Recently, I took a bunch of local foodies/bloggers on a culinary trip to Stratford. It was an attempt to show that Stratford has a rich culinary underbelly that is rarely talked about.
Our itinerary:
A tour of Monforte Dairy by Maureen Argon. The facility is not fully operational yet but we got a behind-the-scenes look at Ruth Klahsen’s vision. Breakfast by Balzac’s, Tango Café supplied some delicious granola that we bathed in sheep’s milk yoghurt.
Then we drove over to Soiled Reputations and spent an hour with farmer extraordinaire Antony John. As Neil Baxter and his crew set up for lunch in Antony’s barn, we got a tour of the farm, seeing super healthy chickens wandering around, picking parsley, spotting various species of birds and talking about sustainable agriculture. Fred de Martines’ Pork farm happens to be next to Antony’s so we spent an hour there getting a tour of his farm. He showed us all his animals and spoke about his passion for farming and being GMO free.
We come back to the barn just in time for a delicious 3 course lunch prepared by Neil Baxter and his team from Rundles Restaurant. Wines from Malivoire accompanied such treats as, crispy salad with asparagus and shaved monforte toscano and a poached-then deep fried egg (from Antony’s farm). Mesmerized by the bright, saturated colours of the yolk, we moved on to a slice of Fred’s Wild Boar slathered with a delicious mustard seed jus and pea shoot spatzle.
Dessert, was rhubarb soup with a dollop of rhubarb crush and strings of sous-vide rhubarb that Neil was experimenting with.
After lunch, Karen Hartwick from Stratford Tea Leaves took us through a full tea tasting. Then, we made candy with Derek Barr at Chocolate Barrs.
A big thank you to Stratford Tourism Alliance, Perth Pork Products, Soiled Reputations, Stratford Tea Leaves, Rundles Restaurant, Chocolate Barrs and Monforte Dairy and all the helping hands for putting together an incredibly memorable day.
Here’s a video with a mish mash of footage from the day. But please go over to Youtube and watch it in HD.