A local Latin BBQ

Meet Paul Spence. You may have met him at the Masonville Farmer’s Market sometime last season. Lo Maximo Meats is the name of Paul and his wife Sara’s farm business. Paul and Sara can be found running a creative and small-scale farm near Kent Bridge in the Chatham-Kent area. Lo Maximo Meats offers up a real specialty product to our community – Latin style cuts of meat. It does not stop there for this creative duo as they are now embarking on a new adventure – The Latin BBQ experience, which they are calling Experience Casa Latina. Paul and Sara hope to create a wonderful evening of introducing people to a new style of eating… the Latin way. What they are doing is really neat – they will let you take a peak at their charming farm, so you can see the journey from farm to plate and at the same time, they want to offer up an inside look at the Latin way of life. Music, salsa dancing, socializing and just plain having fun are all on the Spence menu. After the farm tour concluded, we headed over to The Botany Community Centre, which is an adorable and old one room school house dating back to 1883. This little school house has been converted into a cozy community centre with a working kitchen. It is steeped in history and some of that history runs deep in Paul’s own family tree – his great, great grandfather helped bring the bricks to build it and his own grandfather attended the old school. Sara had been there before us working her magic, and it was set up wonderfully with a gorgeous tableware, folded napkins and even ribbons adorning each chair. It definitively set the mood and made all of the guests feel honored to be there.   We all had a chance to talk to Sara about her hometown which is in Equador and her previous way of life before she moved to the cooler Canadian climate. Sara loves to have people ask her about South America and she wants more Canadians to know about it and experience some of the culture. One of Paul’s Chatham farm area neighbors Don Giffin was there with a whole display of the most gorgeous bottles of maple syrup I have ever seen. He was there to let people know how syrup is tapped and produced. He gave us loads of information on the syrup grades and consistency. He was an amazing guy whose maple syrup has won some pretty prestigious awards in the past. One of the large bottles had a gorgeous trillium displayed and on another favourite of mine – some maple leaves adorning it, they were truly exceptional. While we were inside talking to Sara and Don, Paul was outside grilling the meat on the BBQ – I believe that in Spanish the BBQ would be called a parrilla or open-fired grill and this is a very traditional way to cook the meat. Speaking of meat, there was alot of it. This is where the Latin experience comes in and really shines. We were introduced to the names of many different styles or cuts of meat and offal (hoove, tendons, brains, tongue – nothing is off the table at a true Latin BBQ). I am happy to announce that they did go easy on us at this particular parrilla.   There were regular farmer style sausage, pork and beef cutlets and the two most adventurous items on the menu were heart and kidney. I managed to try them both and I will say that I liked the heart but I think that would be my last time with the kidney. Some others that were present loved the kidney and passed on the heart – so, to each his/her own! Every kind of meat was accompanied with a homemade green sauce called chimichurri = delicious. There were also three gorgeous salads to accompany the meal, which Sara told me was more of a Canadian touch, as at a traditional Latin BBQ there would just be the meat. To finish, there was a delicious dessert which was Sara’s mother’s recipe – I cannot recall the exact name, but I believe it was a dulche de leche-type flan with another Canadian touch – whipped cream. As part of the Latin experience, Sara includes a salsa lesson to anyone interested, which we ran out of time on this particular evening. I have taken loads of other photos of the farm and some of the really creative projects that they have going on there currently, or are in the works. It really needs to be in another post, so if you are intrigued check back in a few days! Amar la vida! Experience Casa Latina Paul and Sara Spence 11945 Selton Line R.R.#3 Kent Bridge, ON, N0P 1V0 experiencecasalatina@gmail.com 519-365-9791    Read More

