of the woodcock? What about the timberdoodle? It’s the same bird. The same, strange-looking bird. Spring is a key time for the plump, stubby-necked avian. With its bizarre preportions—look at that long beak—it’s hard to imagine that the woodcock would be a strong flier. But it is. And beginning in March, males take to the skies to woo their future lady loves with astonishing courtship flights.
What does the woodcock sound like?
About 20 minutes after sundown in early spring, male woodcocks start to call to the ladies: peent, peent, peent. It’s nasal and buzzy, and audible from more than 200 metres away. A male will repeat the sound every few seconds for a couple of minutes, then launch into the air, spiralling through the sky 100 metres up. Then he abruptly hurtles back to earth, flying in a zigzag pattern. He repeats this aerial dance about a dozen times, and does the same thing again at dawn, for two months. That’s dedication.
What do woodcocks eat?
The woodcock isn’t nearly as fancy-footed on the ground, but it does move in an unusual way. While foraging—for beetle grubs, maggots, and millipedes—the robin-sized bird camouflages with its surroundings thanks to its buff, brown, and black feathers. It bobs back and forth, shifting its weight from foot to foot as it uses its upper bill to probe the leaf litter. The upper bill has a flexible, serrated tip that’s full of blood vessels. The woodcock uses it to detect the vibrations of critters in the soil—mostly earthworms, a staple food. Experts think the bird’s back-and-forth movement is intentional, to encourage worms to burrow deeper, and therefore, make noise that the woodcock can “hear”. Sneaky trick!
If you’re looking for a place to stay, consider one of these affordable rentals. All six are within a few hours drive of Halifax and offer nearby beaches, extensive hiking trails, and the opportunity to catch a glimpse of local wildlife, including whales, eagles, and seals.
Photo by Phil/VRBO
Owls Head Island Cottage
Photo by Phil/VRBO
Owls Head Island Cottage
Photo by Phil/VRBO
Owls Head Island Cottage
Photo by Phil/VRBO
Owls Head Island Cottage
Photo by Phil/VRBO
Owls Head Island Cottage
Photo by Phil/VRBO
Owls Head Island Cottage
One of eight properties on Owls Head Island, this four-bedroom, Nova Scotian cottage offers breathtaking views of St. Margaret’s Bay. Start your day wildlife watching with a coffee on the cottage deck.
A luxurious couple’s getaway, take advantage of this one-bedroom cottage’s proximity to Mahone Bay harbour with a stroll along the waterfront or head to the nearby Settlers Museum and Lunenburg Art Gallery to soak in some Nova Scotian culture.
Overlooking St. Margaret’s Bay, this Nova Scotia cottage has 60 feet of oceanfront along with a dock and boathouse. Take the kayak or snorkeling gear out to explore the surrounding waters, or relax dockside with a drink in one hand and a fishing rod in the other.
Location: Hacketts Cove, N.S.
Price: Averages $238 per night
Sleeps: 2
Bedrooms: 1
Notes:
Oceanfront property
35 minutes from Halifax
Internet included
Kayaks and paddle board available for use
Six minutes away you can buy fresh lobster from Ryer Seafood Ltd.
Inspired by traditional fishing stages, this Nova Scotian cottage has a 500-sq. ft. upper deck and a 300-sq. ft. lower deck. Relax in the upper deck’s daybed overlooking Creaser Cove, or rinse off beneath a blue sky in the cottage’s outdoor shower.
This seven-acre property, hand-built by the owner, features a cathedral ceiling, pine beams, and cedar shingles finished in classic Cape Breton style. Surrounded by walking trails and stunning views of the Atlantic Ocean, the cottage is two minutes from Chimney Corner Beach.
With a beach across the road, this Nova Scotian cottage offers the perfect vantage point to catch a glimpse of porpoise, seals, or even a Minke whale. And if you want to try your hand at cooking, the owners are willing to provide an outdoor lobster pot.
Canadian Tire has issued a recall on MotoMaster Eliminator X-Trail AT Tires, model numbers 202-2097 and 202-2098.
In the announcement, the retail company stated that some of the tires sold were missing the 3PMS symbol from the tire’s sidewall, due to a manufacturing issue. 3PMS stands for three-peak mountain snowflake. The symbol is a six-pointed snowflake within a three-peak mountain, typically found beneath the tire’s X-Trail lettering.
Photo courtesy of Canadian Tire
The 3PMS symbol indicates that the tire has been tested for acceleration on medium-packed snow. Despite missing the symbol, Canadian Tire emphasized this is a non-safety-related recall, meaning the tires have been properly tested and meet Transport Canada requirements.
