Field Notes for Summer 2018

Quick bites: Grilled and gooey

If hunger strikes while you’re out and about in Orangeville, you can’t go wrong with the takeout gourmet grilled cheese from Fromage.

“We offered grilled cheese sandwiches from the start – with our amazing selection of cheeses it was an ideal fit,” says Christine Patton, owner of the cheese and fine food shop on Mill Street. The sandwiches feature Fred’s Bread sourdough. Artisanal jams and spreads available in the shop make cameo appearances.

The cheddar bacon is a menu star, especially for kids. The official kid option features marble cheddar on white or whole wheat bread. Adults might go for the more adventurous goat cheese with roasted vegetables and Manning Canning onion garlic jam (above). They’re all as droolworthy as they sound. Visit fromageorangeville.ca.

Save the date: Galloping across the big screen

Headwaters Tourism dials up its focus on equestrian passions to present the EQUUS Film Festival July 20 to 22 at Theatre Orangeville.

Karen O’Brodovich, the festival’s executive producer, says the event reflects the kind of small town pride that pulses through our region with examples of intense community experiences happening around the world. “It’s for anyone who loves movies, storytelling and those magnificent creatures, horses,” she says.

Two must-see films are the Canadian entries, Herd and The Caravan. In Herd, we meet Liz Mitten-Ryan who uses horses as healers. The Caravan follows a five-month pilgrimage of equine devotees from California to Florida.

Documentary filmmaker Glenn Sweitzer presents When the Dust Settles, his look at an empowering partnership between wild mustangs and disadvantaged girls from Chattanooga, Tennessee. Be warned – your eyes might leak in this one.

Read on at equusfilmfestival.ca and buy tickets at theatreorangeville.ca.

Salad days

You may have noticed microgreens are the new kale, showing up in store coolers everywhere. Happily, there are two new producers fresh to the local scene.

Caledon farmers Josh Scheerer and Marcel Pijper are behind Nature’s Nurturing Organic Microgreens. Don’t call them sprouts. As Josh explains, “What we grow are technically not sprouts. A microgreen is harvested between the sprout and baby green stages, providing up to 30 times more nutrients than if they were grown to full maturity.”

Harmony Whole Foods in Orangeville and Heatherlea Farm Shoppe in Caledon stock the pair’s broccoli and spicy radish micros in small (75g–114g) bags, and sunflower greens, pea shoots and wheatgrass in small and large (454g) bags.

Further north, Mansfield’s Big Thunder Farms grows non-GMO organic microgreens, including fan-favourite purple kohlrabi. Find them at Foodland and No Frills in Shelburne, and Mulmur and Shelburne farmers’ markets. Check out naturesnurturing.com and Facebook.com/BigThunderFarms.

Bookworm alerts

With his new book publishing venture The Sutherland House freshly launched, former National Post editor Ken Whyte has recently acquired The Porcupine’s Quill. The legendary artisanal publishing house was founded on Main Street in Erin in 1974 by Tim Inkster. Tim and his wife Elke will continue to publish within the new structure. “The Sutherland House intends to focus on biography and memoir,” Tim says, adding Whyte expressed a keen interest in the wordless novels of wood engraver George A. Walker, including biographies of Leonard Cohen and Tom Thomson, published by The Porcupine’s Quill.

For a full weekend of literary inspiration in leafy settings, start with Words in the Woods in Dunedin on Saturday, September 8. Author Claudia Dey shares her latest novel Heartbreaker, and Uzma Jalaluddin steps up with her debut, Ayesha at Last. Then on Sunday, September 9, Eden Mills Writers’ Festival celebrates 30 years of page-turning picnics on the banks of the Eramosa River, with more than 50 authors, including Esi Edugyan and Dennis Lee.

Need something to read pronto? We suggest the selection for local reading campaign One Book, One Caledon, Bellevue Square by Michael Redhill. Or Dufferin’s One Book, One County choice, Hum If You Don’t Know the Words by Bianca Marais.

For more, see sutherlandhousebooks.com, wordsinthewoods.com, edenmillswritersfestival.ca, caledon.library.on.ca and One Book One County Dufferin on Facebook.

Save the date: Lifelong learning

Want to find a new passion, develop artistic skills or revel in quiet “me” time? There’s a class for that.

Sandra Sobolewski’s Intro to Pottery classes book up fast. Sandra teaches essential hand-building techniques and basic forms on the wheel for five students at a time at Claymore Ceramics, her home studio in Mono.

You can book four-week packages of weekly three-hour classes on Tuesdays or Thursdays in July or August. And an eight-week beginner series runs Thursday mornings in July and August for more time to develop projects and techniques.

If you love the clever bespoke lettering you see in shops or at cool events, consider creating your own functional works of art at Doris Wai’s Fall in Love with Lettering event put on by Caledon’s Joy Scout Learnshops. Learn about tools and lettering basics on Tuesday, September 11 at Noodle Gallery in the Alton Mill. (The registration fee includes a sign made of wood and glass, Wai’s Extraordinary Hand Lettering book, breakfast and lunch). Get artistic at claymoreceramics.ca and joyscoutlearnshops.com.

The kids are alright

The former site of Citrus Dance in Orangeville has been transformed into fun factory We the Bounce. There’s a bouncy castle for the younger kids, naturally, and tweens and adults get a bouncy basketball court – finally, the chance to get some air! It also offers bouldering, which is similar to rock climbing but on smaller rock formations and with no ropes or harness (soft landing provided). The last Friday of every month marks the regular Teen Fusion event, featuring music, climbing and bouncing.

Let Me Out brings the escape room trend to Mono, recast in a heritage barn. Groups of three to seven work together to gain their freedom by solving a series of puzzles in 45 minutes. Larger groups can be split into teams for a friendly (or not) competition. Details at wethebounce.com and letmeout.ca.

Alexander Pokusay | Bonny Heize

Making hay

Landowners and farmers: Protect the meadowlarks and bobolinks nesting in your hayfields by signing up for Credit Valley Conservation’s Bird-Friendly Certified Hay program and delaying the harvest until after July 15. Details at birdfriendlyhay.ca.