Heritage Harvest Feast next year
Get on our ‘farmfriend’ list and you’ll be invited to our next field-to-table event. Join us for a spring seasonal lunch on the farm or a summer brunch…sign up and we’ll let you know dates. The next Heritage Harvest Feast is Saturday October 6th, 2012, from 12:00 noon to 5:00pm to celebrate the finest in local agriCULTURE —food, farm, art, words, music, and more food… (Last two years our feast BOOKED FULL)
Chefs, Farmers, Artists, Eaters, Authors…
Come on up to the farm! Take the barnyard tour…stroll, relax and enjoy a rare Autumn afternoon of the seasons bounty at our Wholearth Heritage Harvest Feast. If you would like to join the farm as a new member just email and reserve, there are a limited number left available for this year. There will be NO registrations the day of the feast, and the feast is not open to the public, so reserve online below if you’d like to join us, have a delicious day and meet some great folks…
Click here to become a farm member and Reserve your place at the farmyard table
Our finest local chefs will create a memorable outdoor field-to-table dining experience using heritage meats and heirloom vegetables raised here on our farm and nearby farms…better 
than a 100 Mile Dinner, a Zero-to-20 Mile Dinner! You’ll be joined by our local farmer friends, food producers and other local artisans.
The menu will be fresh, seasonal and unforgettable…last years included specialty ingredients listed on the Slow Food Ark of Taste such as heritage Tamworth pastured pork, lamb, heirloom vegetables and more.
See our “original” Thanksgiving heritage turkeys strutting about the farm; enjoy appetizers by the pond; see the pastured heritage Tamworth pigs or take in the view atop the hillside overlooking the pond and fall fields. Be sure to view the creative display of artworks by our talented local artists in the barn gallery…and be sure to let Montana know if you were planning on going to the Norwood Fair the next day.
Feast News & Reviews…
Community Press:
Food For a Crowd
Northumberland Today:
Heritage Harvest Feast on Saturday
Watershed Magazine:
Autumn 2010 article on the Heritage Harvest Feast
Northumberland Today:
Chef Jamie Kennedy goes whole hog for Wholearth
Toronto Life:
Toronto Life’s #1 Choice for a no-sweat Thanksgiving meal—a locovore’s dream
Toronto Star:
Zero-mile feast afield
Community Press:
Feast on the farm was a ‘magical’ experience
Peterborough Examiner:
Heritage Harvest Feast planned for Hastings
Chef Jamie Kennedy:
“The Wholearth Heritage Harvest Feast held at Wholearth Farmstudio over the Thanksgiving Weekend was a wonderful success. There is something about sharing food from a specific place in that specific place with the people of that place and the community around that place. All of these things converged on a bright, sunny autumn afternoon and culminated in a feast around a long harvest table that seated around 140 people.
I can imagine that this feast might have taken place a hundred years ago, when rural communities were vibrant centres of activity and commerce where many in the community contributed to the whole. This was also a time when the economy flourished in rural communities.
Today there is a cultural and economic renaissance happening in rural communities around Ontario. Montana Jones and her family are demonstrating that rural communities have a lot to offer and that what worked one hundred years ago will work again today and into the future. They are on the vanguard of change that will see our cultural landscape change from a bland monoculture to a crazy quilt of cultural diversity. A diversity offering healthful excellence in the foods that we grow and share locally.”
Featuring Local Chefs…
We will be announcing this years chefs shortly….
Last year these talented group of superb chefs grace our fields by creating sensory surprises for our guests tasting pleasure. Among them…
• Chef Brad Watt of Rare Grill House in Peterborough
• Chef John Devlin of The Northside in Cobourg
• Chef Karrie Galvin of Riverhouse Co. in Lakefield
• Chef Lisa Dixon of Black Honey in Peterborough
• Chef Ursula Fugger of Hasting House in Hastings
• Chef Erin Bonthron of Paramour Restaurant in Toronto
• Chef Jeremy Taft Chef de Cuisine and Charcutier—hâute Caribou
• Firemaster John Campos & Jenn Campos of Revolution Kitchens and the exciting new churrascaria opening soon in Lakefield.
Local Producers…
• Deana Huntsbarger & Blaise Campbell of Ganaraska Gardens in Garden Hill
• Sherry Patterson & Adina Stanescu of Chick-a-biddy Acres in Hastings
• Gisèle Roy of Earthly Farm in Lakefield
…and more
Local Foodsmiths…
• Dave Smythe of Fifth Town Artisan Cheese Co. in Picton
• Darren Johns of Mercury Chocolates in Cobourg
• Tracy Cosburn of Kyoto Coffee in Peterborough
• Karen Caruana of Porcupine Creek Herbals & Teas in Marmora
…and more
Last Years Local Authors, Artists & Musicians…
Author Michael Winter
is one of our special guests. Michael’s newest novel, The Death of Donna Whalen was just released September 2010. He has published six works of fiction—two highly regarded story collections and four novels. His first, This All Happened, won the Winterset Award and was nominated for the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize; his second, The Big Why, won the Drummer General’s Award and was nominated for the Trillium Award and the Thomas Head Raddall Fiction Prize. Michael’s third novel, The Architects Are Here, was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. T.F. Rigelhof, writing in the Globe and Mail, called it a “flamboyant gem” of a book; while Toronto Life described it as “brainy and ambitious—just like its author.”
Author Michelle Berry
has published two critically acclaimed short story collections, Margaret Lives in the Basement and How to Get There from Here; and three novels, two of which have also been published in the U.K. What We All Want was shortlisted for a Torgi Award and is presently optioned for film. I Still Don’t Even Know You, her third collection of stories, came out in April. Michelle’s newest novel This Book Will Not Save Your Life, won the inaugural Enfield & Wizenty novel award.
Author Christine Pountney
is a the author of two novels: Last Chance Texaco, published by Faber and Faber and longlisted for the Orange Prize in 2000, and The Best Way You Know How, published by Faber (UK) and Penguin (Canada) in 2005. She has written for the Financial Times, the Guardian, the Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star, and the New Quarterly.
Author Lorraine Johnson
shares her passion and enthusiasm for the cultural shift toward urban gardening by telling humorous stories about her own experiences as a gardener. Her book City Farmer celebrates the new ways that urban dwellers are getting closer to their food. Not only are backyard vegetable plots popping up in places long reserved for lawns, but some renegades are even planting their front yards with food. People in apartments are filling their balconies with pots of tomatoes, beans, and basil, while others are gazing skyward and “greening” their rooftops with food plants. She is the author of numerous books, including Grow Wild, Garden Plants and Flowers: A–Z Guide to the Best Plants for Your Garden, Green Future; A Gardener’s Manifesto and 100 Easy-to-Grow Native Plants for Canadian Gardens. Her writing has appeared in such publications as ON Nature, Chatelaine, and the Globe and Mail, and she makes regular appearances on radio and TV. She lives in Toronto in a barn-shaped house with her three chickens.
Musicians Luke Mercier & Joey Wright
As a classical music composer, Luke Mercier has had works performed by internationally acclaimed performing and recording artists. At age 18, his solo piano work entitled Five Meditations was premiered by Antonin Kubalek and performed to critical acclaim. His music has been featured on both CBC National Radio and Prime Time Television. For the past 15 years Luke has built a reputation as a restorer of fine and rare violins, a maker of violins and, more recently, banjos inspired by those made during the later half of the ninetenth century in America. Since 1991, Luke has played a significant role in a shop setting of highly gifted and enthusiastic craftsmen; party to a consistantly high level of stringed instrument restoration at Geo. Heinl & Co. Ltd in Toronto, Canada’s foremost violin house currently presided over by Ric Heinl who represents the fourth generation of Heinl violin makers/experts/dealers. He plays these fine instruments with the same gifted finesse he creates them with.
Guitar, mandolin and banjo player Joey Wright two, nearly three, albums of “cinematic quasi bluegrass jazz compositions” are what he does when he’s not touring in Sarah Harmer’s band, playing in the now legendary Toronto bluegrass ensemble “Crazy Strings,” and co-writing and playing songs with his Juno Award-winning wife Jenny Whiteley. He sometimes plays gorgeous acoustic instrumentals or delicately sung lyrical numbers that draw on bluegrass, jazz, blues and world music to create something beautifully unique yet wonderfully familiar. A warm and captivating ambience that closes your eyes as you breathe a little more deeply.
Reserve Your Place at the Farmyard Table
Don’t miss this special day of fun and feasting…. You may reserve with PayPal by clicking “Make Reservation” below.
Please note, last year we sold out of feast memberships. So, if you’re keen for a place at the farm field table, you can reserve your seat now at the discounted early-bird special.
$95/pp—CSA Shareholder—Feast Membership
$111/pp—Early Bird—Feast Membership
$125/pp—Regular—Feast Membership
$55/pp—Children Under 12—Feast Membership
free—Children Under 5
Your children are welcome at the Heritage Harvest Feast, though it is an adult oriented food event and small children may become restless during the authors readings. If you decide to bring your child please remember they should not be left unattended.
If you prefer to use Interac Email Money Transfer it’s easy, instant and secure. Let us know how many guests will be attending by Email and we’ll send you a password with instructions and the rest is easy.
Where Do I Sign Up?
Click here to reserve your spot as there will a limited number of guest memberships to the farm feast. 
Payment options are either by InterAc Email Money Transfer or HayPal…er, rather PayPal below, or by snail-mailing a cheque.
We’ll need your full name, phone, address and email contact info for our member/guest list.
About 1 to 2 weeks prior to the dinner we send out information with directions to the farm and other details of the day…
We do expect this memorable day to fill up quickly, so book now to avoid disappointment. ( An additional 2.9% PayPal transaction fee is added.)
Whatever Shall I Wear?
Wellies of course! Or whatever comfortable footwear you prefer for strolling about the property, be it boots, loafer, runners. Best leave the heels and sandals at home. This is a farm..it’s a casual affair where your taste buds will be all geared up but you don’t have to be. You are here to relax and enjoy and explore…to expand your senses and effuse glorious food!
Be prepared for both warm sun or cool breezes in this year of changing weather day to day…even hour to hour, so be sure to have a sweater or jacket on hand as well.
Make it a Weekend—Enjoy the Norwood Fall Fair
Norwood Fair is a fun-filled Thanksgiving tradition taking place just a short drive away, just 15 minutes from Wholearth Farmstudio in the beautiful town of Norwood. This year’s theme is “From Gate to Plate”, highlighting the tremendous contribution to our wellbeing by our local farm families. There is so much to see and do—Visit the Antique Car Show and Tractor Pull; Animal Exhibits;Horse Shows and Competitions; Crops and Home Arts Competitions; Lawn Tractor Races; Flyball; Midway, Parade and Kids’ Talent Contest’; with Live music every day. After the feast, stay overnight at one of our local spots, and check out the fair afterwards or on Sunday. Be sure to pick up your free ticket before you leave the farm.
Know a Nice Place to Stay?
There are many lovely spots to choose from in the Northumberland Hills, here are just a few:
• Adam Farm B&B hosted by Bill & Donna Adam, just a few minutes down the road on a neighbouring farm.
• Elmhirst Resort on Rice Lake, about 15 minutes east along County Road #2
• Windswept B&B host & chef Ursula Fugger offers three beautiful locations overlooking the beautiful Trent River, all within a short driving distance from our Heritage Harvest Feast.
Link to last years Heritage Harvest Feast 2009
