Perth County, Ontario.

Hi chef,

The trip was awesome, and that sounds fair to me! Brevity has always been something I have struggled with, and I don’t think one can do justice to a whole day of experience with one paragraph, but I hope you enjoy my summary nonetheless!

After a nice drive and a quick snooze, we found ourselves at the Montforte dairy, in Stratford. The dairy is out in the boonies, where you can buy stuff like fireworks or pineapple flavoured Crush from the gas stations. The space was clean and industrial, but we got a warm welcome from the start. Although they used professional, modern equipment in their work, they still put personal attention and care into each piece of cheese. Their hands, as they put it, have touched everything that they sell.

It was interesting to see the different rooms and their purposes: a white mold room for aging cheeses like camembert, or the wild room, where the yeasts and cultures are not controlled and anything can happen to the cheese. It was here that we also started to learn about the challenges that an artisanal cheese maker must face.. One rack of cheese had suffered from “blow”, which inflates the cheese before it finishes aging, making it worthless. A single rack, smaller than a rolling rack in a kitchen, was worth more than $10,000, and there was nothing they could do to recover that product, they just had to watch it blow up!

After the tour, we went to their restaurant in town and got to sample many of their products at lunch.. Everything was delicious; the goat queso fresco, fenugreek-studded tohm, taleggio, Camembert, cheddar, chèvre, the list went on and only got better. We also got to meet Ruth, who runs the operation. Ruth is a hard-talkin lady who worked her way up in kitchens before getting into the cheese game, and she doesn’t have time for bullshit. She told us the truth, that her business, and other independent businesses like hers, are in trouble. She said we need to tell each other this so we can help each other to continue. Because it’s important to have someone making wonderful products, especially when we live here! There won’t be such a thing as an Ontario terroir without people who care about what they are doing using the gifts of the land to make delicious food.

Our other stop of the way was at Perth Pork, the top supplier of high quality hogs for the entire GTA. The reason for their status became clear pretty fast.. The husband and wife who run the operation are perceptive about how to appeal to their market. Appreciating that the industry is driven not only by quality, but also by novelty, they are constantly coming up with new ways to offer something that nobody else has. After they brought heritage breeds like Tamworth and Berkshire to their farm, they added wild boar. Then they started creating their own cross-breeds with unique and desirable properties! Although they had another new project on the go at the time of our visit, it was a closely guarded secret, not to be revealed until it was ready for the market, and vice versa… Something to look forward to!

Many thanks for the opportunity, Chef.

Matthew – Line cook, Distillery Events & Archeo Trattoria

Another great DRC field trip. First stop was Monforte Dairy in Stratford Ontario; an artisanal cheese company. It was interesting to hear about their production process, but more so of the challenges they face from regulatory bodies and their supply chain. I think its a key lesson for future chefs to understand that its not just about what happens in the kitchen, but that so much of an restaurants success is dependent on the external forces that affect what happens in the kitchen (supplier relationships, regulatory changes, labour trends etc) and how that is managed.

We then went onto Perth Pork in Sebringville just north of Stratford Ontario. We met owners Fred and Ingrid Martines who were quite charming and I can see why they are known as the people to go to if you want whole pork. They provided an informative tour of their farm and its operations. They also spoke at length of environmental factors such as flooding and invasive pests which was a informative conversation.

Steve – Apprentice Chef, Distillery Restaurants Corp.

First time visiting a factory or farm in Canada, was great opportunity to learn for me.
I could feel, and it made me think about people who made cheese through the tasting the cheeses. They take so much time to make each of an amazing cheese for customers.

It was great time to see and know about piggies,how they grow up by the farmer and how have the former started.

I really thank to a farmer and piggies through this field trip.

Miri – Garde Manger, Cluny Bistro & Boulangerie

Hi-oh Chef,

This is my fed trip report. Thank you for your skillful driving, chauffeuring us safely to and from. Montforte dairy was both informative and entertaining. Being sworn under the table by someone’s mom is always a hi-light! The spread provided by Montforte was both generous and delicious. Perth Pork was also very informative showing us how a farm is tended from grain to feed and animal to compost, nothing is misused or wasted, and love and care are the focus for a tasty product. Thanks again for the trip!

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Julien – Chef de Partie, Distillery Events

Waiting in the small front room of Monforte Dairy, full of old and mismatched furniture and knickknacks, there wasn’t much to suggest the level of order and cleanliness we were about to encounter. After covering our shoes and hair (and beards if we had them), and being asked not to touch anything, we were led into a series of almost too-white rooms. We were told, from the first, that the most important part of what they did there, what took up most of their time, was cleaning. Their real and most tangible priority as food producers is the same as ours as cooks, to feed as many people as they can, as well as they can, without making anyone sick.

