Peterborough Blogs
An Innovative Entrepreneur Hub Called VentureNorth Is Forming In Downtown Peterborough
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This could be game changer for innovation economy
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Peterborough's Publican House Brewery Wins At The Canadian Brewery Awards
/Publican House Brewery in Peterborough has announced that their Flagship brand, Pub House Ale, was awarded a bronze medal at the 2016 Canadian Brewing Awards.
The Canadian Brewing Awards is the only national competition to judge the quality of Canadian manufactured beer and ciders in a variety of style categories. With over 1,200 submissions from 244 breweries, a Canadian Brewing Award medal is a widely recognized symbol of brewing excellence in Canada.
“As our best selling beer, Pub House Ale has a unique flavour profile that creates a distinct, yet easy drinking experience,” says Matt Philips, Partner at Publican House. “We’re excited to be recognized for the quality of our beer that we are so proud to produce.”
Pub House Ale is available in 473ml cans at select LCBO locations throughout Ontario and of course at Publican House's retail store at 300 Charlotte St.
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AgTech Startups Booming: Innovation Cluster Partners With Peterborough Agriculture Society
/Seeing the vast potential in the booming AgTech sector locally, The Greater Peterborough Innovation Cluster (GPIC) has announced an innovative new partnership with the Peterborough Agricultural Society (PAS).
It was a perfect fit with the Innovation Cluster as The Peterborough Agriculture Society has outlined a new strategic plan which clearly identifies the desire to promote agriculture awareness with an emphasis on advanced agriculture processes and technology, something the Innovation Cluster has championed in the community.
Entomo Farms
Indeed, the Innovation Cluster has been working with companies to aid in the commercialization of agriculture research and in promoting innovation in the agriculture sector with companies such as Noble Tech Inc., Entomo Farms and Chimp Treats.
“There are a growing number of AgTech start-ups in the region and this partnership will be crucial to the development of our local agriculture sector and economy,” says Michael Skinner, Interim CEO of the Innovation Cluster.
Andrea Lacerda from Noble Tech
The Innovation Cluster will kick off this unique affiliation with PAS by hosting a demonstration area—coined "Innovation Agriculture Zone"—at the Peterborough Exhibition in August for Innovative Agriculture related companies, and Chimp Treats will be there launching a new product.
Check Out The New Pop Up Ice Cream Store GG's In East City
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GG's opens in East City
Jen & Kelly posing on opening day with PTBOCanada's Julie Morris
Jen and Kelly—former owners of the Peterborough shop Girlie Girls—have opened a "pop-up" ice cream parlour in East City called GG's: Cones of Deliciousness (funnily enough in their old location at 75 Hunter Street East!).
Jen and Kelly look forward to a busy summer season and will see what the fall brings to determine if they will open year round. They offer 32 flavours from Kawartha Dairy, are cash only, and are open the following hours in the summer months...
JUNE
Thursday to Sunday - 12 p.m. to 8 p.m.
JULY & AUGUST
7 Days a Week - 12 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Give GG's a follow on Twitter.
Pop-Up Patio Comes To Downtown Peterborough This Summer
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Mayor Bennett; Delia Senra, Co-owner of Natas Café; and DBIA Executive Director Terry Guiel at the Ribbon cutting ceremony for pop up patio. Photo by Evan Holt
The Peterborough downtown, which is constantly innovating in exciting and dynamic new ways to showcase our beautiful downtown core—from upcoming (free) outdoor Wi-Fi (no official launch date yet) to the Summer Music series on Fridays to downtown murals—is now launching a "pop up patio".
The first pop up patio/sidewalk is at Natas Café on George Street...
Photo at Natas by Terry Guiel, DBIA
This pilot project meant to look at ways of "animating George Street" is a joint partnership between the City of Peterborough, the DBIA and Natas Café. Parking along this section of George Street will shift as the police have given up their dedicated spaces to become regular parking, resulting in no parking spaces being lost.
Photo by Evan Holt
The patio is on the sidewalk, and a pedestrian bump-out has been created to ease traffic around it. Much like the seasonal patios on Hunter Street, the new pop-up patio will be available when the weather gets warm and will be stored off-site in the off season.
“This is going to help animate George Street as people driving and cycling down one of our busiest streets see our downtown patrons outside enjoying themselves,” says Terry Guiel, Executive Director of the DBIA. “We’re excited to launch this pilot project at Natas Café and hopefully we can build on this in the future.”
"The City and the DBIA are working together to activate public spaces in our downtown," says Mayor Bennett.
"The sidewalk bump-out pilot project joins other initiatives such as the downtown murals program and the planned urban park at the Louis Street parking lot as we continue to invest in creative ways to generate activity in the commercial core for the benefit of the entire community," adds Mayor Bennett.
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Why People Are Going Bananas For Peterborough's NICEcream Locally & Beyond
/Peterborough entrepreneur Brooke Hammer has created a unique—and yummy—product called NICEcream that consumers are raving about, and that is scaling locally and beyond.
Hammer, who took home multiple awards including the FastStart Innovation Award, the Women’s Business Network of Peterborough Award and the StartUp Peterborough People's Choice Award at the recent Bears' Lair entrepreneurial competition in Peterborough, is building terrific buzz about her product.
Founder Brooke Hammer (at left) with Innovation Cluster's Rosalea Terry at product launch event (Photos from launch by MossWorks Photography)
NICEcream is a delicious ice cream made entirely from bananas (no extra ingredients or preservatives are added), and is the signature product from Brooke's new startup Chimp Treats. NICEcream recently launched at Amuse Coffee Co., and people are going bananas for it.
"The reaction to it has been overwhelmingly positive," Hammer tells PTBOCanada. "As we all know, children are incredibly (and sometimes brutally) honest, but all of the children at our launch party loved it—and moms loved it too! I could not be happier with the way Peterborough has been responding to the product, and the kind words and encouragement that they've shared with me."
This healthy junk food alternative is available to order online, and is already available at Jo Anne's Place Health Foods, Amusé Coffee Co., Play Café and Baked 4 U in Peterborough. It will be expanding to other local retailers in the upcoming weeks and months, and plans are in the works to expand to retailers in Toronto and beyond.
NICEcream is unique in that Chimp Treats is recreating everyone’s favorite junk foods entirely from fruit. It is essentially junk free junk food, a delicious product that tastes like a treat but is healthy. Sweet!
Customer sampling NICEcream at launch event
Hammer, who credits the Innovation Cluster, FastStart Peterborough and Peterborough Economic Development for helping her develop and scale this business, plans to roll out other products—all made from fruit—down the road. "We're changing the game completely by reimagining 'junk food'," says Hammer, who studied Business & Entrepreneurship at Trent University.
"We've partnered with Sustainable Peterborough, River City Farms (they'll be utilizing our thousands of banana peels for compost for their crops) and local strawberry farmers (via the Agricultural Society) to create a strawberry banana NICEcream for the PTBO Ex," Hammer tells PTBOCanada. "We will also be present at many festivals and events in the coming months, such as the Peterborough Yoga Festival, Hootenanny on Hunter and more!"
Sampling NICEcream at launch event
Hammer tells PTBOCanada she has huge plans for the business outside Peterborough. "We are currently negotiating with a co-packer (and distributor), and have partnered with amazing investors, so we predict being available across Ontario within the next four months and across Canada within the next seven months. I am planning on growing this business on an international scale."
Customers sampling NICEcream at launch event
