Issue 26 - September 2020 : simplebooklet.com

...telling the Muskoka story[34]Features10Nature’s Forge – Blacksmith Reects Her EnvironmentArticle by Matt Driscoll Photography by Heather Douglase story of re and metal is nearly as old as civilization itself. Although the methods have changed over the centuries, Deb Harkness follows a very long line of blacksmiths bending metal to their will. Her passion lies with recreating the natural world in forged metal.18Wild Muskoka Botanicals – Backyard EdiblesArticle by Judy Vanclieaf / Photography by Kelly HolinsheadJust a nibble of any one of Wild Muskoka Botanicals’ products will take your taste buds on an exquisite journey of avours of Muskoka’s wilderness. Wild Muskoka Botanicals is the producer of artisanal wild foods, cocktail mixers and traditional botanical medicines.26Downsizing Weddings to Fit the Changing TimesArticle by Meghan Smith Responding to pandemic constraints, wedding planning in Muskoka has seen couples pivot to continue the celebration of their love and commitment. ere are many couples wanting to uphold their marriage date who have changed their plans to something a bit smaller and then there are those who wanted something smaller in the rst place. 34Northern Exposure – the Photography of Helen GroseArticle by Matt Driscoll / Photography by Tomasz SzumskiA ne art nature photographer, Helen Grose’s mission is to frame the canvas of the natural world and share the experience with the wider world. Tracing her love of both photography and wildlife back to her earliest days, Grose’s passion lies in capturing the natural beauty of Muskoka and the surrounding area. [26][18]

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All About KitchensCREATE YOUR DREAM SPACE e possibilities are endlessBRACEBRIDGE 3 Gray Road 705.646.0347HUNTSVILLE 4 Centre St. N. 705.789.6161www.allaboutkitchens.caOur CoverPhotography by Carlyn Hurst of Lenny and HumeFor Taylor and Brandon Jordan, their Rosseau wedding was a small gathering of 25 family members and friends that allowed time for an intimate moment around a campre.SEPTEMBER 2020DOWNSIZINGWEDDINGSMatching plans for that special daywith the changing timesNorthern Exposure:Passion for Photography NATURE’S FORGE:BLACKSMITH REFLECTSHER ENVIRONMENT52What’s HappenedArticle by Karen WehrsteinNews abounds throughout Muskoka: Bracebridge Mayor Graydon Smith will represent 444 Ontario municipalities as the new president of the Association of Ontario Municipalities, Muskoka North Good food Co-op branches out, and new champions have taken on the Muskoka Shoebox project. Supporters of the OSPCA are nding a way to support their favourite cause despite COVID restrictions.56Cottage Country CuisineArticle by Karen Wehrstein Photography by Tomasz SzumskiMuskoka is a land so full of lakes that from a plane it looks like a latticework of land and water. With that in mind, it should come as no surprise Muskoka’s many eateries oer local sh prepared in all manner of ways.40Embracing Healthy Living in Muskoka’s OutdoorsArticle by Meghan Smith / Photography by Andy ZeltkalnsWhether you enjoy tackling new pursuits, prefer to stick to a tried and true hobby or simply want to be in condition for your usual daily tasks, Muskoka’s landscape lends itself to outdoor activities and adventures. No matter your age and no matter the season, there are boundless opportunities to be physically active in Muskoka. 46Enterprising Alfred Hunt Launched Muskoka BankingArticle by J. Patrick Boyer Muskoka’s self-starting early residents refused to let others decide their fate. When ignored by the country’s national banks, that “can do” spirit inspired Bracebridge’s Alfred Hunt to open a private bank for the community’s unmet nancial needs in 1884 on the town’s main street.[52][40]Opinion9 Muskoka InsightsBy Don Smith64 Muskoka MomentsBy Michael DubenDepartmentsSeptember 2020 UNIQUE MUSKOKA 5

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…telling the Muskoka story Unique Muskoka is published six times per year by Unique Publishing Inc.Donald SmithPublisher and EditorDonna AnsleySalesLisa BrazierDesignSusan SmithAdministrationJ. Patrick BoyerHeather DouglasMatt DriscollMichael DubenKelly HolinsheadMeghan SmithTomasz SzumskiJudy VanclieafKaren WehrsteinAndy ZeltkalnsContributorsAnnual Subscription Rates: (including HST where applicable)In Ontario $30.00 All Other Provinces $36.00 U.S. $60.00 All Other Countries $72.00HST: 773172721Canada Post Publications Mail Agreement Number: 43268016Copyright © 2020 Unique Publishing Inc.No content published in Unique Muskoka can be reproduced without the written permission of the publisher.Mailing AddressBox 616, Bracebridge ON P1L 1T9Street Address28 Manitoba St., Bracebridge ON P1L 1S1www.uniquemuskoka.cominfo@uniquemuskoka.com 705-637-0204 6 UNIQUE MUSKOKA September 2020Contemporary buildings in the natural landscape.Peter BertonE: pberton@plusvg.com72 Stafford Street, Suite 200 Toronto, ON M6J 2R8T: (416) 560-0630w: plusvg.comUnique Muskoka Ad September 2020.indd 1 2020-08-13 8:56:09 AMrewiring • alterations • heatingNEVER be left in the DARK or COLD:Call Mike Morrow705.765.3195get a quality home standby generator by GENERACwww.morrow-electric.comServing Muskoka Lakes since 1952 ESA License #: 7000286

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46 Ann Street, Bracebridge705-646-9995 | 877-877-3929www.LesBell.caTRUST • INTEGRITY • SERVICEOur local team is here to provide you with personalized insurance solutions. For the coverage your family deserves, call us today.Photograph: Susan SmithYour Home and Cottage Mattress CentreTHE LARGEST SELECTION OF IN-STOCKMATTRESSES IN MUSKOKAMUSKOKACURATED COLLECTION by Marshall Mattress6 Monica Lane, Bracebridge705.646.2557www.mattressesofmuskoka.comMuskoka InsightsWith the arrival of September, there is a change in the air. e nights are cooler. e air is fresher. e fall palette of colour adds a whole new dimension to the landscape. While it may be an indication winter is getting closer, my philosophy has always been to celebrate each season for what it oers and there is much to be celebrated in the fall months. Quite frankly, autumn is my favourite time of the year. Not too hot, not too cold. Just right!Spring and summer have seen much upheaval in our lives as we attempt to adjust to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. And, as we’ve discovered, we are resilient.Like those who have gone before us, we have discovered new ways to go forward, carry out our daily activities, celebrate, do business and more. Our focus has changed and, in many cases, that is not a bad thing. Priorities have become more evident as the realities of COVID-19 have become clearer.For over 150 years, the time when the rst European settlers began locating in the District, there have been many challenges in Muskoka. And, in each circumstance, ingenuity, entrepreneurial determination and community caring were among the attributes that secured the future.Whether it was the challenges of early development when medical care was limited, the spread of the Spanish u, the threat of tuberculosis or polio, Muskokans were not immune to hardship. However, in each situation, those that came before us rallied.Often, it is the personal little things that make a dierence. When we can nd a way to continue our routines, it is much easier to endure the bigger issues.Interestingly, in this issue of Unique Muskoka, we are able to tell several stories that reinforce there are ways to remain focused while we wait for the days when the threat of COVID-19 is behind us. Physical health is so important to mental health and we’re pleased to tell the story of how many of the proponents of tness have taken a new tack in moving their programming outside. From yoga to tai chi and from boot camps to cycling clubs, Muskoka lends itself to those who want to stay t. Embracing Healthy Living is an encouraging feature that opens doors for you.Likewise, learning to celebrate special occasions is important. And, again, Muskokans have proven they can work within the constraints of the times. In her feature Downsizing Weddings, regular contributor Meghan Smith shares the stories of those who are celebrating the beginning of their lives together in smaller but personally fullling expressions of their unions.And, as always, there is much more to read about in this issue of Unique Muskoka. From the intriguing success story of Wild Muskoka Botanicals that oers the tasty bounty harvested from the wilderness to the stories of the creativity of blacksmith Deb Harkness and photographer Helen Grose, you’ll nd much that inspires. When we look to our roots, we nd there are many interesting stories of determination in Muskoka. Again, historian Patrick Boyer’s research provides insight into how early Muskokans nd ways to overcome the limitations that hindered their progress. e story of banker Alfred Hunt is just such a story.As the beauty of autumn unfolds, we hope you’ll nd some time to curl up with this issue of Unique Muskoka.Happy reading!September 2020 UNIQUE MUSKOKA 9

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12 UNIQUE MUSKOKA September 2020MODERN HOME CARPET ONE350 Ecclestone Drive • Bracebridgecarpetonebracebridge.caTAYLOR CARPET ONE30 Cairns Crescent • Huntsvilletaylorcarpetonehuntsville.comHARDWOOD • LAMINATE VINYL PLANK & TILE • VINYL ROLLS CARPET • CERAMIC • NATURAL STONE & MOREFloors for Home & Cottage705.645.2443705.789.9259Harkness spent most of her professional life working for the federal government but she’s always had a love of the arts, and black and white sketch work in particular. She found the stark beauty of that work reected in three dimensions via the world of metalworking.She became inspired to take up blacksmithing after watching local artist Jim Carter at work. Carter has been blacksmithing for over 30 years and runs a studio on Falkenburg Road, just outside of Bracebridge.“I would go out to watch him work, and sometimes I would buy his work,” she says. “He would have demonstrations as well and that was where I really started thinking this was something I wanted to do.”In 2000, she decided to take a course oered at Sir Sandford Fleming College’s Haliburton Campus.e artist blacksmith program teaches students how to control re and hot metal to create pieces that range from small scale objects to large installations. Fleming’s blacksmith studio has multiple propane Effective August 28, the COVID-19 testing sites in Huntsville and Bracebridge are closing. Effective August 31, one Assessment Centre to service all of Muskoka has opened in an outbuilding adjacent to the helipad at the back of the property at South Muskoka Memorial Hospital. TESTING IS BY APPOINTMENT ONLY Call 1-888-383-7009 for an appointment Hours: Monday to Friday — 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Location: 75 Ann Street, Bracebridge (not in the hospital) More info: www.mahc.ca/COVID-19Testing/

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705.645.4294 TF: 866.645.4294STORE: 228 TAYLOR RD., BRACEBRIDGEOFFICE: 1646 WINHARA RD., GRAVENHURSTforges, coke (a grey, hard and porous fuel with a high carbon content and few impurities) forges, cutting and welding equipment, as well as specialty tools.“I thought it was a wonderful experience,” she says. “It was quite a condensed course but it really laid the foundations.”Upon her graduation, Harkness started apprenticing at a local blacksmith shop, learning the basics at rst and then expanding her knowledge and skill set.“You begin by drawing a sketch on cardboard and then transfer it onto 14 gauge sheet metal and start cutting it with the plasma cutter, then it just grew from there,” she says.Harkness apprenticed for eight years and then decided it was time to branch o on her own. Building a blacksmith’s studio is a time and money intensive process, she says.“I had to get my forge certied and import a power hammer from California...it took quite a while to get everything in place,” she says.Her studio now has a propane forge with three burners that oer instant heat, along with a variety of dierent hammers and various other tools of the trade. Each hand-forged piece comes to its nal form through a method of sketching, forging, welding, While the methods have changed over the centuries, Deb Harkness follows a very long line of blacksmiths bending metal to their will. September 2020 UNIQUE MUSKOKA 13

