A new season and another visit to Stratford, ON! Now that the temperatures are rising, it’s maple syrup season in Ontario. The Stratford area is home to a few farms that produce maple syrup so the fine folks at the Stratford Tourism Alliance organized a day of maple-themed fun for a group of us bloggers.
The day started off with some maple schnecken from Revel Caffe. Schnecken are a snail-shaped German pastry. In this case the schnecken were maple-flavoured and filled with nuts. A great way to start off the day.
From there we headed over to McCully’s Hill Farm for the full sugar shack experience. We started off with a nice spread of food (all laced with maple) including sausages, maple butter, ribs, and butter tarts, among other things. We also got to sample their maple syrup. First we had pure sap which was surprisingly refreshing. It’s more like water with a tiny hint of sugar. I also did shots of the three grades of maple syrup. Can we say sugar high?
From there we went on a wagon ride up to the sugar bush. I’m always game for a wagon ride. And if the wagon ride wasn’t enough we also went on a tour of the farm by a horse pulled wagon. I nearly lost my composure several times because one of the horses names was Dick and the man controlling the wagon kept on making us yell “Come on Dick”. And of course the wagon was filled with a lot of children eager to give “Dick” some encouragement.
Next stop was lunch time at a place I’ve been wanting to try, Simple Fish and Chips. At Simple Fish and Chips they are all about being good for the environment. They use Oceanwise fish, try to source vegetables from within 100 miles of the restaurant and all of their containers and utensils are either recyclable or compostable and biodegradable. Not bad. We started off with lobster pinwheels and then moved on to some mussels, smoked salmon, mahi mahi and sablefish. I’d never had sablefish before and it was the definite winner. It was so silky and buttery!
After some free time for lunch which included a stop to sample and to another Stratford fave, Chocolate Barr’s to get my chocolate covered pretzel fix. This was all just killing time before our final stop at Let Them Eat Cake. We learned more about maple syrup from the Hoover’s of Hoover’s Maple Syrup and then were treated to yet another lunch. Once again, the key was all maple all the time. The interesting twist is that the chef showed us how to make an indoor smoker which I’m all about (as evidenced here).
Another fun day in Stratford! Thanks to Emily and Suresh for organizing.
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