At the same time, as the tour went on, the contrast between the rural hominess of the exterior and the sterility of the interior softened. We got glimpses of the passion and real affection that went into making these cheeses. It almost seemed like Daniel saw the cheeses he showed us, not as a product they were manufacturing, but as living things they were caring for.

At the end of our first tour we moved on to a family style lunch at their restaurant in town. We ate course after course of delicious, simple food while Ruth Klahsen talked to the group about her work, her experience, her ideas about food and community. She was clearly passionate about what she was doing and eager to improve on what she had done so far.

The last part of the trip was possibly my favourite. When we arrived at Fred and Ingrid’s pig farm, Fred shook hands with each of us and told us matter-of-factly about how they had come from Holland to start their own farm more than thirty years ago, built up a successful business, which they marketed themselves, and then, looking for more of a challenge, had started raising wild boars.

With the same sort of quiet excitement they showed off the hot water heating system they had developed to heat their barn, and the viewing room they had built. They told us how they used the waste from the farm, fertilizing with manure, even composting the carcasses of their dead pigs. They showed us their fields and told us about how they rotated their crops. My favourite story of the day was of how they had started sending their pigs to the abattoir earlier, so they could adjust to their surroundings, after Fred had learned from a chef the importance of letting meat rest before serving it.

Although the dairy and the pig farm were different environments in many ways, what connected them in my mind was the love that we saw, whether it took the form of Ruth’s passionate ideals or Fred and Ingrid’s subdued, farmerly pride in their work and accomplishments. That, coupled with the ambitions they all had to improve on what they had built and challenge themselves, was what excited and inspired me about our trip.

Morgan – Garde Manger, Pure Spirits Oyster House & Grill

Hi Chef Tim,

As an aside, I wanted to thank you and Chef Michael for organizing this trip and driving us around.
Fred and Ingrid Martines, of Perth Pork Products, cultivated 100 acres of land, bought in 1979, and raise Tamworth and Berkshire herds in open pastures on natural feed. Although the farm is not certified organic, the herds are raised on principles of quality over quantity. The fields of wheat, corn and soy beautifully surround the pens and make for a picturesque farm, which vastly differs from the modern mechanics of factory farming. Fred and Ingrid’s care extends to the abattoir, where they purposefully bring the pigs two days before slaughter in order to reduce the stress on the pig and thereby yield a better product; a point which struck and stayed with me. The ideals of sustainable production, as I learned, are applicable to community programs, such as the collection of vegetable clippings from local restaurants (which the Martines then feed to the pigs, specifically the boars who really enjoy it), as well as the ability to refuse to lower prices and thus lower standards in order to appease some clients.

Ruth and Daniel of Monforte Dairy amazed me with their knowledge and passion, not only for quality cheese production, or for their incredible perseverance in an industry which values the middle man, low prices and bulk production, but mostly for their genuine regard of sustainability. This passion translates into amazing dishes served at their Monforte restaurant, located in scenic downtown Stratford, where we ate lunch. The cheeses, all made on the farm, were the delicious theme carrying through every dish, from the charcuterie board to a fluffy, light cheesecake.

It was an invaluable trip which encompassed the beauty of artisanal production. Can’t wait to try the the cheddar souvenir.

Sivan – Line Cook, El Catrin Destileria

Breaking Bread

The inspiration was a full circle trip, trying to make brioche. Huh?? you say…

Well lets take the main ingredients and go find them on a field trip.

Flour – K2 Milling, Beeton Ontario. Where we source some of our specialty milled grains at Cluny Boulangerie.

Eggs – Eisses Farm Fresh Eggs.

Milk / Butter – Miller’s Dairy, Creemore, Ontario (unfortunately they don’t manufacture butter comercially)

The New Farm – Nothing remotely to do with the whole brioche idea but it’s close by and AMAZING organic produce so why not…

Chef JLo’s awesome idea was to mix all the ingredients we gathered together and leave in a bowl on top of the rental cars engine block. Should be ready by the time we get home…..

I called executive decision not to move forward with this one……..

This is the trip thanks to Google Maps. No thanks to Siri who was clearly sick of listening to Howard Stern and lead us to a different flipping town.

Going to leave the field trip report to Cynthia Latella from Pure Spirits, thanks for a great write up Cindy!

We arrived at the Distillery just as the sun was coming up, grabbed coffees and we were on our way. A few hours and a nap later we pull up to
farm #1: Miller’s dairy. We are greeted by clusters of adorable kittens and John Miller. He tells us a bit about his life and families history. He explains that jersey cows are smaller and yield less milk but their milk has a higher percentage of protein and fat and therefore tastes better.

