Hot Enough For Ya?

Photo courtesy of Zoe Theysmeyer

The Market This Week

Last Thursday market-goers listened to stories by storyteller Dan Yashinsky.  This week we’re continuing the theme with a visit from Christine Hiller, the children’s librarian at the Danforth/Coxwell library.  Christine was at the market twice last  year with stories and song and we’re excited to have her back for more.  Look for her by the face-painting tent this Thursday at 4:30 p.m. (The East Lynn Farmers’ Market runs every Thursday from 3 – 7 p.m. at East Lynn Park, south of Danforth, west of Woodbine)

Market Bucks

Don’t forget to fill out your ballot to win ‘Market Bucks’ at the DECA table.  Each week we draw for $20 in Market Bucks to be used at the market from our wonderful partners at Farmers Markets Ontario.

PS – The East Lynn Park Farmers’ Market is on facebook, here.

Jazz In The Park

The Danforth Mosaic BIA hosts a weekly jazz performance every Wednesday from 6 – 9 p.m. (rain or shine).  This week it is Autorickshaw, an “Indo- jazz-funk fusion ensemble.  The band is nominated for a Juno award for  world music album of the year.  Bring your blanket or lawn chair to the Coxwell Parkette on the south side of the Danforth, just west of Coxwell.

Family Health Centre Update

As you may know the former funeral home at Aldridge and Danforth is being turned into a medical centre that will house the South East Toronto Family Health Team. This group of family doctors, residents and health care professionals will see about 12,000 patients.  They expect to open in Spring 2011 and doctors there will be accepting new patients.

Some of the fencing is already up.  The demolition will start inside the building disconnecting and removing the more delicate connections.  Then they’ll bring in an excavator to tear down the building.  Then they’ll shore up the building next door and dig a big hole.  Then, they build.  They’re hoping to be moving along with construction by the end of the summer.

Toastmasters Youth Leadership Program

If you (or someone you know) is aged 11-18, they are invited to join a special summer session of the Toastmasters Youth Leadership Program.  This free program will help participants overcome a fear of public speaking and help them become an effective speaker and leader.  This is an eight-week session starting Saturday, July 17th from noon – 2 p.m. at the Royal Canadian Legion at 9 Dawes Road (near Danforth).  For more information contact Helen Pearce at branch11rcl@rogers.com or 416-699-1353.

How are the raspberries?   Should I be getting ready to make raspberry jam?

Too Hot To Cook!

Uber local shopper, Pat Chartier, posted this on the blog this morning and I thought it was so timely, I wanted to make sure you all saw it in time for dinner tonight. – Thanks Pat!

Here are a few Danforth dinner suggestions for those nights when it’s too hot to cook indoors…or at all:

–Grill hamburgers made with the outstanding ground beef sold at the Plank Road, where Roger grinds it himself. All you need is a little salt and pepper to get incredibly juicy and flavourful burgers. And wrap them in hamburger buns from Celena’s or Cozy Cafe.

–Serve up tomato-basil sandwiches on Celena’s wonderful Sourdough White bread. THE perfect summer meal!

–get some of the terrific spanikopita from Cozy Cafe and serve with a salad for another delicious light meal that won’t heat up the kitchen.

Other great meat treats from our neighbourhood:
The strip loin steaks from Plank Road
Tri-Tip Sirloin from Royal Beef.
Organic lamb from the East Lynn Market–that’s become our Summer Thursday dinner tradition.
Buffalo/bison burgers and sausages, also from the Market.

The Arts Today

Gledhill Public School’s grade 6 class created this mural on the back of the Honda building.  Not only does the ‘graduating’ class get to leave some permanent memories but it spruces up the view for the community and the kids at the playground and deters further tagging.

True  Brew

This Friday (July 9th) stop in to True Brew Cafe at 2116 Danforth for live jazz.  Ed Kopala from the Twelfth Fret and his trio will be playing.  Susan will be giving out samples of the new cold coffee blender drinks.  Kids are welcome.  There’s no cover charge, but you can donate to the musicians if you’re so inclined.  They’re also thinking of having open mic night for those musicians who want to play a song or two.

Lost Your Keys At The Farmers’ Market?   We’re holding them hostage, but will entertain ransom offers.

