Archives: ice-cream

This summer I took my first visit out to the Ancaster Farmer’s Market.

The market is tucked nicely into a beautiful tree-lined grassy green space just behind the old Saint John’s Anglican church.

Not so much a traditional market as it is a destination to go to for an evening outing, a delicious meal out and a place to pick up some local and seasonal produce, plus some snacks, breads and treats for perhaps later in the week. You’ll see wine vendors, Cake and Loaf and Earth to Table baked breads, Fenwood Farms (for fresh local meat), cheese, maple syrup and a complementary and comprehensive list of other vendors here.

It was super kid and family friendly, and definitely a place worthy of another visit again in the fall for pumpkin pies, and the like plus perhaps my last indulgence of the remnants of summer with a little scoop of Foundry Ice-cream.

The market is open weekly on Wednesdays from 3-7pm at 37 Halson Street (with ample parking in back of the church).

*Ancaster Farmer’s Market, open seasonally Wednesdays 3-7pm, Twitter, Facebook

 

There’s something weird about the way I think about summer in that I always feel like it’s fleeting. Come July 1st I’m already counting the limited amount of days that I’ll have left for swimming, camping, cottaging, bbqs and patio beers.

This year we did not get up to much. There’s been a lot of summer city living, checking out the parks, wading pools and staying pretty close to home. I’m strictly in survival mode; whatever can get me through the day now that we have two little ones.

Last summer we made a day trip out to Port Dover. I’d never been before and since I’m a sucker for water, waves, sand and a little beachy kitch we decided to take the trek.

We arrived early-ish in the morning and were able to score primo parking close to the beach and have our pick as to where to set up shop. The water was warm and the beach was clean with only a little littering along the shore of washed up kelpy-weeds.

The beach quickly got packed as droves of people came in to escape from the heatwave that was rocking that particular summer week. It was full-on summer on the beach with a gorgeous breeze that made you forget that the humidity was kicking at a near 100% and the ground was hot enough to fry and egg. If the summer heat kicks back into high gear (as I’ve heard it might next week) maybe we’ll make it back this way or explore another beach like perhaps 50 Point.

Besides loving any excuse to be beach-side, one of the main reasons I wanted to take this trip to Port Dover was so that we could make a stop at the infamous Hewitt’s Dairy Bar. The dairy bar itself boasts over 50 years in operation with the dairy being over 125 years old.

The dairy bar seems unchanged since the 60′s. We saddled up the counter and although I knew I was going to get a cone after lunch I still ordered the malted milkshake, which was AH-mazing!

Classic banquet burger -you can’t go wrong.

Mint chocolate chip (my favourite) was the perfect way to end a summer’s day at the beach.

 *Hewitt’s Dairy Bar, 4210 Highway 6, Hagersville, Open Daily 9:30am-11pm

If you didn’t already know, Hamilton has a crêpe place! Hargitai’s Creperie and Ice Cream shop opened in April and is located across from the Hamilton General Hospital on Barton Street.

I’m super excited that a place like Hargitai’s exists in the city (who doesn’t love crêpes) and I’m uberly happy about a place like this opening up shop on Barton.  Barton has all the right fixtures for a rebirth and I’m just counting down until the revitalization starts to really take hold.

The other day Kristin Archer of I Heart Hamilton and I decided it was high time for another rendez vous and double blog post (check out our previous double blog posts here: Apple Berry’s, J.H. Gordon Books, O’s Clothes & Relish Vintage). Kristin and I have taken a liking to exploring new places in Hamilton together sampling the goods and sharing our findings. So it was fabulous to catch up with Kristin and to hear about what she’s been up to.

I brought Omi along for the visit and for the most part he was on his best behaviour.

We started off our crêpe sampling with a savoury cheese crêpe. As owner Maria made the crêpe we all chatted together about our fondness for Hamilton and Maria’s passion for starting her own crêperie here in this fair city.

