A long lunch that lures locavores
This end-to-end-of-street feast is village’s yearly draw for folk who relish locally grown food
WARKWORTH, ONT.—“Excuse me, miss,” Jaime Vega whispers to a passerby he’s mistaken for a server. “Your corn is so fresh and tender. Can I get another?”
Alas, the sellout crowd of 600 has left Warkworth’s famous Long Lunch short on seconds. Every ear is spoken for by the hungry hordes who’ve descended on the village for a midday feast at tables laid end-toend down the length of Main St.
And anyway, Vega, who made the 90-minute drive from Toronto for the annual event last Sunday, needs room for dessert — a healthy wedge of homemade apple crumble pie.
Still, there’s more than a kernel of truth to his corn compliments. Picked that morning, simmered till tender-crisp then dunked in a vat of melted butter, the cobs win raves as they’re stripped clean of sweet morsels. Taste buds were also treated to 310 pounds of beef, 180 pounds of ham, 250 pounds each of pasta salad and cole slaw, and 27 gallons of baked beans that disappeared as fast as Doug and Helen Turpin’s team could fill the trays. Speed was the biggest challenge for the couple’s catering company, BBQ on Wheels, which has fed Long Lunchers since townsfolk cooked up the plan10 years ago to raise money for downtown improvements.
“The rest is real easy for us,” said Doug Turpin as his cheerful crew sliced beef skewered on the rotisserie at 5 a.m. But the real heroes of the popular repast were the scores of volunteers, according to co-chair Perry Melzack, owner of the Cheeky Bee Candle Company.
“There are so many hands in the pot,” he said, noting the “cool, funky event” draws visitors from as far away as Montreal, Kitchener and Rochester.
For $20 or $15 in advance, chowhounds devoured a locavore’s delight of food that was grown, raised and prepared close to home.
“I was up all night baking,” fibbed John Belton, whose wife was among dozens who greeted the dawn with doughy hands.
“We have pies that are still warm from the oven,” beamed pie co-ordinator Carol Hamilton, adding that some were created by “pie queens” from the town’s contest every November.
“We have pies that are still warm from the oven.” CAROL HAMILTON PIE CO-ORDINATOR
“We thought we might start with pie,” joked Guelph resident Jane Peaire, who drove three hours to lunch with her sisters in their “great community” of 800.
Donna Wagar of Perth had a different motive for joining the throngs at the canopied tables. “It’s an excuse not to cook for the rest of the week,” she laughed, hoping her blueberry pie-loving husband Bert wouldn’t “get any ideas” about dusting off her pastry skills. Some lucky lunchers left with an extra taste of summer’s bounty, thanks to “flower guy” Tom Dodd, who’s provided table centrepieces for nine of the past 10 years. The hobby horti culturalist spent three days scouting neighbourhood gardens, then cutting and arranging posies in a floral feast for the eyes. “We give them away at the end,” he said. Just Warkworth’s way of saying thanks for coming.