Ontario Travel: A Visit
to the Country Village of Erin and “Cuisine-Art”,
a Celebration of Food and Art at the Alton Mill
On an eventful day yesterday I got a tour of the
historic
Millcroft Inn, visited the
Alton Mill, a former woolen mill from 1881 that
has been converted into a leading-edge arts centre,
and took a stroll around Belfountain,
one of the region’s most picturesque villages.
This morning, after a nice buffet breakfast in the
“Pod”, the glass-enclosed alove that
overhangs the waterfall at the Millcroft Inn, I
was planning to head back out into the countryside
again and explore another pretty local village.
Erin has a pretty main street
The Village of Erin has a long history. The first
sawmill was built by the Trout family in 1826 at
the lower dam in Erin. The family later opened a
small store and made potash, an ingredient used
in soap making. Finally, in 1879, the Village of
Erin was officially incorporated. It was in the
same year that a branch of the Credit Valley Railway
was completed, linking Toronto via Brampton, Cheltenham,
Inglewood and Cataract with Erin.
Erin has a number of historic buildings
Various heritage properties dot the Village of
Erin including All Saints Anglican Church, which
was built in 1867 and features a 1947 Casavant Frères
organ, built by the same company that also installed
the organ of the Basilica of Notre-Dame in Montreal.
The Century Church Theatre dates from 1906, and
one of its most distinctive features are its stained
glass windows. The Charles Street Dam is where early
settler Henry Trout built a dam and a saw mill in
1826. Main Street is dotted by a variety of historic
homes many of which were built in the second half
of the 19th and the early part of the 20th century.
The Victorian and Edwardian streetscape of Erin
forms a wonderful backdrop for a stroll through
the village.
Shelley Foord, owner of Decor Solutions, my guide
in Erin
But not only history buffs enjoy this village,
it has also become a popular shopping destination.
To find out more about the shopping opportunities
here I met with Shelley Foord, the Chair of the
local Business Improvement Area and a business owner
herself. Shelley owns an interior design store called
Decor Solutions which sells a wide range of furniture
and interior decor items such as area rugs, blinds
and shutters, furniture and upholstery, custom drapes
and bedding, art as well as lighting. In addition,
Shelley and her team also offer design services,
such as creating a virtual layout for a customer’s
space, choosing fabric samples and putting an entire
room together in one place without having to visit
several stores.
A look at Decor Solutions
Decor Solutions sells items of a variety of styles,
some more modern while others are more traditional.
Shelley has owned the store for 8 years and worked
in the interior design industry for 15. Three on-staff
decorators help customers create the perfect design
for whatever space they need to work on. Most of
the products at Decor Solutions are made in Canada,
adding an extra element of pride. Shelley’s
customers come from as far away as Toronto, Cambridge
and Kitchener. They make the trip to Erin to get
the unique products and attentive service that Decor
Solutions specializes in.
Shelley and her team help customers from all over
to create unique home designs
After a tour through her store, Shelley took me
out on the Main Street and introduced me to the
shopping opportunities in Erin. Many people from
surrounding cities come to Erin for a nice day outing
or a weekend getaway, and they enjoy strolling on
the pretty main street of the village. Deborah’s
Chocolate Shop is a popular destination, which carries
English candy, chocolate and frozen yoghurts. Carvers
Block is an authentic butcher shop and deli which
also has a nice patio in the back.
Cool summer fashion at Hannah's
Art lovers enjoy the Paul Morin Gallery, and Hannah’s
is a popular men’s and women’s clothing
store that offers moderately upscale classic and
casual clothing. To meet some of the merchants,
we headed inside one of the stores: “What’s
Cookin’” provides ready-to-go meals,
event catering, special savouries and high-quality
kitchen wares. Beth, one of the employees, showed
us some of the ready-made meals that locals and
tourists like to pick up. Owner Jo Fillery opened
the store 11 years ago, but she was actually at
the Alton Mill, setting up for Cuisine-Art, the
food and art festival that I was going to visit
this afternoon.
Fresh food is being prepared at What's Cookin'
Shelley and I continued our walk on the street
and passed by Bistro Rivière whose patio
looked very inviting. Steens Dairy Bar is one of
the last family-owned dairies in the area and invites
visitors with healthy breakfasts, lunches, dinners
and their own freshly made ice cream. The village
organizes all sorts of special events, such as the
Annual Quilt Festival, the Annual Erin Rawhide Rodeo,
Erin Fest – a special event with a sidewalk
sale and concerts, the Annual Erin Studio Tour,
the hugely popular Erin Fall Fair, the annual Window
Wonderland and Tree Lighting Event and, of course,
the Erin Santa Claus Parade. Erin attracts many
visitors from far and wide for its shopping, its
special events, its country charm and its recreational
offerings such as golf, horseback riding, bicycling
and hiking on the Bruce Trail.
