We’re already gearing up for Savour the Season 2013, from Wednesday Sept. 11 to Sunday Sept. 22. 12 days of local foods will be featured at selected restaurants throughout Durham Region.
Mark your calendar now, and if you have a favourite restaurant, make sure they know the new dates too!
Happy holidays from the Savour Team!
Durham’s own Tourism Manager, Kerri King reminds us of some fabulous spots to celebrate the holidays, as well as great gift card ideas, right here in Durham Region.
Click here to see Kerri King's Dec 7 2012 Metroland article featuring great Durham restaurants
Vince’s Market promote local farmers whenever possible. Click here to see a video featuring Watson Farms’ apples in Bowmanville. Can’t get any fresher than that! Thanks for supporting this year’s Savour the Season event Vince’s.
Friday night, 5 friends, some hailing as far away as Etobicoke, Savoured the Season at the Tin Mill and were treated to an unforgettable dinner. After the difficult decision of which appetizer to choose, the Maple Roasted Root Vegetable Salad with carrots, parsnips, squash and sweet potato atop mixed greens, crispy leeks and apple vinaigrette had a small lead over the Miniature Autumn Chicken Pot Pie (featuring Cooper’s CSA Farm and Maze). An excellent choice! Followed by an entree of grilled Certified Organic Steak from Gallery on the Farm with a creamy potato casserole, roasted carrots and red wine demi glace. Now that’s what steak tasted like when I was growing up! For dessert, another difficult choice. Hands down, the Chunky Ontario Apple Caramel Cake (featuring Ocala Orchards Farm Winery) served with Maple caramel sauce (Ashton Maple Products) was by far the winner.
We were all charmed by the atmosphere of the restaurant, and were welcomed like long-lost relatives. Proprietor Don Andrews was delighted to share the history of the Mill with us. 
What a wonderful evening! We WILL be back…
Can’t make it to France this year? Well never mind, there’s always Nice Bistro Restaurant. As soon as I walked through the door from Whitby’s Brock Street and heard, “Bon jour, madam!” I felt transported to Paris. Everything from the mosaic floors, chalkboard menus, mirrored bar and strains of Marlene Dietrich evoked an atmosphere of Gallic charm.
You could easily be sidetracked by the wonderful art. Black and white photos from the 1950s by such greats as Robert Doisneau provide sufficient diversion that it becomes difficult to decide between the ratatouille of fresh veg, the duck leg confit or the rack of lamb Provencal—the three entrees on the three-course Savour menu. Lamb is from the Yellowlees Family Farm near Nestleton.
Chef-proprietor Bernard Alberigo and his charming wife Manon Lacroutz have been buying local Sunnyside Farm eggs since they opened 20 years ago so it’s no surprise that Sunnyside eggs are featured in the crème caramel. My commitment to an apple a day is easy here. Bernard roasts Algoma Orchards apples for the green salad and bakes them in a slice of a classic tarte tatin for desert—so delicious when washed down with a cappuccino. And all the more delightful with those little paper-wrapped sugar cubes we remember from days gone by. Charmant!
Add your voice to this blog. Share your best Savour the Season best experiences and photos: blogit@DurhamSavourtheSeason.ca
Urban Pantry Executive Chef Claudio Briones was featured on Daytime Rogers TV last week, demonstrating what goes into their Savour the Season Five-spice chicken, roasted corn & green onion Asian pancake with peach chili chutney. Now, that’s a mouthful! Yummmmy… Featured supplier is Willo’ Wind Farm, from Zepher, Ontario.
As seen on Daytime, Rogers TV, Chef Stephen Hendrickson, from Chatterpaul’s, shows viewers how to make Savour the Season goat cheese arugula baby spinach salad with mango maple almond vinaigrette, featuring fresh ingredients from Ocala Orchards Farm Winery, and Lamb sirloin over duck fat-poached sweet potato, apricot Juniper berry reduction, featuring Svetec Farms.
Sometimes a special lunch is worth a little extra effort, especially a scenic drive on a Durham autumn morning. My trip to the Cameron Street Co-Op Café took me up and down the wooded hills of Lake Ridge Road with wide vistas over the Oak Ridges Moraine. Then east at Brock’s 12th Line where the café sits halfway down Cannington’s handsome main street. This is where a treated myself to one of the best deals in Durham’s Savour the Season.
The $15 lunch was rich in locally sourced produce from C. Bruni & Sons Farms, including the roasted zucchini and onions in my cheese-topped pizza bagel, the butternut squash in the soup and the apple slices in the salad topped with walnuts, chevre and a maple dressing from Barkey’s Sugar Bush. I was too full to eat the large chewy ginger cookie that came with it so I took it to go along with one of the best cups of coffee I’ve ever had. The secret? Manager Kelly Stacey explained, “The double hopper coffeemaker grinds the beans just before brewing, the thermal lined carafe keeps coffee hot without burning it. But the biggest difference is the reverse osmosis water.”
More than just another eatery, Cameron Street is the town’s social hub. The café’s six owners put local art on the walls, bring in live entertainment and create a mood that encourages locals and visitors alike to linger. Their socially conscious coffee also comes with a great sense of humour. Where else will you find funnel cakes on the menu? Check out their You Tube commercials.
Add your voice to this blog. Share your best Savour the Season best experiences and photos: blogit@DurhamSavourtheSeason.ca
Fresh picked pears and apples from Ocala Winery are being featured on menus from four Savour the Season restaurants. Stop by and pick up some fresh-picked MacIntosh, Gala, Cortland or Honey Crisp apples. 
Delicious fruit wines, including recently bottled apple wines, are also available.
Durham now has its own cheese. If you want to try it, head to Uxbridge—fast. Just for Savour the Season Urban Pantry chef Claudio Briones is serving a limited run of the first artisan cheese produced by Carpe Diem cheesemaker Julie Belli. This aged sheep’s milk cheese with it faint hint of blue veins can be found exclusively at Urban Pantry, but like autumn leaves it won’t last long.
“It arrived just in time for Savour Durham,” said Claudio. “There is a limited amount and it will be gone soon.” Barely a dozen little wax-covered mini-wheels sat in the dessert case when I visited and they were going fast. So if you want to try this delight, which Claudio describes as a cross between Feta, Parmesan and Stilton, you had better hurry.
I enjoyed it with blueberry chutney made with fruit from Twinkle Berry Farms and an herbed organic salad from Foggy River Farm and Urban Pantry’s own container gardens. The restaurant also grows its own tomatoes for the tomato tartar smoked with apple wood.
This sophisticated spot with its sleek black and white interior is fast becoming a local favourite in part because of owner Niki Pagidas’s emphasis on “hyper local” foods that not only taste great but support the community. Check out the beautiful display of birches and greenery near the entrance. It provides lavender, rosemary and other herbs.
While I was inspecting the outdoor flower arrangement that double as seasonings a tractor drove by. “Only in Uxbridge do you see the tractors alongside the Mercedes,” said Claudio.
Chef Claudio Briones from Urban Pantry in Uxbridge
Urban Pantry on-site garden
Add your voice to this blog. Share your best Savour the Season best experiences and photos: blogit@DurhamSavourtheSeason.ca
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