Farm Food Care Tour - Dairy and Mill

I love it when I get invited to Farm tours by Farm Food Care.  They are always fun and educational.  This was my 3rd time doing the Farm Tours.  I broke my lucky streak of good weather this time and I blame the Vaughan Centre station for that.  Every time I have to meet someone at Vaughan Centre Station it pours.  This was the 3rd time that happened but at least I had a fairly easy way to connect up with the bus this time.  I say fairly easy because I poured just as we got there and the bus was about 15 minutes late so we all huddled inside the TTC entrance.

A bit of info about Farm Food Care first,  they are a coalition of various businesses in the food production industry who do consumer research, promotion and program education about the agriculture industry.  These farm tours are run by the energetic and organized Jennifer MacKenzie who is a food writer, cook book author and excellent tour organizer.

As I briefly mentioned we started our day by hopping on a tour bus in Vaughan at 8:30am and were given a little bag full of goodies which I unfortunately forgot on the bus because I had too much stuff to carry home.  I will get to that in a bit.  Jennifer makes home baked treats for the drive to the farms and we had coffee too.

Our first stop was the very popular Sheldon creek Dairy  located at 316 RR#2 5th Concession in Loretto, Ontario  

We had a great tour through the bottling area and where the cows were and saw the whole process from start to finish.

Sheldon Creek are the first farm in Canada to produce A2 milk.  It is milk that comes from cows that naturally produce milk with A2 version of beta-casein.  Normally cows produce A1.  It is easier on the digestive system.  They likened it to the Red Head gene in humans.  The A2 protein is comparable to human breast milk or goat, sheep and buffalo milk which is easier to digest for dairy sensitive people.  As I have grown older I appreciate this a whole lot.

We learned a whole lot of things about their system including the fact that 4 degrees is the perfect temperature for milk.  They use a voluntary milking system for their cows in a system that is kind of like a cow car wash.  They walk up to a platform that allows the cows to be scanned by sensors and connected to the milking machine.  They have fitbit kind of tracking that tells their computer sensor which cow it is and tracks the quantity of milk that is milked at a time and how many times a day they milk as well as the milk breakdown so they can tell if there is any illness that may occur in the cows.  The cows are given a treat but they have it set up so that they can't keep going back just to get treats.  Very smart.  Cows are trying to out smart the machines but nope they can't do it.  The cows all have definite personalities.  It was obvious that there were selfie loving cows and ones that couldn't care less that there were a bunch of humans taking photos of them.  Obvious from the sounds of the food going in and out of the cows if you know what I mean?  We also fond out that they are feed a pickled hay concoction that inhibits bacteria growth and they lay in sand beds instead of hay beds or grass because it molds to their bodies making them more comfortable.

After learning about the dairy we all went crazy in their little store that stocks their fresh milk right from the back bottling area and they also sell local products.  I can tell you that I filled up a cooler bag and it was heavy.  I got one of their little bottles of heavy cream and coffee milk, chocolate milk and strawberry milk which is colored with beets. And I picked up some local gouda.  I wanted more but had to haul it home and as it turns out it's a good thing I didn't get more because I could barely carry everything home.  They were preparing to have an open house on the weekend and I wish I could have gone back to get more things.

After shopping like crazy and seeing the cows we trucked through the wet farm back to the bus to go for lunch at the Gibson Centre.   We were all very hungry and ready to get out of the rain by that time.  The Gibson Centre is a beautiful community centre that hosts food festivals and lots of weddings apparently. 

  Lunch was fantastic.  I shared a table with fellow food industry writers and friends Suzie from Just Crumbs,  Fina the Healthy Italian and Mairlyn Smith the home economist and cookbook author and tv personality.  Such a delicious and fun lunch.  All of the food was from Ontario.  We had chicken with crispy chicken skin and gnocchi with peas, roasted radish and asparagus, rillette on brown bread and strawberry shortcake for dessert.  There was a pickled veg platter and everyone went crazy for the pickled brussel sprouts but I didn't have a chance to taste them.  There was a speaker from Saskatchewan Canola who were the lunch sponsors and there was also a speaker from the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture talking about how the new tariffs are affecting farmers like Canola farmers. Farmers are at the mercy of the weather and things like tariffs and government regulations so it's a really tough business to make a decent living sadly.