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100% Canadian Artists• Large Original Paintings• Whimsical Sculptures• Hand made wood bowls,pottery & jewelry111 Medora St. (Hwy 118 West.)Port Carling, Muskoka705 765 7474www.redcanoegallery.comOpen seven days a week(parking at rear)Painting by Paul Garbett, 72” x 48”Paul Garbett, encaustic on panel, 75” x 45”plasma cutting and painting.Harkness is originally from Pickering but she moved to the area in 1985 to live year round with her husband at his Birch Island cottage on Lake Muskoka.“It’s an absolutely beautiful place to live but it can be treacherous getting to and from an island during the ‘in-between’ seasons,” says Harkness.In 1991 she moved to her current home in Beaumaris, and says she continues to marvel at the natural wonder oered by the region’s ecosystem.“e windswept Georgian pine is one of my favourites, and it’s also one of my best selling pieces,” she says. “ey’re often made of rock and steel and they’re some of my biggest and heaviest pieces. I made one piece Aer spending most of her professional life working for the federal government, Deb Harkness took an artistic blacksmith course oered at Sir Sandford Fleming College’s Haliburton Campus.September 2020 UNIQUE MUSKOKA 15

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16 UNIQUE MUSKOKA September 2020When a power outage strikes,SOMMERSRESIDENTIAL GENERATORSensure that your home or cottage automatically stays powered on.ECRA / ESA 7002295A full range of generators that can be custom built to suit your home or cottage’s speciﬁc needs, so you’ll always have standby power ready.705.765.0600 • www.sitelectric.com • Port CarlingMUSKOKA • PARRY SOUNDYour Source For All Your Electrical,Backup Power And Home Automation Needs.where the tree was three feet high and background was six feet across.”Peacocks, horses, candle holders and owers have all been brought to life in steel on Harkness’s forge.Recently she’s been creating live edge coee tables, moulding the legs in all manner of artistic relief.While COVID-19 has limited Harkness’s ability to welcome guests, she still enjoys having people in her studio one at a time. It’s a unique opportunity for the curious to see the incredible scenery of the Lake Muskoka shoreline, and its reection cast back in solid steel.Three dimensional animals, custom-made weather vanes, one-of-a-kind dining sets and owers, such as the one in the inset, all fall within Deb Harkness’s purview.

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Article by Judy Vanclieaf / Photography by Kelly Holinshead“Eat your weeds” is something we would not have ever heard our parents say. But then, we never had the likes of pickled cattails, white pine vinegar, strawberry and sumac shrubs or spruce tips with sweet gale salt sitting on the table. Just a nibble of any one of these Wild Muskoka Botanicals products will take your taste buds on an exquisite journey of avours of Muskoka’s wilderness.Wild Muskoka Botanicals is the producer of artisanal wild foods, cocktail mixers and traditional botanical medicines. Company founder Laura Gilmour has been practicing Hippocrates’ philosophy, “Let food be thy medicine,” in her everyday living for the past 20 years. A lot of what she considers food, most of us would never imagine putting on our plates but that does not mean we should not. Digging deep into the roots of utilizing all things edible from the backyard, Gilmour loves to experiment by developing her own original formulas and modifying traditional recipes that she has come across throughout the years. She personally hand picks her ingredients in a sustainable manner, usually from her own backyard.It’s a backyard that happens to be a forest full of trees, shrubs and plants. Take, for example, coniferous trees like pine, spruce and r. All three are in abundance throughout Muskoka and each one is exceptionally high in Vitamin C. White pine has a medicinal value that can help with congestion, where spruce tips aid with coughs and sore throats.September 2020 UNIQUE MUSKOKA 19

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Wild elderberry juice is Gilmour’s most popular creation and is known for its immune boosting qualities. “I take elderberry syrup when I have a sore throat coming on or feeling dragged down from being so busy,” states Gilmour. “is usually happens when I am preparing for a trade show and I cannot aord the down time. e elderberry juice has helped save me from getting sick so many times.”Although it is the medicinal value of her product that is the main component of her business, she loves how eortless it is to slip wild ingredients into her cooking and baking. “One of my favourite recipes is my white pine shortbread,” reveals Gilmour. “I love using white pine in my baking, as it has a mild avour and is very abundant.” She also suggests using her spruce tip sugar in the recipe. Wouldn’t these unique and tasty cookies be a huge hit in a holiday cookie exchange? Another favourite of Gilmour’s is her wild leek vinegar which she puts on every veggie dish she prepares. “It makes everything taste so good!”en there is the shrub and bitters line. ese artisan drink mixers are in a league of their own. Just try putting a little strawberry and sumac shrub into your cocktail or mocktail. “It is a avour you will never forget. In fact, you may even become hooked,” grins Gilmour.Wild Muskoka Botanicals bitters have multiple uses as well. Not only do they aid in digestion, but you can also add these to your drinks. Another favourite creation is the company’s Muskoka Old Fashioned. Gilmour adds a smidge of maple syrup and a couple of drops of forest re bitters to her bourbon.“It’s such a good avour for our region and gives a nice distinction to the drink,” she claims.“In the cocktail world, bitters are becoming a staple ingredient and some of the small-scale distilleries across northern Ontario are Harvesting sumac panicles is but one of the many ingredients Laura Gilmour of Wild Muskoka Botanicals hand picks in a sustainable manner, usually from her own backyard.In addition to harvesting wild ingredients, Laura Gilmour grows vegetables in her own backyard garden.When she harvests, Laura Gilmour picks everything in small batches which helps to keep the integrity of the land in mind.September 2020 UNIQUE MUSKOKA 21

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starting to take them on to add avour to their spirits,” states Gilmour.Happiest when she was in nature, Gilmour feels fortunate to have grown up under the inuence of farmers and foragers throughout her life.“Before moving to Muskoka at 10 years of age, I spent a lot of time with my Dad and on my grandparent’s farm in Niagara. Hunting and shing were a normal way of gathering food for us,” says Gilmour. "My mother is a Metis nature photographer who always took me out in the wild where we would sh, hike and camp. She was the rst one to open my eyes to nature, where as my Dad instilled in me a hard work ethic and entrepreneurial drive.” After graduating from high school, Gilmour left Muskoka for several years but moved back 13 years ago and worked as an ecologist for ve years.During that time, she taught herbal medicine classes and foraging for a variety of organizations, alongside making wild food products and medicines for her own use.“Wild Muskoka Botanicals came to life in 2014 because of the encouragement of many who wanted to buy my products that I was only making for fun, as well of those who wanted to take classes that I never had the time to teach on my own.” Gilmour quit her job as an ecologist and has never looked back. Gilmour, her husband Chris and their dog Marley live just outside of Dwight on what they call “Wild Spirit Permaculture Homestead.” ey have 26 acres of land which abuts thousands of acres of Crown land, surrounded by healthy wetlands. “On our homestead, we have a vegetable garden (where I intentionally let the weeds grow), we have perennial crops, fruit bushes and vines, and lots of dierent medicinal herbs and mushrooms,”says Gilmour. When she harvests, Gilmour picks everything in small batches which helps to maintain her focus on creating high quality products while keeping the integrity of the land in mind.“We see our land, not only as a resource to extract from but a living ecosystem that supports an abundance of life. By working with the principles of nature we can grow plenty of healthy food while building the soil, supporting pollinators and increasing Happiest when she is in nature, Gilmour feels fortunate to have grown up under the inuence of farmers and foragers throughout her life. GET GUARANTEED REPLACEMENT COST INSURANCE ON YOUR COTTAGE & CONTENTSDON’T SETTLE FOR BASIC COVERAGEIf all your current insurance company can o er you is basic coverage on a secondary/seasonal home, make the switch to CottageInsure and fully protect your cottage and belongings in the same way your home insurance policy does.Get a FREE Quote in just  ve minutes by clicking: cottageinsure.ca or Call 1-877-541-9022We’ve been protecting Ontario cottages since 1910.COTTAGE & LAKEASSOCIATION MEMBERDISCOUNTSDISCOUNTSFOR FIREBOATRESPONSE SERVICEEXTRA COVERAGESFOR GARAGES, GUEST CABINS& WATERCRAFTSeptember 2020 UNIQUE MUSKOKA 23

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24 UNIQUE MUSKOKA September 2020biodiversity.” She continues, “I also have a responsibility to make sure that I do not introduce invasive species and to protect wildlife from harm.” In addition to the natural foods she harvests, Gilmour also has laying hens and breeds rabbits for meat.Laura and Chris both share a deep-rooted enthusiasm for the great outdoors and spend a lot of time together doing the things they love. Both are experts in wildlife tracking, herbal medicine and ancient wilderness living skills.eir talents complement each other, especially when they run their educational nature programs. Gilmour particularly enjoys her wild medicine program that she runs one day a month from May until September. “Here, students get to see the plants in dierent stages throughout the summer with a hands-on class which lets students learn the basics of working with wild harvested plants, mushrooms and herbs, and when the last class is over, each student will have made a variety of both wild food products and herbal medicines to take home.”Chris helps with the foraging and farm aspects of the business and often Laura’s students will come help at harvest time. “I regularly have students who come to do work-trade for classes that I hold. ey help me with foraging and in the kitchen when its time for the main harvest. is helps to support Wild Muskoka at extra busy times and provides my students with a unique learning opportunity.’’Laura is deeply passionate about connecting people to nature which she does through her products and classes. “I want to help people to see our wild Muskoka with new eyes.Our goal is to not just train people about foraging from the land but help people deepen their relationship to the natural world through regenerative harvesting and land tending.” Gilmour adds, “I still have a lot to learn and it is not without challenges, but the feeling of satisfaction that comes from harvesting your own food and making your own medicine is worth the work.” excelrailings.ca705-646-2508STYLEDESIGNINNOVATIONFrameless Glass Railings mounted onto mini posts with adjustable standoffsmbaLaura Gilmour sees her land not only as a resource to extract from but a living ecosystem that supports an abundance of life.