Iron Cupcake Challenge – Maple Syrup

This Saturday was sweet! Sean and I met my friend Karen for breakfast at The Toddle Inn. If you have never been to this little cafe, you have to make a breakfast date and get there. It is located on Richmond near Pall Mall and it has been there forever. The Toddle Inn is a London landmark – steeped in history and full of great breakfast and lunch,  make sure to try the homemade spiked marmalade. By chance, an old friend of mine (Brad) sat beside us and a new friend (Mel). Mel is an up-and-coming Food TV celebrity chef (she told me to say that), but she really could be! Karen and I had plans to go the Western Fair Market for the Iron Cupcake Challenge and told Brad and Mel about it and they were in! The Iron Cupcake challenge is held monthly upstairs at the Western Fair Farmers Market. Each month they pick an ingredient superstar and each month people from London and surrounding area can enter into the baking challenge – or if that is not your forté, you can just show up and shove a lot of cupcakes in your mouth, all in the name of charity. Of course, we chose the latter. At this particular cupcake challenge there were seven contestants and the money raised went to The Heart and Stroke Foundation. The maple syrup for the event was sponsored by The Kinsmen Fanshawe Sugar Bush. All the cupcakes were sweet – every single one of them. For a few short minutes I thought I may not be able to make it through all seven of my mini cupcakes, but then I remembered who I am, shook off that nonsensical thinking and plowed on through. The cupcakes and the displays are amazing. All of the bakers put a lot of energy, creativity and heart into these bake-offs and you can see and taste it! The donation is only $5, which is a really sweet deal, because trust me – you will have a huge sugar rush to last you throughout the day or at least until you wander through the market and pick up some fresh vegetables and baked goods. There is a wonderful coffee shop called The Fire Roasted Coffee Company that deals in Fair Trade, ethically produced coffee and chocolate right upstairs beside the Iron Cupcake Challenge. I wonder what March”s secret ingredient will be – any guesses? I am thinking rhubarb! Iron Cupcake Challenge for February.  Read More

Fort Rose Maple Syrup & Pancake House

This morning Sean and I went out hunting for the Fort Rose Maple Syrup and Pancake house. It was easy to find and it is not too far from London, it makes a nice Saturday or Sunday drive. Especially today, today was just beautiful! Why did we pick this place out of all the sugar bushes in the area? Well a friend told me about the great breakfast you get there along with a tour of how the maple syrup is made. I think I may have gone to the Pioneer Village once when I was very small on a class trip to see how the syrup is made, but it is so long ago I do not remember, so I felt the need to revisit the experience. This trip is so much fun! When you get there, I suggest eating the big breakfast first, that way you can walk it off a bit afterwards. The breakfast is $9 for an adult and $6 for a child, but it includes a wagon ride and tour! The breakfast was really filling, you get: pancakes, sausages, baked beans, coleslaw,a muffin,a fruit cup and juice or coffee – oh and of course Fort Rose Maple Syrup. On the tour, we were shown the history of maple tree tapping. It takes 40 Litres of pure syrup to make 1 Litre of table maple syrup! Fort Rose taps about 6500 trees a year. The process is basically drilling a small hole into the tree, placing a spout in and attaching a basin to catch the syrup as it drips out. It is then boiled down to remove the water from it, making it sweeter as it”s consistency changes. The picture below on the left is how they used to boil the water out of the syrup, looks like a big witch”s cauldron doesn”t it? The picture on the right is how indigenous people were able to boil the water out of the syrup. That is a hollowed out log that they would then toss very hot stones out of the fire straight into the syrup to steam the water out of the syrup. The next picture after that is the modern big boiler that they now use to make the syrup. Before the wagon ride out to the bush, we were looking around the farm. There is a small barn tour for kids, where they can see cows, chickens, roosters, pigs and rabbits up close. Look at this little Wilber, isn”t he great – who else can look so cute with food all over the face? This place is a great place to take kids. I have to tell you though, when we were on the horse drawn wagon I looked down at my fellow passengers and they were almost all adults, you wouldn”t know it though, from the huge, childlike grins on everyone”s faces. Fort Rose Maple Syrup and Pancake House27382 Coldstream RoadRR#5 Parkhill, OntarioTel: (519) 232-9041http://fortrose.ca/index.html I have popped them onto my google map so you can find them easily.  Read More