Have I Got a Great Story For You

Canada Day at the East Lynn Farmers’ Market pictures courtesy of Melissa Peretti

This Week At The Market – Storyteller, Dan Yashinsky – 4:30 p.m.

Dan Yashinsky has been telling stories since 1977 in Canada and around the world.  In 1999 he received the first Jane Jacobs Prize for his work with storytelling in the community.  Dan created a curriculum program called The Telling Bee, produced a Toronto-wide story creation project called Future Folklore and conceived a project encouraging children to tell their own stories.  He is the author of Suddenly They Heard Footsteps – Storytelling for the Twenty-First Century.  DECA Vice-Chair, Catherine Porter, says “He is really really cool.  Like Robert Munsch cool.  People should bring their kids to hear him.”

St. Brigid’s Trees Need Your Help!

You may know that the St.Brigid’s Catholic School Eco-Club planted a whack of trees last year to improve their school yard and the earth.  This summer they’re looking for  people to help with the watering of those trees.  They need at least ten more people (especially in August) to meet on Tuesdays and Friday mornings at 8 (or 7) a.m. and spend about twenty minutes watering the trees.  If you can help, please contact the eco team at janglen@rogers.com.

Does Little Ethiopia Belong On The Danforth?

In case you missed this column by Samuel Getachew in today’s Toronto Sun…

Does Little Ethiopia Belong On The Danforth?

I don’t usually like big mega cities, like New York. However Toronto is an exception.

Toronto, a city I admire, has always been full of characters, or much like the way former prime minister Joe Clark envisioned Canada in his successful 1979 election — a community of communities.

The Greektown on Danforth, Chinatown around Dundas West and Spadina Avenue, Korea town on Bloor in the Annex are some of the areas that attract thousands of tourists on a yearly basis.

On top of all of these, festivals such as Caribana, Taste of the Danforth, the Toronto Film Festival and Luminato helps us attract lots of people and resources to the city. Greektown alone claims to have more than 1 million visitors yearly.

These areas help us showcase the rich diversity of our city, not just in words but in deeds.

That is why a few friends and myself are asking the City of Toronto to name a section of Danforth Ave. around Greenwood Ave. as Little Ethiopia.

The history of Ethiopian Canadians, especially in the Toronto Danforth area, is new.

Ethiopians are one of the many groups of new immigrants to have fled successive broken governments and settled in Toronto. But what makes Canada different than most countries is we can be passionate citizens without losing sight of our heritage.

Earlier this year, a few of us met with the Toronto Danforth Mosaic BIA for about 30 minutes about our idea for Little Ethiopia. We spoke about our hope and dream for our city. They spoke of a multicultural mosaic they wanted to create in the area, one that is not a ghettoized neighbourhood, and rejected the idea.

Along the Danforth from around Greenwood to Monarch Park, there are about 16 Ethiopian Canadian businesses and their contribution is very visible. We are owners and tenants of the many buildings found in the area.

However, we lack visibility in our area BIAs, activities and at City Hall.

Governments can do much to help connect us to the area and have us take ownership of the areas we frequent. To clean it more, make it lovely like Greektown, and above all take ownership of it.

To have us believe in our BIA’s enough for us to join its boards and volunteer at the different activities in the community. The idea of Little Ethiopia is of celebration and not of ghettoization.

Greektown, Chinatown and the many areas named after a certain country or countries are not ghettos but a celebration of global citizenship.

As a Torontonian and as a black person, I get my hair cut in the heart of Greektown, buy the best and the cheapest Italian beef in Chinatown and go for the best coffee in Little Italy at College and Clinton.

Almost always the people I see are diverse in their representation from every country on the planet.

That is the wish for our aspiring Little Ethiopia on Danforth project — that of many cultures and a recognition of the Ethiopian Canadian experience.

We are not tourists to Canada but citizens of an awesome country.

I believe Little Ethiopia can be a start.

We are a very small group pushing forward this idea with the hope of thousands.

Our effort is no longer an Ethiopian story but that of a Canadian: Passion, youthful vigour and hard work — the hallmark of what makes me a proud Canadian.

— Getachew is a member of the Ethiopian community in Toronto and is running for council in Scarborough