"If you want to eat well in England, eat three breakfasts."  (William Somerset Maugham )

If you want to eat well in Essex County, Ontario  take a drive along country roads from our vacation home and explore Nature's  bounty . Touring the county you will come across something to tempt your palate wherever you go.

Because of the strong agricultural industry with professional farms, greenhouse producers and hobby farmers that market their products, you will discover  innumerable fruit & vegetable stands. The display of their produce varies according to the season.  

You can be sure that you will most likely find tomatoes. The major part of the harvest of field and greenhouse tomatoes goes to the nearby town of Leamington, the Tomato Capital of Canada and home of a Heinz Tomato Ketchup production plant. The Tomato Festival in Leamington is one of the social highlights of the year.

As of July you will also find  sweet corn sold by the dozen. Besides that you can explore individual  assortments of veggies and fruit. Eggplant for 25 cents a piece, a large bundle of sweet basil for your Italian pesto ($1), berries, cucumbers, apples, cantaloupes, zucchini, squash, pumpkins, peppers, baskets of peaches and much more...

In many cases  there is no one to assist you because everybody is out in the field. You can help yourself and simply put the money in the jar provided.

Depending on the time of the year you can also pick your own strawberries, raspberries or blueberries.

Klassen Blueberries on County Rd 50   

Besides Thanksgiving, local farmers celebrate their crops with a variety of festivals: Apple Festival (Ruthven), Tomato Festival (Leamington), Peach Festival (Harrow), Wine Festival (Amherstburg). Other events include Harrow Fair and a Blueberry Social.

After so many vitamins you might have an understandable urge for a "no-no". Some of our vacation guests have raved about the Pie Lady in Harrow, who provided them with a different mouth-watering pie every day.

We cannot drive through Wheatley without turning down towards the harbour and picking up some of the succulent smoked fish.

Tucked away on Concession 8 beside Highway 401,you can find Wagner Estate Winery. The secluded, Maidstone-area farm offers 51 acres of authentic country experience visitors have enjoyed for years. Their new estate winery now has a retail store. They  bottle specialty fruit wines such as an iced apple wine, a raspberry framboise, a dry apple wine as well as both red and white grape table wines.