Thanksgiving Harvest Festival
Here’s a different way to celebrate fall, Road Trips Foodies: Journey north to Sainte-Marie among the Hurons, near Midland, Ontario, Canada. The historic site’s Thanksgiving Harvest Festival and Arts and Crafts Show includes more than 40 artisans and crafters, including 15 “first-time in show” craftspeople. You can browse among original acrylic artwork on slate and canvas, wildlife wood carvings, birch-bark greeting cards, glass and crystal ornaments, holiday wreaths and centerpiece arrangements made with natural materials and porcupine-quill jewelery, not to mention fan-carved birds, homemade wooden birdhouses, jewelery made from silver, brass, copper, bone, and shells, ceramic giftware, Native drums and leather goods, wood burned gourds, quiltwork, original paintings in watercolor and oil, art cards, and Simcoe County landscape and wildlife motifs.
Then (of course!) there’s the food: homemade fudges and baked goods, savory jellies, chutneys, mustards, truffles and biscotti. Farmer’s Market vendors offering pumpkin and apple sales will be set up at Sainte-Marie’s front entrance. Restaurant Sainte-Marie will be open on both days during the event, featuring “Three Sisters Soup” adapted from the traditional Native recipe including corn, beans, and squash. Historic foods and teas are offered for sampling on the historic site. John Somosi, a Native performer from Sainte-Marie’s Aboriginal Festival, will return to drum in the Sainte-Marie longhouse, and costumed staff will be on the historic site to share the story of the original 17th-century Jesuit mission to the Wendat.
The Thanksgiving Harvest Festival and Arts and Crafts Show and Sale runs Saturday (October 10, 2009) and Sunday (October 11, 2009) from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day. Admission is $5 per person and includes both the historic site and the Craft Show. Children ages 5 and under are free. For more information call 705:526-7838.
Sainte-Marie among the Hurons, a 17th century fortress and headquarters for the French Jesuit mission to the Huron nation, was Ontario’s first European community. In 1639 the Jesuits, along with lay workers, began construction of this palisaded community that would include barracks, a church, workshops, residences, and a sheltered area for Native visitors. By 1648, Sainte-Marie was a wilderness home to 66 Frenchmen, representing one-fifth of the entire population of New France. Sainte-Marie’s history came to an abrupt end in 1649 when the community was forced to abandon and burn their home of 10 years. After extensive archaeological and historical research, Sainte-Marie among the Hurons now stands recreated on the original site. The Hurons also are known as the Wendat, Wyandot and Wyandotte.
