When I was little, my parents always held a party on the night the clocks changed in the fall. They called it "The Brown October Ale Party" and I'll bet the extra hour of sleep the following morning was a welcome treat. Remember to "fall back" yourself this Saturday night. Maybe make it an excuse for some entertaining.
If it's a dinner party, there are some gorgeous venison roasts in the freezer from Shalom Farm. We have loin lamb chops or a bone-in leg from Forsyth Lamb, or a full rack of lamb from Twin Creeks. There is fresh local garlic in the back room, mint or rosemary jelly from Laura, and horseradish in the fridge. We still have whole chickens, turkeys and ducks too and delicious cranberry condiments.
If it's more a beer and munchies affair, you could take a drive down for some of the local brews like McLean's or Hockley Valley, and put out some bowls of the great flavours of Hardbite Potato Chips like Wild Onion and Yogurt. Hardbite is a Canadian success story and soooo good. You can read more about the quality of the product and see their Dragon's Den video on their website at www.homegrownfoods.com. Que Pasa tortilla chips are great too - I like the unsalted version with one of our flavourful salsas - Trudy's salsa verde or Ken's Chili Salsa (yes, it's back in and I bought two cases this time). By the way, I know that neither of these chips is a local product, but we have all the ingredients right in Grey-Bruce and then we'd have more material for local bio-diesel!
For family meals, Brenda has brought in some more soup. She'll be making a few of her specialties every week - lamb dizi, beef barley, chicken vegetable, and more. She's also brought in a new individual pie with ground chicken and cajun spice - just enough heat to make it interesting.
Even if it's an hour late and a little lighter, morning will come and the weather is right for some hot cereals. Organic oats and multiflake cereal from GrassRoots are on the shelf, as are four local cereal blends from Windy Hill - Flaxseed Porridge, 12 Grain, Cremo and Early Rise. The coffee shelves are full of Kemble Mountain Roastery and Back Eddie's blends and look for Cocoa Camino's fair trade hot chocolate in milk or dark chocolate.
Plans proceed for the new store location, and Captain Dunn's house, our present location, is for sale by its owner. It has a newly-renovated apartment upstairs with big bright windows overlooking the river.
Around the Sound Local Food Market is open Thursday and Friday from 10 until 7 and Saturday from 10 until 4 at 972 1st Avenue West. Give us a call at 370-2333 if you want us to put something put aside. If you catch a bug and need delivery, we can make that happen too.
See you soon.
Anne