DAY 2
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breakfast Tango Cafe & Grill go
The cafe’s highlight color, red, brightens our day. Local art, colorful and exuberant, intensifies the mood. Cafe offers traditional breakfast fare made with fresh ingredients. Coffee, tea, juices, eggs, house baked muffins and scones.
9 am visit Monforte Dairy go
Located south of Stratford in an industrial building with murals of goats, sheep and cows. Ruth Klahsen, artisanal cheese maker uses locally sourced milk from goats, sheep, and mares to produce 30 different cheeses to sell at 31 farmers markets in Ontario province. The entry and main room reflect turn of the century farm house and function as a gift shop and cheese sales room. Tasting encouraged. Ruth believes agriculture ought to be practiced on a human scale and wants her cheeses to “reflect a little of the poetry and passion of life itself”. We don caps and booties to view the in progress cheese making afterwards view the aging rooms housing a $300,000 inventory.
10 am experience Stratford Tea Leaves go
On the main level of a tidy preserved Victorian home we enter what must have been parlor and dining room. Here, in just one hour Karen Hartwick, Canada s Tea Sommelier, conducts a tea tasting which includes single estate teas and her own organic herb teas. She speaks of the delicacy and subtleness in tea flavor. We taste Organic White Peony, Organic Chun Mee, Bancha Suruga, Jade Oolang, Uunnan Black Needle, and a 2 year old fermented Pu-erh, compare bitterness vs. sweetness, mouth feel, color, sheen, dryness (of leaf) and fragrance. Tea culture, growing, picking, processing, grading, proper storage, proper water temperature and timing of the brew are discussed. Karen introduces us to pairing tea with a variety of local honeys and chocolate.
Noon media lunch Stratford Shakespeare Festival go
Delicious buffet lunch in the Festival Theatre Board Room. Press from far and wide listen attentively as Ann Swerdfager, Publicity Director, discusses the new season. The room throbs with excitement about the new season opening tonight. It’s sunny and warm, the spring gardens are in glorious bloom, the opening should be a smash.
2 pm tour Festival’s Costume and Props Warehouse go
Thousands of costumes and hundreds of props catalogued and stored here: one of the largest costume warehouses in North America. A close-up look at what the Festival s world-class designers, wardrobe staff and prop-makers create. You can try on costumes and get a picture. Great photo op!
6 pm dinner Simple Fish & Chips go
Walk-ins OK but probably will wait at this smallish seafood/vegetarian restaurant serving healthy simple good for you food, well prepared and attractively presented. Fish and Chips offered with choice of six different fish. Also 7 dishes with lobster as ingredient. Outdoor patio and take out. Kids OK. Don’t miss this one.
8 pm see Camelot opening go Festival Theatre go
Camelot Director Gary Griffen says “Camelot, a musical of truly classical power. The story centers on a love triangle between extraordinary people who pursue extraordinary visions of themselves: to be king, to be queen, to be the greatest of knights.” But the human part of each conflicts with the ideals they hold and how they are challenged by fundamental questions – the rule of law, and the best way to govern. No superficiality here, this musical ventures into the same serious territory as a play.
stay Mercer Hall Inn go
