The other day I had the most unexpected and fun food weekend. For our July book club we decided to head out to my friend Robin’s cottage in Norfolk County, ON for the weekend. While the weekend was more of a book club weekend to read the book in proximity to one another (except for Robin who probably did more napping than reading) it turned into a weekend of fun food experiences.
Foraging for Chantrelles
Prior to leaving Robin mentioned that her cottage was more farm than cottage. Of course I wanted to know if there would be any foraging involved (after Stratford I’m all about foraging) and she mentioned that mushrooms and blueberries were high on the list of things to forage. Sign. Me. Up. So of course when we got there I was all about foraging for mushrooms. Turns out these weren’t ordinary mushrooms but chantrelles! Chantrelles don’t come cheap so it was pretty cool to go out and hunt for them.
Now I was sworn to secrecy by Robin’s mom so I won’t reveal where we went to find the chantrelles but let me tell you, we found A LOT. We ended up with around 3lbs of chantrelles! Once we got to an area where they were plentiful it was kind of fun to find them. I was always looking out the corner of my eye for a flash of gold nestled beneath the leaves. Sometimes it was disappointing to find a gnarly chantrelle but more often than not we found some gorgeous specimens.
Blueberry Picking
The next day we went out blueberry picking with Robin’s dad. Now I’ve done strawberry picking and cherry picking but never blueberry picking. Clearly I’ve been missing out because blueberry picking is great! There’s no bending over like with strawberries. No ladder climbing like with cherries. Blueberries grow on bushes that are at the perfect height for picking.
Now I don’t remember the name of the farm but I do remember that the prices were amazing. $2/quart! If you were to buy a quart at the farmer’s market you’re looking at $5 or $6 a quart. And picking your own berries is so much fun. We ended up picking an entire flat’s worth of blueberries for the low low price of $16.
Eggs
After our blueberry picking adventure we stopped off to buy some eggs from a local farmer (who also runs a lovely wedding business on his property). How lovely do these eggs look?
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6 Responses to On The Town: Norfolk County Food Fun
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Oh, I went there once, but it was winter–no foraging–only cross-country skiing.
They’ve put a little marché into the nearest parc to me and I was able to buy a quart of blueberries, a quart of green beans, and two lemons for 4$! All local! It’s a project on sécurité alimentaire to allow my poorer borough access to good, fresh, and healthy food. It’s quite a happy addition for me. (Though, thinking, how do lemons grow in QC?)
The eggs look delicious. You know that brown eggs mean hens with red ears? That’s the secret.
Sounds like you had a lovely weekend
I need to get out more often!!
I’m all kinds of jealous looking at those Chanterelles…!
[...] my own food – a few summers ago I did a bit of foraging for mushrooms and had a great time. This year I want to step it up a notch and catch my own food. Luckily my girl [...]