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Introduction
Farmers and rural landowners in Middlesex County have strong ties to the
land, going back centuries. Agriculture in Middlesex County developed from
pioneer farming in the early nineteenth century to wheat growing and
mixed farming in the late nineteenth century.
Local agriculture became more specialized in the mid-20th century before it diversified
into a broader mix. Today, Middlesex County brings many innovative products and
high-quality specialty agriculture to the marketplace.
Located on the cusp of the Carolinian Life Zone, a hotspot of natural diversity,
Middlesex County reflects the transition between southern and northern habitats
and is strategically positioned close to the US market and halfway between
Toronto and Windsor/Detroit on the NAFTA Super Highway corridor. Experience
Middlesex County from the ground up. You’ll find everything from farmers’ markets
and pick-your-own berry farms to maple sugar bushes and a flour mill, with
history and heritage around every corner.
Middlesex County has a unique cultural and agricultural heritage landscape,
often referred to as "a community of communities." The Middlesex Heritage Trail
has preserved the history of the many unique towns, villages and hamlets that dot
the county. Arva, Wardsville, Lucan, Dorchester, Komoka, Newbury, Napier, Mount
Brydges, Parkhill and Strathroy are among the participants in Doors Open
Middlesex, a program taking place September 17 and 18, to educate and inform
travellers about Middlesex County’s history. It’s a great opportunity to experience
the area’s hospitality and to drive the back roads to discover the rich agricultural
heritage of Middlesex close-up.
Restaurant Sound Bites
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The Stuffed Zucchini
Located in Lucan, The Stuffed Zucchini has its own herb garden and vegetable plot. Signature dishes are prepared with local and organic ingredients whenever possible. Vegetables are sourced from Devlaeminck’s Farm north of Lucan, and apples from Crunican Brother’s Orchards and Apple Store from the south. Artisanal breads, baked on-site, include organic flaxseed sourdough and walnut and olive fougasse (focaccia). Enjoy artisanal pastas, made with fresh eggs and local farm vegetables, from Maria’s Homemade Noodles. You’ll also find natural, wholesome products from Metzger’s Meats in Hensall, Muscovy Ducks from Everspring Farms, and C’est Bon goat’s cheese from St. Mary’s, as well as a wide selection of chef/proprietor Irene Demas’s seasonal homemade preserves.
175 Main Street, Lucan
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Cranberri Country
Market
The Cranberri Country Market is located in a former coffee shop with an old-fashioned counter and stools. Realizing the need for healthy foods, Emma Dayment and her mother Margaret Williams started preparing freshly-made items – fruit salads, veggies and dips, sandwiches and wraps – using as much local produce as possible. House-made soups, shepherd’s pie, chili and cabbage rolls are all prepared using the finest ingredients. Bread comes fresh from Jerry’s Bakery in Strathroy, organic honey, organic sprouts and vegetables from Slegers, and other suppliers include: McLachlan Maple Syrup, Munro Honey, Organic Works Bakery, Joyce Farms and Harris Farms.
22534 Adelaide Road, Mount Brydges
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The Up Front Café
The Up Front Café menus reflect its
owners’ passion for bold flavour combinations. This downtown Strathroy restaurant has evolved into three distinct dining experiences. Lunch, served Tuesday to Friday, includes fresh salads, homemade soups, grilled sandwiches, and signature house-made specials. For dinners, the restaurant uses steaks and ribs, hand-cut and aged by a local butcher who sources his meat locally. Internationally-themed dinners are served on Friday and Saturday nights during the school season. Located in a historical neoclassical bank building, the restaurant extends into a 1600-square-foot courtyard patio in summer, offering a more varied menu with signature internationally-inspired specialties, extensive grilled items, and light summer meals. Owners Josh and Jody Stall’s philosophy is simple: "Treat your ingredients with respect, use local as much as possible, and keep your cooking flavourful and uncomplicated."
51 Front Street West, Strathroy
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The Duke of Earl Pub
Downtown Strathroy’s Clock Tower Inn was built in 1889, designed by Thomas Fuller, the architect for Canada’s Parliament Buildings. A former Post Office and Customs House, today on the main floor you will find The Duke of Earl Pub. Known for its wide selection of fresh and innovative pub fare, the pub has a surprising and delightful Portuguese sensibility. All the menu items are made from scratch, the meat comes from the local Mount Brydges Abattoir, and produce is sourced locally.
71 Frank Street, Strathroy
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The King Edward
Restaurant & Pub
The King Edward is located in a refurbished 115-year-old building on Main Street in Ilderton. A star attraction is the first hand-pulled cask-conditioned ale in Southwest Ontario – providing fresh unpasteurized beer with natural carbon dioxide, allowing the beer a better "condition." Local craft brews are also on offer. Pub fare, with a few surprises, includes traditional prime rib, Yorkshire pudding and mashed potatoes. Signature burgers, fish and chips, and bangers and mash are available. Locally sourced beef is featured and seasonal produce and local ingredients are well-incorporated.
13239 Ilderton Road, Ilderton
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Beside Mom’s Café
Tammy Vandersanden runs Beside Mom’s Café in Parkhill, just one of the beautifully refurbished Main Street storefronts in this quaint village. The menu features fresh made sandwiches, soups, salads and home-baked specialties, with 80 percent of their ingredients sourced locally.
