RICE LAKE AND ENVIRONS, ONTARIO – A deep-in-the-woods garden with hundreds of Zimbabwean stone sculptures. A new winery run by a young couple who refused to let naysayers ruin their dream. Maybe the best butter tarts in the country. And a great family resort on a beautiful stretch of water.
I live in Toronto and have been writing travel stories full-time for 11 years, but I’d somehow never made it to the area around Rice Lake until a recent, late-summer weekend. What I found was a surprisingly diverse array of attractions run by wonderful, passionate people with the kind of down-home attitudes you’d expect from folks in small cities and towns.
My first of many surprises arrived when my wife and I steered our way down Second Line Road in Bailieboro and turned left down a shady, quiet country road that wasn’t much wider than my car. Suddenly on my left I spotted a lush green lawn dotted with several polished, black sculptures of various sizes and shapes. I pulled into the small parking lot behind a beautiful, classic Southern Ontario barn and met up with the owner of the Zim Art Rice Lake Gallery Fran Fearnley, who guided me around the site; a remarkable, wondrous and peaceful place with lovely sculptures, a small pond, bountiful gardens and other artistic touches.
A Zimbabwean stone sculpture at the Zim Art Rice Lake Gallery. JIM BYERS PHOTO
“It’s a little oasis here,” she told me. “Nothing disturbs you.”
Fearnley, who’s originally from Toronto, worked for years as a journalist and was an avid art collector. She fell in love with Shona stone art (now more commonly known as Zimbabwe Stone Art) on a visit to Zimbabwe in 1998. In 2000 she brought 47 scuptures over by boat and scattered them around a property she had inherited on a hill overlooking Rice Lake.
“The response was phenomenal,” she said.
Fearnley goes to Zimbabwe every winter to scout for new art. She also brings a sculptor over every spring for an annual artist-in-residence program that runs from June 1, when she opens her gate to visitors, to Canadian Thanksgiving, when she shuts down for the year. There’s no admission charge, but she does encourage folks to buy a small something, maybe a small carved animal, and make a donation.
This year’s artist, Wimbai Ngoma, explained that he doesn’t know what he’s going to carve until he sees the stone in front of him.
Wimbai Ngoma shows off a Zimbabwean stone sculpture at the Zim Art Rice Lake Gallery. JIM BYERS PHOTO
“My inspiration comes from the stone. I listen to what it’s telling me. Sometimes you just have to start and let the stone reveal itself.
“Sometimes it’s love at first sight,” he said with a smile. He paused for a second. “And sometimes it takes a little longer.”
I’m sadly lacking in knowledge of African art, but Ngoma said stone sculpture is almost a religion in his home country.
“Just like Jamaica is known for reggae music, Zimbabwe is known for stone art.”
Ngoma saids he didn’t go to a special school to learn to carve but instead learned from a master sculptor. He’s been carving now for 22 years.
I strolled about the garden and admired carvings of intertwined lovers, as well as elephants, gazelles, mothers with babies and free-form bits with beautiful, arching curves and contrasting textures.
“There’s a lot of misconceptions about African art,” Fearnley said with a laugh. ”You won’t find any wooden masks here.”
In addition to having the sculptures at her farm, the folks at Elmhirst’s Resort, a terrific family-run place at the east end of Rice Lake, put a few of them on their grounds for display. They also have flyers for Zim Art on the wall in their lobby area to give her a little publicity.
Fran Fearnley has a remarkable collection of Zimbabwean stone sculpture at her Zim Art Rice Lake Gallery. JIM BYERS PHOTO
“You get cooperation like that in a rural community like this. It’s wonderful.”
I checked out some of the work Fearnley has on sale and found a couple of small, stunning pieces that would look great in our house. I inspected the bottom of a few of them and found price tags for as little as $300 and $400.
“Well,” Fearnley sid with a grin. “This isn’t exactly Yorkville.”
Later she gave us a tour of her garden, which has more sculptures, a perfectly aged wooden fence and a nice view of Rice Lake that seems perfect for artistic contemplation.
As passionate as Fearnley is about Zimbabwe stone art, the folks at Rolling Grape VineyardsRolling Grape VineyardsRolling Grape Vineyards are equally committed to another unlikely venture. Just around the corner from Zim Art on County Road 2 you’ll find Rolling Grape Vineyards, which is believed to be the first winery in the Peterborough region to try making wine from grapes (as opposed to berries or other types of fruit).
Jon Drew and Katie Dickson of Rolling Grape Vineyards in Bailieboro, Ontario. JIM BYERS PHOTO
We pulled into the parking lot and found a well-dressed young woman picking up litter near some of the grapes. Inside she introduced herself as Katie Dickson, one of the owners. She and her husband, Jon Drew, run the place.
“I got the idea about growing grapes here when I was working in Prince Edward County,” Drew told us. “Everyone said it wouldn’t work. I remember in the first days I’d be planting grapes along the road and people would pull up and roll their window down and yell, ‘Those’ll never grow up here.’ I was like, ‘Wow, thanks for the encouragement.’”
Didn’t let the discouraging words get him down.
