Saturday, May 26th 2012 Prince Edward County, Ontario
County Terroir is decanted once again for its 7th year to celebrate the end of Spring and to welcome Summer! This anticipated annual showcase for new County wines (presented by Prince Edward County Winegrowers Association) returns to the beautiful Crystal Palace in Picton, on Saturday May 26th, 2012.
With over 30 wineries, Prince Edward County has much to experience. Many County wineries will introduce their new Spring releases and serve their own unique wines paired with delicious cheeses and other gourmet food tastings. Guests will also have the opportunity to take part in seminars, demonstrations and meet the winemakers themselves while tasting some of Ontario’s finest. The event’s $35 in advance ticket price includes all wine samples and one food pairing.
Additional food pairings are available for purchase. Guests from across the province will be in attendance as there is much to discover in Prince Edward County. Bus/train weekend packages will allow visitors from Toronto to Ottawa to experience all that The County has to offer, with County winery tours, gourmet
dinners, and accommodations that range from quaint to posh.
When: May 26th from 12pm to 8pm Where: The Crystal Palace, Main Street Fairgrounds, Picton
“World’s least-known great wine zone” – Wine Spectator Magazine
“Burgundy of the North” & “Vineyard Haven” – Wine Bloggers
Upcoming transportation options & package deals to be announced soon at:
Artisan, farmstead and specialty cheese from coast to coast showcased June 2-3 at Crystal Palace in Picton, Ontario
An expanded Great Canadian Cheese Festival returns to historic Crystal Palace in Picton, in the heart of Prince Edward County, on the first weekend in June.
The Cheese Festival is the only event in Canada to bring together cheesemakers from coast-to-coast so cheese lovers, foodies and culinary tourists can meet to learn, talk, taste and buy the best in artisan, farmstead and specialty cheese—and sample fine wine, craft beer and artisan foods.
The Festival’s Artisan Cheese & Fine Food Fair (where consumers can sample and buy product) will run two days this year, Saturday and Sunday, June 2 and 3. It was one day last year.
More than 100 cheeses, produced by artisans from Vancouver Island to Prince Edward Island, will be available for tasting and purchase. The largest contingent of producers will be from Quebec, Canada’s leading cheese region.
Artisan foods, ranging from chutney to preserves to sausage and sweets, will also be available, as will Ontario fine wines, craft beer and cider.
The culinary and social highlight of the Festival takes place Saturday evening, at the Cooks & Curds Gala, eight leading chefs from across Canada will use Canadian cheeses to create tasting dishes that will be paired with Canadian wine, craft beer and cider. The evening will conclude with sweets, ice wine, port and coffee. Participating chefs will include Jamie Kennedy, Jamie Kennedy Kitchens, Toronto; Michael Blackie, National Arts Centre, Ottawa; Dominic Serio, Inn at Bay Fortune, Prince Edward Island, Marc Cohen, Lawrence, Montreal; and Katie Hayes, Bonavista Social Club, Newfoundland.
At the Cheese Fair on Saturday and Sunday, Dairy Farmers of Canada, the Festival’s top-tier sponsor, will offer seminars presented by leading cheese educator Deborah Levy in the All You Need Is Cheese® Annex. With sampling of cheese, of course!
The Festival Dairy Farm will be open both days to give city folk a look at the animals that start the process of turning grass into milk into cheese. Yvette, the matriarch of the water-buffalo herd at Ontario Water Buffalo Company near Stirling, Ontario, will likely be the star attraction.
Added to the Cheese Fair this year is a food court featuring Cheesewerks of Toronto, Primitive Cuisine of Trenton and Buddha Dog of Picton.
Concurrent with the Cheese Fair, a program of Tutored Tastings will be offered on topics such as Artisan Cheese Tasting 101, Taste of Québec and Best of the West, presented by cheese experts Julia Rogers, Andy Shay, Vanessa Simmons and Janice Beaton and wine expert David Lawrason. A separate ticket is required.
The pre-Festival program on Friday, June 1, features:
An all-day Cheese Tour of nearby Black River Cheese and Fifth Town Artisan Cheese and other food- and farm-related stops;
Cooking with Artisan Cheese Class conducted by Cynthia Peters, a personal chef and food writer who owns and operates the acclaimed From the Farm Cooking School in Prince Edward County;
Great County Dine Around at restaurants featuring cheese-themed dinners. The county is known as the fasting-growing culinary destination in Ontario.
Georgs Kolesnikovs, founder and director of the Festival, maintains the popular cheese blog CheeseLover.ca.
The Festival is produced by Cheese Lover Productions with the generous support of Celebrate Ontario. Dairy Farmers of Canada is Diamond Sponsor, Ontario’s Artisan Food and Beverage Region (FAB) is Gold Sponsor. A portion of Festival proceeds will benefit a Cheese Scholarship Fund to encourage young Canadians to pursue careers in cheese.
Advance tickets are sold online at www.CheeseFestival.ca. In order to assure a high-quality experience for exhibitors and attendees, Cheese Fair attendance will be capped at 1,500 each day, so don’t delay in ordering your tickets.
Sugarbush Vineyards
1286 Wilson Road, Hillier
613.399.9000
www.sugarbushvineyards.ca
Saturday March 31 & Sunday April 1
11 am to 5 pm
Robert and Sally Peck got the inspiration to start their vineyard while honeymooning in the Okanogan Valley in the late 1990’s. After purchasing their farm and deciding to settle in the County, the couple were unsure of what to name their future vineyard. The former owners of the land informed them that there was a substantial sugarbush on the property: Sugarbush Vineyards was born.
