A few weeks ago, I asked my good friend Jace if he wanted to go on a three-hour road trip with me during the May long weekend and eat butter tarts.
He sounded a bit incredulous, apparently not understanding the butter tart aspect of the trip
But it’s a thing, I assured him. Ontario is famous for its butter tarts and you can download a road map and help find them.
There was silence on the phone, a long pause followed by a tentative agreement.
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I agreed to pick him up Saturday remarking he wouldn’t regret it.
I love a good road trip. There’s something about packing up the cooler and hitting the road with a skeleton of a plan that usually evolves as the day progresses.
Jace and I have been friends since university. He’s been roped into a few of these Kelsey-ventures over the years. These adventures typically involve a standard, even somewhat mundane, activity like raspberry picking or a day at the outdoor waterslides that almost always result in a story, or several, that are recalled among friends for years to come.
But back to butter tarts.
Eastern Ontario is revered for its versions of these succulent pastries. Drive through most any small town and almost every restaurant, country mart and general store has them. Many of them are located on the Kawartha Lakes Butter Tart Tour self-guided map available online.
There are whole festivals dedicated to the dessert and its many varieties. Every June, Midland, Ont., has a festival. It’s billed as Ontario’s Best Butter Tart Festival, with some 150,000 butter tarts available. Folks from all over the province come to gorge themselves on the crumbly, buttery treats, with awards handed out for the best tarts.
Our tour, which ended up being a 900 kilometres, 11-hour jaunt through Peterborough County, did not land us in Midland.
Instead, we stuffed our faces with tarts made by locals from Apsley, Woodview and Buckhorn. While all were delicious, our favourites were made by Rachel Conlin, who owns Irish Hill Farms with her husband, Tim, near Apsley.
Irish Hill Farms was a gem we stumbled upon after meandering down Ontario’s back roads for five hours.
I’d love to know what Tim was thinking when two city slickers in a royal blue Yaris pulled into his laneway where a family of geese lounged a safe distance away from the family’s friendly farm dog.
Tim told us that Rachel had taken the latest batch of tarts into town that morning. But as we chatted and explained our butter tart tour, he seemed to become more bemused.
I don’t blame him because who drives five hours for butter tarts?
He told us to wait outside and ducked into the house.
A few minutes later, he emerged with four paper towels caressing four beautiful butter tarts the size of hockey pucks. He said Rachel had decided they were too flakey to sell and had left them behind that morning.
He told us that anyone who drives five hours for butter tarts should have them, as long as we promised to go meet Rachel in town and tell her our story.
We whole-heartedly agreed.
They were the best darned butter tarts either of us had ever eaten (sorry Mom). The homemade pastry melted in our mouths, while the filling was like caramel heaven. We inhaled the four tarts during the five minute drive back to town.
We spent the next 15 minutes laughing our heads off with Rachel at her market stand, savouring yet another sweet memory.
As an aside, did you know a heated debate revolves around whether butter tarts with raisins are actually butter tarts? Even Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has weighed in on the issue. He said no raisins. Yours truly disagrees.