After lunch we hopped back on the bus to go to K2 Milling in Beeton. Owner Mark Hayhoe has been in the industry for 28 years. I am not sure they were quite prepared for all the foodies looking for fresh new things.  Unlike the dairy everyone was looking to buy something to take home but they weren't really set up for grab and go sales as they normally sell to other businesses. 

They mill non traditional things like hemp, flax, spelt, quinoa, pea, amaranth, rice and lentils.  They also experiment with things like grapes and have a merlot flour and they have spices like turmeric and cinnamon. They also do unusual things like blueberry flour and cranberry flour using dried berries. Their motto is "grinding against the grain".  I opted to skip buying a bag of flour at this point because I already amassed a bag of stuff and a centrepiece and dairy products.

I couldn't hear everything about the milling process but I could tell they like to think outside of the norm of the traditional milled wheat.  We did learn about why things like ground oats aren't always the best thing to mill and different milled products react differently when baking which explains why gluten free products are never the same as wheat products.  Some flours gum up and can't hold the structure.  I think he said that spelt can't be over mixed or it breaks down. 

And just as we finished having a look at the mill and picking up some milled products it started to rain again so i dashed back onto the bus to head back to the Vaughan drop off location.  Back on the bus we were given surveys and then it was time for trivia and prizes.  I won the centre piece at lunch and one of the trivia question on the bus and got a silver travel cup and straw and an ice cream scoop.  I will use that for sure.

It was a super fun day even with the gloomy skies, muddy pathways and wind and rain.  Spending time with great food industry people and learning how our food is produced is always rewarding.

Visit a farm, meet the people that produce your food and thank them for the hard work they do to feed your families safe food products.  We have some of the highest food standards in Canada.  We do not allow milk to be sold with hormones and the pasturization process is strictly regulated.  I have visited some fantastic farms run by great people and you should do the same if you have the opportunity to do so.

Respect the food that is harvested so that we can continue to have this high quality food.

 www.farmfoodcare.org

The Great Canadian Cheese Festival - Prince Edward County

OH CHEEZE!!!

 The Great Canadian Cheese Festival takes over the Crystal Palace Fair grounds in Picton in the Prince Edward Country region once a year and pretty much everyone who is in town becomes a cheese head.  You can't help but not too with all the great cheeses at the Festival and at other surrounding Wineries, cheese producers, restaurants and other off shoots.  The event is just wrapping up as I write this blog post.  It was held June 4-5, 2016 this year.  I was able to go and spend the day in Picton on the Saturday with a couple of friends. It's about a 2 hour drive from Toronto and in between Kingston and Belleville. If you want to stay in a hotel then you have to stay in Kingston or Belleville because Picton isn't big enough for a hotel.

 I certainly picked the right day to go because it was the most perfect weather, although a wee bit hot in the afternoon and not great for melting cheese but a great day to attend a festival.  This was my second year going to the festival.  Last year we got distracted by the big apple on the way but this year I was determined to see more vendors.  Some were returning, a few not there and a few new ones so you never know what you will see.

It is a massive event that brings together cheese producers and other vendors from across Canada and many of them from the area and from Quebec.  We have some of the finest cheese producers in Canada and we don't support our own enough.

You either have to go the 2 days of the festival to try all the cheese samples or you have to have a competition size appetite.  Sadly I don't even think I tried half of the samples at the festival but we gave it a good try anyway.  It's really hard to pick favourites when you try so many great cheeses.

 I would say that about 75% of the festival is cheese so those of you with dairy issues you have to hunt for those lactose free items and there are a few.
Other vendors included Ottawa's Seed to Sausage who had a very popular booth.