Maria told us she was inspired to open her own crêpe shop after a visit to Toronto, where she lined up with a busy crowd of people at popular crêperie. Since the crêpe market in Hamilton had really yet to be cracked she decided to take the plunge and open her own crêperie -the first in the city! She’s set up shop on Barton knowing that it is only a matter of time before Barton, like Locke, Ottawa Street and James North, will experience its own renaissance.

For dessert Kristin went for the Sugar & Spice a cinnamon and brown sugar crêpe, which smelled heavenly, and I opted for the Classic a crêpe filed with strawberry jam.

Maria told us that although crêpes are traditionally known as a French delicacy it is also a shared culinary treat amongst Hungarians. Maria’s put a Hungarian twist on her crêpes with items like the Gundel: crepe filled with ground walnut mix, raisin, and topped with rich chocolate fudge, or The Palacsinta: crêpe filled with chicken breast topped with sour cream with your choice of cheddar or smoked cheese. In addition to savoury and sweet crêpes Hargitai’s also serves up smoothies, sundaes, shakes and ice cream.

Great to explore with you again Kristin! To read Kristin’s post check out I Heart Hamilton’s post here.

So Hamilton, if you’re looking to brighten a dull winter day with a little Hungarian treat pop into Hargitai’s. Although mostly a take out joint there are a some seats -just in case you can’t wait to dig into your crêpe you can eat them there.

*Hargitai’s Creperie & Ice Cream, 304 Barton Street East, follow on twitter @hargitai_s

I’ll make this post short and sweet.

The other day Steve was a baking master and made four whole pies -two peach and two meat!

The peach pie was made with fresh, local and in season peaches.  So yum!

It was one of the best peach pies I’ve ever had and perfectly paired with a mega scoop of Dr. Scoop Icecreamist Vanillaallin; salted caramel swirl.

I was happy to have finally made it out to the Ottawa Street market to buy some of Dr. Scoop’s infamously delicious ice-cream.  It was Ciara Brennan’s last day selling her organic and handmade ice-cream for this summer season.  Got some just in the nick of time!

In addition to the Vanillaallin I also picked up a Cinnamon Peach.  So amazing!

It’s a different world just a short 30 minute drive away from downtown Hamilton.  Straight up Upper James for a few kilometers, and you will hit the small and quaint town of Caledonia.  I had no idea it was so close!  We wanted to check it out over the weekend for the city-wide garage sale.  However, leaving the house after 10am meant that we had basically missed most of the good deals and sales.  With the rain managing to hold off for the afternoon it was still worth the trip to discover some of these Caledonian gems.

Searching the residential back roads for good sales we came upon a stretch of road along side the river, and when we came upon this I couldn’t help but gawk at the old Grand River Mills.  What a building!  It was a wheat flour mill built in 1853.  Powered by the flowing river, it milled wheat into flour from 1857 until the 1960′s! Currently you can’t enter the building, but since it is a designated historic building you can rest assured that it is being preserved.  There are plans for its eventual reuse that I believe are currently in the works.

After scouring a few more garage sales and coming up empty handed we decided to make our way.  Our first stop before crossing the river back to town was at this antique shop at the old Haldiman House, which just so happens to have been built by James Little, who also built the flour mill by the river.

Next to the antique store was an 85 year old snack bar called the Oasis.  We grabbed an ice-cream there for our first of what was to be several Caledonia treats.

Heading back over the bridge I spotted Jones Bakery.  Another old establishment still baking with a brick oven!  We sampled a butter tart, and some bread.  Prices for treats in Caledonia sure can’t be beat.  Steve made a payment of less than $2 and it covered everything.  We should have bought a fresh rhubarb pie.

Jones bakery had a fine selection of candy too, beautifully displayed in that old-fashioned way.

Well, we left Caledonia empty of garage sale finds, but I left feeling satisfied having explored a new area that I’d never been to before.