The Near North Enviro-Education Centre

09/04/2025

Thanks to everyone who participated in the first Fall Skills Hub session with Chef Amaral. Making Mozzarella balls was very fun. We learned that precision in timing, fat content, and temperature of boiling the milk is crucial or you may end up with Ricotta instead.

A good time was had by everyone.

09/03/2025

08/31/2025

✨ The first Fall Skills Hub class is here, and it’s a tasty one!

🥛 On Tuesday, September 2, at 6 PM, join us at the Near North Enviro-Education Centre to learn how to make bocconcini. Fresh, soft mini mozzarella cheese.

👩‍🍳 You’ll gain hands-on experience in cheesemaking, and if you bring a tomato and a cucumber, you can create a simple, delicious salad to take home as well.

💚 Come learn, connect, and enjoy the delight of homemade, locally grown food.

📍 Near North Enviro-Education Centre | 140 Main Street, Sundridge
💲 $25 | Bring a tea towel (to use as cheesecloth if possible)
🔗 Register here: nneec.ca/skillshub

08/31/2025

TODAY!! JOIN US AT NOON!🥬🍎⭐️

🍏✨ From the community garden to jar and straight to community care!

Join us at the Near North Enviro-Education Centre on Sunday, August 31 (12–3 PM) as we turn our crabapples from the community garden into delicious jelly. 💚

You can join in on the making or stop by to learn about the process and help support the Sundridge Food Bank . Either way, you’ll get to take home a tasty sample! 🥄🍯

Let’s cook, share, and support together!

08/30/2025

🌿🍅 Fresh from the community garden!

Today, we whipped up a delicious kale & herb pesto pasta salad using kale, basil, tomatoes, chives, and cilantro grown right here in our Community Garden. 💚

👉 Limited pre-packaged lunches featuring this dish will be available TOMORROW at our Crabapple Jelly event (12–3 PM at NNEEC). First-come, first-served. Cash only.

Come by to taste, learn, and support the Sundridge Food Bank at the same time! 🥫✨

08/30/2025

TOMORROW! Join us at the Near North Enviro–Education Centre from 12–3 PM as we turn community-grown crabapples into jelly. 🍏✨

Drop in to learn, lend a hand, or simply grab a sample to take home, all while supporting the Sundridge Food Bank . 💚

👉 NEW!: We’ll also have a limited number of pre-packaged lunches made with produce from our Community Garden. They're first-come, first-served, and cash only.

Let’s make, taste, and share together! 🥄🥫

🍏✨ From the community garden to jar and straight to community care!

Join us at the Near North Enviro-Education Centre on Sunday, August 31 (12–3 PM) as we turn our crabapples from the community garden into delicious jelly. 💚

You can join in on the making or stop by to learn about the process and help support the Sundridge Food Bank . Either way, you’ll get to take home a tasty sample! 🥄🍯

Let’s cook, share, and support together!

08/28/2025

🍏✨ From the community garden to jar and straight to community care!

Join us at the Near North Enviro-Education Centre on Sunday, August 31 (12–3 PM) as we turn our crabapples from the community garden into delicious jelly. 💚

You can join in on the making or stop by to learn about the process and help support the Sundridge Food Bank . Either way, you’ll get to take home a tasty sample! 🥄🍯

Let’s cook, share, and support together!

08/27/2025

🌿 Nature Note | Week 6 🔥
Small insights. Big impact.

This summer, Ontario has faced an intense wildfire season, and here in the Almaguin Highlands, we recently had a total fire ban due to the high risk. Thankfully, the recent rain has helped, but fire safety remains essential.

🔥 A huge thank-you to our local volunteer fire departments for their incredible hard work and dedication to protecting our community. 💚🚒

Let’s all do our part to prevent fires: follow bans, practice safe grilling, and stay alert. Together, we can keep Almaguin safe and our forests thriving. 🌲🌍

08/26/2025

Week 8! Thanks for coming for our last week of the summer! We had a safari-themed week, complete with animal masks, snail slime, DIY pet birds, and an awesome PJ day! We also enjoyed the lake, kayaks, and everything Sundridge has to offer one more time! Take a look at our amazing wood craft group building away at their boats and mini robots in our woodshop! To everyone who joined us this summer, thank you for all the fun! We enjoyed laughing, learning, and hanging out with you and hope you have a great rest of your year.

08/21/2025

✨ Our summer Skills Hub season wrapped up this week with one last delicious workshop!

🥖 On Tuesday, August 19, participants gathered for our Sourdough Starter class, learning how to care for their own bubbly cultures and kick off their bread-making journey. It was a warm, fun evening filled with questions, laughter, and the smell of fresh dough in the making.

💚 This marks the final Skills Hub workshop for the summer! Thank you to everyone who joined us to learn, create, and share skills together these past few months! From stained glass to clay, sourdough to candle holders, it’s been incredible to see the creativity and community shine.

🎨 For those who still have clay creations waiting to be painted, we’ll be opening up painting sessions next week. We can’t wait to see those pieces come to life with colour!

📸 Check out some of the snapshots from our last workshop, and stay tuned for more community learning opportunities in the future.

08/20/2025

🌿 Nature Note | Week 5 ❄️
The SALTY Muskoka Watershed

When winter hits, we often reach for road salt to keep our driveways and walkways safe. But did you know that in Muskoka, 25% of our lakes (68 in total!) already have unsafe salt levels for fish and other aquatic life? 🐟💔

Salt doesn’t just melt ice, it washes into our lakes, rivers, and streams, harming plants 🌱, trees 🌳, pets 🐾, and even our drinking water 💧. The good news? Together, we can change this story!

While Almaguin Highland Lakes aren't part of Muskoka, our community shares the same watersheds and challenges. By rethinking how we use salt in Almaguin, we’re also helping protect Muskoka and other communities' waters, because what happens upstream always flows downstream. 💙

✨ Check out the SALTY Muskoka, Friends of Muskoka Watershed, to learn simple ways to be smart about salt!

🎥 Want to learn more? Watch this short video on road salt pollution and how SALT Muskoka is tackling it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-mnz-lKh0Q

📩 Want to get involved? Sign up for the Friends of the Muskoka Watershed newsletter by emailing: mailto:[email protected]
or visiting https://fotmw.org/

08/19/2025

Week 7! We enjoyed hanging out with all our new friends this week, being silly, creative, and making some tasty treats! We loved our concert and all the games we got to play. We also loved seeing all the awesome crafts our young artists made. We would include them all but our image post would go on forever! Thanks for coming! Stay tuned for our final summer wrap up coming next week.