Photo courtesy of Canadian Tire
If you did purchase one of these tires, the company asks “that you return it to the store of purchase for a tire inspection. If the check verifies that this recall impacts you, the dealer will replace your tires with the same tire at no cost to you.”
The free replacement is available to customers until May 13.
If you have any further questions, you can reach out to Canadian Tire’s customer relations at 1-800-387-8803.
I’m the president of a property owners’ association and we are looking at posting two signs at the entrance to our private roads. (The municipality does not maintain our roads. They’re maintained by the association dues we collect annually from each property owner.) In the last couple of years, we have noticed more activity on our roads by individuals who are not members of our association. More specifically ATV activity and people using the roads to access our lake. Does the association have a right to post a sign stating “Private Road No Trespassing”? Are there any ramifications in doing so and is there other wording we should consider?— M.J., Trent Lakes, Ont.
Go ahead and post your signs. “If the road is a private road and is private property, the owners of the road have the right to post ‘No Trespassing’ or any other signage restricting access to the property,” says Jeffrey E. Streisfield of Land Law. Post as many signs as you want: “There is no restriction on the number of signs you can erect on your private property or along the roadway.”
It’s a good idea, however, to first confirm the registered owner of the private roads, says Oliver Cooper, a lawyer with McGillen Keay Cooper Law Office in Peterborough, Ont. “Are the roads included on every cottager’s property deed? Or is only one person the actual owner?” This could matter because, under the Trespass to Property Act, it’s only the person who is officially considered an “occupier” who has “legal authority to deal with the road,” says Cooper. (For advice on how to track this info down, contact your lawyer.)
But back to your question. Your wording suggestion is fine, but “I’d also include ‘No Unauthorized Motor Vehicles,’ ” says Cooper; this drives the point home for the ATV riders. And put a “10-cm, solid red circle in the middle of the sign,” he says. It’s highly visible, and everyone knows that red means stop. In fact, under the Act, a 10-cm red circle is the only thing you need to post. “As soon as you post that, you’ve ‘given notice,’ ” says Cooper. “Anyone who comes on your property uninvited is violating the Act.”
There are no ramifications to posting the signs. But there’s also no guarantee that they’ll work. Let’s give these ATV riders and other non-association members the benefit of the doubt: maybe they don’t know the roads are private. Maybe once the signs are up, they’ll stay away. If not, you have every right to call the police—they’re breaking the law.
This article was originally published in the Winter 2021 issue of Cottage Life magazine.
Got a question for Cottage Q&A? Send it to answers@cottagelife.com.
At one of Canada’s southernmost points, you’ll discover the historic town of Amherstburg, Ont. Set along the Detroit River near the mouth of Lake Erie, the town is home to many shops, places to eat, and attractions to visit. Here’s how to plan your trip to Amherstburg, Ontario.
Learn about the past and present
Pre-book your visit and tour to the Amherstburg Freedom Museum to explore Black history and the Underground Railroad in Canada. Since 1975, the museum has been telling stories of African-Canadians through artifacts, exhibits, and stories.
Strategically located on the banks of the Detroit River is the Fort Malden National Historic Site. There is a lot of military history associated with this Parks Canada site, including the War of 1812 and the Rebellions in 1837 to 1838. There are tours, demonstrations, and events throughout the year.
Don’t be scared of the past—learn more about it with the free, self-guided Olde Amherstburg Ghost Tour. Download the app, and follow along as you learn more about Amherstburg’s haunting history.
Where to eat and drink
Order your favourite brewed beverage or a bite to eat at Caffeine and Co. to enjoy inside their unique and stylish cafe or on their patio. Eat at one of the local restaurants such as The Salty Dog for perch and chips, wood-fired pizza, or lobster ravioli. Waterfront Ice Cream and Frozen Yogurt is the destination for frozen treats and over 50 flavours of ice cream. Fish lovers (especially if you are looking for perch or pickerel) will want to check out The Perch Pit food truck.
Take a walk along the water and enjoy the outdoors
Stroll along the Detroit River and immerse yourself in the gardens of the King’s Navy Yard Park. These gardens are designated as a War of 1812 Bi-Centennial International Peace Garden. Also in town is a large play park and splash pad area that kids will love.
Plan a shopping trip
Shop for clothing, décor, gardenwares and more at the many local shops. Find a new book at River Books; discover vintage furniture and local artisan items at Pink Pieces; shop for your home, garden, and bath and body at Terra Green.