“I planted the first grapes up on an exposed hill. I figured if they’d survive the winter up there the rest of the land would be fine.”
Drew poured samples of very nice whites and reds, including Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio (more fruity than some drab Italian versions I’ve had) and Marquette, a reasonably new variety that’s like a fuller-bodied Pinot Noir and a grape that Drew thinks is destined to succeed in Ontario. He also served a dry, slightly spicy “orange wine,” which is made by leaving the skins on white grapes for a few days and has nothing to do with Florida citrus fruit. It’s a natural wine that isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s garnering a lot of attention.
“It’s very satisfying,” Drew said of the new family venture. “I grew up on this farm and we had corn and wheat and other crops. But I never saw the finished product. It was shipped off to make cereal. Here I can see what we’ve made.”
The pizza and charcuterie are excellent at Rolling Grape Vineyard. JIM BYERS PHOTO
It was a tad cool on the day we visit so we did our wine sampling inside. But they’ve built a lovely patio with large, striking grey stones and grey wicker furniture decorated with white and red pillows.
“We find it’s very popular with locals and also with cottagers. Folks are always looking for something new to try.”
(We didn’t get a chance to try it, but Drew and Dickson told us their friends run a place called Farm Hill Weddings, where you can get married in a lovely venue on a farm with cows, pigs, sheep, turkeys and even llamas.)
In addition to the wine, Drew and Dickson can dish out terrific food, including a charcuterie tray loaded with great meats and cheeses and also outstanding pizza from their wood-fired oven. The charcuterie pizza, with house-made onion jam, prosciutto, calabrese salami, mozzarella and parmesan, is divine and would be a great match for one of the Rolling Grape red wines.
You should be sufficiently suf-fancified (as my mother-in-law used to say) with the food from Rolling Grape, but if you’ve got a sweet tooth or need something for a coming meal you can’t do any better than a shop called Doo Doo’s Bakery and Café, which is down the road a minute or two in the village of Bailieboro.
Diane Rogers cooks up award-winning butter tarts at Doo Doo’s in Bailieboro.
Doo Doo’s owner Diane Rogers cooks up award-winning (and how) butter tarts. She’s won so many best butter tart awards she’s running out of space in the shop for her ribbons and medals. It’s a marvellous success story, but also one that’s tinged with sadness.
“My husband and I grew up in Ontario, but we were living in Calgary and decided to move back. We bought this shop and started renovating from top to bottom. Three weeks before we were to open my husband was killed in a car accident. We had two kids, ages two and 15.”
Rogers kept going with her bakery dream and opened the shop.
“That first day I worked 36 hours straight. I saw the sun come up, go down and come back up again.”
She still works her proverbial butt off at it.
“Look at my right arm,” she said. “See how it’s all bumpy and everything. That’s from so many years of rolling dough.”
There’s probably been 100 times I thought about selling, but I couldn’t do it. I had six mortgages at one point.”
What about now, a visitor asks. Rogers smiled.
“Let’s just say I can pay the hydro bill now.”
Rogers started her shop as a donut place but, for a variety of reasons, it wasn’t working. She had made butter tarts with her mom as a child, so she started that, and then began selling them at local fairs.
A tray of butter tarts at Doo Doo’s.
“The first eight fairs I went to for butter tart competitions, I won every time. I took 685 dozen to the Midland Fair last year and we sold out before noon.”
“One of my secrets is not working the dough too much,” she told her visitors. “And I use Tenderflake lard.”
The awards roll in on a regular basis now, and Rogers is now the most recognized butter tart maker on the Kawarthas Northumberland Butter Tart Tour, a self-guided activity that alerts visitors to more than 50 places to satisfy their butter tart cravings.
Before we leave, we feel obliged to ask about the name Doo Doo’s.
“Oh, that was from my Dad,” she said with a grin. “I’m an Irish twin (meaning two children born of the same mother within 12 months). My Dad said I was a mistake, so he called me Doo Doo.”
Her tarts are simply amazing; with a perfect, tender, flaky crust and a just-runny-enough filling that pulls back from being overly sweet. She makes classic butter tarts that are unadorned, and also ones with raisins, walnuts and pecans for her four basic varieties. We sampled a delicious one with maple and bacon that I highly recommend.
As if we haven’t eaten enough already, our day ended with a wonderful meal at the oh-so-welcoming Elmhirst’s Resort, a popular place on the east end of Rice Lake that’s been run by the same family for more than a century.
Greg Elmhirst outside the wine cave at Elmhirst’s Resort on Rice Lake. JIM BYERS PHOTO
“My great grandfather Frank Elmhirst bought the property on Groundhog Day in 1903,” explained Greg Elmhirst, one of several family members who run the place today. Unlike some southern Ontario resorts, this one goes year-round, and is wildly popular for winter treats, including Christmas dinner and their special winemaker dinners on New Year’s Eve, when they feature Ontario wineries.
Before our meal, Elmhirst showed off the property’s wine cellar, which is sometimes used for special wine-tastings or other occasions. It’s a lovely room for getting away from the summer heat or the winter cold and is lined with hundreds of bottles of wine.
