Wine Country Tours, in cooperation with the
Niagara Culinary Trail present

The Niagara Culinary Trail Tours

The 100km food shopping and educational trip

We have all seen the many articles written on the health, environmental, and financial benefits of eating food that has been produced within 100km’s of your home. Learn first hand about how Niagara’s cornucopia of produce, fruit, meat and poultry is grown and raised, most of it drug and chemical free. Discover the vast array of foods grown in your own “backyard”.

Our three tours have been specially developed to give visitors a full range of food (and wine) experiences. You will be amazed at the quality and incredible flavor of fresh Niagara products versus the not so fresh foreign product found in grocery stores. Find out how you can buy directly from the producer during the entire harvest season, even if you do not live close.

Earn a Masters in Good Taste & Culture Diploma by participating in all three tours.

Tours run: August, September, and October

Here is what you get!

• Visits to food producers when their produce in ripe and in season
• Visit to an award winning winery
• Catered lunches featuring Lynn’s local Niagara recipes
• Local cheese and seasonal fruit on bus
• A copy (per couple) of Lynn Ogryzlo’s new book – Niagara Cooks
• A recipe and grocery list. Each tour features at least one of Lynn’s culinary creations. On the tour you can buy fresh produce and make the recipe at home
• Buy from local producers in Niagara: most of it organic or drug-free
• A cooler bag to bring home your purchases
• Tour with Lynn Ogryzlo herself or one of our local and knowledgeable tour hosts
• Credits towards a “Niagara Masters in Good Taste & Culture” diploma – take all three tours and earn your diploma!
• Hear the story behind each producer
• Find out how to buy from producers again after you arrive home
• A Niagara Culinary Trail brochure and map
  

Below is a list of farms, greenhouses, wineries, and markets that can be visited. We will select from this list and set the tour based on vegetables and fruits that are ripe at the time of the tour, plus choose the very best in catered food, wineries, restaurants and markets for you to visit. The final itinerary will be confirmed and emailed to you before your tour date.

West Niagara – Winona, Grimsby, Beamsville, and St. Catharines

This rich, fertile farmland sits below the mighty Niagara Escarpment, which edges just south of Lake Ontario, through Winona and ending at the Niagara River. Noted for over 100 years a prime fruit-belt, it has diversified into wine grapes, wineries, green houses growing flowers, fruit and vegetables. Rich in history, the main transportation route since the early 1700’s was known as the King’s Highway, renamed Highway #8 and once again renamed as King Street. This route carried supplies, equipment and soldiers from Hamilton, Toronto, and other parts of Ontario.

Destinations:

1. Honey Valley Farms (grape juice, salsa, drug free meat)
2. Lake Land Meats (local meat)
3. Upper Canada Cheese Co. (cheese)
4. Silmaril Farm (lamb, goats (angora), chickens and orchard fruit)
5. Rosewood Winery & Meadery (honey wine)
6. Featherstone Winery (lunch, wine)
7. Good Shepherd (drug free meat)
8. Cherry Lane (frozen, fresh cherries and cherry juice)
9. Niagara Presents (Niagara products with stories)
10. Grimsby Farmers’ Market (Thurs 4:30 to dusk)
11. Whitty Farms - market
12. Legends Estate Winery
13. Ridge Meadow Farm
14. Victory Herbs & Farms – (hydroponic strawberries)
15. Hildreth Farm Market
16. Peach Country Farm Market
17. Niagara Fruit Institute

East Niagara - including Niagara-on-the-Lake, Virgil, St. David’s & Queenston

Home of the 1812 Battle of Queenston Heights, where the English army narrowly defeated invading American forces. Once the Capital City of Upper Canada, until Governor Simcoe moved it to Newark (Toronto) believing that close proximity to the USA made it highly vulnerable to invasion and occupation.

This fertile land is an extension of the West Niagara, rich in peaches, wine grapes, theatre, history, sailing, bike trails and many amenities that over 1 million tourists come to visit annually.

Destinations:

1. Frog Pond Organic Winery (organic wine)
2. Kurtz Orchards (lunch, bakery, jam, fruit curds, fresh farm fruit in season)
3. Gryphon Ridge Farm (cattle)
4. Weicha Farms (lavender/raspberries)
5. Blueberry Farm (great authentic farm stop/tomatoes)
6. Aceto Niagara (vinegar at Frog Pond)
7. Willow Cakes & Pastries
8. Pairings Specialty Food Market
9. The Fruit Shack (best peaches/cherries/butter tarts)
10. Riverbend Inn (garden lunch/proprietors wine) Dave Perkins & Chris Smythe
11. Niagara Herb Farm (authentic experience)
12. Niagara-on-the-Lake Farmers’ Market (sat morning)
13. Epicurean – fresh foods
14. Olson’s @ Ravine Winery
15. Grimo Nut Nursery
16. Kurtz Orchards - market
17. The Pie Plate
18. Sunnybrook Winery
19. St. David’s Hydroponics – (peppers)

South Niagara

Another prime area for farmland, this area sits on the top of the Niagara Escarpment and runs parallel to West and East Niagara. It is home to Short Hills Provincial Park, filled with nature trails and wildlife.

The rich, sandy soil and limestone bedrock creates the drainage necessary for premium quality crops, and makes it suitable for much variety such as apples, cherries, pears, maple syrup, garden fresh vegetables. Recently many artisan producers have set up shop in this area.

Destinations:

1. White Meadows Farm (maple syrup/retail maple store/pancake house)
2. Morningstar Mill (stone ground flour/beautiful picnic destination)
3. Howell Family Pumpkin Farm (hydroponic strawberries/funnel cakes)
4. Wildflower Organic Market & Café
5. De la Terre (artisan and organic bead)
6. Henry of Pelham Winery (wine/local lunch)
7. Keefer Mansion (garden lunch)
8. Farmers’ Market (Thurs 4:30 to dusk)
9. Indulgences Bakery
10. Select Coffee – (coffee roasters)
11. Fenwick – cheese place
12. Ridgeville shops

Masters in Good Taste and Culture Diploma

Eating food without flavour? Most of us do this every day!

With the immense growth of the fast food industry comes some serious concerns about the worlds growing culinary poverty. In a world where we are too impatient to feel and taste, too gluttonous to remember what we had just devoured, the issue of food quality has been seriously compromised.

A Masters in Good Taste and Culture is a certificate designation for those interested in better quality dining experiences. It takes time and patience to cultivate taste. It takes passion and commitment to discern quality.

As consumers we owe it to ourselves to educate and experience the more flavourful foods we have at our disposal. With a combination of cooking classes, food tastings and/or culinary travel you can earn your certificate in good taste and culture.

Masters in Good Taste & Culture is awarded to all participants who complete the series of three regional culinary destination tours of Niagara.

Wine Country Tours provides custom tours for groups, which include winery tours, vineyard and winemaking seminars, vineyard picnics and winery restaurant meals, and distillery and beer tours.

For further information, contact us at 905-384-1985.