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ll weddings have the same end goal – a marriage or the union of two people. e paths to achieving that union and the scene on the day of the marriage are drastically dierent, depending on the couple. Brides and grooms spend weeks, months and sometimes years carefully planning their special day to meet their vision and the expectations of their guests. Like so many activities in 2020, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent emergency measures resulted in a complete upheaval of the wedding season in Muskoka. e event industry overall has suered signicantly with the inability to host gatherings of any size. Resorts, hotels, cottages and campgrounds that traditionally play host to large weddings throughout the spring, summer and fall cannot welcome their guests as planned. Wedding vendors have had to do whatever they can to work with their clients. Article by Meghan SmithA 26 UNIQUE MUSKOKA September 2020Photograph: Rohan Riley/Brooklands Farm

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Couples who had planned a 2020 wedding have had to change plans, either cancelling, post-poning or pivoting for their day. ere are many couples wanting to uphold their marriage date who have changed their plans to something a bit smaller and then there are those who wanted something smaller in the rst place.“is pandemic has been a learning curve for everyone in the industry,” says Carlyn Hurst, photographer and owner of Lenny & Hume Creatives. “I’ve adapted to suit my clients’ needs. You have to be supportive and work with people; ensure that the day is still theirs and still special.”Whether it’s currently possible or not, a traditional wedding can be daunting. ere may be competing family dynamics at play. e couple may not want to spend a whole day in the limelight. Couples may be celebrating a second marriage or have started a family before marriage. e focus of the wedding day is dierent and the couples may choose to put their attention elsewhere, rather than pulling out all the stops for a big gathering. An elopement is just for the couple and Muskoka presents plentiful opportunities to steal away and get hitched. ey may not be running away in secret but it’s a very intimate day, with only the couple and maybe a few witnesses. “Elopements oer a lot of options for locations, whether it’s hiking a trail to a waterfall or a rock cut overlooking a lake,” says Bryn Armstrong, event and wedding planner and owner of Primp and Pop Event Co. “Muskoka is such a destination. e setting of a wedding at a dock on the water or a beach or a forest allows us to be a bit more creative because we aren’t touring around with a huge guest count.”“Now that I’ve experienced it myself, I couldn’t recommend an elopement enough,” laughs Allison Holder, orist and owner of Floral Designs by Allison. “ere’s this ease and uidity to a small wedding. It’s so incredibly intimate.”By eloping, a couple can be fully present for the day without having to worry about the details and schedule that come with a large wedding. Holder and her wife had planned a larger traditional wedding next fall. But as the pandemic hit, they took the opportunity to assess their own expectations and they realized a large wedding wasn’t being true to them. When an opportunity to participate in a styled wedding shoot with Primp and Pop Event Co. presented itself, Holder and her partner pivoted. “We decided that with all of these wonderful vendors I work with in the industry, we could turn it into our wedding day,” says Holder. “So, we jumped in with under two weeks’ notice because it felt really right. I have to mention just how grateful we are for all that Bryn did for us.”Bryn Armstrong conceptual-ized and started Primp and Pop in 2016 as a direct result of her own wedding. Armstrong had worked in the wedding industry for over 10 years, planning and executing traditional weddings. “I loved it but what I was planning for other couples didn’t mesh with what we wanted to do for our own wedding,” shares Armstrong. “We’d just moved back to Muskoka, purchased a house, welcomed a dog and we were expecting our rst child, all in the same year. Our priorities were dierent.”Armstrong and her team at Primp and Pop specialize in elopements, micro weddings and pop-up weddings. ese types of ceremonies have a much shorter timeline from booking to wedding day but reduce the stress of a large function for the couple. Having a much smaller guest list allows for the exibility to customize and personalize a wedding day. “We start with ‘all-inclusive’, for lack of a better word, and essentially it allows us to handle all of the moving pieces for the couple but in a very personal way,” explains When Allison Holder was asked to design oral work for a wedding photo shoot Primp & Pop Event Co. was planning, Holder and Amy Greenwood decided to turn the occasion into their own wedding celebration.Photograph: Rohan Riley/Brooklands FarmPhotographs: Nicole Alex Photography/Primp & Pop Event Co.September 2020 UNIQUE MUSKOKA 27

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28 UNIQUE MUSKOKA September 2020Armstrong. “We’re not cookie cutter. We work with our clients and spend time getting to know each other so I can recommend personal touches they can involve in their day.”Armstrong works in locations all across Muskoka that could not typically be considered for larger weddings. She also curates vendors from all across the region to provide unique, memorable experiences for those focused on a more private union. “I love being able to play a role in special occasions,” shares Holder. “I studied sociology and anthropology at school and there is such an intense human element to owers. ey mean so much more than just looking pretty.”Holder has received over 30 inquiries for elopement owers in addition to what was already booked for this year. While that’s good news, it’s also a challenge to fulll multiple oral orders with diering colours and types. “For weddings, a lot of people have cancelled or postponed,” says Holder. “Elopement owers are the only thing really going right now and they are much dierent. is year is much more relaxed, in that sense.”While everyone has had to step back from the usual during this pandemic, venues have had to deal with the inability to conduct their regular business. For Katya and Ken Riley, 2020 has changed everything they had planned for Brooklands Farm. “All of our weddings were basically postponed to next year,” shares Katya Riley. “We’ve had two that did go ahead; one as an elopement and one as a micro wedding.”In 2012, as one couple requested the barn to host their nuptials, Brooklands Farm began hosting weddings and have been solidly booked through each summer and fall season since 2014. While Brooklands has hosted big weddings of 140 people on weekends for many years, they were already beginning to oer micro weddings during the week. e pandemic simply pushed that plan forward. “Small weddings will be the name of the game for the next little while,” says Riley. “Don’t wait for it. Relationships don’t go anywhere. Life should go on. Grab life by the horns and get on with it.”“Small, intimate weddings seem a bit more normal these When Spencer and Rebecca Malloch-Redman had to downsize their wedding due to COVID-19, they remained focused on the importance of the day. “Honestly, for me, my favourite part of the day was watching Rebecca walk out of the cabin on time,” says Spencer.Whether it’s currently possible or not due to the restrictions created by COVID-19, a traditional wedding can be daunting. Many couples have chosen to create a more intimate occasion to celebrate their love. Photograph: Carlyn Hurst of Lenny and Hume/Primp & Pop Event Co.Photograph: Rohan Riley/Brooklands Farm

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times because you don’t have to worry about as many people,” says photographer Hurst. In addition to supporting her clients through the challenge of the pandemic, Hurst has the added pressure of her own wedding this September. A large, traditional wedding was planned with family and friends in Prince Edward Island. Now, they’re hosting a much smaller gathering of 20 people at home in Muskoka and are planning for it to be just as special. “We decided to go forth with our wedding because it’s not about the location or the gifts,” shares Hurst. “It’s about us as a couple celebrating our love and we’re ready for that.”Spencer Redman and Rebecca Malloch-Redman felt similarly about their wedding. What was supposed to be a celebration with 85 guests at Brooklands Farm in July 2020 became a much smaller gathering of 45 people under current regulations. “It ended up being a lot easier than expected to reduce the guest list,” explains Spencer Redman. “ere were a lot of high-risk people that cancelled ahead of time. We didn’t have to say no to anybody. Plus, they setup a Zoom video call, so anyone who didn’t come could still see us get married.” While their original plans had included a barn wedding with a full day on site, the couple were pleased by how Brooklands accommodated the regulations and still met their wishes overall. e overall look and size of the wedding may have changed from their original plans, but Redman insists it’s still the day they wanted. “Honestly, for me, my favourite part of the day was watching Rebecca walk out of the cabin on time,” says Redman. “We’ve been together for seven years now and it took me six years to propose. When there was a possibility we couldn’t do it, we decided to go ahead no matter what. Even if it was just 10 people in our backyard. Life doesn’t stop because of something like this; so, neither did we.” “I think you can often lose sight of why you’re getting married, which is the person you love,” explains Holder. “You spend so much time on the production that you lose sight of the purpose of the day. No matter the couple, you should be doing what makes you happy as a couple, not for everyone else involved.”People across Ontario and even across Canada have a Muskoka connection. Whether cottaging every year, one incredible vacation or summers spent at camps as Couples who choose to elope are oen outdoorsy, adventurous souls. Their special day can be a true reection of their own style as couple.For capturing the unique Muskoka feeling for a wedding photograph, a lake and an antique boat are always signature features.Photographs: Carlyn Hurst of Lenny and Hume

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30 UNIQUE MUSKOKA September 2020Family homes and cottages have always played a part in weddings but this year, even more so. These spaces are already sacred for those who live there and hosting a wedding, no matter the size, adds to the memories. a kid, Muskoka leaves an incredible mark in people’s memories – one they often remember and want to include in their wedding. “ere’s this magic surrounding Muskoka,” says Holder. “ere’s something romantic about it. ere are so many beautiful natural settings here. ere’s something about eloping that’s this running away or escaping the norm, and Muskoka really lends itself to that idea.”Every season provides its own unique and beautiful canvas. Couples who choose to elope are often outdoorsy, adventurous souls. eir special day can be a true reection of their own style as couple, without having to stick to the more traditional aspects of wedding. “Muskoka has such a calming feeling,” says Hurst. “When you get up here and open your truck door, you just get this feeling. Muskoka truly has it all. We’re surrounded by so much beauty.”Family homes and cottages have always played a part in weddings but this year, even more so. ese spaces are already sacred for those who live there and hosting a wedding, no matter the size, adds to the memories. “It’s a place of comfort and it's familiar, so it’s a bit homier and more relaxing,” says Hurst. “For years, the Photograph: Carlyn Hurst of Lenny and HumeWhen a small group meets at a family cottage for a wedding, spontaneous, intimate family moments happen more organically and are less structured. Photograph: Nicole Alex Photography

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CALL FOR ALL YOUR BUILDING AND RENOVATION NEEDSP.O. Box 330, Bracebridge, ON P1L 1T7705.645.8881 admin@cedarbeachgroup.ca couple can return and relive their day. Dierent spots around the property will spark moments from their wedding day. “It’s important for people to do what makes sense for them,” explains Armstrong. “It’s important to follow your heart. e pandemic has been a reason for people to take a step back when they were dealing with big expectations. But don’t let a pandemic dictate your wedding day.”“Remember to do what’s right for you,” says Holder. “Get married how you want to get married rather than getting married how society tells you.”A big wedding celebration to enjoy with family and friends can be the right plan for some. But for others, a small, simple, intimate gathering in the wilds of Muskoka can be a beautiful way to celebrate the love and union of two people.People from across Ontario, and even across Canada, have a Muskoka connection. Muskoka leaves an incredible mark in people’s memories – one they oen rememberand want to include in their wedding. Photograph: Carlyn Hurst of Lenny and HumeTHE PLACE TO SHOP IN MUSKOKAOPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK 10:00am - 4:00pmMOOSE FEATHERS GIFT SHOP4080 HWY. 118 West, Port Carling, ON705 762 1232 Tour our Morgan Davis printing museum and learn about the origin of printing.UNIQUE GIFTS FOR HOME AND COTTAGEKitchenware, jewellery, lotions, women’s fashions, purses, Chelsea Chocolates, games, assorted cards for every occasion.Visit our kiddy corner for books, beach toys, etc.September 2020 UNIQUE MUSKOKA 31

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Unmatched performanceFrom top to bottomIncrease your pride of ownership with exterior nishes that add timeless beauty and longevity to yourhome or cottage. Since 1976, NorStar has provided a multitude of trusted siding and roong brands.Get ready to embrace your exterior and endure any weather Mother Nature my put in your path.Ask our experts about available discounts for contractors & roong companies.SERVING MUSKOKA, PARRY SOUND & HALIBURTON REGIONS SINCE 1976Embrace Your Exterior! Supply • Install • Cash & Carry1-800-732-0158 • 705-645-8404 • norstarexteriors.comDavinci Roofscapes & TruCedar Steel Siding byQuality Edge are Available Exclusively at:aVinci Roofscapes delivers with durable, lifetimeroong tiles engineered to endure the test of time.We promise you won’t nd a more realistic orbetter performing roong product anywhere.DarCustom blended Coloursguaranteed not to Fade, Chip,Curl, Flake… or disappoint!Siding • Roong • Soft • Fascia • Decking • Eavestrough • Gutter ProtectionTruCedar Steel Siding gives you an elite levelof performance in the place you call home.Fire-retardant with the look of real wood,available in 7 proles including shake. Aunique palette of colours, available in bothwoodgrain or solid.heat, hail or WindWon’t stand a ChanCe!introduCing a siding that Canhandle muskoka’s elements

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Article by Matt Driscoll / Photographs by Tomasz Szumski 34 UNIQUE MUSKOKA September 2020Minute by minute and season by season, the canvas of the natural world is transformed and redrawn. It’s Helen Grose’s mission to frame that canvas and share the experience with the wider world.A ne art nature photographer, Grose was born in Oakville but nds her muse to be an 80-acre piece of property, just north of Milford Bay, between Bracebridge and Port Carling. e property contains both her home and her studio – a renovated barn where she has her work on display to the public.“e commute is pretty spectacular,” says Grose. “It takes about two minutes unless I see something interesting that catches my eye and I stop to check it out.”at could be plants or butteries, birds or four-legged Muskoka residents.“Last year, we had a pair of kestrels build a nest on the property in one of the trees. I’d stop by regularly and see how things were going,” she says. “It was fascinating but the parents didn’t seem to like it too much. ey’d come over and swoop at me.”While Grose shoots everything from portraits and sports to special events and editorial content, her passion lies in capturing the natural beauty of Muskoka and the surrounding area. She can trace her love of both photography and wildlife back to her earliest days.