As he is giving us a tour of the equipment used to seperate fat from skim, pasteurize and bottle the milk, I look up at the pipes and there isn’t a single crumb of dust. Anywhere. It is clear this man cares about what he is doing. Out to the barn we go! I can smell the cows and the little kid in me is getting excited. Mr. Miller goes on to explain how they use well water to cool the milk down before its refrigerated so they use less electricity. Very efficient. On to the cows! Not yet, first we see where they get milked. Their activity levels are also monitored to see which ones are in heat. And now out to the cows! Rows of extremely calm cows just hanging out feeding, licking our hands leaning their huge heads on us. They really are pretty animals. Okay now back to the car.

After a bit of a detour, no thanks to Siri, we pull up to
stop#2: the New Farm, a small family farm run by Brent Preston and his wife Gillian Flies.

We missed the tour so Brent gives us the abridged tour. He starts by showing us his mustatd greens which he keeps under a tarp because of a type of beetle that likes to eat them. Then he explained that the have a system of fertilizing the soil that doesnt involve manure or pesticides. They plant a summer assortment of plants catered to give the soil back the nutrients it needs. Then they plants a winter mix that contains rye and other grains to deter weeds the following season. Very ineresting stuff. Gill, his wife, joined us in the vegetable garden where Brent was plucking fresh beets from the soil for us to taste. Chef jv pulled out his pocket knife and shaved off bits for everyone. Possibly the sweetest beets I’ve ever tasted. Gill said it took them ten years to get the soil to what it is now. I guess patience and hard work is the motto here. They spoke about how they did not want to expand yet because it might compromise the quality of their produce. And how they would rather have their hands in the soil than on a keyboard. we ate our lunch on their porch where they brought out some baby salad greens that were picked that day and possibly the best cucumber i have ever tasted. We packed our full bellies back into the car and were on our way again.

Another nap later we arrive at stop#3 the egg farm. This could not be more different than the first two stops. Huge aluminum sided barn, no windows, no people completely surrounded by tall corn fields. It was actually a bit eerie. The feeding system was completely automated as well. This was a stricly profit operation. No labour costs, just timers and chickens. After being slighty creeped out by the silent egg farm, we hopped back into the car.

Stop #4 K2Milling. Before we even walk in this place looks interesting. Pieces of old barn wood leaning everywhere, large parts of mill equipment on the driveway, and an old red porsche carrera right out front. Inside, a random collection of old mill cogs, antique fans and an assortment of jars with grains decorate what i think is the storefront. In the next room a man is making custom furniture out of old barn wood. Mark Hayhoe tells about how he is changing the way people think about flour and milling. While they do lots of wheat, corn and oats, they also do really weird stuff like blueberry flour, tobacco flour (aka smoke-stick) ed. and chardonnay grape flour. While we were there he had cranberries that had been pressed for juice, then their pulp was dried and he was milling it up. Such a bright red color and super tart tasting, I can’t wait to use it. He took us out to the mill and explained that between milling different product they clean the mill. The biproduct of cleaning the mill goes to local farmers for their feed. In fact, a local pig farmer came by while Mark was talking to us to collect the corn they had cleaned out that morning.
We also learned that way back when The Distillery was still in the distilling buisness, they used to purchase they grain from his grandfather.

Our long day had come to an end, I really enjoyed the whole comunnity feeling, you scratch my back I’ll scratch yours. And the bottom line was always quality not quantity. These people work really hard but they’re doing something they love and believe in.

And so after meeting some really great people, and being overstimulated with new ideas it was back to the big city for us.

Cynthia Latella – Senior Line Cook @ Pure Spirits Oyster House

please click on a picture to open the gallery

: gotta love a farm with a good slogan – “live it up! slurp it down!”

: We like a good map

: making ice cream base – he’s adding sugar to a large vessel full of whole milk. the machine stirs the sugar into the milk

: the homogenizer

: top points to the chocolate milk.

Fall Harvest

It seemed fitting the inaugural DRC Field Trip coincided with the start of the fall harvest. A magical time for cooks, chefs, food lovers and indeed the industry of agriculture.

farms are pretty

First and foremost let’s bring you all up to speed.
The DRC, (Distillery Restaurants Corp) wanted to find a way to keep inspiring and educating our young generation of cooks. There’s more to just working an 8 hour (12 hour, 16 hour…..etc!) day, punching in, punching out and going home (….going to bettie’s (ed.) There’s gotta be more to it then that!
Hence, the field trip was born.

