We found our wine, food and beach tour of southwestern Ontario overflowing with quality choices.
First the Niagara region. A bounty of wineries cling to the escarpment and battle the ever spreading tide of suburban housing.
Many of the grape wineries are young, but fiesty. Sampling is encouraged as it stimulates sales.
We found our focus in the fruit wineries, where raspberries, blackcurrants, blueberries, cranberries, gooseberries, rhubarb
as well as the staples of apple and peach enticed us at every curve in the road.
Our favourites included Puddicombe Estate Farms raspberry wine and their amazing tasting rhubarb wine.
We bought a couple of bottles of Gamay and Baco Noir from the Mountain Road Winery and a bottle of
Chipotle Grapeseed Oil from Angels Gate Winery in Beamsville.
But it was Rush Creek Winery south of Aylmer, deep in tobacco country, that most impressed us.
We stocked up on Ebony, a dry blackcurrant wine (my favourite) and
huckleberry wine with a black olive taste that caught Marsha's palate.
And as a bonus, all their wines were certified Kosher.
On the way to our motel in the UN Biosphere Reserve of Long Point we stopped at Port Dover, home of the largest
commercial fresh water fishing fleet in the world.
The menu everywhere was deep fried Lake Erie perch or pickerel. We ate overlooking the lake as the sun set.
Good food and a great atmosphere.
We found our motel late into the night, after exploring a couple of dead end roads. An great priced room looking out over
the lake. We took a walk before bed, out towards the shore, the stars and airplanes shining over the breaking waves of
Lake Erie. On the horizon the lights of Eire, PA made the sky glow.
Then wake in the morning and look out over the lake, all brisk winds and whitecaps.
Excellent coffee and breakfast from the beach restaurant across the road eaten while the Beach Boys sing from the past.
The motel's deck provided a shared area where we met new friends and learned more about the area. One side of the ever changing Long Point sand spit is marshy and the other is sand beach.
Extending into Lake Erie, the climate is unusually mild for it's latitude.
Mild enough that there are warnings in the park about avoiding deer ticks and the lyme disease that they carry.
Usually this is a problem we associate with the US states south of Ontario.
The domiant crops are still corn and soybeans, but others such as tobacco, dill, ginseng
and even peanuts can be seen growing in this unique land.
Further west, along Lake Erie we visited a series of small, attractive port and
beach towns, Port Burwell, Port Bruce and Port Stanley.
By the middle of our trip we found the tribute to Jumbo, the famous elephant who died in a train accident
in St. Thomas, Ontario.
Marsha wanted to emphasise that there was no comparison.In Ingersoll, we had the luck to be introduced to Amarjit Singh who runs a family cheese business (Shudh Foods Inc).
Artisan cheeses made fresh daily using milk from local farmers that arrives each day. We filled our coolers with yogurt,
Paneer fresh East Indian cheese, and Queso Duro Blando, a Spanish style cheese.
Amazing quality and attention to a superior product, we ate our way to Grand Bend. Here we found a beautiful beach
and the clean water of Lake Huron attracting lots of visitors.
Even in the middle of the week we found it busy. We ended our last evening eating supper on a restaurant patio overlooking
the lake, a warm breeze and clear skies made us both regret not having more vacation time.
Our journey home took us through Mennonite country where horse-drawn buggys
almost outnumbered cars in the farmland approaching St. Jacobs.
Great little shopping town where I found some excellent really fresh-tasting Blackcurrant/Raspberry preserve made by Rootham's in Guelph as well as a couple of bottles of unique and refreshing soda
from Bottle Green Drinks Company. And Marsha had a straw broom made just for her, as you can see.
