Cornfest Time in Athens, Ontario

There are culinary delights to be found everywhere you go. For about 45 years, my family has been spending parts of the summer at a cottage on Charleston Lake, about 35 kilometres northwest of Brockville, Ontario. The nearest spot to buy groceries, hardware and so on is Athens, Ontario, and we've grown to know the town pretty well over the past five decades. (In fact, both my mother and my brother painted murals on town walls back in the early '90s.)


You might not think a town of just over 3,000 souls would have any notable culinary offerings, but you'd be wrong. Even a small place like Athens (which was renamed from the original "Farmersville" in 1888 for the excellence of its three schools) boasts a heritage of cultural treasures, as you can see from this lovely 1936 Ford V8 Bickle Seagrove pumper truck that the local fire station brings out for special events, and the elegant Victorian commercial buildings along main street (top photo).


And have a look at this gorgeous wood-fired steam tractor, being used – as it is every summer – to heat the big pots to cook fresh ears of corn, likely grown a short walk away and picked in the past 24 hours for the annual Athens Cornfest, which I attended this past weekend.


No shortage of takers at $1 an ear. We had some of that sweet corn for dinner, and it was delicious. Of course, Athens also has lots of other beautiful local produce: tomatoes and potatoes, maple syrup, beef and pork, as well as cheese from the single remaining nearby cheese factory at Forfar (within my memory there also used to be one at Plum Hollow, but it closed decades ago).


So here I am, pulling back the top of the corn husks to choose half a dozen for us to take home (for $2). But there wasn't a bad one in the lot.


Athens is also the home of Willard's Bakery, which ships its specialties all over the county. The star attraction is the locally famous Willard's Fried Cakes. These were already a venerable tradition back in the '60s when we started to spend time around Athens; they're simple doughnuts made with a very, very old recipe, which gives them a moist mouth feel and just a few crackly bits around the edges when they're fresh. I suspect the basic formula hasn't changed in 200 years or more.


I'm sorry, but next to a Willard's Fried Cake, any iced, glazed or filled product from your Tim Horton's, your Krispy Kremes or any other doughnut emporium you care to name must retire in shame. Cakey, oily and delicious, Willard's Fried Cakes take their perfectly satisfying savour from the soupçon of nutmeg that is the final item in the list of ingredients.


They contain milk and eggs and butter and lard, so each one contains a hefty 230 calories with 14 grams of fat. (In case you're curious, that's about the same as a comparable doughnut from Krispy Kreme or Tim Horton's.) They're not really meant to be eaten by people with a sedentary lifestyle; they're supposed to power you through a day of winter camping.


Finally, should you ever find yourself in Athens, especially on a grey fall day with a nip in the air, hope that the noble local chip wagon is open. It has, says my brother John, the right kind of fat to fry the potatoes in (he thinks it might be beef tallow), as well as "the right cut, the right kind of salt shaker, the right wooden sticks, the right boxes, the right bags, and a good turnover." The recipe for the perfect fries? Try some and decide for yourself.

Thanks to John Hood for photos!