Flowers are one of the most striking examples of diversity in nature, displaying myriad combinations of colours, patterns, shapes and scents. They range from colourful tulips and daisies, to fragrant frangipani and giant, putrid-smelling corpse flowers. The variety and diversity is astounding—consider the duck-shaped orchid.
But as much as we can appreciate the beauty and diversity of flowers, it is quite literally not meant for our eyes.
The purpose of flowers is to attract pollinators, and it is to their senses that flowers cater. A clear example of this are ultraviolet (UV) patterns. Many flowers accumulate UV pigments in their petals, forming patterns that are invisible to us, but that most pollinators can see.
The disconnect between what we see and what pollinators see is particularly striking in sunflowers. Despite their iconic status in popular culture (as testified by the arguably dubious honour of being one of the only five flower species with a dedicated emoji), they hardly seem the best example of flower diversity.
However, when looked at in the UV spectrum (that is, beyond the type of light that our eyes can see), things are quite different. Sunflowers accumulate UV-absorbing pigments at the base of the ligules. Across the whole inflorescence, this results in a UV bullseye pattern.
In a recent study, we compared almost 2,000 wild sunflowers. We found that the size of these UV bullseyes varies extensively, both between and within species.
The sunflower species with the most extreme diversity in the size of UV bullseyes is Helianthus annuus, the common sunflower. H. annuus is the closest wild relative to cultivated sunflower, and is the most broadly distributed of wild sunflowers, growing almost everywhere between southern Canada and northern Mexico. While some populations of H. annuus have very small UV bullseyes, in others, the ultraviolet-absorbing region covers the whole inflorescence.
When we compared sunflowers with different UV bullseyes, we found that pollinators were able to discriminate between them and preferred plants with intermediate-sized UV bullseyes.
Sunflowers with different UV bullseye patterns as we see them (top) and as a bee might see them (bottom). (Marco Todesco), Author provided
Still, this doesn’t explain all the diversity in UV patterns that we observed in different populations of wild sunflowers: if intermediate UV bullseyes attract more pollinators (which is clearly anadvantage), why do plants with small or large UV bullseyes exist?
Other factors
While pollinator attraction is clearly the main function of floral traits, there is increasing evidence that non-pollinator factors like temperature or herbivores can affect the evolution of characteristics like flower colour and shape.
We found a first clue that this could also be the case for UV patterns in sunflowers when we looked at how their variation is regulated at the genetic level. A single gene, HaMYB111, is responsible for most of the diversity in UV patterns that we see in H. annuus. This gene controls the production of a family of chemicals called flavonol glycosides, which we found in high concentrations in the UV-absorbing part of ligules. Flavonol glycosides are not only UV-absorbing pigments, but play also an important role in helping plants cope with different environmental stresses.
A second clue came from the discovery that the same gene is responsible for UV pigmentation in the petals of the thale cress, Arabidopsis thaliana. Thale cress is the most commonly used model system in plant genetics and molecular biology. These plants are able to pollinate themselves, and therefore generally do without pollinators.
Thale cress can pollinate itself without the help of pollinators. (Shutterstock)
Since they don’t need to attract pollinators, they have small, unassuming white flowers. Still, their petals are full of UV-absorbing flavonols. This suggests that there are reasons not related to pollination for these pigments to be present in the flowers of the thale cress.
Finally, we noticed that sunflower populations from drier climates had consistently larger UV bullseyes. One of the known functions of flavonol glycosides is to regulate transpiration. Indeed, we found that ligules with large UV patterns (which contain large amounts of flavonol glycosides) lost water at a much slower rate than ligules with small UV patterns.
This suggests that, at least in sunflowers, patterns of floral UV pigmentation have two functions: improving the attractiveness of flowers to pollinators, and helping sunflowers survive in drier environments by preserving water.
Thrifty evolution
So what does this teach us? For one, that evolution is thrifty, and if possible will use the same trait to achieve more than one adaptive goal. It also offers a potential approach for improving cultivated sunflower, by simultaneously boosting pollination rates and making plants more resilient to drought.
Finally, our work, and other studies looking at plant diversity, can help in predicting how and to which extent plants will be able to cope with climate change, which is already altering the environments they are adapted to.
Extending 70 km east of Yellowknife, the Ingraham Trail runs alongside rivers, waterfalls, and a network of lakes. It literally is the end of the road for locals and the start of the temporary winter route made reality-TV famous by Ice Road Truckers. But it’s not diamond mines that draw cottagers (and year-rounders) here: it’s the scenery of granite hills, the canoe routes, and the Jack pine forests.
