I realize this is a growing trend in some hip, cool communities, but I think that not enough people are aware that it’s the small businesses that make our society great. Sure, the big stores and big names are easy to find and easy to shop at, but wouldn’t you rather know you’re putting food on a local business owner’s table instead of lining the pockets of some corporate bajillionaire?

No, I’m not soap-boxing, but there is a LOT to be said for small businesses. Get ON that!

This also coincides with my recent rise to official status at the Ruralist. I have yet to publish my first post, but many of the posts have been edited by yours truly, and I am behind the scenes in other ways, too. In fact, I am proud to announce my new title: “Editor and Social Media Consultant.” Sounds spiffy, doesn’t it?

The official status was made possible by an internship, thanks to the MIT (no not that MIT) internship coordinator at Western, the “fairy jobmother” herself, Susan Weekes. But reality is, we kinda just needed a reason, a way, for me to jump on board in an official capacity. And here we are.

That being said, if you still haven’t checked out the Ruralist, again, I urge you to ask yourself what you are waiting for!

These are my favourite {Locality}-related posts to date:

What’s your favourite {Locality} candidate?

Penny Reihl has been in retail for the majority of her career, so perhaps it was only a matter of time before she found herself the owner of a fantastic shop on Main Street in Bayfield.

Penny purchased Clay and Gourmet in July 2011 from the previous owner and longtime Bayfield business owner, Karen McNairn Dallas. She spent last season getting acquainted with her products and her clientele, and realized that, in order to best serve her customers, she would need more space.

This past March, Penny rented a mysteriously open spot on the eastern corner of a quaint courtyard that opens onto the South side of Main Street, and moved from the back of the courtyard to the front (Hive moved into the spot left by Clay and Gourmet).

Now, Penny has been working on filling the extra space she has to display all the pottery, sauces, jams, and other tasty goodness that she sells.

Last week, weeks after taking possession of the new space, she had to order even more display furniture! The move allowed her to bring on two more potters, so that she now shows the work of eight potters. She has also added a few more food lines, including Huron County’s own Robinson’s Maple Syrup, which is sold in delightful glass jars:

The 2012 season promises to be one of Clay and Gourmet’s best, what with the prime location and extended product list, not to mention Penny’s plan to feature food demonstrations on the gorgeous (soon-to-be-renovated) front porch!

I asked Penny if she had a favourite piece of pottery in her store, but she couldn’t decide:

“I love it all.  I took a pottery class this past winter and it gave me a new respect for the work that goes into each individual piece.  All pottery is a work of art.”

She does have a favourite food line product, however: Gramma’s Summer Kitchen  Dutch Apple Pie jam. That does sound fantastic, doesn’t it?

When I breezed through her store to take some snaps recently, I noticed this delicious Cardamom Mate Chai, which I happen to have in my cupboard (actually, I drank a cup last night!). Penny told me she drinks only Yerba Mate tea… and I took a moment to reminisce about my visit to Argentina, where I was introduced to the cultural custom of sharing cup after cup of sweet hot bitter yerba mate.

I was curious about what a shop owner in one of North America’s favourite getaway towns does to get away. Penny does what many of us would like to do but perhaps don’t get around to often enough:

“I enjoy going for long drives and discovering unique shops in out-of-the-way places: there are many talented artists in quaint towns and villages in Ontario.”

Don’t miss Clay and Gourmet on your next trip to Bayfield: you’re sure to be captivated by something to eat or to eat from!

If you’re not already following Ruralist.ca, what the heck are you waiting for? I kid. But seriously, it’s a fantastic website that promises to grow up to be truly great.

I like to compare it to Etsy: Ruralist.ca will be to rural Ontario what Etsy is to all things handmade.

It begins with an online magazine, where you can see a curated selection of the best of what rural Ontario has to offer. Then, coming soon, is the List (RuraList, get it?), which integrates micro sites for the featured shops and shopping capabilities! For more on the List, check out what the Ruralists have to say about it.

Erin Roy and Erin Samuell have teamed up to make Ruralist.ca a reality. Erin Roy is the numbers and business whiz and Erin Samuell the photographic and graphics genius. I am lucky enough to know both of them, and I was invited to hear their ideas and contribute my opinion since the idea of the Ruralist was born several months ago.

I have also been editing many of the magazine posts and consulting on things like social media and web design, in an unofficial behind-the-scenes capacity. But, as of last week, I am no longer behind the scenes at Ruralist.ca. I am the summer intern!

That means that I can significantly expand my involvement in this exciting project, receive school credit for it, and dive in to help Erin and Erin as they ramp up the site in preparation for the unveiling of the List. They needed a third person and I was eager for an internship, and one day, something shifted and we realized I could come aboard in an official capacity in a way that would be beneficial to everyone involved.

And voila, here we are: I’m officially a Ruralist! Head over to Ruralist.ca to read my welcome.

Here’s a bit more about the Ruralist:

My geographical locality has changed since my last {Locality} post. I’m no longer an official resident of Huron County. My new county has the word “sex” in it: Middlesex. A respectable enough county name, though one rarely thinks of the county when one is in a city.