239 Main Street, Parkhill
Earth To Table
Culinary Products
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Everspring Farm
Dale and Marianne Donaldson, who have been raising geese and ducks for over 25 years, credit the increase in awareness of the value of buying local in part to the tenets of the Slow Food movement and 100-Mile. "There’s an innate need out there to connect with where your food comes from," says Dale. Everspring products include organic geese and Muscovy and Pekin ducks, which are distributed across Ontario. The Donaldons have also created a Sprouted Barley Grass Juice and Buckthorn Berry Juice, as well as organic sprouted grains and seeds used to increase probiotics in the fowl.
4821 Ten Mile Road, RR 3 Ilderton
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O’Shea’s Farm Fresh Vegetables
Their motto is "Quality from the country since 1832." Michael and Jeremy O’Shea cultivate over 50 acres of all-natural products. Everything is hand-picked and sold directly, at the farm and farmers’ markets. Their carefully raised beef cattle are processed at a small local butcher shop, ensuring the highest quality and flavour. Other offerings include seasonal pies and artisanal breads such as sunflower, cranberry-raisin, and black olive and walnut. School tours and team-building seminars are available.
34089 Stonehouse Line, RR 3 Granton
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Sunnivue Farm
Sunnivue Farm and Farmstore, a Community Land Trust Farm since 1992, is protected by R.O.S.E. (Redeeming Our Soil Economically). In 2011, in addition to organic beef, pork, and chicken, some meat from their newly formed water buffalo herd will be available, as well as eggs, breads and home baking, Sunnivue jams and jellies, sea salt, rappadura sugar, fair trade coffee and decaf, local maple syrup, honey and beeswax candles. The farm store is open Fridays, 3–6 and Saturdays, 9–4, until December.
27093 New Ontario Road., Ailsa Craig
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Slegers Greenhouses
Slegers Greenhouses is a family-owned farm in operation since 1987. Slegers Premium Organics offer the discerning chef and consumer a variety of certified organic living lettuces, salad greens, mini and micro seedlings and sprouts. Greens are harvested with their root-ball attached and are packed for convenience in recyclable "clamshell" containers. A retail outlet is open at the farm gate on Friday and Saturday.
7496 Calvert Drive, Strathroy
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Heeman’s Greenhouses
and Strawberry Farm
There are few things that compare to the taste of a field-fresh strawberry. Since their humble beginnings in 1963, Heeman’s Greenhouses and Strawberry Farm has welcomed to their fields three generations of strawberry lovers to share a family experience, get in touch with nature, and pick their own strawberries. At Heeman’s, they plant varieties based on size and smell, but their most important criteria is taste.
20422 Nissouri Road, Thames Centre
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Kustermans Berry Farms
The first Kustermans blueberries were planted in 1984. Today, this growing family-run pick-your-own farm offers blueberries, raspberries, pumpkins and strawberries, and a market with baked goods, local produce, kitchen items, and refreshments. In September 2011, come for the inaugural Fall Festival, with added attractions and a corn maze. School tours are available.
23188 Springwell Road, Mount Brydges
Middlesex County’s
Culinary Attractions
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Carolinian Winery and Foley Farm
Carolinian Winery is a family-owned and operated winery located on Foley Farms, an
organic fruit farm on the eastern outskirts of London. The Winery produces small lots
of dry, off dry, sweet and dessert wines in red and white, in both fruit and grape blends.
The Winery uses only organic and sustain-able farmed fruit and production practices to
produce their wines. The gift shop and tasting rooms overlook the farm as does a
charming restaurant. Dine beside a stone fireplace or upstairs where you can enjoy a
more traditional dining experience. A patio, nestled between the winery and the fruit
orchards, provides a great place for al fresco dining, or simply for unwinding with
a glass of wine. The kitchen is run by Mike Kerslake, an award-winning chef with
an enthusiasm for local, fresh and organic food.
4823 Dundas Street, RR 2 Thorndale
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Arva Flour Mills
Mike Mathews is the fourth generation of his family to operate Arva Flour Mills,
which first opened its doors in 1819. Located in Arva, just north of London, with
water power from the Medway River generating the energy, high-quality whole
wheat, unbleached, pastry and organic flours are produced here. The Mill Store
also offers cream of wheat, cracked wheat, grains, cereals and spelt. The millpond
is home to families of geese and ducks, many of them multigenerational residents.
2042 Elgin (off Richmond Street North)
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Apple Land Station
Apple Land is a first-generation pick-your-own apple orchard in Thorndale, featuring a
store and bakery offering seasonal homemade pies. Their first crop was harvested in
1986 and sold from a picnic table. Since then, they have provided high quality seasonal
produce for the local community. Activities for children include a tour of the orchard in a
one-half scale 1850s Model L train, an Animal Barn and a giant Sand Mountain. School
tours can be arranged. Local products carried in the store include products from the
Garlic Box, Turkey Hill Maple Syrup, Gourmet Village and more.
329 Richmond St., RR 3 Thorndale
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Trail’s End Farmers Market
Trail’s End Farmer’s Market is located on the outskirts of London and provides a
Saturday home to a wide variety of small regional farmers, local food producers and
Mennonite farmers. The market is one of the area’s largest and operates year round.
You can buy drug-free and hormone-free fresh meat, and poultry, and frozen fish,
Canadian cheeses, and fresh-baked goods, as well as prime rib, veal and a large
variety of fresh meats. In season, there is a large variety of fresh-from-the-field
produce. A selection of culturally diverse street food, ready-to-eat regional food special-
ties and international cuisine is also on offer.
4370 Dundas Street North, Thorndale
Getaway Culinary Packages
Enjoy one of these culinary packages that will
inspire and recharge you, from romantic
getaways to an escape with friends.
There are currently no culinary packages available.
Please contact the Middlesex County Tourism office for more
information about their exciting culinary experiences!
For More Information Visit:
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