Elmhirst puts the focus squarely on Ontario wines and on local food. The hotel is a member of the FEAST ON program, which highlights Ontario meat, fruit and produce. They also take things to another level by raising their own beef, ducks and turkeys on the family farm next door, and how’s that for farm to table?
“We source local cheese, too, and we use Kawartha Dairy for our ice cream and other products,” he told us. “We’re happy to pay a certain amount extra for locally-made food.”.
We grabbed a table in front of a large window overlooking Rice Lake and sample a great salad with local beets and a terrific Caesar Salad. Since it’s as local as you can get, we also ordered the beef tenderloin and the seared duck, both of which are tender, sweet and cooked just right.
For dessert, we snacked on a very nice crème brulee with a nice crunchy top and a luscious miniature cheesecake, both topped with local berries.
We also finished a bottle of Green Lane Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon that Elmhirst had left over from a wine-tasting the previous night, which was probably the best Ontario red I’ve ever tried; a powerful but not overly done Cab that swirls and sings in your mouth and has flavours that go on just shy of forever. It’s a limited edition made with vines that had to be torn out after a bad frost a few years ago, so we’ll sadly never taste the same wine again. But we won’t forget it.
Sunrise over Rice Lake at Elmhirst’s Resort. .JIM BYERS PHOTO
We spent the night in cottage 51 (even though they only have 33 cottages for rent) and found it a terrific place to bed down. The units here vary in size from one to five bedrooms. Ours had two good-sized bedrooms, one with a shower and the other a tub/shower combo. The unit also had a full kitchen with a dishwasher, a dining area, and a living room area with a comfy couch that has an extension on one end, allowing a guest to stretch out and gaze out the sliding glass doors at Rice Lake, a mere meters away.
Our room was done in a bright, not overly cottage-y style for a nice, contemporary look, and there also was a wood stove in the corner. There was also a nice deck out back with a pair of chairs and a gas barbeque. I couldn’t get the small TV to work but I’m sure someone more technically savvy could probably get it done.
The next day Elmhirst took us on a tour of the family property. He explained that they don’t tack on annoying resort fees, and that just about everything is included; even tubing and waterskiing. They also, of course, have canoes and kayaks, tennis courts, a basketball court, an indoor whirlpool, a dry sauna, a large indoor pool with lots of natural light, a nice outdoor pool, an onsite spa, a good-sized exercise room/gym with modern equipment, bicycles and huge expanses of lawn for whatever game someone might want to play. The fact it’s all include is remarkable. And a welcome treat.
“You can enjoy yourself and not worry about the kids generating a six-page folio for you on checkout,” Elmhirst said.
One of the unusual features is a grass landing strip, there because the family also runs an air service and takes folks out on scenic flights over the region to admire the lakes and rolling hills, which surprised me with their size. As much as I enjoyed our dining and chatting with locals, I fell in love with the rhythm of the country roads and the restful scenery, dotted with old wooden barns, cascading hills of bright yellow soybean plants and just the hint of fall colour in mid-September.
The interior of cottage 51 at Elmhirst’s Resort. JIM BYERS PHOTO
We didn’t try it, but there’s a fun pub at the resort called the Wild Blue Yonder that has sports memorabilia on the walls and model airplanes hanging from the ceiling, a nod to the family air service business. The main restaurant, Hearthside, has the aforementioned large windows and also a lovely stone fireplace. They do a remarkable Sunday buffet brunch that brings people in from all over the region. For a very modest $29.95 ($16.95 for kids 12 and under), you get a staggering array of choices; cooked-to-order omelettes, French toast, home-made beef sausages, bacon, perfect pink shrimp, other types of seafood, a large selection of cheese, carved roast beef, mashed potatoes, gravy, peameal bacon, pasta and a wide range of salads. Oh, and then there’s dessert. I can’t possibly list all the choices but there were lemon donuts, lemon flan, creamy bread pudding with sauce, chocolate donuts, chocolate ganache, mixed fruit tarts, coconut squares, date squares, coconut cream cake, butter tart flan, peach flan and at least a dozen or two dozen others I didn’t have time to think about.
Not only was the food exceptional but they had a terrific, local pianists who was equally at home playing romantic tunes, ragtime and rock and roll tunes from Bruce Springsteen. Outstanding.
They do a good number of weddings down by the water, and also do a Saturday night roast beef buffet in the pub for $19.95, including salad, veggies, potatoes and, yes, desserts. Tuesday is Tuned Up Tuesday, with live music and dining at the lakeside picnic tables.
Before we left, Elmhirst took us down to the lake and showed off a beautifully carved rock chair that was built and placed by the water in honour of his grandparents.
It was a lovely moment that puts a big family exclamation point on this surprising part of Ontario. I’d already made a mental note to come back as soon as I can. But then came the clincher. We were driving back to Toronto on a quiet Sunday morning and rolled through the village of Keene. Off to one side I spotted a sign saying “Muddy’s Pit BBQ.” Someone has added another sign. “Vegan Rehabilitation Centre.”
Yeah, I’ll be back.
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