Hand-harvesting their vineyard, and producing six different grape varietals would be enough to keep most people busy, but three years ago this ambitious couple decided they would begin tapping their sugarbush – the old fashioned way. Using no tubing, they tap about 100 trees using traditional buckets. Once collected, the sap is boiled down over an open fire using an old fashioned sap pan. This takes a considerable commitment – the first one up in the morning, must light the fire and keep it going until 11pm. This hard work amounts to the production of about 5-10 litres of syrup a day. The entire season produces about 50 litres for the family to sell in their winery, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year.
Admittedly, they make maple syrup for the fun of it. Though not a large-scale operation, they’d be thrilled if you visited them! This year, Sugarbush Vineyards will be boiling the syrup adjacent to the tasting room, making maple fudge s’mores for children, and selling many maple goodies in store. Visit them and take the 2-3 km hike out to their sugarbush (please bring appropriate outdoor clothing). After your walk enjoy a tasting of their wine – made entirely from grapes from their vineyard.
Sugarbush Vineyards
-Purchased property on Wilson Rd in 2000.
-Planted grape vines in 2002 and 2003.
-Opened winery tasting room in 2007.
-Tapped our first trees (30 taps) in 2010.
-100 taps in 2012. Boiling down over an open fire using an old family flat pan.
Ty's Old Fashioned Kettlecorn - photo by Sheena Williams
Vader’s Maple Syrup
1260 Cty. Rd 18, Cherry Valley, Ontario
613.476.5231
Saturday, March 31 & Sunday, April 1
9 am to 4 pm
Bottles of Vader’s maple syrup are a familiar sight in County shops and supermarkets, but many maple fans still prefer to go to the Vader’s farm shop or the Vader’s kitchen door to buy their syrup.
Grandfather Arnold Vader learned the craft from his own father and grandfather and has been making maple syrup himself for more than 60 years. These days he takes it a little easier and lets his sons and grandchildren carry on the tradition. Arnold is famous for his stories about the old days of maple syrup making and just about everything else in the County, and he shares his stories with visitors on Maple in the County weekend.
Arnold’s son Todd is chief syrup maker now. He’s been doing it for 25 years on the farm that his great grandfather bought in 1910. Todd makes the point that – sweet as it is – maple syrup is far from frivolous. It’s a real crop, the farmer’s first crop of the year. Todd and his sons farm corn and soy and run a dairy operation too. But for a short, intense period each spring they focus on maple syrup working hard to tend an astounding 2,500 taps on direct lines to the sugarshack, and about 300 old fashioned buckets in areas where they can’t string lines.
Old style tools and vintage photos are on show during Maple in the County, while the sap house itself is state-of-the-art, and visitors get a close look at the powerful oil fired evaporator by climbing up to a wooden viewing platform. Maple weekend is a time for celebration with the Vader family with storytelling, maple tastings and music. It’s tradition and history and a great family business.
This year, come and be educated and entertained by family and friends of the County’s longest running maple producers since 1910. Enjoy a tour of the sap house, try Ty’s Kettlecorn popped on-site or enjoy mouth-watering taffy. A variety of maple products available.
Vader’s Maple Syrup
-used sap house already on farm
-1910 first tapped 400 taps
-flat pan
-1962 new sugar house was built
-1989 oil fired evaporator
-1992 added a new room
-1997 added another new room
-2008 new welded pans and a piggy back steam system
-2011 inducted into the Quinte Local Maple Hall of Fame showcased at the Ameliasburgh Museum in the Grimm Sap Shanty.
This year, visit John’s farmyard sugar shack and watch him turn sap into syrup in his high-efficiency wood-fired evaporator. Bring the kids for an afternoon in the sand box, in the yard, or a play date in the barn with the new lambs, chickens, pigs and the baby jersey calves, while mom and dad enjoy a delicious maple pork sausage on a bun or a hearty bowl of homemade chicken noodle soup.
JC Nyman Farms
292 Mowbray Road, Picton
613.476.6120
Saturday, March 31 & Sunday, April 1
9am to 5pm
Every March, as John’s parents farmed, he could be found in the sugarbush. Just 12-years old when he built his first sugar shack, today JC Nyman Farms can proudly say it has more than 20 years of maple syrup experience under its belt. Starting out with 40 plastic ice cream buckets 20 years ago, JC Nyman Farms today has 900 taps mostly on pipeline with a few on buckets. Boiling is done in the farm yard sugar shack on a newer high efficiency wood fired evaporator.
John’s picturesque 78 acre farm (located just outside Picton) is ethical, sustainable and animal-friendly. Its mix of productive farm- and pasture-land allow John to produce the very best grass fed lamb, pork, beef, eggs, free-range chickens and turkeys you’ll ever eat.
John maintains an open door policy, encouraging visitors to peek in every nook and cranny to see for themselves that the farm is a happy and healthy place to raise the animals. During Maple in the County don’t be surprised if it’s a riot of adorable lambs bounding around in the barn!
JC Nyman Farms
-Started in 1993 with 40 taps
-1994 built sugar house, used cherry pails to gather sap, boiled down on a Grimm syrup pan
-At age 15 in 1996 he had a used 2X6 Dominion & Grimm evaporator, installed tubing
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Saturday, May 26th 2012
Upcoming transportation options & package deals to be announced soon at:
