There’s this girl I know. She has strawberry blonde hair that flows down her back and sandy coloured freckles on a peachy complexion. She is beautiful and she reminds me of a beautiful strawberry. Her name is Anna and she is the daughter of Niagara’s largest strawberry farmer, Tigchelaar’s Berry Farm.

Tigchelaar’s supplies Ontario’s wholesale market with ever-bearing strawberries throughout the spring and summer. Chances are if you see local strawberries in your grocery store, they’re Tigchelaar’s. In the spring, they also run one of the few remaining pick-your-own strawberry operations on Jordan Road, right next to their farm market appropriately called, The Red Barn Farm Market.

You can recognize a strawberry field by the lush, green, corduroy rows dotted with little, glistening spots of ruby red. For those who appreciate the seduction of the first sweet bite of the season, it signifies not just the return of our beloved strawberries, but the start of a 6-month long bounty of local food that begins right here among the straw-covered
berry patch.

Tigchelaar’s pick-your-own season is much shorter than their summer-long wholesale business. They select the most delicious, choicest of strawberry varieties (which are also the most perishable and not easily transported to stores) to plant for their pick-your-own field and the season lasts approximately six weeks.

Strawberry picking is definitely a long-standing tradition, explains Fran Tigchelaar. “The best part of strawberry season for me is to see my regular customers again. We’re like a seasonal community, they come back year after year and they pick tons of strawberries in minutes flat for themselves, their friends and family and I love them all.” Traditional strawberry pickers are largely from an aging demographic. And with the changing demographics, comes change for Ontario farmers and their operations.

Springridge Farm in Milton is Ontario’s iconic pick-your-own strawberry operation, or at least they were until a few years ago. “We went from 90% pick-your-own and 10% value added activity to 10% pick-your-own and 90% value added,” explains Jessie Lauzon, Director of Food for Springridge Farm in Milton. “The market was sending us a message. We still get to be strawberry farmers and now we can value add to our crop – we’re loving the evolution!”

In Springridge’s giant farm market, you’ll find fresh strawberries picked that day as well as cooked into pies and tarts, grilled into brie cheese sandwiches and simmered into some of their award-winning jams and sauces. Like Springridge, Tigchelaar’s also value adds with their crop. In the Red Barn Farm Market, you’ll find fresh strawberries baked into pies and tarts, delicious jams and you won’t want to miss their famous strawberry scones.

The little, ruby red berries with more than enough juice to stain your fingers are dependent on sun, warm days and rich soil. We should see berry harvests begin in early June. However, the season varies depending not just on the weather, but also on location. For instance, strawberry fields in Niagara and Simcoe traditionally harvest first, around the end of May or the first part of June, while the fields in the Milton and Burlington area will harvest about mid-June. This is because the weather is warmer along the lake, coaxing them to ripen earlier.

Strawberries are one of life’s little luxuries and to get the most from them you need to find your own farmer who can supply you with strawberries so sweet they make you swoon. Ontario berries are more than just strawberries; they’ve become symbolic of local food – food that is more than what it appears.

Always pick up local Ontario strawberries in the produce section  of your grocery store, but if you can, plan on a full  strawberry experience at any of the following farms:

Andrews Scenic Acres

9365 10 Side Rd, Milton
Opens April 19, 7 days a week.
andrewsscenicacres.com

Downey’s Farm Market

13682 Heart Lake Rd., Caledon,
Open April 13,
7 days a week, 9 am – 5 pm.
Pick-your-own: 7:30 am – 2 pm, weekends until 3:30 pm
905-838-2990
downeysfarm.com

Springridge Farm

7256 Bell School Line, Milton,
Opens April 12, 6 days a week
in season, 9 am – 5 pm
springridgefarm.com

Tigchelaar Berry Farm
and Red Barn Farm Market

4157 Jordan Rd, Jordan Station
Open soon,  6 days a week during the season. Closed Sundays
Call 905-658-2265 for daily strawberry picking updates
tigchelaarberries.com

by Lynn Ogryzlo

Lynn Ogryzlo is a food writer, culinary nutritionist and founder of FOOD 101, offering food education classes in Niagara and Toronto. (www.FOOD101.ca)

Every season has its flavour and aromas. For autumn, cinnamon and pumpkin spice come to mind, while peppermint seems to appear in every cookie and latte come Christmas. There’s often that campfire smell rolling off the grill in the summer and spring, too, has its trademark treats. Spring always coincides with the renewal of life and the Christian festival of Easter. Over the centuries, a particular Easter treat has earned its rightful place as spring’s flavour of the season. Sweet and dense, lightly spiced with sweet ginger, cinnamon, mace or nutmeg, allspice, and/or cardamom, maybe even a little vanilla, hot cross buns are the spring treat.

These doughy, raisin-studded delights were brought to life by a 12th-century monk on Good Friday, in honour of the upcoming Easter holiday and quickly gained in popularity. Over time, legends and superstitions have formed around the buns – making them not only a delicious treat but also a traditional staple.

For one, legend has it that if you hang a hot cross bun from your kitchen rafters on Good Friday, the bread will remain fresh and mould-free throughout the entire year. It is also supposed to protect your home from evil spirits.

