Saturday was a lovely day for the first Eat Local Caledon Spring Festival. Held on the large lawn beside the Inglewood General Store, it consisted of a few tables of people who are passionate about locally grown, seasonal food. A musically gifted minister played a variety of stringed instruments and sang cheerful songs in a shady spot not far from the store’s barbecue where hot dogs were for sale. Leashed dogs and puppies met each other and drew attention to their owners.
     Fresh bread, maple syrup, garlic, rhubarb and asparagus soup was on offer, as well as potted herbs and heritage tomato seedlings.
     After I bought the most wonderful Crabtree & Evelyn gardener’s hand scrub from the store’s gift room, Mike & I took a seat at a patio table that the store makes available outside the back door. Then magically, a train hooted and its engine and two cars slowly moved past us within 50 metres. I waved at the engineer, he waved back. I continued waving as the passenger cars rolled by; some of the passengers waved back. Who was having the most fun? Did they envy us our little festival on the lawn? No matter. Everyone was having a good time.
     Local food, sensible transport — both are signs of a good civilization.

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     What a busy weekend it’s been! Escarpment Views was a media partner with the Guelph Organic Conference, so Mike Davis and I spent the last three days at the expo/tasting fair at Guelph University. The crowds of visitors were good, with free copies of our current and back issues snapped up by so many people that we ran out of some of them. We always look around the building after we’ve given out copies to see if any have been thrown out or dropped as litter, and we’re pleased that we never find any. People hang onto our issues! That must be why our advertisers get results long after new issues have been published.

     We were happy to meet Jens Gemmrich and Heike Koch, owners of Frogpond Farm, Ontario’s only organic winery. They had provided wine for one of the receptions, and donated a gift of wine bottles as a door prize at the main dinner. Mike and I must take a tour of their Niagara-on-the-Lake farm this summer.

     One visitor to our table, who said he liked what we’re doing with the magazine, was Michael Stadtländer, a celebrity chef with his own property near the Escarpment, called Eigensinn Farm. Michael is also president of the Canadian Chefs’ Congress, which “connects chefs to our land in solidarity with farmers, fishers, gardeners, foragers and all artisanal food producers.” We hope to work with Michael soon.

     This weekend we also squeezed in a visit to The Dam Pub in Thornbury, where Jamie Robinson and friends are forming The Grey Bruce Arts Collective to perform local plays and productions. Last night was Robbie Burns’ 250th birthday celebration at the packed pub, where Jamie and other theatre professionals in period costume read poetry, sang, fought with swords and of course addressed the haggis, which Mike actually ate and enjoyed, because this version was made of nothing worse than lamb, oatmeal and spices.

     Paul Amos, Roger Shank, Jamie Robinson and Trish Williams gave the dramatic performances. Young Connor Ritchie played bagpipe beautifully and Jessica Nicol demonstrated her championship highland dance skills. Funds raised from this evening go toward Thornbury’s new medical centre.

     Keep an eye peeled for more from The Grey Bruce Arts Collective. It promises to be an exciting new theatre centre.

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     Mark your calendars for the Guelph Organic Conference and Organic Expo Canada Tasting Fair from Jan. 22 to 25. This is the 28th annual conference, making it Canada’s longest running organic marketing show. It promises to be of interest to consumers, gardeners, researchers, farmers and students.

     Escarpment Views will be giving out our current and back issues, taking subscriptions and unveiling a great new product there. Come and visit us at the Expo on Jan. 24 & 25. Admission is free.

     There will also be four days of workshops from Jan. 22 to 25 about organic vegetable production, land trusts, ecovillages, careers in organics and more. Get all the info about them here. Please drop by to see us! I think we’ll be in the central auditorium.

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     If this bog had been active earlier, I would have pointed readers to a couple or three interesting mentions of Escarpment Views. One is on the blog of writer Jennifer Smith who lives in Milton (or Sprawlville as she calls it?). Last spring she wrote  of “something wonderful” that she first read about in Trudi Down’s article for us: the Halton Fresh Food Box Program. Thanks for the mention, Jennifer!

     Another item is the Sydenham Bruce Trail club’s report in their fall newsletter, about Ken Haigh’s article and great photos about the trail’s new Bayview Escarpment reroute east of Owen Sound. You can read the whole article in Selected Articles on our site. Ross McLean’s report in the club’s newsletter notes “It is feedback such as this that gives trail builders their satisfaction.” We here at EscarpmentViews appreciate the Bruce Trail Conservancy and are happy to celebrate its achievements.

     We’re also pleased to have been interviewed by Masthead Magazine about our launch of Escarpment Views. They published their report in both the print issue and online. We thank them for giving us this honour.

     Do you have information about local fresh food programs in your area? What’s your favourite stretch of the Bruce Trail?

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