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36 UNIQUE MUSKOKA September 2020Helen Grose’s photographic passion lies in capturing the natural beauty of Muskoka and the surrounding area. 21 Robert Dollar Dr, Bracebridge, ON P1L 1P9705-645-6575Kia's All New 5 Seat Subcompact SUV Featuring a Balanced Exterior Design and Dynamic InteriorJUST ARRIVEDTHE ALL-NEW 2021705-764-0765 | muskokabarging.com | 1163 Milford Bay Rd, Milford Bay ONBARGING STEEL & CRIB DOCKS SEPTIC SYSTEMS LANDSCAPING ● ●Muskoka Barging●Family run construction company with over 35 years experience operating in the Muskoka Lakes area. No job is too small or too big.“I honestly don’t remember when I rst became interested in photography,” she says. “Even when I was a kid and people would ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would say I wanted to be a photographer for National Geographic.”Her father gave her his old lm camera and taught her the basics, but Grose says she’s almost entirely self-taught. “In my opinion, there are really two types of photographers – those who are most interested in the technical side of things like the latest technology and the number of megapixels – and those who approach it from a more artistic side,” she says. “I denitely skew more towards that artistic side.”Grose says without researching and knowing your subjects, without patience and determination, without truly understanding the beauty and feeling the experience unfolding in front of you, you’re simply watching life through small pieces of expensive glass.While she was born and raised in Oakville, Grose says her childhood property was more rural during that time than it is currently. She attended Lakeeld College School, just Photograph: Helen Grose

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outside of Peterborough, and says that’s where her love of the outdoors really took o.Her professional career in photography began with her travelling across North America and Europe, shooting professional sporting events. Her subject material expanded over the years, as did the list of publications that included her work. Forbes magazine, National Geographic Kids and e National Post are just a few names on the long list of publications that have used her work.At the time, Grose worked out of Toronto primarily but was a frequent guest to Muskoka and fell in love with its unique landscape and wildlife. When the opportunity presented itself to open a gallery in the area in 2015, Grose was all in.When the gallery closed its doors for the rst winter season, Grose decided to turn her eorts towards renovating her property and creating her own gallery. She ocially opened her gallery doors to the public in August of 2019 and says the response has been great so far.She lives on the property year-round with her partner and her four “fur babies.’’ ey consist of two cats and two dogs: Hudson (a Moosonee Puppy Rescue dog named for his original home near Hudson Bay) and Beatrice (named for the studio’s proximity to the Beatrice Town Line).Grose has also been increasingly focused on the instructional side of her vocation. In 2017, she decided to become a photography instructor at Georgian College in Barrie. “I actually had a friend who was teaching the class and she wasn’t able to continue doing it with anyone, so I took it over,” says Grose. “I had already been hosting my own workshops, as well as a women’s photography weekend in Algonquin Park.”Grose says teaching the classes and hosting outdoor workshops has become one of the most satisfying aspects of her work.“I just love seeing it click with people,” she says. “When you’re out in nature, you can have some truly incredible experiences. The property contains both Helen Grose’s home and her studio (Above) is located north of Milford Bay. A renovated barn (Below) is where she has her work on display to the public. “The commute,” Grose says, “is pretty spectacular.”September 2020 UNIQUE MUSKOKA 37

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38 UNIQUE MUSKOKA September 2020When you’re with other people, you’re able to share those experiences. It puts it on an entirely dierent level than when you’re by yourself.”One of her favourite locations to conduct workshops is Algonquin Park, a location where she’s spent countless hours tracking and shooting across all four seasons.“ere are some very rewarding spots in Algonquin but I spend a lot of time exploring new areas,” she says. “I’m passionate about wildlife photography and that’s primarily what I shoot but I will shoot landscape, if it’s something striking.”Grose says her favourite animal to shoot is the wolf which she feels has garnered a signicant amount of unwarranted resent-ment from the public.“It’s such an elusive animal that it makes those shots even more meaningful,” she says. “ey’re aware that you’re there but I’ve never felt intimidated when I’ve been shooting them.”Helen is a member of Nature First – an alliance for responsible nature photography. e group is guided by principles developed to help educate and guide both professional and recreational photographers in sustainable, minimal impact practices that will help preserve nature. She says her workshops help her share those values with other aspiring photographers.“I think helping them to develop that connection with nature really helps people to get a better understanding of conservation,” she says. “e more people have an understanding of the natural world, the more we can help ensure that natural world is able to thrive.”Above: This unique wildlife photo by Helen Grose combines two photographs to create an intriguing image. It joins the many images on display in Grose’s studio gallery (Le).Photograph: Helen Grose

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40 UNIQUE MUSKOKA September 2020Living a healthy lifestyle can have a broad range of meaning, depending on the audience. What constitutes a balance of physical and mental well-being changes as we age and depends on our stage of life. Whether you enjoy tackling new pursuits, prefer to stick to a tried and true hobby or simply want to be in condition for your usual daily tasks, Muskoka’s landscape lends itself to activity and adventure. No matter your age and no matter the season, there are boundless opportunities to be physically active. From cycling or paddling to walking or running, stretching and strength training to yoga and tai chi, starting or continuing your own tness journey as you become an older adult does not need to be dicult or frightening. Setting a goal to do something each day, even for only a few minutes, is always better than nothing.“It’s never too late to start,” comments Erin Bailey Boyes, personal trainer and owner of Body By Design Fitness Studio. “Start at any age, whether you’re an older adult or not, and make your health a priority. Find something you enjoy and go for it.”“I believe strongly in overall wellness and health,” explains Jen Scev, instructor and Article by Meghan Smith / Photography by Andy ZeltkalnsStrength training increases the overall quality of life as we age. Fortunately, Muskoka’s natural environment makes it easier to take part in strength training activities including boot camp tire tossing.

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owner of Yoga 44. “Yogis don’t necessarily have the ttest looking bodies. ey are exible and can hold poses. Practice is really a mix of calming the mental state, condence from standing tall and the physical benets of stretching and strengthening muscles.” Regular physical activity is a critical part of a healthy lifestyle. After age 30, humans begin to lose 3 per cent to 5 per cent of muscle mass per decade and after age 40, that can increase to 8 per cent per decade. As we age, activity often becomes less of a priority with other more pressing obligations, such as careers or families. However, the importance of physical activity to our overall health and well-being only increases. “It’s crucial to keep up some sort of strength training as we age,” explains Boyes. “You can slow down and counteract the losses of aging by doing so many things.”Strength training, and including functional tness and movement into that training, increases the overall quality of life as we age. Functional tness trains muscles to work together and prepares them for use by simulating movements typically employed at home or at work. Keeping muscles in shape leads to stronger bones, increased muscle mass, increased joint exibility and decreased eects of arthritis. “People often focus on weight loss as their main goal, which can be important,” says Boyes. “But being able to play with your grandkids, walk without pain and enjoy your life – that’s the type of movement training and weight training that’s so important.”Tai chi, one of many martial arts, focuses on balance, mindfulness, proper breathing techniques, healthy eating habits and a spiritual connection. “Tai chi works at bringing everything into balance – mentally, physically and spiritually,” explains Valerie Houston-Peel, instructor at Temple Knights Martial Arts Academy. “It’s all encompassing. Tai chi is practical as a self-defence tactic but many people study now just for the overall health benets.”e health benets of tai chi are physical as well as spiritual and emotional. Regular practice improves concentration, focus and awareness. Physically, it strengthens every muscle, joint and ligament in the body, along with improving balance, exibility and posture. It can also have cardiovascular benets, reduces stress and fosters a feeling of harmony and well-being. “It’s a wonderful organic art form that you can practice by yourself or with a group of people,” says Houston-Peel. “ere are 108 movements in the choreography but you don’t learn them all at once. You’ll learn something new each class and thread them all together.”e movements and forms in tai chi all connect together for a continuous, graceful ow of movement. Similarly, yoga blends both physical and mental practices. Whether it’s informal cycling club outings (Top) or dockside yoga classes, Muskoka’s landscape lends itself to activity and adventure. Lower Photo: Yoga instructor Jen Scev oers full-service private sessions across Muskoka Lakes throughout the spring, summer and fall.Photograph: Yoga 44 by Jen Scev September 2020 UNIQUE MUSKOKA 41

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42 UNIQUE MUSKOKA September 2020Physically, yoga promotes blood ow through the body, which promotes healing and helps to prevent disease. Mentally, yoga practice helps in quieting the mind, building awareness of the body and managing stress. Healing from within and creating internal and external balance are key to strong practice. “Yoga literally means to unite, and to me, that focuses on uniting postures with breath,” explains Scev. “You focus on your breath while performing but breathing is a part of everything we do. We wouldn’t be here without that breath.”Yoga 44 currently provides full-service private dockside sessions across Muskoka Lakes throughout the spring, summer and fall. Scev arrives with a rolling suitcase of mats and blocks and takes great care in curating the music and ow of each session she instructs. “I lay the foundation of the practice and the alignment of the postures with my playlist,” explains Scev. “People love the power part, which I do at the beginning and for a lot of the session but the meditation is so important. It’s really important to slow and take time for the poses.”ere are many forms and kinds of yoga, aimed at various levels of diculty and meditation. Focus on posture and breathing are key, so performing the poses can be completed seated or standing. For some, the poses may be too dicult at rst, requiring continued practice to achieve. Even those who cannot practice the poses, being present, hearing the cues and focusing on healing and breathing can improve their wellbeing. “Half of the battle is showing up,” shares Showing up and making physical activity an important part of your daily or weekly routine can be helped by teaming up. Having a friend, a group or a personal trainer creates accountability, making it more dicult to ignore your plans. The health benets of tai chi are physical as well as spiritual and emotional.With COVID restrictions, outdoor training sessions became an important part of the workout routines oered by Bracebridge-based personal trainer Erin Bailey Boyes.