In the 16th century, the popularity of the buns really took off when Queen Elizabeth I passed a law limiting the sale of sweet buns to funerals, Christmas, and Good Friday. The English were deeply suspicious that the buns carried magical powers, and the Queen did not want them to be abused. As a way to get around the law, more and more people began to bake them at home.

Another fun legend – those who share a hot cross bun are supposed to enjoy a strong friendship and bond for the next year. So, grab the ones you love, a hot cross bun, and bite in together!

As Easter approaches you will be able to find hot cross buns at many of our grocery stores, bakeries and deli’s.  Here are a few places worth trying:

COBS Bread Bakery, Oakville & Burlington

Whole Foods Market, Oakville

Hot Oven Bakery, Oakville

Monastery Bakery, Oakville

Black Forest Pastry Shop, Oakville

Ola Bakery, Oakville

Cakes Sweets & Treats, Burlington

British Pride Bakery, Burlington

Clarke’s Home Style Bakery, Burlington

Turtle Doves Bakery, Burlington

Denninger’s Foods of the World, Oakville & Burlington

Longo’s, Oakville & Burlington

Across the globe, through the centuries and seasons, despite low-carb diets and other fleeting food fads, people have turned to bread for sustenance, pleasure and, undeniably, for comfort. From flatbreads and focaccias to sourdoughs made with faithfully-fed starters, the world of bread is home to innumerable variations. Yet, as with most things, fresh is best and breads crafted by hand, based on age-old recipes are the ones worth a spot at your table.

For a taste of the best bread Oakville and Burlington has to offer, forgo pre-packaged options and instead pay a visit to local bakeries where the aroma wafting through the door hits you before you even step inside. 

At Oakville’s Monastery Bakery, the vast selection of imported groceries, prepared meals and desserts almost steals the show. Navigate your way to the back of the store, though, and a truly impressive room of hot-from-the-oven bread awaits. A literal world of options, from Portuguese sweet bread and marble rye to spelt and honey loaves vie for space in shoppers’ baskets. Nearby, Patisserie D’Or is the spot to linger over butter-laden, hand-rolled croissants, fruit danishes and other authentic Gallic goodies. Preservative-free breads such as crisp baguettes and ever-popular cheese loaves are handmade and based on time-tested recipes.

You don’t have to go far to find classic, Montreal style bagels. In 2017, OKO Bagels opened its doors in Oakville and recently opened a second store on James Street in Hamilton. Their artisanal bagels have an unmatched taste – after the dough is boiled in signature honey-water, the bagels make their way to the hand-built masonry oven to be wood-fired to perfection. Whether you’re into cream-cheese or jam, OKO has handmade condiments for every palette, as well as artisanal sandwiches, soups, salads, and sweets.

At Aveiro Bakery in Oakville, bakers craft 12 varieties of bread from complex doughs, using traditional recipes and specialized ingredients. “They are made from scratch, in house with love. No shortcuts have been taken. We are about quality not quantity,” says co-owner Patricia De Oliveira. Artisanal favourites include sun-dried tomato, muesli and calabrese breads, each one prized for its taste as well as for being, “real food.” As Oliveira explains, “we hear time and time again that our breads are not only delicious but also don’t give digestive problems to those who are sensitive.” Find other healthy alternatives at the Danish Pastry House where valnøddebrød, walnut bread with sunflower seeds, softkernal sourdough rye and more accompany trays
brimming with other traditional Danish breads and treats.

In Burlington, shoppers flock to the Brick Oven Bakery in business since 1982. Traditional spaccatelli buns, 9-grain, sourdough and raisin loaves are all baked on-site every day. At Denninger’s Foods of the World, a small army of staff work diligently to create a rotating menu of delicacies. Specialty breads include potato and onion loaves and Asiago cheese and spice bread.

Popular Burlington restaurant, Wundeba, has a secret weapon on their team – their pastry chef, Siana Dombkowski. Graduate of the International Baking Academy in Germany, Siana runs her own boutique bakery, Baking by Siana, along with creating delicious treats at Wundeba.  From breads, to bagels and buns, Siana butters, bakes, and boils each item with specialty ingredients and flavour. Her German and Indian influence really shine in her recipes, including a new turmeric sourdough. Her menu also features a potato sourdough, chocolate sourdough, and many other sweet and savoury pastries, cookies, scones, pies, and cakes. Siana really does it all.

 Whether you crave buttery, velvety brioche or robust loaves bursting with seeds and grains, artisanal bread is worth seeking out, worth savouring and sharing and worth revisiting again and again.

by Christine Peddie

Local Links

OKO Bagels
OKOBagels.com

Monastery Bakery
Monasterybakery.com

Patisserie D’Or
Patisseriedor.com

Danish Pastry House
Danishpastryhouse.ca

Brick Oven Bakery
Thebrickovenbakery.ca

Denninger’s Foods of the World
Denningers.com

Aveiro Bakery

Baking by Siana 
Bakingbysiana.ca

Wundeba 
Wundeba.ca