April is for Openings

The official countdown is on. Last week I completed my duties at The Little Inn, went to a great birthday party in Toronto over the weekend and now starting to settle down to some work.

The buff and shiny floor will be done on Tuesday, the painting will be completed on Wednesday. But that is the easy stuff. I plan to visit this Thursday the bison farm in St Marys and the Venison Farm in Auburn. On Friday we are off to Newmarket to look at a potential duck supplier and also to look a mennonite chicken operation near fergus (My brother Ben uses them at Jacobs & Co).

As well I have started my "master order list" which will have an entire inventory of my items for sale. 

As you can tell I am fully commited this month to opening soon, I am betting sooner than later.

What do you Think?

Reuben Sallows could be called one of Canada's prolific and innovative photographers of the late 19th and early 20th century. Sallows did most of his work in and around Huron County and loved depicting farm life.
I have spoken to the Reuben Sallows Gallery located in Goderich, and they graciously allowed me to use a few of his farm life depictions. See the picture aside and the post below for some examples of his work. I intend to enlarge the photos and have a few as backdrop behind the meat counter.
Check out the online database and view all 1000+ Sallows photo's and let me know if any catch your eye.

Encouraging News

In yesterdays Globe and Mail an interesting article surfaced in the op-ed page regarding the increasing price of food and the (surprisingly) positive aspects of it. Essentially the author argues due to rising prices, consumers will be forced by their pocket-book to take more of an active interest in what they are buying at the grocer. In my opinion, what will inherently occur will be more label reading, food origin consideration and nutritional shopping as well less of a reliance on processed foods.
The author says that much of the world is already feeling the effects of high food prices, some journalists point to the current Tibet crisis having roots there in poor food distribution and lack of essential items. Moreover, the author states that the wealthy West has noticed food pricing increases but has not changed their buying habits and he feels that with time even the wealthy nations of the world will be forced to engage more in the process of buying food.
I feel it is about time people start to buy food from their region. Note I did not say local, I am not 100 mile crazy!

Foraging Switzerland

I just go back from a ski trip in Davos, Switzerland with my Dad and brother. Particularly the food was excellent as we did quite a bit of thinking throughout the day of our stomachs. What surprised our group was the quality of Swiss "grisson" pinot noir on offer at all of the restaurants we enjoyed. Quite a welcome surprise and paired well with the Chateau Briand!
We had one day in London and around the corner from my brothers place is probably the mother of all forager stores, the Queen's own Lidgates Butcher Shop. The little shop has an attractive array of fresh and prepared foods to inspire Forager Foods Bayfield. My brother is now happy to have recently found that the nearby Lidgates sells charcoal which he insisted (for years) was difficult to find in London!

Lunch With Olaf and Pete

My brother Ben had told me that I should forget buying kitchen equipment in London and go straight to his source at Nella Mississauga. And after forsaking Toronto equipment providers previously I have to take it all back.
I met Ben's contact Pete Arnelas at Nella Cutlery in Mississauga who immediately got to the bottom of what my needs are and identified/promoted areas on cost savings when considering new vs used. Out of this meeting an excellent lunch was had with the Chef/Owner Olaf of West 50 at Square One and feeling in my mind of how the store is going to come together.
Nella, if you have not been is an amazing place. Open to the public and not just for foodservice providers you can get everything you need for your kitchen, they literally have 2 football size warehouses of equipment for you to browse.