To give our cooks valuable lessons, experience, memories and a reality, of where food comes from. Asparagus to the uninitiated comes sensibly packaged in bunches wrapped in elastic bands that magically all weigh a pound. Lemons, well they come polished, often individually wrapped in crepe paper. and in cardboard boxes perfectly sized… you want 115’s 110’s ? whatever you want…..
Well, at the farm food comes from the ground, from dirt, sunshine and water, incredible ay?!

The shock and awe when our group of 11 young cooks first took sight of the fields, their feet planted in the pungent soil of a real farm, well it was epic!

A real farm. With real people (real Mexicans too!), that cut the vegetables from the earth with a knife and bunched them by hand in a basket. Real farmers that cut the herbs by hand with scissors. I’m not sure what they all expected, perhaps a scene reminiscent of a canning factory with machinery doing all the work. It was gratifying for all to see that real people were still methodically and meticulously handling the food.

The day started early. VERY early for some, for others the night before hadn’t even ended…. Anyway, surprisingly everyone made it on time or early for the 6am meet up. Only one late was our host for the day Ezio Bondi, (nice one buddy, at least you’re consistent!). Bondi Produce were looking after us today, namely Mat, Ezio & Will. Matt and Ezio are our sales rep’s and Will our chief picker at the Food Terminal.

First stop was the Food Terminal, then on to Bondi Produce warehouse for a tour and breakfast, to Riga Farms in Newmarket then onto Cookstown Greens, finishing with lunch at a pub in Cookstown.

food terminal

The terminal was an eyeopener, BUSY! Watch your feet! forklifts driving at crazy speeds, weaving in and out of business deals left right and centre. Cash deals flying here, card games and bets over there, of course legitimate fruit & vegetable sales were also common place . Purveyors screaming “DONT touch! Look only or buy!! or something to that effect, Jose can fill you in… It was a big, big place.

On to Bondi Produce. Mat and Ezio’s brand new warehouse, lots of square feet, i forget the number… They were very proud of it, and rightly so, a beautiful shop. We even got the grand tour of their gym and lunch room. It was great for the cooks to see where their veggies come from, Jose and Suk staring down palettes of avocados like they own them, well, they kinda do… Pure and Cluny guys going nuts over a new strain of grapes called Cotton Candy Grapes…. Actually, legit, taste and smell like cotton candy. Nice.

Onto Riga Farms. After our GPS got us totally lost in the middle of nowhere near Newmarket we finally ended up where we were supposed to be. Riga, predominantly a producer/grower of kale, kohlrabi and collard greens. In fact, all the kale we use in the Distillery comes straight from Riga to the Bondi warehouse and to us. The first thing we noticed was how amazingly green these vegetables were. A noticeable difference straight out of the ground (1 day) shipped to Bondi 2nd day, into the restaurant, 3rd or 4th day. Greenest green veg we had ever seen! Then we went out into the field and saw the kale being picked and cut, yup, by real people…

beautiful kale fields, Riga Farms

The boys at Riga then took us through a few of their other projects they were starting showing us fig trees, many, many herbs. The sorrel! wow so good, so lemony! Crowd favourite goes to the “stevia” which is a sweet herb originating from South America. Pure’s own Bryan “Candyman” Lang, already conjuring up desserts with the sickly sweet herb.

Another solid moment at the farm was Jose saying “hello where you from?” to every Mexican guy on the farm… Keeping up international relations, good on you mate.

Our heroes, the guys that pick the food we cook!

The boys then took us out to the most beautiful Kale field where he told us that ducks, or was it deer??, i couldn’t quite hear him, could eat the entire field in as little as a couple of days if kept unchecked. Awesome.

On to Cookstown. Cookstown Greens, commonly known by chefs and cooks for producing seedlings and baby lettuces. This is a 100% certified organic farm, so they do things a little different. It was rather different, a little more laid back and relaxed, a little more chaotic but it had a certain feel to it. It had an artisan quality that you couldn’t quite put a finger on.
Here the crew again got out in the fields and dug around, finding the asparagus tips shooting from the soil, tasting the lettuces growing in the ground, seeing how hot, hot houses are, tasting a tomato off the vine as it should be. The flavour, amazing! A long, long way from the food terminal where much of the produce is imported from far flung countries of the world, picked completely unripe, then gassed on arrival to Canada with ethylene to instantly ripen. Not really the same taste, by a country farm mile.

this is where it’s at

The pictures tell a thousand more words, the team had an amazing day, learnt a lot and are still talking about it a week later. The cooks that didn’t get to go are green with envy and all vying to be the next DRC line cook to make it out on our next Field Trip.

I’d like to thank Bondi Produce for hosting us, Riga Farms and Cookstown Greens for the tours and especially the Distillery Restaurants Corp. for providing our young culinary stars a place to grow and nurture into educated, inspired cooks of tomorrow.

– Chef