 

Some interesting vendors were these spicy sauces using all kinds of peppers blended with other things like fruits and other flavourings and cute little cat labels with funny names.  They ranged from mild to Ghost pepper hot.

I can't name all of the cheeses I tried and you have to trust me when I tell you there were a lot of all kinds of cheese,  soft brie's, cheddars, smoked cheeses, beer washed rinds, aged, goat cheese, one was torched, some were mixed with things like jalapeno and salsa and a whole lot of other things like cheese curds and I am sure a bunch I missed.

There were a few preserves and pickles and this new product THE SPREAD which is a savoury spread with Sesame seeds and other things in it that would pair well with cheese and probably add flavour to a grilled cheese sandwich.

We shared a wood oven pizza from Via Pizzeria which happens to be one of my friends names who was there with me.  We also had cheese that was grilled with garlic powder and plain.  I liked the garlic one.

It's hard not to bring home all kinds of cheese and other goodies that you can't find at your local market.  I had to have some restraint and picked these among some of my favourite things.  The cheeses were prices pretty reasonably too.  I think all of my cheese choices are from the Ottawa/Quebec area and the nuts are from Ontario.

Even after all that cheese and diary we stopped into an Ice cream shop called Slickers Ice Cream, one of the Cheese Festival volunteers recommended.  She warned us that there would be a lineup since it's a tiny place.  When we got there the lineup had about 8 people in it and to us folks from Toronto who stand in lines for everything and waste most of our lives in line, this was a small price to pay for some amazing ice cream.  I got the Jack Daniels Chocolate and the Campfire flavours in a waffle cone.  It was delicious and really hit the spot on a hot June day after wondering around a festival all afternoon.

I would go back for that ice cream even if there was no festival happening in Picton but it was all a bonus to a great day.

We did things a little backwards though and had the ice cream and then decided to head over to the Drake Devonshire Inn and were able to get a table without a reservation for dinner.  That's something I desperately wanted to do last year but wasn't able to so this time we had my friends unlimited data plan and her Google GPS ready to get efficiently from one destination to the next in quick time so that we could do as much as we could while we were there.  We really didn't want to leave the Drakes amazing waterfront space but we had to head back to Toronto begrudgingly but we will be back and hopefully before next year's festival.

If you want to plan a visit for next year's festival check out there website to get more information:
http://cheesefestival.ca/
Hashtag #tgccf

Great Canadian Cheese Festival road trip to Picton

It was a beautiful summer weekend this past weekend with the sun shining and the skies so blue and the perfect time to take a road trip to Prince Edward County the new mecca of Artisanal food to attend the Great Canadian Cheese Festival.

I couldn't have asked for a better weekend to go for a drive to sample a whole lot of Ontario and Quebec cheeses, wines, chocolates, preserves and pickles, cider, craft beer, honey and all kinds of other treats.

The festival was located at the Picton Fair Grounds in Prince Edward County, Ontario  I have to tell you that we were kind of lucky that we found it with the directions I had.  A few more signs would have been helpful.

Admission to the Festival is $50 for the day but I had a weekend pass although I only went on the saturday. You could purchase drink tickets for 10 for $10.

We got a little distracted by the Big Apple Shop on the way to the festival so we didn't get to the festival until about 2 o'clock in the afternoon.  I thought they closed at 5pm so I kind of took my time going through the Taste Ontario Pavilion so by the time it was 4pm we jetted outside to try and breeze through the other booths outside and in another building.  I tried a whole lot of cheese and preserves and dips, spreads and other things so by the time I got to the outdoor ones I was kind of stuffed.  We managed to sample a couple more of the vendors that were still closing up shop for the day but we did miss a few that I would have liked to try including Seed to Sausage which I had once at a blogger conference and would have loved to have been able to bring some of that home.

I brought a cooler bag and had a small cheese ice pack, fitting I think.  But I didn't want to buy too much cheese so I only picked up 3 of the ones I really liked that were all different from each other.