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Scev. “Roll out the mat and give it a try. I like to include a lot of instruction about why we’re doing a pose and how everything connects in the anatomy. It’s not about the workout. It’s about the intention. at’s yoga.”Showing up and making physical activity an important part of your daily or weekly routine can be helped by teaming up. Having a friend, a group or a personal trainer creates accountability, making it more dicult to ignore your plans. “When COVID hit, my concern was for our community, that the gains and progress would be lost by our clients,” shares Boyes. “How could we assist our clients in maintaining or even improving their health in all of this? We were forced to get creative and oer virtual and then outdoor sessions.”For Dave Rasmussen and his friends, their informal cycling club developed over eight years ago through connections at their Probus club. ey co-ordinate rides several times each week through the spring, summer and fall seasons. Rasmussen credits the people he cycles with for all that he’s learned over the years and his ability to stay healthy. “e feeling I get when I’m cycling is the same feeling canoe tripping used to give me,” shares Rasmussen. “When you start riding, everything else you’ve been worrying about all day, that just goes away.”e group has approximately 10 routes across Muskoka they cycle through but each year is slightly dierent depending on what roads are under construction. ey plan various meeting spots or starting points, in advance, and sometimes even plan tours further aeld, arriving by car and then cycling their route and then travelling home. “We hardly ever all ride the exact same route,” explains Rasmussen. “Some of our group, who are better riders, can go longer and do more challenging routes than others. We can have a broad range of skill levels riding at any given time.”Starting o easy in the spring and slowing building their endurance, the group usually targets rides that are at least 30-kilometre loops when they’re together. However, some of the group also ride on other days in the week by themselves. e Mentally, yoga practice helps in quieting the mind, building awareness of the body and managing stress.Physically, yoga promotes blood ow through the body, which bolsters healing and helps to prevent disease. Photograph: Delaney McAndrew MediaPhotograph: Yoga 44 by Jen ScevSeptember 2020 UNIQUE MUSKOKA 43

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44 UNIQUE MUSKOKA September 2020average age of their members? It’s 75 years old. “It’s as much a social thing as it is an athletic thing,” says Rasmussen. “What we’re looking for is people who are congenial, can ride at least 30 km and who are prepared to be exible in the sense that if the day calls for it, they’ll push themselves or be happy to take a slightly dierent route.”No matter what activity you choose to engage in, ensure the movements are being completed correctly to eectively achieve goals and reduce injuries. When adding activity to your routine, whether it’s a new outlet for you or you are rarely active, start small and slowly add on to it. Often, individuals jump into something new and cause themselves injury by doing too much, too quickly. “As we age, we can get an injury and become sedentary,” shares Boyes. “Movement is magic. Keep moving but in a pain-free way. You’ll have a better quality of life and live much longer.”Pain when you’re working out or being active should be a red ag. Having pain in muscles and joints, beyond muscle fatigue, is a sign to stop that activity and have it professionally assessed. “e key in staying well is nding an activity you enjoy,” says Boyes. “Find out what it is you like, whether that’s tennis lessons, a walking club or a stretching or yoga class. Find like-minded individuals and create a community. Start slow and gradually build up.”Tai chi, one of many martial arts, focuses on balance, mindfulness, proper breathing techniques, healthy eating habits and a spiritual connection, explains instructor Valerie Houston-Peel (Le). There are multiple cycling routes throughout Muskoka with some oering greater challenges for those wanting a more demanding ride and workout.

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“Find people with a common interest and talk to people to see their skills levels,” says Rasmussen. “I really enjoy the camaraderie and how my body feels at the end. Well, maybe not at the end but after I recover!”“e fact that tai chi touches people not just as a physical exercise allows you to connect on so many dierent levels,” says Houston-Peel. “ere are the friendships that develop but I’ve seen such incredible health benets and change in people from regular practice.”Overall health and tness is about connection to your own body’s strengths and limitations, connection to those around you and connection to the environment around you. No matter your age and no matter the season, there are boundless opportunities to be physically active. Muskoka’s almost endless rivers and lakes oer many paddling experiences.stoneway marble & granite inc.Les and Renata Partyka1295 Muskoka Rd. 118 West, Bracebridge | 705.645.3380 | stoneway.inc@gmail.com28 Manitoba Street, Bracebridge, ON 705-637-0204ElleZed HandbagsContemporary style. Crafted from Harris Tweed –one of the most desirable textiles in the world.ElleZed HandbagsCrafted from Harris Tweed one of the most desirable oxtonguecraftcabin.com 1073 Fox Point Road, Dwight 705.635.1602Fine Canadian CraftStudio Jewellery Original ArtFine Canadian CraftBarry Dicks SCA, Sculpture Garden, watercolourCAPTURE THE SCENTS OF MUSKOKA28 Manitoba Street, BracebridgeSeptember 2020 UNIQUE MUSKOKA 45

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46 UNIQUE MUSKOKA September 2020Article by J. Patrick BoyerEarly Muskokans were cash strapped. “ere is little money in Muskoka,” wrote a settler at Barlochan to her family in England, repeating a common refrain. Perhaps that explains why, even by the 1880s when settlement, commerce and manufacturing were strong across Muskoka, not a single “national” bank had a branch in the District. ose banks, protected and privileged since Confederation as Schedule “A” banks under the Bank Act, enjoyed easier prots elsewhere and failed to see Muskoka’s potential. Fortunately, that era’s self-starting Muskokans refused to let others decide their fate. Homesteaders, frustrated at not getting a government bridge over the Muskoka River, built it themselves. Farmers, unable to grow crops on rocky elds, instead pastured milk cows and grazed sheep on them and prospered supplying Muskoka’s dairies, cheese factories, woollen mills, leather tanneries and meat markets. at same “can do” spirit inspired Bracebridge’s Alfred Hunt to open a private bank for the community’s unmet nancial needs.By the 1880s, Bracebridge boasted more than a thousand inhabitants. e village hummed with small factories. Services ranged from livery stables to print shops, mills and transshipment operations to hotel accommodations and stores, one of them a general store owned and operated by Alfred Hunt and James Clerihue. Most of these businesses needed assistance with nancial requirements but for bank service, owners had to journey to Orillia, Barrie or Toronto. From at least the early 1880s, these twin money problems in Muskoka – lack of currency that created a barter economy which constrained commerce and neglectful absence of the hinterland by Canada’s big banks – led Alfred Hunt to extend personal loans to individuals he judged to be making sound investments in the community which in turn provided jobs and contributed to economic growth. By 1884, he formalized these nancing services by opening Muskoka’s rst bank on Bracebridge’s Manitoba Street. Prominent in a red brick building on a principal thoroughfare, Hunt’s Bank did more than provide essential service. Customers valued the convenience of local banking and the security of not having to transmit money through the postal service.e Government of Canada, under sway of the Schedule A charter banks from opening day of Confederation, had taken a pass on establishing convenient and reliable Even by the 1880s when settlement, commerce and manufacturing were strong across Muskoka, not a single “national” bank had a branch in the District. An enterprising man with wide-ranging interests, popular Alfred Hunt (Right) had large brown eyes, prominent nose and black beard.Photograph: Boyer Family Archives, Bracebridge

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Photographs: Boyer Family Archives, Bracebridgepost oce banking service, in the pattern of European countries, despite its existing network of local post oces throughout the country. Muskoka’s only bank, this private one used by farmers and logging companies, millers and contractors, was thus vital to the District’s surge in industrial and economic development. Hunt’s Bank was as welcoming a place as his general store. He and his bank clerk T.H. Pringle knew customers by name. With Bracebridge also Muskoka’s capital, the land registry oce, District Court and other government services brought lawyers, conveyancers and those with public business to town. ey, too, made good use of Hunt’s Bank, including its safekeeping service for valuable documents. Muskokans condently opened accounts, made deposits, obtained loans, secured money orders and lodged documents in the safe. As his bank grew busier, Hunt moved into larger premises. He left the heavy safe in the basement of his rst bank building, not because he was giving up safekeeping operations, but expanding them. In his new 1893 purpose-built structure at 36 Manitoba Street, a large walk-in safe was built into the basement bedrock. From the day Alfred England Hunt arrived in Bracebridge in 1870, he’d become involved in local nances, rst as treasurer of Macaulay Township, then of Bracebridge. In fact, the slim, smart man of great initiative became so engaged in local aairs, it became hard to think of the town without him. An accomplished violinist, he sometimes played in the Methodist church as part of the service. He built a large frame house on Toronto Street (now Taylor Road), at the wedge-shaped property intersecting with Richard Street, (now Bird Lane) atop the plateau of land east of the river. e rise of land then became known locally as “Hunt’s Hill.” It was more than tting that a piece of land should be nicknamed for Hunt. He was dealing in real estate all the time, alongside Bracebridge’s other major property players, Hiram McDonald and William Holditch. When property values were assessed to compute municipal taxes, these men crowded the court of revision. One year, Hunt launched 21 appeals against his assessments – most on technical grounds of some error in description or ownership, but pretext enough to get the assessment reconsidered and, in the process, reduced.Alfred Hunt didn’t just show up in the Town Hall to seek assessment reductions. He was often present at the council table and, at times, in the reeve’s chair or the mayor’s oce – as of right. e merchant, banker, musician, realtor had rst been elected a Bracebridge councillor in 1877. He was again on council in 1882. In that era of eective democratic accountability, citizens across Ontario voted on their municipal councils’ performance every 12 months – each year’s council elected, ttingly, on New Year’s Day. On January 1, 1884, the same year he launched his private bank, Alfred Hunt was elected reeve, an oce to which he was also re-elected in 1885. In 1889 with growing Bracebridge now incorporated as a town, and for the next three years, he’d easily won re-election as a councillor. He was so popular and so connected with the community through his bank that in 1893, Hunt ran for mayor and won. ough re-elected mayor in 1894, and again in 1895, demands of his banking business and real estate transactions caused him to gear down to a seat on council in each of the next three years, while Singleton Brown, owner of a shingle mill in town and a Hunt Bank customer, occupied the mayor’s chair instead. Alfred Hunt was politically active in the community and when it came to provincial and federal elections, he sided with Conservatives. Back in 1878, when F.T. Grae and Harry Oaten launched a newspaper called the Muskoka Herald, their weekly not only emphasized a district-wide focus as its name made clear but, unlike the Gravenhurst Banner, Bracebridge Gazette and Huntsville Forester, it alone supported the Conservative cause. First copies of the Muskoka Herald came o the press on ursday evening, April 11. Many Tories showed up to support a paper they could believe in. Sam Armstrong, businessman and later mayor, auctioned o two or three dozen of the rst Muskoka Heralds as they came o the press – the rst to Alfred Hunt on his bid of $25. (At the time, his stipend as Bracebridge treasurer, for Above: This rambling frame building on the triangular wedge where Richard Street intersects with Taylor Road in Bracebridge was Alfred Hunt’s home. This direction signed by Henry J. Bird of Bird’s Woollen Mill to Alfred Hunt, Banker, was how he obtained $58.75 – present value, some $1,400.September 2020 UNIQUE MUSKOKA 47

