A refreshing Stratford Pilsner to close off the decade

Happy New Year! I hope 2010 brings you an abundance of love, peace and joy.

Coincidently, these are three of the ingredients found in Stratford Pilsner beer.

I just returned from Sirkel Foods, where they serve up the refreshing brew. I don't drink a lot of beer, but when I do, I like it cold, light and crisp. With a little help from Sirkel Foods in the refrigeration department, Stratford Pilsner exceeded my expectations with its bright apricot, spice, lemon, and floral undertones.

In business since 2004 and family owned, the Stratford Brewing Company upholds the highest standards in traditional craft brewing, producing premium beer brewed in small batches using the best natural ingredients. Committed to its community, Stratford Pilsner is brewed using Stratford water, which is drawn from deep wells that are cased in bedrock. All the spent mash generated from the brewing process is donated to local farmers to use as nutritious feed for their animals. Maybe they'll even taste better too.

So if your taste buds fancy a magnificent brew this New Year's Eve, raise a glass of Stratford Pilsner (now available at the LCBO).

And cheers to another local success story! I can't wait to uncover more local treasures in the year ahead.

Joy to the Spa

My face lit up like a Christmas tree when I opened a gift certificate for Stratford's E-spa. And having just returned from a heavenly facial, I'm surprised it took me a whole four days to use it.

What isn't surprising is that E-spa was named "Best Spa" in the 2008 Stratford Gazette Readers Choice Awards. The service is impeccable. The atmosphere: clean, serene and comfortable.

Desiree was the esthetician who transported me from 20 Cooper Street to nirvana in 120 seconds flat. Now one might think a 'Pick-me-up facial' implies a quick fix of sorts. I was rejoicing that the treatment lasted 1.5 hours and in addition to the cleansing, steaming and layer upon layer of lotiony-potiony goodness, it also included a hand, foot, scalp, neck AND face massage. I mean, seriously - "Pick me up?" More like pick me up off the floor. With a mop. And a bucket.

The cost of all this luxurious pampering? Sixty-five dollars. Unless you have a gift certificate, and aside from giving a much-deserved tip, you'll also want to throw rose petals any direction Desiree steps.

While the facial products E-spa uses aren't from around here, it carries several Canadian skin products and jewellery lines.

But the service was local. And an absolute joy. So in the name of necessary pampering and self-care - especially around the holidays - I only see it as my duty to tell you about it.

Run, don't walk. Your scalp to soles will thank me.

Will travel for good cheese. But no need...

Nothing says the holidays like an abundance of cheese.

Today I'm nibbling on Millbank organic cheddar with sundried tomatoes and garlic, and it is freaky good. I bought it at the Gentle Rain in Stratford. Its smell is quite strong, but it lands on your tongue like a calm August breeze and mellows there for a while before giving you a saucy kick of savoury tomato and garlicky goodness.

While some beautiful artisanal crackers lay perched in my cupboard just waiting to accompany it, I'm eating it with Christie's Bacon Dippers. I know, I know, but I can't resist. Growing up, December marked the Bacon Dippers' annual debut. They take me back to retro Christmas Eve nights when my mom would serve them with MacLaren's Imperial Cheese...you know that sharp flakey cheddar stuff in the red and black tub. And guess what? I just learned that Alexander Ferguson MacLaren, founder of MacLarnen's Brothers cheese export company, started his 1891 business in Stratford, Ontario!

I'm discovering that there are so many great cheese producers in the area - C'est bon, Millbank Cheese, Monforte Dairy, Harmony Organic Dairy Products and Festival City Dairy, to name just a few. And while Stratford has cheese making roots, it seems like our area is witnessing an artisanal cheese revival - and we're not alone. Between 2000 and 2008, national production rose 10.4 per cent to 222,035 tonnes. During that period, Ontario production rose 9.7% to 63,065 tonnes.

Tons of delicious fresh cheeses at our door just waiting for us to discover. Makes my heart melt. Kinda like a good gruyere...now there's an idea...

Loft Market Food Box Program: Local, organic, seasonal, delicious.

In September, I attended the Savour Stratford Perth County Culinary Festival. It was SO incredible, I know I'm still on a high from it. I returned twice that Saturday, in the rain, beaming with pride and ignited by passion. I'm already doing the countdown to the 2010 festival and have recruited a number of out-of-town friends to join me.

While at Savour Stratford, I was introduced to the Loft Market, a co-op that connects local eaters with local sustainably grown organic food from family farms in the Perth, Waterloo and Wellington Regions of Southwestern Ontario. Loft Market fills its bags and boxes each week of the year with local sustainably grown organic food, which it delivers to 16 depot locations in Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge, Guelph, Wellesley, Elmira and New Hamburg.

