When escaping for the weekend to a place like this, always remember to pack extra food to share. You never know when you’ll have the opportunity to share it with a couple who are also escaping for the weekend and make great conversation around the fire while you roast s’mores.
If you are a romantic camper, like me, you think about tents so big you can stand up in them and a warm mattress and a pile of heavy blankets, with an outhouse nearby. You fall into Pinterest dark holes about beautiful cabins and big tents with lots of room for a mattress and piles of warm blankets. You dream about the smell of the campfire, the feel of the firelight on your face while you drift off in your camp chair late into the night.
We found Heartwood Farms & Cidery while looking for an uncrowded outdoor weekend trip in the Toronto area. Heartwood is a cidery, homestead, farm, orchard, and maple syrup harvester. They offered one of 4 semi-permanent campsites on their 42-acre farm, separated by orchards, apple trees, flowers, and gardens. Exactly what the doctor ordered.
Val and Brent, the owners, along with their son, Kieren and a community of other Ontario farmers and producers all come together to create a four-dimensional experience of home-grown, built-with-love business.
When we arrived, we were greeted at the cidery, where we tasted their incredible hand-crafted ciders. We chose the Freckled Countess, a dry cider flavored with Earl Grey tea, strawberry, and some Ontario maple syrup, the Hoppity, a 6-apple blend and Ontario-grown hops, Eva Goes Badass, a cayenne and ghost pepper cider sweetened with honey, and Fiona’s Dreamscape, a dry traditional cider with a fruity aftertaste. True lovers of cider, the art, and the process. From the hands of the growers to the small-batch fermenting room, this cider has all of the soul of the people and community that contributed to bringing it to life.
After our cider introduction, we were given a tour of the 42 acre farm. We met the animals, including Nellie, the farm dog, and Reggie, the rebellious kitten, who rumor has it, will sometimes wander into people’s tents and sleep with the guests on their beds. We also met the pigs and piglets, the hens, the sheep, goats, and llamas.
We made veggie burgers and grilled corn in the outdoor kitchen and shared it with our fellow campers, who eventually joined us for drinks and dessert around the campfire.