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48 UNIQUE MUSKOKA September 2020the entire year, was $15.) Other bidding reached $15 or $10, large amounts which only the bravura of an auction among close acquaintances was capable of generating. at night’s haul, for a paper selling on the street at 2¢ a copy, helped Grae and Oaten keep the Muskoka Herald aoat through its start-up year; it would not fail with Alfred Hunt around.Another way Hunt imprinted himself on the Muskoka community was the picturesque way he meshed farm and town life. Poultry in a large shed behind his home not only provided a source of eggs and chickens for family eating but fed his fervour as a competitive breeder. Under Hunt’s leadership, the Bracebridge Poultry Association became an active concern. Its annual highlight was a December bird show in the Town Hall. Poultry Association members and their show birds converted the council chamber into a chaotic barnyard scene of feathers, sawdust, straw, cages, prize ribbons, crowing and loud clucking. Additional breeders arrived from Midland, Orillia and Huntsville with caged poultry of exotic varieties enlarging this gaggle of exhibitors and heightening levels of excitement and noise in Bracebridge’s municipal headquarters. Alfred Hunt, instigator of it all, was an ardent competitor in this eld. Year after year, he consistently entered far more birds than anyone else, not hard because his hatchery and hen house were but three blocks away. One year he had 43 birds in the show, netting many red, blue and white ribbons.On the 1897 bright spring morning of May 27, bank clerk T.H. Pringle arrived at Hunt’s Bank to open for the day. Stepping in the doorway, he was stunned to be greeted by the strong odour of gunpowder. e building had been entered during the night. Racing to the basement, he found the vault’s heavy steel door open. A hole had been drilled through it and the combination lock blasted o. e blood drained from Alfred Hunt’s face as he soon stood beside Pringle, evaluating a professional withdrawal from his bank. Stolen from the vault were $1,000 in bills, several gold watches, some notes of exchange, Mickle Lumber Company orders, and $9,000 worth of the town’s most recent waterworks debentures, issued to Richard Lance of Beatrice, who’d left them with Hunt’s Bank for safekeeping. Across town at the same time, omas Magee was discovering tools missing from This building at 36 Manitoba Street, two stores south of Chancery Lane, was erected in 1893 to house the Hunt Bank. The door at le led into the bank; at right, up to oces upstairs. By 1919, as shown here, it had become the Dominion Bank’s Bracebridge branch. Hospice MuskokaDONATIONS ARE EVEN MORE VITAL AS WE PREPARE TO OPEN ANDY’S HOUSEWe are so sad to announce that has been CANCELLED due to Covid-19DONATE TODAY AT WWW.HOSPICEMUSKOKA.COM/DONATE OR CALL 705-646-1697We look forward to seeing you next year for this fun event!Beauty, Badges, Bags & Bingo 2020Photograph: Boyer Family Archives, Bracebridge

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BATH & KITCHEN SHOWROOMDESIGN. INSTALLATION. REPAIRSERVING ALL OF MUSKOKA279 MANITOBA ST, BRACEBRIDGE705.645.2671KNOWLESPLUMBING.COM @MUSKOKABATHTHE RIOBEL MOMENTI™ COLLECTION AVAILABLE AT KNOWLES PLUMBING!279 Manitoba Street, Bracebridge 705.645.2671 @knowlesplumbing BATH & KITCHEN SHOWROOMSALES • INSTALLATION • REPAIRSERVING ALL OF MUSKOKAknowlesplumbing.comMuskoka’s Bath & Plumbing Centrehis blacksmith and wagon shop. His stolen brace, sledgehammer and crowbar – stamped with his initials, TM – had been abandoned inside Hunt’s Bank. Constable Armstrong questioned Magee and claried he was another victim, not the real culprit, but kept TM’s tools as exhibits for the trial. e investigation petered out. Nobody was ever brought to justice for a brazen robbery, clearly based on close knowledge of the town. Hunt’s solicitor, Arthur A. Mahay, sought to persuade his client that the bank remained fundamentally sound and should be kept open. In Huntsville, respected J.R. Reece had now begun managing a loan and savings agency next to the post oce, in conjunction with his telegraph and telephone services and implement sales. Vital communities needed local nancial services, said Mahay.But Hunt, focused on the bank’s sizeable problems rather than its basic soundness, remained shaken all year long by the unsolved heist and its uncompensated victims. Feeling angry, violated, humiliated and sick with money stress, he at last overrode Mahay’s counsel and in desperation assigned his assets for the benet of the bank’s creditors. He directed the Mahay & Ashworth rm (which was paying him rent for oce space in one of his buildings) to initiate liquidation of his assets and the bank. On the weekday morning of May 25, 1898 – almost a year to the day after the robbery – the doors at Hunt’s Bank remained closed and locked. Consternation spread among Bracebridgites and other Muskokans. What did the bank’s failure mean? Rumours spread that the Dominion Bank would take over Hunt’s bank. Representatives of Dominion had been spotted in town. Despite preliminary negotiations, that did not ensue.Instead, Muskoka’s private banker proceeded to assign his extensive business interests, except for his home on Hunt’s Hill and a property in his wife’s name, to Muskoka’s sheri James Bettes. e following week, a hundred of Alfred Hunt’s creditors gathered in the Herald Hall, the second-oor meeting room of the Muskoka Herald newspaper building at 27 Dominion Street. Arthur Mahay, as the bank’s solicitor, chaired proceedings. Sheri Bettes read a nancial statement reporting assets of $73,696.77 and liabilities at $53,717.23. Hunt himself explained that his nancial embarrassment began with Top: Arthur Mahay, solicitor for Hunt’s Bank, believed the bank still viable despite its unsolved robbery. Le: James Bettes, Muskoka’s rst sheri, had the legal obligation to liquidate the assets of Muskoka’s rst bank.Photographs: Boyer Family Archives, BracebridgeSeptember 2020 UNIQUE MUSKOKA 49

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50 UNIQUE MUSKOKA September 2020real estate investments in Toronto, seven years earlier, which lost $38,000, then continued with losses of $15,000 due to business failures of lumbermen and others to whom he’d advanced cash. rough Muskoka’s weekly papers, Sheri Bettes publicly advertised Hunt’s assets for sale: 33 vacant properties in Bracebridge, lakeside properties, and farmland in Macaulay, Brunel and Stisted townships. ere were town lots and properties in Gravenhurst, and a timber limit in Parry Sound’s Armour Township. ere were store and house properties in Bracebridge: three brick buildings occupied by Merrill, McEachern, omas & Booth, and Mahay & Ashworth; his own brick bank building at 34 Manitoba with oces above rented to the provincial government; a laundry; nine lots with houses; stores occupied by Tillson & Whitten, J.W. Ney, Macready & Company, J.O. Phillips, and the store south of the Dominion Hotel. Quantities of lumber were also put up for liquidation sale. Initial sheri sales enabled Bettes to announce by November an initial 20 per cent dividend for Hunt creditors. Solicitor Mahay’s view of the bank’s operations being basically sound was born out. As Hunt’s assets were liquidated, bank creditors recovered close to 100 cents on the dollar for all their stolen assets. Alfred Hunt, though still a member of town council for 1898, attended no further meetings after May that year. Nor did he ever again run for elective oce. His operations contracted to things like brick veneering the British Lion Hotel across from the new District Court House on Dominion Street in 1903. He died in 1917, in the bleak depths of a cataclysmic world war.In the wake of his bank’s demise, the nancial needs and opportunities in Muskoka which private banker Alfred Hunt had shown existed sparked the big banks to swiftly ll the vacuum. First to set up shop was the Bank of Ottawa, which on June 2, 1898, hurriedly opened a branch in the Manitoba Street building of tailor Robert McEwen, who himself went out of business and relocated to Vancouver. Joining the parade in 1904 was the new Crown Bank of Canada, chartered only the month before it opened a Bracebridge branch on July 18 on the west side of Manitoba Street. Some directors of the Toronto-based Crown Bank were Muskoka summer residents who saw the need for a branch in the district. One of Crown’s major accounts was e Bird Woollen Mill Co. Limited, pillar of the Muskoka economy, which had banked with Alfred Hunt.In 1908, Crown amalgamated with Northern Bank of Western Canada to become Northern Crown Bank and relocated its Bracebridge branch into another main street building once owned by Alfred Hunt. In 1918, when Northern Crown and Royal Bank of Canada merged, the local branch displayed its next name, Royal Bank. More national banks, with changing names from corporate takeovers and mergers, opened local branches across Canada, including in Muskoka’s towns and villages, like common franchises of an increasingly monolithic operation whose design, decision- and direction would increasingly lie beyond local control. In 1919, when the Bank of Ottawa merged with Bank of Nova Scotia, the Bracebridge branch simply changed its name and kept operating in the same ne premises. In addition to Bracebridge and Huntsville, other Muskoka communities began getting banking service. In 1901 the Dominion Bank, which had been sning around Bracebridge, set up shop in Gravenhurst instead, in a rented building before moving into its newly-constructed facility at the south-east corner of Muskoka and Royal streets. Port Carling was another. In June 1920 the summer-busy village got a pop-up Bank of Nova Scotia, under direction of Bracebridge’s branch. Two years later, enjoying steady boat-builder business, it became a full branch operating not June-September but year-round. By 1919, the Dominion Bank nally appeared in Bracebridge. From 1906 to 1914, Dominion’s interests had been represented locally by Henry Warren, nancial ocer of J.D. Shier Lumber Company, who returned to his former position with the bank as a manager in Toronto. When the Bracebridge branch, with Warren’s lobbying, materialized after the war, he came back to town as its manager, occupying Alfred Hunt’s former bank building at 36 Manitoba Street. is Bracebridge heritage building has been boarded up in recent years, its basement steel vault standing open, about the way bank clerk Pringle discovered it on that ill-fated morning of May 27, a century and a-quarter ago.The brick building at the right, on the west side of 1890s Manitoba Street, with TAILOR sign, was vacated by Bracebridge’s garment-maker Robert McEwen so the Bank of Ottawa could open a Bracebridge branch on June 2, 1898 – one week aer Alfred Hunt liquidated his bank.Photograph: Richard W. Ryan, Photographer; Boyer Family Archives, Bracebridge

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52 UNIQUE MUSKOKA September 2020Whats HappenedFood Co-op opensdowntown in HuntsvillePossibly you have heard of the Muskoka North Good Food Co-op but never found it, as it has been tucked away far from the heart of Huntsville.at all changed last month when the Co-op added a cafe and store on Main St., Huntsville, right across from the town hall.“From the start of when the pandemic hit us,” says Co-op general manager Kelli Ebbs, “business started to really pick up.” No restaurant meals meant more cooking at home, she notes, adding she thinks the pandemic also has brought it home to people that supporting local food producers ensures a reliable local food supply.Around July 17, the owner of Whimsical Bakery, a Co-op supplier, let Ebbs know she was closing, leaving her Main St. location vacant. “Our wheels really started to turn,” says Ebbs. She did up a business plan over the next weekend, presented it to the board of directors on the following Monday and got approval on Friday. Sta worked four to ve volunteer hours a night for a week to make the space ready to open its doors on Aug. 1.With three tables outside and two inside plus take-out, the Co-op’s cafe oers salads, soups, sandwiches, baking, pizza and local-roast espresso. e store section oers convenience-store fare Co-op style – local, organic, GMO-free and accommodating all diets by serving alternative milks, vegan goods, gluten-free goods and more. You can also purchase beeswax candles, holiday cards, locally-made pottery and other items. e downtown Co-op is open 9 to 4 on Sundays and 8 to 5 all other days.Bracebridge mayor heads Ontario municipal groupBracebridge mayor and deputy chair of the District of Muskoka Graydon Smith has been chosen for another position: president of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) which represents 444 municipalities from across the province.After having served the organization as a board member for four years and an executive board member for another two, Smith put his name forward with unanimous Bracebridge town council support, as a candidate for president in May. On Aug. 18, he was elected by more than 1,300 municipal government leaders during AMO’s virtual annual general meeting.“I’m very excited to take on this role for the next two years,” Smith says. “To be able to lead a great board of elected ocials from throughout Ontario is very gratifying. Our relationship with the provincial government as municipalities is the most important relationship we have. We have to make sure lines of communication are open, sharing our concerns but letting them know the good things that are happening, too.”AMO is a not-for-prot and non-partisan association that acts as the voice of Ontario’s municipalities to the provincial government on matters of advocacy and policy. It also helps empower municipal government by providing educational opportunities and resources to its members, and promoting municipal government as a vital and essential part of the nation’s governmental system.As well as his work on the AMO board, Muskoka North Good Food Co-op in Huntsville has increased its community visibility with the opening of a café and storefront on Main Street in the downtown core.Photograph: Robert NelsonBracebridge Mayor Graydon Smith now leads the Association of Municipalities of Ontario.

