SATURDAY IN CREEMORE: LIFESTYLES OF THE TORONTO GENTRY: MY MULMUR HILLS ADVENTURE
It has been close to twenty years since Bob and Fay have stayed with Suzy Larue. Mr. Larue is long since in the Great Land Beyond but his spirit hovers above the property.
Bob was looking forward to visiting the quaint town of Creemore where locals and the Toronto Gentry who have second grand homes were once seen mingling the streets. Farmers having coffee and breakfast with the Toronto Gentry. The quaint Creemore Brewery, perhaps the first truly local brewery in Ontario. Authentic small-town vibes.
We stopped at the outskirts of Creemore for some petrol and those gas pumps were so cool Bob said. One pump for EXTREME and another for REGULAR instead of a bank of numbers showing the grade. But the owner was Korean. About the only non-Caucasian we saw this Saturday morning so unlike Toronto where being a Caucasian is in the minority. Culture shock Bob noted!
The Toronto Gentry flooded the main street. Well dressed emitting a confident and smug air my nose detected. We had a sandwich at the Bank Cafe a popular Toronto Gentry hangout. Fancy coffees and they brought our BLT all wrapped up in fancy wax paper and tied with a ribbon! And yes Bob saw a local taking a coffee away and the fellow stuck out like a sore thumb. The Pine and Chez Michel exclusive eateries costing a bundle! Cyclists with the latest bikes and gear.
As Bob remarked, “What the hell has happened to Creemore! Where are the kulaks!”
The farmer’s market had very little produce instead full of niceties you might find at a Toronto “farmer’s market”. Bob, a jam maker, had an interesting conversation with a lady selling her homemade jams. To avoid the gunk Bob has on his strawberry jam he made this year she said freeze the strawberries then make the jam with them. He also bought some local honey.
We then drove to some tony dairy just outside of Alliston. They sell some of their products to high end Toronto stores that the Toronto Gentry regularly shop at back home in Toronto.
Then another stop Maple Grove Farms. With a minimal amount of produce but more high-end dainties and fancies. Delicious granola for sure I can attest to that with everything the Toronto Gentry requires for a fancy dinner party in the countryside.
As Bob said you can’t stop the Toronto Gentry as they are en masse in Niagara-on-the-Lake and Prince Edward County both a relative short distance from Toronto.
I enjoyed returning home to Suzy Larue’s where Bob cooked, may I say, a Toronto Gentry dinner of seared tuna with two complicated emulsions, brown rice and green beans!
Could it be Bob and Fay are sort of Toronto Gentry in the closet? Before you know it they’ll buy a farm here and become official Toronto Gentry in Creemore!
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