Bistro Rivière
Around mid-day I said goodbye to Shelley and headed
back to the Alton Mill for a special event: “Cuisine-Art”
is an innovative festival that celebrates art and
fine food. Several stands were already set up in
the open-air Annex building, all manned by local
merchants and farmers who produce locally grown
food. This was a chance to learn more about the
innovative food products that are created by producers
from the surrounding region.
Jo Fillery and her tasty samples
After having visited her store in Erin, the first
person I ran into was Jo Fillery, owner of “What’s
Cookin”. She gave me a taste of some of the
delicacies she had brought: samples of preserves,
various jellies, jams and nut mixes. She also told
me about some of the workshops that she runs and
showed me a photo of a wine and cheese workshop.
Jo is a strong believer in the 100 Mile Diet –
a local foods movement that encourages people to
consume locally produced food. It tastes better,
is healthier and benefits the environment.
Chef Roberto Fracchioni shows off his patatas
bravas
I had heard that there were cooking demonstrations
going on, so I headed to the Waterfall Courtyard
inside the Alton Mill to see if there were any live
cooking shows going on. I just caught the tail end
of a presentation by Roberto Fracchioni, Executive
Chef at the Millcroft Inn. He is a real character
and was in his element, entertaining the audience.
I had already met Roberto yesterday and taken a
tour of his kitchen. It was a pity I had just missed
his presentation, but I still managed to snag a
small plate of “patatas bravas”, crisp
spiced potatoes with Romescu sauce. He was preparing
to rush off to another cooking demonstration at
2 pm at the Millcroft Inn.
Jordan Grant, who together with his brother Jeremy,
restored the Alton Mill
Then I connected with Jordan Grant, one of the
co-owners of the Alton Mill, whose brother Jeremy
had given me a tour of this heritage complex yesterday.
Jordan introduced me to several artists who rent
studios here at the Alton Mill. During our studio
tour we met artist Susan Mccrae, whose paintings
combine tissue paper with collage elements while
her colleague Deborah Trow loves to create abstract
paintings with bold colours. Dawn Friesen showed
us some of her soap stone carvings and explained
that there are different kind of soap stones with
totally different properties that originate in places
like Brazil and China.
Some of the talented artists at the Alton Mill
Jennifer Pratt, an artist herself, showed us through
the Bartlett Gallery. Jennifer is an equine painter
and just returned from a commission in Sweden. She
has also created portraits of the horses of the
Canadian Olympic Team. Then she took us on a tour
of the Bartlett Gallery. Several paintings in the
gallery were by Jean Claude Roy, a French painter
whose vibrant, expressive landscapes have a large
following in France, Canada and the United States.
Jennifer Pratt with a painting by Jean-Claude Roy
Then we dropped in briefly on Jordan's wife, Meg
Floyd, who runs the Alton Mill Gallery which mostly
represents local artists that do not have studios
here at the Alton Mill. On the second level we also
made a stop at the studio of Mark Grice who had
just finished running “Art Slam”, a
special event during the Cuisine-Art Festival, where
seven painters paint the same motif. A model seated
at a chair with an apple and a knife was painted
by all seven artists, and it was amazing how all
the artists visualized the same scene completely
differently.
Mark Grice with a painting from his "Roadkill
Series"
Mark himself also rents a studio at the Alton Mill
where he teaches art to adults and children. His
ultra-realistic painting style is very popular for
portrait commissions. The most fascinating and unusual
part of his paintings was the “roadkill series”,
extremely detailed and strangely beautiful paintings
of animals that were killed on the road. These photogenic
yet disturbing paintings are very provocative and
create a lot of discussion.
Healthy local produce on display at Cuisine-Art
To mix food with art, Jordan took me back outside
into the bright sun and we had a chat with several
more of the food merchants that were part of Cuisine-Art.
The young lady from Caledon Farm showed us her organic
rainbow carrots and lettuce mixes, while the owners
of Heather Lea Farm Market talked to us about their
additive-free meat products. Sigrid Holm, owner
of “From the Kitchen to the Table” in
Orangeville, showed us a variety of practical kitchen
gadgets and gave us a taste of her piña colada
food dip. Everyone was having a good time on this
sunny day.
People are thoroughly enjoying the cooking demonstrations
at Cuisine-Art
Finally, we stopped at the stand for “I Scream
for Ice Cream”, an ice cream store in Orangeville.
Owner Michelle pointed out that her products contain
only real cream and no edible oil products. She
makes fresh ice cream, ice cream cakes, fudge, chocolates
and gift baskets. The teasing was a bit too much,
I just had to taste some ice cream myself and it
was absolutely delicious.
The Alton Mill and Cuisine-Art: a great event for
food and art lovers
Cuisine-Art was still in full swing and tonight
a live performance of the “Taming of the Shrew”
was planned in the Annex. Unfortunately, I was going
to miss that because I had planned to visit another
destination in the Hills of Headwaters area: the
village of Cheltenham.