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1-800-843-1732 www.fireplacestop.com6048 Highway 9SchombergLET THE FIREPLACE STOP TEAM SHOW YOU ALL THE WAYS WE HAVE TO WARM UP THIS FALL. FROM MODERN TO CLASSIC LOOKS WE HAVE SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE!OUR SHOWROOM IS OPEN FOR APPOINTMENTS: MONDAY - FRIDAY 9AM - 6PM & SATURDAY’S 10AM - 4PM (CLOSED LONG WEEKENDS)Natural Gas & Propane AvailableAutumn is the perfect time to add a little cozy to your life!P.O. Box 330 Bracebridge, ON P1L 1T7 Phone # 705-645-4874 E-mail: mcnairelectric@muskoka.com www.chuckmcnairelectric.comECRA / ESA Licence No. 7001083Where one call does it all.2288 Highway 11 North, Gravenhurst, Ontario P1P 1R1705-687-9143 • info@gbscontrac� ng.com • www.gbscontrac� ng.comGBS Contracting Inc. Proudly Serving Muskoka for over 20 years. We get the job done! ROOFING • SIDING • DOORS • WINDOWS & GENERAL CONSTRUCTIONGraydon Smith has served as chair of the AMO’s Health Task Force and chair of Ontario Small Urban Municipalities since 2018. He is currently in his third term as mayor of Bracebridge and has served on both Bracebridge and District Councils since 2006. Muskoka Shoeboxreinvents its giving under new leadershipTwo big-hearted local women have stepped up to lead Muskoka Shoebox into a new mode for the COVID-19 era.Jennifer Stevenson, who lives near Port Carling, and her daughter-in-law, Sarah Stevenson, took over in July, relieving Joanne Buie, Penny Burns and Barb Baldwin, who founded the Muskoka chapter of the international giving program ve years ago.Traditionally, donors purchase $50 worth of small, self-esteem-enhancing gifts and wrap them with an inspirational note in a shoe box, which is then given to a woman or girl in need. “Sometimes it’s the only thing they get for Christmas,” Jennifer says.When she rst participated in the program, Jennifer was struck both by the degree of need and of generosity in Muskoka. In its history, Muskoka Shoebox has provided just shy of 5,000 boxes, or $250,000 worth of items. “We didn’t want it to end,” she says.is year, the shoeboxes will be virtual. Donors can buy the items and write the note online or donate gift cards. “e important thing is to check o ‘Muskoka’, to keep it in the community,” Jennifer says. She expects the need to be greater than usual this year. See www.shoeboxproject.com/muskoka.html for more information.Overcoming COVIDto support OSPCATwo Muskoka residents laced up and hit the road last month for a 60-kilometre relay-style run as part of the Ontario SPCA and Humane Society’s new Sweat for Pets fundraiser in support of animals in need.Registered as Team Cat Ladies, Melissa September 2020 UNIQUE MUSKOKA 53

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54 UNIQUE MUSKOKA September 2020Kosowan and Jessica Sheppard began their run west of Rosseau on Aug. 22 and headed along Highway 141 to the Ontario SPCA Muskoka Animal Centre in Bracebridge. Alternating runners approximately every 10 kilometres, the pair conquered the rolling hills and raised over $2,500 for the Muskoka Animal Centre. “It takes a community to change the lives of vulnerable animals and we wanted to do our part,” says Kosowan. “Sweat for Pets combined our passion for running with our love of animals to raise the critical funds the Ontario SPCA depends on to help animals in need.”Sweat for Pets is a new virtual fundraiser in support of programs and services provided by the Ontario SPCA and Humane Society. Funds raised through Sweat for Pets support life-changing work to give animals a second chance.“We’re so thankful that the community has come together to support our new Sweat for Pets event,” says Jane McCamus, Manager, Ontario SPCA Muskoka Animal Centre. “We’ve had to shift gear with our fundraising due to COVID-19, and your donations ensure vulnerable animals continue to receive the care they need to prepare them for a new beginning with a loving family.”To get involved, visit sweatforpets.ca to make a donation, or create your own unique challenge and ask your friends, family or neighbours to pledge their support.– Prepared by Karen WehrsteinTeam Cat Ladies, Melissa Kosowan and Jessica Sheppard helped the local OSPCA undertake a charitable run to assist the organization which has had to shi its fundraising during the COVID-19 pandemic.DesignedConsciouslyResponsibly MadeSustainableFASHION28 MANITOBA STREETBRACEBRIDGE | 705-637-0204Natural Pure Fabric. Timeless, Artisan-Made Weave.Simplicity, Eﬀ ortlessness.

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Fish, Muskoka styleGreat eating out of the lakeArticle by Karen Wehrstein / Photography by Tomasz SzumskiIn every region of the world that has lengthy coasts, sh is a meat staple in the local diet. So, of course, it is popular in Muskoka – a land so full of lakes that from a plane it looks like a latticework of land and water.In Muskoka’s eateries you can have sh prepared in all manner of ways, from your good old English-style, crisply battered, deep-fried sh ‘n’ chips to the delicate raw slabs with rice, soy and momentarily tongue-immolating green paste that make sushi.On today’s pescatarian journey, we will meet two chefs who have both worked in some other interesting places as well. First, we’ll boat over to meet Chef Steve Norsworthy.“Where I grew up, chefs would come out and talk to you, and take feedback on everything,” he reminisces. at may be because he grew up in Bracebridge. He still speaks reverently of John Hudswell, his food technology teacher at Bracebridge Muskoka Lakes Secondary School. “Mr. Hudswell taught me how to make a burger,” he reminisces. “He taught us seasonings on plain burgers; too much salt and it would be ‘ughhh!’ and that’s how you’d learn.”By 16, Norsworthy was working for a butcher shop in Bracebridge, learning all about meat. He also cooked for the Old Station Restaurant in Bracebridge upon its opening. After graduating from high school, he moved to Ban where he lived for about 10 years, skiing during the day and continuing to learn his craft on the job at night, from two “great European chefs,” in particular.After working both the front and back of several houses in Calgary, he picked up the skill of ice carving when one restaurant owner bought an ice-carving business in Las Vegas and hired him to work there.In his eight Vegas years, Norsworthy not only got to meet international-class chefs as they ordered ice sculptures for major events and celebrities. He rendered the character Colour and presentation are important, says chef Steve Norsworthy. 56 UNIQUE MUSKOKA September 2020

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Elmo in ice for Michael Jackson’s son Prince and a pair of boxing gloves for Sylvester Stallone. He visited Jackson’s house without knowing where he was until Jackson’s mother laughingly told him, and also got to enter the Playboy Mansion and meet Hugh Hefner. “ey’re just regular guys and girls,” he says, knowingly.In late 2010, Norsworthy connected with a high school sweetheart who had divorced her rst husband and he moved back to Canada, working at Horseshoe Valley for ve years. ey then moved to Prince Edward Island to run a bed and breakfast together while he managed multiple restaurants. Last year, he moved back home at the request of his parents. “I dabbled here and there, Windermere House, South Muskoka Golf Club.”You will nd no salt and pepper on your table in an establishment whose kitchen he heads. “We spice it,” Norsworthy says. “Try my food the way I do it!” Colour and presentation are important. “It’s like art to Maple Glazed Salmon Steve NorsworthyIngredients 6 oz fresh Atlantic salmon llet, skin on¼ cup Mark’s Muskoka Maple syrup¼ cup white wine¼ tsp salt¼ tsp pepper½ tsp Garlic Plus seasoning1 Tbsp garlic butter½ tsp dried parsley akesMethod• Season the salmon on both sides with Garlic Plus, salt and pepper. Melt the garlic butter in a small oven-friendly saucepan. Add the wine. • Just before boiling point, add the salmon esh side down. Cook for 30 seconds. Flip salmon pour the maple syrup over it (esh side must be up). Cook for another 30 seconds. • Place in convection oven at 325° F for ve minutes. Don’t overcook the salmon; the centre should still have a sliver of red in it.• Get your plate ready for service with boiled and seasoned basmati rice and two fresh sauteed vegetables. Maple, parsley, honey carrots and green beans almandine are a nice mixture. (ey are indeed.) Remove salmon from oven and place it on the plate, half covering the rice. Bringremaining butter, wine and maple syrup in saucepan to a boil, then carefully spoon the thickened sauce evenly over salmon. Sprinkle plate circumference, rice and top of salmon with dried parsley akes and serve.• Serves one: multiply ingredients by number of diners.• Chef-recommended wine pairing: Pinot Grigio (the wine he uses in the sauce) or Sauvignon Blanc.Chef’s TipsFor salmon llets, Norsworthy recommends Your Independent Grocer or your local butcher shop if it has them. Best time of year is now as the salmon are spawning.Garlic Plus is a seasoning mix made by Club House which he gets from his suppliers and you can sometimes nd at the supermarkets. An acceptable substitute would be Mrs. Dash. “I stay away from garlic powder, garlic salt, onion powder—anything white,” Norsworthy says. “It burns and will turn black.”For the best taste, get the darkest available maple syrup.To make the garlic butter: mix salted butter with Garlic Plus, minced garlic and parsley, to taste. Bonus recipeHow would Chef Norsworthy cook up a sh he caught in Muskoka waters? “If I landed a nice lake trout or pike, I would clean and llet it then: • With butter, oil the surface of a 14-18-inch- long piece of aluminum foil, center llets on oiled surface, salt and pepper them, then turn up edges of foil to hold liquid ingredients. • Sprinkle liberally with chopped yellow and green onions. • Add a few splashes of beer— Muskoka beer, of course. • Lay lemon slices and cilantro sprigs on llets. • Fold and tightly seal packet then lay in coals of re or on hot grill. • Turn and move frequently. Cooking time: 15-20 minutes.”Chef Steve Norsworthy began his training in Bracebridge before heading throughout North America to broaden his experience.September 2020 UNIQUE MUSKOKA 57

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58 UNIQUE MUSKOKA September 2020With roots in British Columbia, preparing sh is a natural for chef Brian Norrish.28 MANITOBA STREET, BRACEBRIDGE705-637-0204featuringDISTINCTIVELYLOCAL PRODUCTS AND ARTISANSQuality Crafted HandbagsFlavourful Coffees and TreatsBooks and More...me,” he says. Fresh ingredients, local ingredients and onsite prep are key to his philosophy, as is creative experimentation.e recipe Chef Norsworthy has given us is vintage 2020 and features Atlantic salmon with a very local glaze. “I just put maple syrup over it and cooked it,” he recalls, about the rst time he made it. “e saucepan had butter and wine and seasoning, and I boiled it, like boiling maple syrup.”at syrup-based sauce somehow adds a sweet, delicately smokey taste to the salmon, and is also indelibly delicious where it has soaked into the accompanying basmati rice. is very generous chef let me taste two other of his items as well, including a burger more tender than any other I’ve had as well as deliciously seasoned, and a ravioli to die for.Now let’s jump back in the boat and cruise down the river past people shing o docks and into Lake Muskoka. We’ll slalom through the wakeboarders, paddleboarders, RMS Segwun and people shing in boats past Milford Bay to Port Carling.Portside Fusion Restaurant opened in 2019. It has a back porch patio, fenced in with glass, that overlooks the locks between lakes Muskoka and Rosseau from high above and is surrounded by huge deciduous trees for an intimately spectacular eect. e rushing of the water over the lockside dam is your constant companion. e mouth-watering smell of the grill wafts out of the kitchen. If it’s raining, you can take the roofed roadside patio instead.Executive Chef Brian Norrish was born in the Okanagan Valley and grew up in Abbotsford, close to Vancouver. He moved east “because Ontario has some of the better culinary schools,” he says, attending Humber College in Toronto. Renowned Toronto chef

