Incredible Edibles Festival - 2015

It was a beautiful day in Downtown Campbellford Ontario on July 11, for the second annual Incredible Edibles Festival. The 2015 event attracted thousands of food lovers and close to 50 exhibitors. The wonderful aroma of local food filled the downtown core, from baked goods to pizza, grilled pork, beef and bison and even flour made from crickets.

The Campbellford-Seymour Agricultural Society which hosts the Campbellford Fair from August 7-9, 2015 sold delicious homemade pies.

  

Butter tarts from the Butter Tart Factory were served up by Nancy from In Season Gourmet, which sells the Butter tarts at their store at 44 Front Street in downtown Campbellford.

Westben Arts Festival Theater Cello Mania, flash-mob consisting of U of T Cello Ensemble: Sarah Steeves, Rosalind Zhang, Brenton Chan, and Jun Kyu Park. I loved it, they were preforming Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana, one of my favorite songs.

Deborah Neimann Boehle author, journalist and speaker from Illinois gives a demonstration on making homemade mozzarella.

Check out Debora's website The Thrifty Homesteader for more info.

Joel MacCharles of WellPreserved.ca was one of the speakers and he also gave a demonstration on making mead and honey wine.

Jude Cohen-Phillips was a speaker from Incredible Edible in Todmorden, England.

And the big hit of the day was speaker Frank Ferragine, otherwise know to us Canadians as Frankie Flowers. Frank’s family runs one of the largest combined greenhouse/garden centre operations in Ontario www.bradfordgreenhouses.com and he still remains active in the business.

• Contributing Garden Writer for Canadian Living Magazine and Canadian Gardening Magazine.
• Weather Anchor and Garden Specialist for Toronto’s number one morning show Breakfast Television
• Garden Expert on Canada’s most popular daytime lifestyle show CityLine
• Weekly columnist Toronto Sun promoting Local food, farming and cuisine. 
• Selected to be the voice of Toronto’s Water Campaign 1” per week. 
• Former Board Member of Canada Blooms Flower and Garden Show. 

And I must add that Frank is a very gracious and personable speaker.

After his presentation, he did a book signing. I was hoping to buy one, and he sold all 40. But at least all of those in line, got to get an autographed book, except for me:-(

But at least I did get a photo with Frankie, my favorite weather anchor on Breakfast TV. Thank you Frank!

Martin Littkemann (above left) of Ontario Water Buffalo Company from Stirling, Ontario encourages children and even adults to hop on Yvette.

Lori Smith (above right) of Ontario Water Buffalo Company smiles for the camera, along with Yvette the buffalo.

Whether you arrived by car, boat, plane or were local, it was an enjoyable day along the shores of the Trent River in Downtown Campbellford, Ontario.

For more photos of the Incredible Edibles Festival 2015 check DayTrippingOntario's facebook page www.facebook.com/DayTrippingOntario

Homemade Baileys for the Holidays

I have been making this recipe every Christmas since the 1980's. While I was searching for the perfect recipe, people gave me ones that had raw eggs as an ingredient. Not being an egg lover, I could not even fathom drinking them raw. YUK. A friend gave me his concoction which I have been using ever since.

Baileys Irish Cream 

2 cans sweetened condensed milk
1 liter half and half
4 Tablespoons Hershey's syrup 
2 Tablespoons coconut extract 
4 Teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup of Brandy

Whisk all together in a big bowl and enjoy. Refrigerate when done if any is left:-) This will make about 2 liters, the recipe can be doubled or reduced. I usually double it. I usually use St. Remy's brandy, but this year I thought I would try some local Niagara Bench. You can use any chocolate syrup, I do pick up my Hershey's syrup in the states, as I like that the best. Measure the chocolate exact, and you can fine tune the coconut if you like a little less, but I found the above measurements to be the best.

Save your half and half container to store it or use your own favorite bottles. My bottles below came from a wonderful Raspberry Schnapps by Wintergarten imported from Germany. I could only find it in Delaware or New Jersey many years ago. In fact I don't think they have sold it since the 80's. If you are a Chambord lover, then you would have killed for this. It was so mellow. I do see a few of the pint size vintage empty bottles on ebay.

Hastings Christmas House Tour

Post by Day Tripping Ontario.

Kalays Seafood Restaurant - Belleville, Ontario CLOSED:-(

My Mother-in-law and I were always in search for the best seafood. I remember her joking about the pathetic scallops that I ordered at Red Lobster. She said to me, there is only one real scallop and that is a Digby scallop. She was right. Sadly she is not with us today, to share this hidden gem located in Belleville, Ontario, Kalays Seafood Restaurant. She would have loved a restaurant that was true to her Nova Scotia roots, and that served fresh authentic maritime seafood.

The first time I experienced Kalays, was from their food truck, which sadly they no longer have. I sampled some friend clam strips and a lobster roll which was out of this world. This in turn led to many visits to their restaurant on Sidney Street, and each and every time I had the scallops. Well on my last visit with a fellow seafood lover, I was going to order my usual Digby scallops but she was ordering the Fishermans platter. I had to try it too, or I would have been so jealous. It consisted of breaded haddock, shrimp, clam strips and scallops accompanied with fries, cole slaw and their homemade sauces.

Kalays Fishermans Platter

Everything was delicious. Seafood is something you either like or dislike. For me my passion is deep fried with an ample amount of tartar sauce, enough to even dip your fries in it. I won't eat it without. My Dad used to tell me I was ruining the flavor of the seafood, but to me it compliments it, just like the lemon does. They do have seafood sauce for those who prefer it. For their menu, click here.

I do love my fried clams with many of my childhood foodie memories being of lunch outings with my Mom for some of the light and fluffy Howard Johnsons fried clams. They were the best ever. The history of the fried clam strip is interesting, click here to read.

