Took a drive into Prince Edward County after I finished up at my office in Belleville this morning. Specifically, I needed to go to the Black River Cheese Company to stock up on my cheese. They are one of the few remaining indepedent cheese companies and I happen to like their cheese.

When I was growing up my grandfather used to pick up our cheese from the Warkworth Cheese House, in those days it was independent. When he delivered cheese to our home it was in 5lb blocks. I never knew that cheese came in different sizes until I was buying cheese for my own home many years later. One pound blocks just seemed like samplers.

The Black River Cheese Co. provides cheese in 5lb blocks, but it is much more expensive than it was when grandpa brought the cheese home. But then what isn’t.

Anyways, since it was a nice day and reasonably early in the day, I decided to wind my way across country on the way back home. In many ways, Prince Edward County is like wandering through a bit of the past except instead of horse and buggies on dirt roads it’s cars on paved roads.

There are a lot of small historical sites in the area, a lot of tourist spots and a lot of antique shops. I really chuckled as I drove past one of them — “Dead People’s Stuff” read the sign, took a second look to see “Antiques” in small print at the bottom of the sign. I noticed that there are several wineries down in the area and are organized enough to develop something called the “Taste Trail“.
While life is probably just as busy or even busier down in that area, you just get a sense of a quieter, slower pace to life as you drive through the countryside. I’ve never visited any wineries in the county, guess it would be nice one day to go for a drive and pay them a visit.

I think I’d like to ask a friend along on that tour. Could be fun.