Greetings from somewhere west of Toronto, way west (but not as far as Calgary) (or even Windsor). No idea what’s inside this museum as we didn’t stop, or it wasn’t open, who can remember. What is recalled is the infamous garden at the swanky inn where we stayed (a gift to us from kind souls else we’d never have gone the way of such swankiness). I’d looked forward to staying there mostly because they are known for their enormous vegetable gardens and famously claim almost everything on their menu is seasonal and made with their own produce… but what we saw on the menu didn’t jibe with their marketing schpiel (butternut squash and cauliflower in July for instance). In fact almost everything on the menu was out of season and when we asked the waiter what was up he got a little jumpy and said he’d check with the kitchen but in fact he never came back to our table. Someone else brought the bill. Later, walking in the infamous gardens of menu mythology, we asked a couple of gardeners where the celery was, and the frisee (two of very few things on the menu that were in season) and were told they didn’t grow celery or frisee and so we mentioned the marketing that spoke of how all this magnificent produce was used in the kitchen. Ha! they snorted. The garden, it seems is pretty much for show… while rows and rows of produce go unpicked, none of it on the menu. Not a single string bean, not an onion. Even in the face of oodles of evidence, we didn’t want to believe it… a vegetable garden of this size, being used only as a marketing tool??? Nah. Can’t be true. But in the morning, as we set out for a walk, we watched a delivery arrive from a huge commercial vegetable supplier whose name was painted very clearly on the side of the truck.
I wrote a letter to the inn, asking them about this.
Didn’t hear back.
(Summer, 2015)
♦
Other (not always) wordless friends:
Cheryl Andrews
Allison Howard
Barbara Lambert
Allyson Latta
Elizabeth Yeoman
Matilda Magtree 
I think it’s time for a trip to the south of Italy, if you really want to eat fresh-from-the-garden produce. I’ll come along…
Let’s go via magic carpet. Planes are so annoying. (:
Do you recall that fad of a few years ago when friends would offer to “read” your colour? Well this is the museum where all those colour theories are kept, ready to spring on the unwary.
Oh I hope that’s right! (:
xo
Wow, what a story, Carin – shocking to the extreme. This deserves more attention. (It kind of reminds me of a local tourist restaurant here that always advertises “the fresh catch of the day” which is always lobster. This restaurant is directly across the street from our freshwater lake which decidedly does not have any lobster in it.) Your photo is the only nice part of the story:)
We were there a couple of years ago. I suspect not much has changed and, to be honest, I haven’t the interest to check back on things. Why? Because it’s a super schnitzy place with clientele that couldn’t care less about the ‘details’ of their food. It’s the Whole Foods crowd or, in this neck of the woods, a place called Pusateri’s… so rarified that they actually have police directing traffic in their parking lot. And what do they sell to the hoi paloi? Oh, you know imported everything, including peaches from California at the height of Ontario peach season. And similar. In other words, despite getting the word out, it would only be the mainstream population that cared and they aren’t this place’s customers. The people with tons of dough still eat foie gras so they’re hardly likely to give a hoot about where their celery comes from. (Can you hear me gnashing my teeth??)
Lobster!! Are people idiots?
The image is gorgeous; the story of the marketing scam makes be buzz with angry thoughts. Great, great Summer Postcard, Carin. Thank you … my awareness and questions to be asking are clear. I took pals to my favourite fish and chips place in Town last week. He ordered the perch. The cook/server snorted too when I told him it was fresh caught … from Georgian Bay … where we live in the gateway. Ehhhh?
There’s a little place in town where I buy ‘fresh’ Georgian Bay perch. And it is so good…
Oh, how insulting! And isn’t it actually illegal if they are explicitly saying that they serve their own produce?
The photo is gorgeous though. (I fear I use the word “gorgeous” too often in my comments but this one really is exactly that. Very curious to know what is in that museum. Which means the photo is successful in that way too as it makes me wonder about it and want to know more.)
Ah, but they *are* using their own produce. I believe the parsley garnish was from the garden… #bigfatloophole?