Prince Edward County

Hello all. This is a post about an oft-overlooked area northeast of Toronto on a relatively small jut out into Lake Ontario. Though locals know of it, some swear by it, and I discovered that I've been there before, it's still awesome to come by. Above is a photo of a really surprisingly delicious cauliflower salad we had the first night on the beach with a bottle of gewurztraminer that only the VQA judges, ourselves, and the winemaker have tried. Pre-release party! Back to the county. In the last years, Prince Edward County has really gotten it's food-tourism legs, publishing gourmet routes and a wicked map detailing the vast majority of the region's producers, vintners and many farms as well. We drove in and immediately visited a winery, where I met the previous owner of a bistro in Ottawa. The reason for the significance of this is that where his bistro stood now stands Murray St., a charcuterie driven restaurant which is part of Ottawa's recent renaissance of decent food. The ex-owner not only lives in PEC now, he works for a winery, Hillier Creek Estates, and grows his own vineyard for personal and family consumption.

Besides wineries, the county also has a couple things extra. They have one of the only Canadian coopers, a guy named Pete, who kicks major ass. We wandered up into Pete's workshop after hearing about him at a local winery, and he was welcoming as hell. He stopped work mid barrel to talk to us for almost two hours, passionate the whole time as the first minute. He is barrel-crazy. He started a couple years ago, though his own shop has only been open a year. He used to go down to Kansas City for his apprenticeship, and his mentor and him still meet at least once a year to discuss cooperage.

The reason Pete was of particular interest to us is that he makes barrels out of Canadian oak. They are awesome. He gets them cut by a local mennonite mill, who's work he is extremely proud of, and then staves the barrels himself. He even takes oak off certain winery properties, has it cut, milled, then coopers it, and returns it to the winery it was from. Talk about local. There is nothing more terroir than a local grape, grown in local soil, and barreled in a barrel made from trees on the same property. For the record, he let us smell the toasted barrels, which smell like pure heaven. He also uses cherry,ash,and hickory, and even has a CHOA barrel, with interspersed staves of all four types of wood. People in the region are making soy sauce, and pete himself plans to make balsamic vinegar in the barrels. Its an epic undertaking, and I hope he succeeds. I'm really excited about the potential for these barrels to take off. He hopes to be making three hundred a year next year, and already has most of them sold. I think he's awesome, and he explained a lot about coopering and wood types to us. He was gracious and so awesome we ran late for our appointment at the local cheese company, Fifth Town.

Happily, we got there in time to jump in on another couple folk's tour, and they happened to be from McEwan Foods, Mark McEwan's grocery store. Mark McEwan is a Toronto chef and Food Network dude, and we had almost stopped by his grocery, then discovered ourselves strapped for time. Thankfully, the guys from McEwans stood passively by while we did most of the question asking. Fifth Town is Canada's only LEED platinum food service facility and also is quite prolifically making damn decent cheese. We got suited up and entered by the pasteurization and delivery room, went into the piping room, wrapping rooms, and production facility, before visiting the aging caves and fridges. It was a nice tour, and our hosts were extremely helpful. They make 14 different kinds of cheese, heat the building geothermally, have every type of recycling possible, a bioremediation marsh, homemade structures from reclaimed building site materials, three different water bins and every other possible environmental benefit. Except one. They aren't really concerned with naturally raised animals producing their milk. I asked about their dairy herd, and if they were either organic, or ethically raised, or sustainably bred, and we got caught on a word. Organic was an anti-word around here. Organic meant all the good things, but also no anti-biotics, which meant more goat deaths! Wait...wait...are the goats pastured? No? Oh well maybe if the goats were raised the way they are supposed to be they would need less antibiotics than when they live in a pen full of hay covered in their own piss. I really really appreciate Fifth Town cheese, they make excellent product, have a wicked facility, and an even better book collection. However, getting answers like that at a similar facility hurt more than getting them from some dumbass who wasn't considering the environment at all. It hurt a lot. I was pretty miffed. Even people who are doing their best make the excuses. Is it scary to say that once you can, you will? I'm not demanding anything. I just want you to acknowledge the reality of the situation and tell me that it's not feasible to fix now, but it's in the plans. Like, the real plans, don't just tell me that. Anyways, they are still by far the most progressive foodservice place we've been, entirely worth a visit, a beautiful property, and they even have their own garden out front from which they pick flowers and herbs to flavour cheeses. I'm a fan. But that conversation left a bad taste in my mouth. Furthermore, they agreed that animals should be pastured when I raised the issue of taste, like the milk tastes different depending on the animal's diet, which changes the consistency and flavour of the cheese. I'm not ranting, and I know I'm being idealist, but hey, that's in my nature. So get with it. I also realize I'm driving across country in a old van with bad gas mileage and some other 22 year just did it in an entirely sustainable vehicle. The point is, I'm young, and highly critical of others despite my own faults, and I don't see a problem with that. If I ever undertake a massive project like that, it will be exactly the same with the extra little tidbits I've come to know and love as "seeing all aspects". I know it's difficult, but I hope one day I'll be able to show up at your facility and ask about the practices surrounding your dairy and you'll be able to tell me in confidence that they are amazing.
That would be even better than being LEED certified, because to be LEED, you changed yourself, but to get others in line, you had to change other people, which is teaching and education, which is what the world needs a lot more of, you just have the sharp stick of business to make sure the message is clear. Anyways. Awesome cheese. Ate it with some righteous beets and braised shallots, which are great. We also tried some bannock with grape flour, which I can't talk about mostly because it was really bad.

After the cheesemaker, we went to the cidery, which produces cider, sparkling cider, and Waupoos cider beer. They also make iced cider, and that probably about covers the variations on cider possible, besides frozen cider popsicles or something. Anyways, we got some cider and ice and saw the goofs from McEwan there again, having a drink with Fifth Town's sales manager. Either way, we moved on from there to beach to make dinner.

The next day we awoke, visited another winery, then the Barley Days Brewery, who let us taste their beers and buy some, I particularly enjoy the wind and sail dark ale. Post brewery, we moseyed to Picton, which is the biggest town in the county. There we had buddha dogs, which are small hot dogs made from local meat and dressed up with all local compotes, vegetables or spreads. They were good, but very small, and left me unfilled. After filling up on a couple car snacks, which if I remember correctly was bread and cottage cheese, we hit the road. Destination:Ottawa!