Howard Johnsons Tendersweet Fried Clams. Photo credit: Look-to-the-skies.com

Kalays offers the traditional fried clam strips which are very good, but they also have on their menu lightly dusted Digby full-bellied clams (seasonal) fried up golden and served with tartar sauce. I think I'm going to have to try these, as I have never in my life tried a true whole fried clam.

A kitchen workshop for hosting your own lobster dinner party, or donair party.

Kalays has many events throughout the year to get the full Maritime experience. On the last Sunday of every month they have a traditional Jiggs dinner. Jiggs dinner is a meal commonly prepared and eaten on Sundays in many regions around the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. The meal most typically consists of salt beef (or salt riblets), boiled together with potatoes, carrot, cabbage, turnip, and turnip greens. Kalays serves theirs with roast chicken.

The fishing boats at Digby Harbour in Nova Scotia. 

So if you are missing the maritimes or just have a craving for the freshest seafood around and some East Coast Hospitality, be sure to check out Kalays Seafood Restaurant.

Kalays Restaurant

393 Sidney Street, Hidden Square

Belleville, Ontario

613-962-3838

First Ontario Shrimp Farm - Campbellford, Ontario

We have dairy farms, sheep farms, goat farms, and all kinds of grain and produce farms in the municipality of Trent Hills, but something new will be arriving in 2015. Ontario's first crop of Pacific White shrimp. Paul Cocchio and his wife Tracy, daughter Jill a marine insurance broker, and Brad a cheesemaker at nearby Empire Cheese are expected to harvest their first crop of shrimp in 5 months.

For the full story from the Globe and Mail, click here.

For more information and how to order check out First Ontario Shrimp

This is a pound and a half. 

Above photo,  I finally purchased some shrimp. Will post more photos after they are cooked to Day Tripping Ontario's facebook page.

Brighton Speedway - Eve of Destruction

Workman's OK Tire & Auto - School Bus race was one of the main attractions. 

Sunday September 28, 2014 was a beautiful warm autumn day to get out and enjoy the scenery and take in some good ole dirt track racing at Brighton Speedway.  The Sunday event was named the Eve of Destruction, and consisted of  9 different races ending with the demolition derby. Destruction and mayham was more than plentiful and also a whole ton of fun.

The first race was the Junior 25 lap enduro for ages 14-18 with no race experience, which was followed by the Ladies 35 lap enduro.

Ladies 35 lap Enduro.

Next came two segments of qualifiers or a practice session for the Workman's OK Tire & Auto Repair School bus race, which was a real blast to watch, and we loved the noise and power of the school buses. So much fun!

Oops, on its roof. 

Driver is out and ok, that is all that matters.

Next was the long race of the day, the Hotch's Autoparts 100 lap Enduro. There was quite a few entries in this race, but it didn't take too long until the cars thinned out. Every race here was like a demolition derby. So cool!

Lining up for the 100 lap Enduro.

Our friend Brody in the black #66

Brody's  patience paid off for a while.

There was also a 10 lap flag pole race where a flag pole was set up on the front straight away and all cars had to circle the flag pole each and every lap. That flag pole sure got congested, unfortunately I didn't get photos.

Next race was the Gauntlet, which was a big old limo. 5 cars called the "Bad Guys" had to eliminate the good guys in the Gauntlet in 6 laps. Unfortunately the bad guys won. But it was fun to watch.

Then came the Workman's OK Tire & Auto Repair School bus race. Man could these things go! Even with flat tires. One bus had built his rad inside the bus, as my husband noticed that he didn't see a radiator but then notice the pipes running inside so it wouldn't get hit from the front, cool idea.

Now for the total mayham and my favorite, the 15 lap Trailer race. To be declared a winner your trailer must still be attached to your vehicle crossing at the 15th lap. If you lose your trailer you can remain in the race and try to remove your competitors trailers. What a HOOT!

I didn't notice it at first but this camper is filled with balloons.

Sweet! A pop-up tent camper with Granny on her rocking chair on the roof.

Carnage is starting:-)

 Now I know what the balloons were for in the camper. Click on the photo to enlarge it, and you will see balloons on the track and going up in the air on the right once the camper got smashed.

Notice this camper on the #68 van, it says We are the Champions. Wishful thinking or not?

Red van rolls over

But hes back on four wheels, but no trailer:-)

Carnage, looks like a tornado rolled through.

When one of these crashes happened a tire went flying through the fence. You can see it on the above photo, but a better shot on the below photo, look for the hole in the fence toward the left. From what I hear, it hit a car parked behind it and then continued on to the highway and hit another parked car.

Hope no one was hurt when the tire flew through the fence. 

#68 the winner and only trailer left, minus the camper that was on top of the trailer.

Last race before the demolition derby was the long jump.

We both regret not staying for the demolition derby, only because we had a long drive home and didn't want to extend that any longer with traffic leaving the speedway. But I must say we had more fun at the Eve of Destruction then we have had at any NASCAR race that we attended in the past. We forgot how much fun a good hometown dirt track can be.

The hospitality suites. 

Our seats in the Hospitality Suite (above photo 2nd level) were fantastic! Compliments of Workman's OK Tire and Auto Repair Quinte West. Thanks Mike!

The stands were jam packed, it was a great day.

So for a great day or evening out with the family or a date, get out and enjoy your local dirt track. Its tons of fun. For $12.00 for an adult or $35. for a family of four, you can't beat the price at Brighton Speedway. Check out their schedule and pricing at Brighton Speedway.

For a complete collection of all 70 photos and a short video of the school bus race be sure to click here to visit our facebook page.

Brighton Speedway
County Road 64
Brighton, Ontario K0K 1H0
1-866-681-1102

Campbellford Fair August 8-10, 2014

Post by Day Tripping Ontario.