Food for Thought with Alex Bielak Local Thanksgiving Sips and Bites

FlourPower owner, Veronica Bridge

Local Thanksgiving Sips and Bites 

Sometimes timing is everything. Having tried to phone several times, I should have known better than to just drop in to one of my favorite farm markets and ask for an interview for a profile, just a couple of days before Thanksgiving weekend!

Dyments Market and Bakery is located on the escarpment on the corner of Sydenham & Fallsview roads above Dundas. It has been family owned since 1887, and I usually pick up one of their wonderful pies when I’m getting corn during the summer.

The smell in the parking lot was delicious as I approached the attractive store which is open year around. It
was bedecked with pumpkins and some of the largest chrysanthemums I’ve ever seen. Some of the last corn of the season was still available in the rack, but I was on a mission.

However it was apparent the folks inside were busy baking up a storm, getting ready for the holiday weekend rush of customers. No-one could spare a few minutes to chat, and, as with many local farms at this time of year, the owners and staff are also in the throes of hosting school tours and family visits.

So I grabbed a freshly-baked pumpkin bread and, as I departed I noticed my local MLA, Ted McMeekin, had a couple of big colourful signs up supporting the “buy local” concept. The cornucopia on the sign was filled with products that could have come straight from Dyments.

Wherever you are at this wonderful time of year, please make a point of visiting a farm market near you and picking up some local bounty. And remember the Rockton World’s Fair is a venerable celebration of our connection with the land. It has something for everyone (including displays of competition-entry jams and baked goods) and is on Oct 11-14

Speaking of local, the Locke Street Farmers Market is hosting a Fall Harvest Demo on Saturday, October 12 in collaboration with Earth to Table Bread Bar head chef Manny Ferreira. Check out some of the dishes at 11:00 a.m. (There is clearly a bonus for reading Food for Thought as soon as it appears!) If you miss it, the market is a regular fixture from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 pm every Saturday and vendors “grow or make food within 50km (and…) have a commitment to sustainable food and in many cases organic food.”

Locke Street is clearly a happening place. As you may have seen in the Hamiltonian I’ve been named as a judge for the International Battledish event that will take place October 27th. (It previously went by the far cuddlier moniker, Neighbourfood.) There are a number of options outlined on the website to sign up and taste some of the creative dishes offered up by eight local chefs hoping to go on to the final battle. The winner will be in competition with winning contestants from battlegrounds across North America including Miami, New Orleans, Edmonton, Seattle and Washington.

Watch the pugnacious video of Chef Z from the Courtyard on Locke for a flavor of the competition, see here for the evolving International Battledish page, or better-yet follow the @dishcrawlyhm Twitter feed for frequent updates. Best of all the event is still in support of Hamilton Tastebuds, which is all about fostering relationships with food. (I take a great deal of satisfaction from having been able to introduce the two parties because of this column!)

By way of follow-up on an earlier roundup, I had mentioned that there was a new bakery in Waterdown. I have now had a chance to really sample its wares and can happily recommend it. FlourPower has a Facebook page where you can find out about what is on offer.

They usually bake three kinds of bread each day and one of my favorites is the Cheddar cheese loaf, which toasts up beautifully if there is any left-over in the morning. In chatting with insurance maven turned full-time baker and bakery-owner, Veronica Bridge (she also makes some beautiful macarons, and other sweet treats, all from scratch), I was stunned to learn how many bakeries, some very well known, are now baking “fresh from frozen”, i.e. just finishing off pre-baked frozen dough. Her products are the real deal. So drop by and say hi.

I also wrote that I was recently honoured to judge the first Flamborough Chili contest, a fundraiser for the Flamborough Women’s Resource Centre. It was a huge success due to the efforts of many volunteers. Councilor Judy Partridge wrote to me saying “And it was Sandy (Gray) with the FWRC Committee and volunteers that truly made this a success. The sponsors jumped on board with this event and it wouldn’t have happened without the commitment from all the restaurants to make this a memorable inaugural Flamborough Chili Festival.”

You may already know that Waterdown’s Watermark Taphouse won a couple of the top awards for their unique offering, a boar and apple chili that was complex and very moreish. In a follow up interview, Chef Dan Alexopouos told me that he is getting a lot of demand for the dish since the event. He may do it as a one-off special as it is very time-consuming to make right, including ensuring he can get the right kind of boar from his local supplier. I’ll be the first to reserve if it is on the menu.

I called both the major winners (Flamborough Downs had an excellent classic chilli on offer and took honours in that category), but want to give a shoutout to some of the other worthy entries. The other three in my top five (out of the 13 sampled!) included: Roseto Catering’s tasty chicken chili, CrepAlicious’ smoky chili that reminded me of a Polish hunter’s stew my mother used to make, and Mill Street and 5’s bold Caribbean style experiment in flavor – made by Chef Kevin Biss and involving less-than-traditional coconut milk, pineapple and cinnamon! (His colleague, Chef Nelson Vasquez, told me that version won’t be on the American House menu, but they do have a regular style one that is popular.)

So with that my best wishes to all readers for a safe, happy and delicious Thanksgiving, spent with friends and family.  

To see more pictures, click here. 

Alex (Alex can be reached at fft@thehamiltonian.info ) or on twitter @AlexBielak

Food for Thought logo, designed and kindly donated by Ninka Bielak. Ninka can be reached at ninka.bielak@gmail.com.