Popular cabin lakes include Prelude, with its many islands, and the expansive Prosperous Lake. Cottages here are all off-grid, from a few that are one-room cabins with woodstoves to fully-equipped houses with solar power, propane heat, and diesel generators. What else do they have in common? They’re hard to come by. Unresolved land claims have halted land development along the Ingraham Trail, so what has already been built on federally leased land is in short supply. Tip: get a realtor who will alert you when something comes on the market, or cozy up to a local for a private sale.
Cottage commuters rejoice, as of April 5, the Ontario government will remove toll fees from Highways 418 and 412.
“We have heard the people of Durham loud and clear and we agree that the tolls imposed on Highways 412 and 418 by the previous government are wrong and unfair,” said Doug Ford, Premier of Ontario. “That’s why we are removing the tolls on these highways so that people and businesses have more travel options and hard-earned money in their pockets.” Introduced in 2017 by Kathleen Wynne’s Liberal government, they were met with resistance from Durham region residents.
The two highways run north to south and both connect Hwy. 401 to the eastern sections of Hwy. 407. During the pandemic, the Ontario government temporarily froze the tolls rates until May 31, 2021, as a COVID relief measure.
Northern Ontario snowmobilers have found themselves stranded after Halfway Haven Lodge, a local accommodation and fueling spot for riders north of Sault Ste. Marie, announced on February 24 that it was closing for the remainder of the season.
“Due to unforeseen circumstances, we regret to announce the immediate closure of The Halfway Haven Lodge for the remainder of the snowmobile season, effective February 24th, 2022. There will be no fuel, accommodations, or food services available, therefore we do not advise travelling the snowmobile trails to the lodge for safety reasons,” Halfway Haven wrote on Facebook.
The lodge is located smack in the middle of the Canadian Shield wilderness, accessible by car only through a 60 kilometre logging road off of Highway 101. Despite its isolation, Halfway Haven plays an integral role in the snowmobiling ecosystem of northern Ontario. It acts as a halfway point on trails connecting Sault Ste. Marie to Wawa and Chapleau, both towns that depend on snowmobile tourism.
Without Halfway Haven as a fuel stop, the machines that groom the trails aren’t able to make the full trip, meaning snowmobile trails leading to Halfway Haven have had to close.
“My groomer takes 360 litres to make it to Halfway [Haven]. He can’t carry enough fuel to return home,” explained John Breckenridge, president of the Sault Trailblazers snowmobile club. “I need fuel there, and I need a place for my operator to spend the night.”
The trips from Halfway Haven to Wawa and Chapleau are both over 100 kilometres. With trails closed due to lack of grooming, snowmobilers who headed out for a ride on February 24 found themselves stranded. Ben Pehlemann was one of them. He took to Facebook to ask if anyone had a truck that could transport six snowmobiles from Sault Ste. Marie to Wawa after the trails closed on him.
The lodge’s abrupt closure was due to Halfway Haven staff, who live at the facility for three months of the year, quitting without notice. “Unfortunately, they decided for whatever reason that they were no longer interested in being there at the lodge,” says Dan Hollingsworth, a spokesperson for Halfway Haven. The lodge did put a call out for new employees, but considering the how late into the season it is and how remote the location is, there were few applicants.
Breckenridge, however, says he heard the staff were unhappy with on-site management and that’s what prompted the walk out. In an attempt to get the lodge running again, the Sault Trailblazers have scheduled a conference call with Halfway Haven to see how the club can help. “It affects our whole district,” Breckenridge says.
At 24-years-old, the lodge’s structure is makeshift at best. Built as a hunting cabin, it runs on a diesel engine that costs $400 a day. This combined with its remote location makes staffing and upkeep difficult. To ensure the longevity of The Halfway Haven, Hollingsworth and his team at N1 Solutions are working on behalf of Korey Wischmeyer, a Michigan-based businessman who owns the lodge, to create a plan to redevelop the property.
“Our plan is to continue to work with Korey and his team to build out what we feel is a feasible new design for the facilities. We’re looking at completely modernizing and redeveloping the site, looking at reconsidering the staffing model, and then building out a feasibility study,” Hollingsworth says. “Then we’ll present the case to Korey to make a further investment into the facilities.”
As part of the plan, Hollingsworth says they’re looking at increasing the operation time to eight or nine months a year; introducing adventure-type activities, such as kayaking, canoeing, sport fishing, and improving trails for ATV use.
