DAY 6
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breakfast Stone Maiden Inn go
Chef Mark Brown creates a fresh breakfast menu each morning. His juice blends are healthy, delicious and delight the eye. Even a plebeian yogurt is embellished with fresh fruit and oats, presented in glass so that layers are visible. Attention to detail is paramount – even to the houses unique coffee blend!
9 am shop with the chef tour go Farmers Market go
A mecca for locavores, this market, on-going since 1855, is held every Saturday from 7 am to noon at the Stratford Fairgrounds. Chef Ian MacArthur guides us through a “Shop with the Chef” session. Game meats – bison, partridge, elk, as well as beef, pork, lamb, chicken and turkey, vegetables, fruits in season, local honey, preserves, baked goods and cheese to choose from. Consumers come early for best choice. The season’s first strawberries are in demand with only one container left by the time we reach that booth.
10:30 am Stratford Shakespeare Festival Archives Tour + Archival Footage Screening go
Archives Director Dr. Francesca Marini guides a tour and presents rare archival footage only recently preserved and digitized. This is the world’s largest performing arts archives dedicated to a single theater. A “comprehensive documentary and physical record of the Festival’s history”, with records documenting every aspect of the Festival’s history and achievements since 1952. Heavily used for research by directors, stage designers, actors, and historians.
11:30 am St. Andrews Church tour and ploughman’s lunch
We tour the church, enjoy a heritage speaker and learn about this beautiful building’s history. Running late we take our ploughman’s lunch – presented in a red/white checkered fabric sack – with us to picnic later. Pretty basic – chunk of cheese and summer sausage, bread, apple — hardy folk, these ploughmen!
1 pm drive to Shakespeare town go for walking tour
We meet Nancy, the official town historian at the Presbyterian Church for a lively and educational walk/talk through this historic village – a center for antiquing. Most of the history research, documentation and collection of artifacts has been done by Mollie who as we walk the quaint streets vivaciously points out specific buildings and monuments and recounts tales that make it special.
3 pm visit Fryfogel Inn go Perth County’s first tavern
This historic Inn built in 1844 by Perth County’s first settler, Sebastian Fryfogel, in midst of restoration. We hear Perth County Historical Foundation experts recount Perth County early history and seminal place the Inn held in the settlement of the area. We tour the Inn attic to cellar. In the cellar, originally the kitchen, the cooking fireplace is still in good condition. 18″ exterior walls provide a good foundation. Original beams and floors are in good shape. The gardens surrounding the Inn have been chosen for Ontario’s newest Arboretum. Today, the official opening has Ontario’s Minister of the Environment, John Wilkinson, plant the 1st tree. The 2nd tree is planted by a direct descendent, Glen Fryfogel.
6 pm return to Stratford for special dinner Stone Maiden Inn go
This afternoon Chef Mark Brown held a wild food foray with clients who requested a cooking lesson. We are invited to share the resulting dinner which in concept and execution is spectacular. Ingredients include Wild Boar, Partridge, Bison, foraged wild greens (dandelion, clover), black walnuts, mushrooms, green garlic, hand made pastry, rolled chocolate, smoked buffalo milk, smoke flavored licorice. Check the pictures – they tell the story.
8 pm see Jesus Christ Superstar opening go Avon Theatre go
Jesus Christ Superstar Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s now-classic two-act rock opera takes us through Jesus’ last days on earth, with traitor Judas telling the tale of Jesus being turned over to Pontius Pilate, and the sorrow of his followers, including Mary Magdalene. Rock rhythm, ballad narrative, dramatic characterization, rollicking choreography, operatic star performances – all fuse together into high energy theater art.
stay Stone Maiden Inn go
Balmy evening, we walk back from the theater through one of the interesting alleyways, and find The Stone Maiden’s “Stratford Porch” aglow, welcoming us back.
