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The Picton Gazette
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2012
Merrill Inn tops at Taste festival AdAmBrAmBurger
Staff writer
The ballots have been counted and the more than 2,000 people attending Taste: Community Grown this year picked a people’s choice award winner. The Merrill Inn grabbed the top spot, previously held by Jamie Kennedy for several years, while visitors placed Buddha Dog second and the Waring House’s Amelia’s Garden third. The Merrill Inn also swept to the top of the favourite savoury dish category, the best dressed booth category, and the best food presentation category. Chef Michael Sullivan earned the nod as he served pickerel fritters with Laundry Farm corn, wild rice, and a sweet and salty mustard sauce. In the savoury category, Buddha Dog and Amelia’s Garden again were the runners up, while in the bestdressed booth competition Amelia’s Garden placed second and the Pizza Via and Tipsy Dog combo managed third place. Amelia’s Garden also placed second in the best food presentation category, while Clara’s found its way into the third spot in that category. Karlo Estates managed to capture top billing in the favourite white wine category, edging Sandbanks Estates and Huff Estates. Among red wines, Norman Hardie took top billing, while Sandbanks earned another second-place showing and Karlo Estates took third place. Finally among cider and beer drinkers at the festival, the County Cider Company polled higher than the Barley Day Brewing Company. Some of the biggest winners of the day were local charitable organizations. The Prince Edward County 4-H Club received $336.38 in donations from unused sample tickets, while the Edith Fox Life and Loss Centre was able to bring in $1,680 from a pie auction and the Canadian Tire Jumpstart fund brought home $1,455 from the auction of three barbecues used in the County Chopped competition. That money that would be matched by the company to help county youth take part in organized activities. Visitor Lisa O’Neil, of Ottawa, also won big as she was selected the recipient of a trip for two anywhere along the Windsor-Quebec corridor sponsored by Via Rail Canada.
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Cherry Valley film makers hope to tell interesting rural stories
MINUTES, from page 3
A recent poll released by Historica-Dominion also suggests that a majority of Canadians would rather see young film makers tell the stories, rather than established talent. That should bode well for the likes of Girard and Noth, who said there is already talk some of the next Heritage Minutes might feature Sir John A. Macdonald, lending a natural tie-in to this area. In the meantime, Noth said they are hard at work to turn their barn into a production studio with a number of editing suites present inside it.
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People’s choice winners unveiled
They are hopeful they can attract other like-minded professionals and students to work with them in a similar fashion to the work David and Stacey Hatch have done with WhistleStop Productions and Headland New Media Development. “We would like to work withe the schools and develop more of a workshop there,” he said. “We can learn from them and they can learn from us.’ Girard said the Heritage Minutes are actually among the more commercial work they’ve done as her previous work has found audiences at events like the Toronto Interna-
tional Film Festival and the Hot Docs documentary festival. She said while both she and Noth worked independently in the past, they found they were collaborating often on each other’s work and it made sense for them to combine their efforts to build a business. Work wise, Noth and Girard are banking on their location here in the county being close enough to major markets in Toronto and Montreal, allowing them to still be within a short drive to Canada’s creative hubs — they plan to maintain a small working space in Toronto — while enjoying the lifestyle
they have here. The one knock they both say has been a challenge to their location in Cherry Valley is the availability of reliable high-speed communications. “Sometimes that is a hurdle, but that’s the price you pay for being this close to nature,” said Girard. “Sometimes, you just welcome it as a beak. Noth said one of their strategies in the future is going to be telling the colourful true stories of rural areas that sometimes aren’t picked up by mainstream, commercial media. One example of that work is the closing days of
the Stedmans department store, which Noth said he was able to film. Otherwise, it is mainly characters that add some kind of element to living in this community that may not come across elsewhere. “'We’ve met a bunch of great people already, but any suggestions for people and, or places would be really appreciated,” he said. Those with ideas to share are welcomed to email Noth at ryanjnoth@yahoo.com. Those interested in watching the Pierpoint short and other Heritage Minutes can visit the web site www.gotaminute.ca.