Southern Ontario Food Tour

I recently bought a copy of a book called the Ontario Table  "featuring the best food from around the province".  As I was reading through it the other day, I was inspired to go visit many of the places mentioned so planned a road trip for yesterday.  Based on the success we had, we'll be trying to visit more of these over the summer and beyond.

Our first stop was Paron Cheese, 400 Hwy 20 in Binbrook.  This place makes various, no preservatives added, cheeses, including one called Montasio which when aged, they say is a good sub for parmesan.  Since I'm not even halfway through a Costco Parmesan cheese (which translates into - I will be using this cheese for another 6 months), I bought the milder version of the cheese and another butter cheese called Casata.  We sampled both in the store and popped open the Casata yesterday afternoon and enjoyed.  This is not a comfortable shorts and t-shirt environment.  The customers and the staff join the cheese in the refrigerator.  Brrr.  And they only take cash.  Fortunately, my dad was with me so could spot me the $5 I needed to complete my purchase.

Next up, Fenwood Farm in Ancaster.  This is an organic chicken farm with an on-farm market. They sell other meats as well and we bought a bunch, glad we had thrown the big cooler into the back of the truck.  The farm supplies a number of markets and restaurants including the Organic Garage in Oakville.  Buying directly from the farm felt great and without the markup that a store has to put on the products, was less expensive.  There was also a small veggie stand outside the store with garlic scapes for sale.  I haven't had these for a couple of years because our local farmer's market does not sell anything that doesn't look like the supermarket.  In fact, I'm pretty sure at least half of the booths at the farmer's market around the corner from us get their produce at the food terminal.  The bananas give it away.  Anyway, back to the scapes.  I made a very pungent pesto with these that I drizzled over roasted asparagus and then threw it all back in the oven for about a minute.  Yummy.  I still taste the garlic this morning so won't stand too close to anyone today!

Our final stop was Morden's Organic Farm Store in Dundas.  Most of the food is from local farms and one of their biggest draws is their gluten free product suite.  We picked up a number of game meats and some fish from this store.  They have a walk-in freezer that made the cheese place seem like a day at the beach.  Next time, I'll bring a jacket.

I think the bottom line of this kind of shopping is that we got to meet some really nice people either selling their own food or selling the food of their neighbours.  This made for a great day.