Taste! Community Grown

Celebration of harvest event returns to Prince Edward County

The story of Prince Edward County is one of innovation. It always has been. A story of struggle to forge an economy from this shelf of lightly covered limestone protruding into Lake Ontario. Too far away, too few humans, too small, too disconnected, too easy to overlook for those seeking a reliable return on investment. But it has always had oodles of natural beauty and some swathes of arable land.

In Richard and Janet Lunn’s magnificent work The County: The First Hundred Years of Loyalist Prince Edward County, they describe waves of industry that came and went—shipping, smuggling, barley, canning everything from tomatoes to chicken. Bust followed boom. Over and over again. Farming and agriculture were mainstays, of course. And remain so. This was the Garden Capital of Canada, after all. So too tourism, the economy that dare not speak its name.

Through bad weather, bad crops and bad luck, folks persevered. They innovated. They invested in the soil. They devised the means to convert modest yields into value-added goods that commanded a premium in the marketplace. Bushels of apples became delicious cider. Grapes to wine. Hops to beer. Cabbage to kimchi. Tomatoes to salsa. Milk to cheese. Grain to bread. And consumers and epicureans followed.

Innovation extends beyond moving up the value chain in Prince Edward County to processing, distribution, marketing, and retailing.

Innovators innovate because they must. They must find ways to improve margins when input costs continue to soar. They must find ways to move their goods and services more efficiently into the consumer’s larder. They must discover emerging market niches and exploit them nimbly and skillfully. They must do all this while navigating an ever-widening thicket of regulations and taxes.

Taste! was a celebration of innovation. Like Terroir and the Cheese Festival, it was an opportunity to boast. It was an opportunity to exhibit the entrepreneurial spirit that is born of the soil and devotes all its energy to reaching for nurturing sunlight. To find new markets. To form new collaborations. To be inspired.

Taste! was a coagulating agent for innovators. It provided a window each year through which we could see, feel, smell and, yes, taste the goodness crafted in this place. It was a chance to see visitors, customers, and consumers respond to the distinctive and special offerings. Thousands upon thousands of them came and revelled in the celebration of innovation.

We felt pride in our neighbour’s hard work, their ingenuity and perseverance. We were moved by the cleverness, agility and bravery—people using their own capital, their accumulated experience and ambition to make something special. Something that would find a market.

Many factors contributed to the foundering of these events. There is little value in listing them here. However, COVID disrupted many good organizations, traditions, and gatherings. Only now are some vestiges of long-lamented events beginning to emerge toward the sunlight.

It is thrilling to see that Taste! Community Grown is one of these. PEC Wine and Parsons Brewing Company have partnered to bring back “our end-of-season celebration of local farmers, growers, chefs and more.”

On Saturday, September 14, consider making plans to attend the Taste! Community Grown event at Parsons Brewing in Picton. The day will feature a vendors’ market teeming with fresh fruit, vegetables and produce. An assortment of hand-crafted products sourced from this soil and enhanced by local know-how and innovation will tempt the curious, the devotees and the searchers of the next big thing.

A Vendors Market kicks off at noon. Attendance is free. Donations, however, will go to the Storehouse Foodbank. The purchase of Taste Passport provides five tasting samples and a Taste! glass to take home and remember the day.

Taste! participants may also sample the culinary talents of chefs including Sean Finnerty, Zach Littlejohn and Rollande Robertson. The Roving Dinner features small plates and suggested wine pairings.

In the evening, there will be music from Secret Beach featuring Justin Rutledge, Annelise Noronha, Jeremy Kelly, Ben Vandergaast, Kevin Howley and Jim Hardy.

“We are bringing back the celebration of growers, producers and creators in Prince Edward County,” explained Erin MacInnis, general manager at Closson Chase and board chair of PEC Wine. MacInnis emphasizes that this event is about celebrating agriculture and family in this community. “It’s about bringing people together at harvest to share in our cultural roots while enjoying some fine food, drink and music.”

Prince Edward County needs a celebration. A harvest renewal of Taste! seems just the ticket.