That Darned Highway

On Monday Dec 13th, 2010 we attended an information meeting hosted by the City of Burlington and Halton Region. This is what we learned, please forgive and correct me if I've got any facts wrong, I'm basing this on a tiny bit of research, and what I remember from the meeting! I have provided links to the official documents that I know of.

Links: 

The presentation from Monday's meeting, maps, etc.

Burlington Post Coverage of the meeting

Niagara to GTA Corridor Planning and Environmental Assessment Study

Halton's Regional Official Plan 

Map from Halton Region, I added our farm

• -Part of Halton Region's official plan (ROPA-38) calls for development to stop at Hwy 407, land north of 407 is designated as farmland or part of the Natural Heritage system (ie Niagara Escarpment).
• -ROPA -38 was passed unanimously by Halton Region, fully supported by all four of Halton's municipalities (Burlington, Halton Hills, Milton, and Oakville).
  
• -This would mean Burlington's development is nearly complete, land to the north of the 407 would remain unchanged, as it is today.
• -ROPA-38 was submitted to the province.
  
• -The province sent it back (only three days after the municipal election, coincidence or not?) wanting an amendment.
• -The amendment is for a highway corridor to be included in ROPA (see green arrow on map)
  
• -Everyone at the meeting, residents and politicians, is against this highway. No one at the meeting expressed any sort of support for the highway.
• -The purpose of the meeting was to inform residents and jump start opposition to the new highway. The elected officials indicated that even though construction of the highway is years away, once the corridor is put in the plan, it will be virtually impossible to stop the highway, so the time to stop the highway is now.
• -The message from the municipal and regional politicians is to write as many elected officials as you can (the premier, minister of transport, your MPP, etc.), indicating your opposition to the highway.

Following the presentation, questions and comments were taken from the floor: Here's a summary of what struck me, and what I remember (I wasn't taking notes, so I may have got some things wrong). The general tone being that the proposed highway is ridiculous.

• -Development in Burlington would sprawl north to the new highway.
• -Building a highway across the environmentally sensitive, world biosphere heritage site of the Niagara Escarpment is ludicrous.
• -Air pollution, noise pollution, water pollution
• -If oil prices continue to rise, will we be driving the same way 20 years from now? Will we need this highway?
• -The proposed highway is based on Hamilton growing a lot. Is economically depressed Hamilton actually going to see this growth?
  
• -There is no super highway going from Hamilton directly to the 401, that's what needs to be built.
  
• -Upgrading existing highways, and increasing mass transit such as rail is the way to go.
  
• -You can't buy local if there are no local farms
• -Where are all those vehicles to go once the new highway connects to existing highways that are already gridlocked?
• -Assuming the new highway connects to the 407 (there is really no other option) drivers will be forced to pay the tolls. Is the new highway going have tolls?
  
• -The 407 should not be private, if anything is to be expropriated, it should be the 407. Canadians should never allow the privatization of infrastructure.
  
• -The arrow goes straight through Halton Conservation head office on Britannia
  

Stay Tuned! 

Too many tomatoes

One of the fun things farmers get to do when it is cold and blustery outside, is to look over the seed catalogs that are arriving in the mail, and decide what to grow next year. With thousands of different tomatoes available, it can get hard to choose. It's impossible to grow them all! We'll keep most of what we grew last year, eliminating a few, and trying a few new ones.

I've made my "short" list of tomatoes that I want to try, but there are too many. I need to choose about half a dozen new varieties to grow next year. I can't decide, I can find reasons to grow them all, but it will be too confusing in the field if we do!

Help me decide what to grow by voting in our tomato poll (see the column to the right)

Varieties under consideration

In addition to the 30 varieties we liked from last year, we  will be growing a few more taken from the following. The descriptions are from seed catalogs


Andrew Rahart's Jumbo Red -Deep Red Beefstreak great taste and aroma, healthy plant, HHS's main red variety  
Andrina Red Cherry -dwarf plants, we'll try them in hanging baskets
Aunt Gertie's Gold Yellow Beefsteak -one of the best tasting yellow tomatoes (most yellows are "mild")
Austin's Red Pear -SSE's best tasting red pear (we used  to grow a pear that was tasteless)
Beam's Yellow Pear -as above, except yellow
Black From Tula Black Round -one of the best tasting black's
Black Plum Black plum? we don't grow that yet
Blondkopfchen Yellow cherry -excellent sweet taste, enormous yield -we need a good tasting yellow cherry
Gary Ibsen's Red Red Round -Tomato guru Gary Ibsen loves it
German Red Strawberry Red Heart -best tasting
Gray's Sweet Cherry -Red best tasting red cherry 
Hahms Gelbe -yellow cherry -dwarf plants for containers
Indian Stripe -purple round -offspring of Cherokee Purple, great taste
Lutescent -Novelty ripens green, pale yellow, deep yellow, red
Mule Team -Red Round, Classic tomato, great taste, productive, blemish free
Orange Cherry -great tasting orange cherry
Pendulina Orange -orange cherry -dwarf plants for containers
Persimmon-Orange round -best tasting orange
Speckled Roman Red with orange stripes plum -meaty, tastes great
Stupice Small red round -very early, high quality, taste test winner
Sweet Pea Red Currant -best tasting currant (smaller than cherry) 

For further information on heirloom tomato varieties, check out Tatiana's Tomato Base