50 Best Explores Kawarthas Northumberland

As seen on OntarioCulinary.com

As part of 50 Best Explores: Ontario, 50 Best chefs travelled to the southwestern region to witness the farming methods behind the province’s finest produce. The team discovers an area that’s looking at its past to define its future with heritage ingredients at its core. The team visits Tamarack Farms, Elmhirst Resort, South Pond Farms, King Cole Ducks and Doo Doo’s Bakery for a day of tasting, learning and gathering information to take back to their celebrated New York restaurant.

Potted history
The beauty of heritage foods is not just their flavour, but also their story. At Elmhirst’s Resort, a family-owned retreat on Rice Lake focusing on regional cuisine, the region’s most highly prized heritage crop comes into play. “Red fife wheat originated in the immediate area,” explains Jay Nutt, head of food and beverage. “It’s a crop that is used both by local bakers and a local distillery in Peterborough that makes small-batch gin, vodka and rye.”

The arrival of red fife to the American continent is the stuff of legend. The story goes that it arrived via a shipment of wheat from Ukraine, which a friend of a local farmer named Fife encountered while it was in a Glasgow harbour. After dropping his hat into the red wheat, a few seeds collected in the hatband and were then brought to Fife’s farm. The wheat grew and was eaten by the family cow, which managed to eat all the wheat heads except for one, which Mrs Fife saved. And so red fife wheat found its place at the Canadian table.

This historic, farm-to-fork experience resonates with Mattos. “It would be amazing to have a farm and raise our own products,” he says. “I grew up on a farm myself. After exploring the farm, I’ve fallen in love with it again. It’s made me realise that it would be interesting to have access to this and be able to do this ourselves.”