"What about Stratford?" I squealed like a whiny six-year-old. I was so taken by the idea, I had little time to compose myself. The representative said Loft Market was considering expanding to Stratford and asked me to send an e-mail with my request (there were several inquiries that day). I barely had my rain boots off before I was pushing the send button. I haven't heard back from Loft Market yet, but I won't be surprised if Stratford is next on its map.

At the festival, I chatted with James Harrison, a farmer from Shakespeare, Ontario, who is part of the Loft Market program. He was a sweet, humble man who had the most gorgeous and delicious produce I think I have ever tasted. He even had tomatillos! Over the years I've come across several recipes that called for them and could never track them down. They were heavenly and added a terrific punch to my homemade salsa (a first canning experience for me this year!).

Like Soiled Reputation (see yesterday's post), Loft Market makes local eating easy. And so fresh, your taste buds will be singing from the rafters.

Off the beet-en path

For the last two days, each time I open the fridge I've been eyeing up a bag of golden beets, elegantly wrapped with a shoulder-to-knee drawing of Adam and Eve on the label, below the arousing words: Soiled Reputation.

A few years ago, I would have never put the words "eyeing up" and "beets" in the same sentence. "Soiled," yes, but arousing? Not likely. Like so many of us, I grew up with 'pickled beet pushers' and no matter what kind of marketing spin they attempted, one small bite resulted in an immediate "Yeeeeech."

If you can believe it, beets popped up as a craving for me when I was pregnant. Perhaps it was because they so closely resembled the colour of a good shiraz. Or maybe it was the cheese I laced them with, I'm not sure. But beet salad with goat's cheese (pasteurized, of course), arugula and toasted walnuts in a red wine vinegar (hey, you gotta get your fill somewhere) and an extra virgin olive oil emulsified dressing....sigh...it instantly transported me from Yeeeeeech to Yummmmm. Mama was one happy girl and the craving for beets never did truly subside.

So today I put the holiday wrapping and yuletide dinner planning aside and gave into my temptation. And did something kind for myself. Beets have vitamins A, B1, B2, B6 and C, don'tchaknow. They're an excellent source of calcium, magnesium, copper, phosphorus, sodium and iron. The greens even have more iron than spinach. Okay, I didn't eat the greens, but good to know!

I didn't have walnuts or arugula in the house so I substituted baby spinach and pine nuts and switched things up again by using golden beets instead of my usual red.

The golden beets came from Soiled Reputation, a 40-acre certified organic farm (80-acre farm all together) in Sebringville, Ontario. It's home to Tina VandenHeuvel, and Antony John, who many of us knew as the Canada Food Network's Manic Organic.

I just learned Soiled Reputation supplies gourmet greens and heirloom vegetables to restaurants, markets, and homes in southwestern Ontario. After tasting these luscious, buttery jewels, I'm so looking into this home delivery service in the New Year.

Santé!

When you're open to finding joy, it has a way of finding you

My friend, Melanie, told me about an artisanal store I needed to check out in New Hamburg (thanks, Mel). On my Friday morning travels, I was near the town of 5,000 and decided to pop in and try to find it. Now it didn't help that I forgot my cell phone and couldn't exactly remember the name.

So I did what any intelligent woman would do: I stopped to ask for directions. Except the friendly couple I spoke with weren't familiar and suggested I go into the storefront a few feet away. "They'll know," the woman said, pointing to The Spark Centre for Joy, Creativity and Vitality. This wasn't the place my friend suggested but hot diggity dog, my search was over - I was looking for joy and it found me.

The Spark Centre is a place to go when your creative soul needs to be quenched with yoga (beginner to Qigong), meditation, sacred circles for women, writing and art classes (e.g. beginner stained glass, healing through art and journaling and multi-media art journal) and 'wise women retreats'. For those woo-woo lovers like me, there are also energy healing, osteopathy and reflexology services - even a tarot card reader!

For the kids there are 'creative spark after school' programs, a creativity combo (45 min of yoga, 30 min of expressive writing for 6-11 year-olds), an art history class and even a 'getting published' class for young writers aged 8-15.

The brightly coloured walls and comfy cottage-like furniture were almost as welcoming as owner, Stephanie Hahn, and LifeWriting instructor, Leslie Cook. I never did find that artisanal shop I was looking for but I did find a creative breath of fresh air in New Hamburg...and sparks were flying.

Did someone say a winery's 40 mins from my door?