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PK_Muskoka   Patterson Kaye Re so rtw w w . P a t t e r s o n K a y e R e s o r t . c o m1 8 5 5 6 4 5 4 1 6 9P a t t e r s o n K a y e- Resort & Restaurant on Lake Muskoka -COTTAGE RENTALSSEASONS RESTAURANT PATIO OPENMilford Bay Grilled TroutBrian Norrish, Portside FusionMediterranean SalsaIngredients1 roast red bell pepper¼ c. kalamata olives6 rainbow cherry tomatoes halved4 piece artichoke hearts cut in quarters¼ c. roast red onion cut in small triangles1 Tbsp fresh chopped oregano2 Tbsp olive oil1 Tbsp red wine vinegarMethod• Cut the roast red pepper into a medium dice and toss with the rest of the ingredients. Allow to sit while preparing the rest of the dish.LentilsIngredients1 cup cooked beluga lentils½ cup ne diced carrot, celery, bell pepper and red onion in equal portions, mixed1 tsp chopped raw garlic1 Tbsp butter1 tsp red wine vinegar1 tsp chopped parsleySalt and pepperMethod• In a hot pan with a splash of vegetable oil cook the diced vegetables until lightly browned. Add the lentils, garlic, butter, and season with salt and pepper to taste. Cook for a further minute and nish with the vinegar and chopped parsley.TroutIngredients:2 pieces trout llet, approximately 6 oz each, skin on2 Tbsp garlic herbed oilSalt and pepperMethod• Coat the sh in the garlic herb oil and season with salt and pepper. Place skin side down on a hot grill, rotating once per side and ipping once until no longer translucent in the centre.Plating• Place a base of the lentils in a shallow dish, top with the cooked trout and garnish with the salsa. Serves two. Chef-recommended wine pairing: “Sauvignon Blanc. It’s light and crisp, not too sweet.”Chef’s Tips• To make garlic herbed oil: add several cloves of garlic to a jar of oil plus sprigs of herbs such as rosemary, sage, thyme, savoury, etc. Avoid cilantro.• How to cook trout and other sh so they don’t end up dry: “However long you think it’s going to take, take it o two minutes earlier.” Lake sh, he cautions, must be fully cooked. “But sh should never be dry.”Bonus RecipeHow would Chef Brian Norrish prepare a trout he caught in Muskoka? “I’d open it up, clean it, ll the body cavity with fresh lemon slices, dill and lime leaves, wrap it in foil, then barbecue it for 5-10 minutes unless it’s big in which case, longer. Poke it to see if it’s cooked. is gives a nice aromatic air to the sh.”122 Kimberley Avenue, Suite 2Bracebridge ON P1L 1Z8SHANNON STARKwww.shannonstark.comBenefits of a Holistic NutritionistAuto-Immunity - Allergies - Digestion Dietary Changes - Fatigue Hormone Imbalances Sleep - Aging - Weight Loss and more705.646.3546shannonstark1@gmail.comR.H.N.Registered Holistic NutritionistLive and Dry Blood AnalystSeptember 2020 UNIQUE MUSKOKA 59

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60 UNIQUE MUSKOKA September 2020Mark McEwan hired him straight out of school into his restaurant, North 44, and he took a second traineeship at Stage West Hotel in Brampton. During these four years, Norrish got his TV cred, appearing in a supporting role to McEwan who starred in the catering reality show e Heat for its full run of two seasons.Subsequently, Norrish partnered with one of the North 44 sous-chefs to run a small Italian restaurant in Toronto for six years, then joined the Banquet Team of Casa Loma, where he’d cook six weddings a week throughout each summer. “We won the Biggest Bash Award for Best Wedding Venue,” Norrish boasts, unsurprisingly. After two years of making brides eat like princesses in their own castle, he was hired as executive chef at the elegant Rosewater Room in Toronto.About a year later, Portside Fusion came up as an opportunity. “Two of the owners are chefs that I worked with,” he explains. “ey had a project going and they gave me a shout because I’ve always been more of a country boy. I wanted the chance to cook outside the city, and year-round.”Norrish likes to use local and seasonal ingredients with a low carbon footprint and health-conscious preparation (no deep-frying sh here). e fusion theme oers him the leeway to mix styles in a fun way, such as a smoked brisket bao that’s “a little Asian, a little Texas,” and a mushroom penne which, he thinks, would generate popular unrest were it taken o the menu. “e octopus is insanely popular,” he says, noting that it is slow-cooked with aromatics in water for ve hours using an immersion circulator.“Coming from the west coast, I’m drawn to seafood, in general,” Norrish says. “It’s hard to come by in Toronto.” In Muskoka, however, he can get the star ingredient for the recipe he’s sharing with us right from where it’s swimming around – right down the road at the Milford Bay Trout Farm.Milford Bay Grilled Trout, its author says, “is a play o a couple of dierent things that I’ve mixed and matched into a new dish that would be appropriate for the area. A lot of dierent countries do lentils: Spain, Italy, the Middle East. We’re really lucky that we can get trout on demand, and it’s as fresh as you can possibly get.”Now, of course, freshness is important with all ingredients – but sh more than any other. is trout absolutely melts in the mouth, it’s so fresh. e way it and the tastes of the other ingredients blend makes for a meaty, tart, strongly-bass-noted aromatic and avourful whole that words cannot do justice. I don’t know about you, but if I taste something really amazing, I get taste-ashbacks of it for days afterward. It doesn’t happen often. It did this with one.Life is good for the Muskoka pescatarian.Chef Brian Norrish’s fusion theme oers him the leeway to mix styles in a fun way, such as a smoked brisket bao that’s “a little Asian, a little Texas.”

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For informa on on reaching our READERS through our DIRECTORY Contact us at 705-637-0204or info@uniquemuskoka.com 62 UNIQUE MUSKOKA September 2020YOUR GUIDE TO SERVICES AND RESOURCESDIRECTORY705.645.4098 contact@muskokadrillingandblasting.caExperienced drilling & blasting for roads, ditches, foundations and septic systems. Exceptional service and top-quality results.CONTACT US NOW FOR A FREE ESTIMATE!Experience You Can Trust Better Blasting & DrillingWe Know the Drill•Granite Staircases•Walkways / Patios•Fire Pits•Retaining Walls•Renaturalization & Tree Planting•Driveway Builds & Grading•Drainage•Site Development & Blasting•Septic Systems•Snow Plowing & Sandinggenerationslandscape.ca705.801.0524KEVIN DAWE generationslandscape.ca•Driveway Builds & Grading•Site Development & Blastinggenerationslandscape.cagenerationslandscape.ca705.801.0524generationslandscape.cawww.budgetpropaneontario.com Budget Propane Sales & Service705.687.5608 Toll Free 1.888.405.7777Serving: Muskoka • Gravenhurst • Haliburton • Barrie • Simcoe CountyWe’ll take care of your propane needs for your home, coage, or business.

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Muskoka MomentsBy Michael DubenUnforgettable Muskoka hospitality Photographs: Tomasz Szumski 64 UNIQUE MUSKOKA September 2020For many years, scores of visitors from all over Canada and the world have journeyed to Muskoka to enjoy this idyllic part of Ontario, blessed with spectacular natural features. Muskoka is well known for delivering world class hospitality at its many ne accommodations which include resorts, inns, lodges and more. Upon arriving in the fall of 2013 to take on the role of Chief Administrative Ocer for the District of Muskoka, my family and I quickly learned Muskoka’s reputation for hospitality extends well beyond the tourism sector. From the moment we moved into the community, we were welcomed with open arms by everyone we came across. As you might expect, one of our very rst encounters was with the owner of the neighbouring property. After introducing himself and making us feel very welcome, he immediately oered us a place at his boathouse to park our non-existent boat. Although we do not have water access, we did eventually acquire a small watercraft and entered into an arrangement which consisted of our neighbour sharing our bear bin for his trash in exchange for us docking our boat at one of his slips. While initially convinced the deal we struck was a testament to my negotiation skills after years of practicing law, it really was borne out of his generosity and hospitality. We witnessed this type of kindness over and over again. Following a minor but no doubt entertaining mishap, attempting to pull an improperly secured U-Haul trailer along Highway 118, it was a kind passerby from a local construction company who stopped and selessly saved my day.No matter where we were, our rst few months in Muskoka were full of situations where people made eorts not just to greet us, but to do so warmly and often with an open oer to help. Whether at our respective places of work, at Rotary meetings, at holiday parties or at recreational events, we were always met with kind people, introducing themselves and welcoming us to Muskoka. Kindness from others was not limited to just myself and my spouse. Our teenage son Marcus was also a regular recipient of benevolence from Muskokans. Friendly but unknown neighbours insisted on driving him home from his bus stop anytime the weather was foul. Furthermore, knowing that he was undergoing a challenging transition to a new school in the middle of grade 10, teachers and administrators at BMLSS went above and beyond to make him feel as welcome as possible. is penchant for welcoming us to Muskoka went beyond people. Even Mother Nature got into the act, albeit with less warmth. We were welcomed to Muskoka in the winter of 2013 with 18 feet of snow and a Polar vortex. A very large bear “greeted” me outside of my window at our home, seemingly not that impressed by the fact that I was enjoying a nice long walk on my treadmill at the time. Unfortunately, a deer welcomed me and my vehicle to Muskoka… twice! Neither the deer nor the vehicles have been doing much welcoming of any kind since.e community hospitality has continued throughout our almost seven years, here, in Muskoka. e support Muskokans provide to each other when others are in need is absolutely extraordinary. For me, this generosity was never more evident than when I joined volunteers lling sandbags during the 2019 ooding. e general sentiment of all those volunteers was that of “others need help … I can help … so I do.” We will, of course, miss many things about Muskoka and will take many memories with us but the gracious hospitality and welcoming nature of Muskokans will never be forgotten.A warm and heartfelt “thank you” to all who have made our time here so special.Michael Duben joined the District Municipality of Muskoka as its Chief Administrative Oﬃcer in 2013, bringing almost 20 years of experience as a lawyer and senior municipal leader. He has accepted a position as the CAO for Oxford County.A very engaged Rotarian, he served as club president twice and was District Governor in the Detroit and Windsor area. He and his wife Shelly, a local school principal, founded an educational project that has enhanced the lives of thousands of children in ﬁve African countries.e Dubens have two adult children, Justine and Marcus, and are expecting their ﬁrst grandchild in the fall. ey enjoy travelling and hiking and Michael is an avid volleyball player.

Issue 26 - September 2020

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