I purchased these cheeses to take home

1.  St. Albert 5yr old Cheddar this is an award winning cheese and so smooth

2.  Best BAA Dairy Mouton Rouge - a soft washed rind cheese that melts in your mouth

3. Fromagerie Terroir Bellechasse - Fleur Saint-Michel - a garlic coated cheese that you fry

Some other things I tried that I thought tasted great or were interesting included Dehydrated cheese which will be launched in stores in August.

The lovely Phyllis Cook's Kitchen had some spicy pepper jellies that would really be great pairings with all that cheese.  Phyllis is going to send me some for a giveaway so look for that soon.

After all of that cheese I really needed a thirst quencher and picked up some Very Berry Ice Tea from Pluck Teas.

We tried the Black Garlic in jars.  It was pretty strong but the vendor showed us an appetizer he was going to make for the ticketed events that looked like it would have been a great use for it.  It does need to be mixed into something because it's intense on it's own.

There were a few vendors that were familiar to me from shows I have been to in Toronto and also from the preview I went to last month.  Vendors like Pluck Teas, Jewels under the Kilt, Whisky & Spice mustards, Best BAA Dairy, Seed to Sausage meats, the Shortbread Company and Cow's Cheese and a couple of other cheese vendors.

Can you believe that 5000 wine and cheese lovers hit this little festival in Picton each summer.  It runs all weekend and since I haven't been to this festival before I didn't know what to expect so we didn't book a room to stay over to return the next day and then we decided to stay over and we couldn't find a place to stay except for some guy that had a room in his cottagey house for $150 a night and I can tell you that it was worth more like $25 bucks for the night so we passed on that and decided to drive to Kingston instead and we stayed at the Ambassador Hotel and Conference Centre because we wanted to go on the Thousand Island cruise on the sunday.  The cruise departed at 12:30pm and it was a 3 hour cruise so by the time we finished that the cheese festival had already ended so we didn't have a chance to go back.

We tried to check out a few B&B's in Picton and did a whole lot of driving around Picton.. about 5 times.  We were looking for the Drake Devonshire Inn but for some reason we kept missing the sign but finally found it but it was fully booked and even the dining room was fully booked but we had a chance to check it out and it was beautiful.  I hope to get back there eventually.  Anyway on our stops at B&B's and Inn's we stopped at Merrill Inn and the lady there told us that 5000 people go to the festival every year and they book their rooms a year in advance to get their preferred location.  There aren't any large hotels and only small B&B's and Inns in Picton.  

We decided to wing it this year because we didn't know what to expect and as it turns out we met up with my friend's friends in Kingston for the cruise and that turned out to be a great day as well and if we didn't wing it we might not have done that.  Sometimes a plan is good and sometimes you got to just go with the flow.

I would recommend that you hit up the Cheese Festival early in the day and not dilly dally on the drive there like we did and bring empty bellies ready for lots of cheese sampling.  You have to purchase tickets for the wine but all of the cheese samples and most other samples were included in the pass price.  I did pay $2 for the Ice Tea and of course the cheeses that I purchased.

We didn't purchase the extra ticketed events because we didn't know how long the main festival would take.  Now that I know I would probably go to the festival early and then leave some time for a ticketed event.  

I hope if I return next year the weather is as great as it was this weekend and I have a chance to try a lot more vendors samples.  

I know there was a bunch of food bloggers from Toronto that also went to the festival.  I didn't see them when I was there but I know the were either there before me or after me so I know they will probably have info on some of  the things I missed.  

You know a festival has potential when a bunch of Toronto Food Bloggers drive a couple of hours to Picton to check it out.

There was a big Mac and Cheese festival in Toronto that had thousands of people attend but I am so glad I skipped that one and took in some fresh country air and fresh local products.

Check it out next year but plan ahead and bring a cooler so you can take home some yummy products.

http://cheesefestival.ca/