In September, my family took a quick 40-minute jaunt to Birtch Farms and Estate Winery, just north of Woodstock. Now I'm not going to lie to you, they had me jumping into the passenger's seat at the word, "winery" but there was so much more to discover.

We were there for the Apple Festival (there's also a New Food and Wine Festival in late September and a Pumpkin Festival in October), which I had read about in a community flyer, and from beginning to end, our time there was absolutely enchanting.

We pulled up the parking lot and a sweet little man greeted us like your dear ol' Grandpa Tom would, with open arms and a smile that could generate more power than a wind turbine. With four generations of operators, the Birtch family must be proud of the oasis they've created smack in the middle of rural southwestern Ontario.

A woman dressed like an Oliver Twist character, complete with a Cockney accent and a weathered black top hat, led a horse-drawn wagon of kids through the apple orchard for an animated tour. Rows of pumpkins, corn husks and brightly coloured chrysanthemums lined the farm house where just inside you'd find a tasting bar (after much deliberation, the white pear wine was my favourite - didn't even taste like a fruit wine to me) and a delightful little retail shop with gifts, baked goods and local artisanal products.

Outside, we roamed through the many rows of the apple orchard, deciding how to fill our basket. With Honey Crisps? Royal Galas? Jona Macs? We could pluck over a dozen varieties from the whimsical knobby branches. Thankfully there were hot and delicious apple fritters available outside the farm house to fill our bellies as we moved on to see the animals before heading home.

If you haven't already checked out Birtch Farms and Estate Winery, go. It's a great place for families, school tours, corporate events, or just a sunny Sunday afternoon drive to a place that's guaranteed to make you happy.

Oh...'C'est Bon' all right...

There are few things in this world that can transport me to the gates of heaven like cheese. Cheeeeese. It gives me heart palpitations just thinking about it (and as if I didn't just eat some 10 minutes ago). But like everything in life, there are hobbyists and there are Olympic medalists. There are golfers, and then there's Tiger. Oh. Bad analogy. There's supermarket goat's milk cheese, and then there's C'est Bon Fresh Chevre from St. Marys, Ontario.

Upon first glance, this product is quite unassuming. It's only after you taste it that you'll wonder why they didn't get Victoria's Secret to design the packaging. When I opened the 190-gram tub, its consistency reminded me of the cold cream my mother asks for every year at Christmas. I imagined what it would be like to rub this heavenly chevre all over my face and go to sleep with it on, waking periodically to take a big lick (imagine the number of late night fridge runs Nigella Lawson would save!). But I restrained myself and decided to make a delicious torte instead.

Line a cereal bowl with plastic wrap, put some crushed hickory smoked almonds on the bottom and set it aside. Finely chop half a red onion and throw it into a frying pan over medium heat with 1/4 C of balsamic and 2 tbsp of good Canadian maple syrup. Whoosh it around a bit for 6-8 minutes or until the liquid almost disappears then take it off the heat. Gingerly fondle your tub of C'est Bon Fresh Chevre until it pops out like a marshmallow onto the palm of your hand. Put it on a plate, take a thread and carefully slice it horizontally. Put the top half head-up into the nut mixture, slather the onion mixture in between, add the bottom half of the chevre, wrap it up and refrigerate until an hour before you're ready to pop it upside down on a plate and serve with some gorgeous crackers. I'll need to discover some gorgeous local crackers...

This appetizer makes angels sing every time and what makes it outstanding is the cheese. The lovely local cheese...I'm getting a little misty just thinking about it...

Getting back to the joy

Reduce your carbon footprint. Manage your energy consumption and emissions. Think globally, act locally. Respect the environment.

And your elders.

Is it just me or does it seem like we're constantly being scolded for not being socially responsible enough? I'm Canadian, which means I'm already predisposed to guilt. And I'm the eldest - I spent the majority of my childhood striving to be responsible and setting a good example. So in this pursuit of being better ecological citizens, where did all the joy go?

Loving Local Living is about recapturing that joy. It's about discovering the hidden treasures in my "local" (643.74 km or 400 mile) environment. It's about creating awareness of the local products that are so great, you just want to slather them all over your naked body and roll around in them. Why? For the joy of it! For the freshness of it. For the savoury deliciousness of it. For the "look-at-me-I'm-celebrating-the-small-but-mighty-changes-I'm-making" feeling of it. Without the rain clouds and judgements.

So join me, if you will, on this exciting journey of discovering what plentiful harvest and artisanal products exist in our own backyard.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm just back from The Gentle Rain here in Stratford and there are some crispy, just plucked, sunset-coloured carrots from a farm outside Sebringville that are whispering my name.