The transition has been odd. Not only did I move from the country to a city, but I also moved in with my boyfriend, a big enough life transition in and of itself. The “me to we” transition, as my “mother-in-law” Deb put it, hasn’t been that big of a deal (though perhaps I should add a “yet” to that). After more than two and a half years as a serious couple, we were already used to living life together, even from two different geographic locations.

What keeps causing me to bug out is the staying in London. I think if it were any other city that I wasn’t so familiar with, it would be different, but because I have known London for so many years–gone there for shopping and movies, attended university, gone for medical appointments and to visit family members at the hospital, etc.–as a place you go to and leave again, it is very odd to just stay, to not get in the car and make that very familiar trek north up Richmond or Highbury or Hyde Park, aiming for Ontario’s West Coast.

Regardless of my physical location, however, {Locality} continues to be important to me. No longer does it refer specifically to Huron County–it now has everything to do with what is local wherever I am, wherever you are. From now on, {Locality} posts will extend across Ontario, perhaps even across Canada, North America, or the world!

{Locality} is a mindset that avoids box stores, large corporations, and that aspect of democracy that tends to put money before people. It champions the owner/proprietor, the entrepreneur, the organic farmer, the rural shop, the one-off boutique, the people with personality and heart that you love to see again and again.

It can exist wherever you are, country or city, big or small.

I will continue to champion the rural, the small-town, the “back home,” but I undoubtedly will find places in my new locale that can pass the muster side-by-side with the Bayfields and Goderiches of rural Ontario.

In fact, stay tuned for an announcement tomorrow that underscores my dedication to all things rural Ontario!

I’ve never been to Asia. I’ve never even wanted to go to Asia. Then, Johnathan spent three months backpacking through Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, and the Philippines last year, and informs me that I must go back with him someday, that it was gorgeous (especially southern Philippines), and so perhaps one day I shall actually travel to Asia.

I do know that I like Asian food. That is, I like the North American versions of Asian food: sushi (though I’m still not brave enough to try real raw fish sushi: I stick to smoked salmon and crab and deep-fried shrimp and vegetarian rolls), Thai curry, Indian curry á la British pub, Thai food of any sort, Chinese buffet… you get the idea.

Since doing the Whole30 earlier this year, coconut milk, which was for me previously only an ingredient in Thai curry, has become a staple. While avoiding dairy for two months, I began to put coconut milk in my coffee, and lo and behold I no longer enjoy half and half. Go figure. Coffee is a staple for me, ergo so is coconut milk.

But not just any coconut milk. The Whole30 taught me that not all coconut milks are created equal.

For instance, many cheaper (and often imported from Asia) versions of canned (canned is the best) coconut milk contain sulfites, which is an additive that has what the Whole9Life people call “potentially nasty side effects.” It is often used as a preservative, but you can usually find versions of whatever you’re looking for (dried fruit, balsamic vinegar, etc.) that either doesn’t have preservatives or uses something more natural instead.

In the case of coconut milk, the premium version (don’t even look at the low-fat version: you want full fat, and besides, it’s cheaper!) of the Thai Kitchen brand uses something called guar gum as a stabilizer, not a preservative.

If you’re thinking about removing dairy and/or adding some good fat to your diet, grab a can of this coconut milk and add it to your coffee, tea, smoothies, curries, baked goods, etc. And let me save you the trouble of reading all of the labels of all of the other varieties you might find in your local grocery stores: Thai Kitchen is the best, with the fewest and most trustworthy ingredients.

And yes, they really should compensate me for this post.

Let’s start a revolution: pass it on!

Boxes piled high…

My closet, emptied into suitcases

Sad, lonely hangers and hooks

Cupboards with just the bare essentials left in them

The night before move-out

Move-out day: my bedding is in a bag

The kitchen before the moving helpers came to pack it in a truck

The most difficult room to pack: the spare room/office. Argh.

Thank goodness no one lives across the hall: I needed the extra box-stacking space!

Stay tuned for “In with the new”.

After several days of packing and cleaning and unpacking and cleaning and more cleaning, I find myself feeling like my To-Do list is too long to justify time spent sitting down and blogging. Here’s a peek at my list:

• Wash walls in every room
• Paint every room
• Paint trim in every room
• Wash the rest of the windows (I washed 3 last night)
• Stain kitchen door
• Get a new health card & SIN card (my wallet went missing a couple weeks ago)
• Get an e-test (did I mention we’re not in Kansas, by which of course I mean Huron County, anymore?)
• Pay parking ticket (yup, happened this morning. I guess they take that stuff seriously. Oops.)
• Update resume and send it/take it to place that might hire me (Oh yeah, I need an income)
• Feed myself and the BF
• Sweep and mop the floors that were dirty before the moving out and moving in and cleaning began, so that we don’t have to wear shoes in the house all the time
• Find some way to make my massive collection of bathroom supplies fit in a small room with limited storage space
• Tax returns (::sigh::)
• Breathe new life into the back yard and gardens
• Unpack clothes from all the boxes and suitcases stacked in the front room so I can actually find things to wear
• Set up the office for the inevitable beginning of summer courses next week
• Iron curtains
• Figure out where and when to continue my running schedule (!!)
• Etc…..
• Oh, and blog update (seriously, it’s on my list)

And that’s not the whole list. It feels a bit overwhelming, especially considering summer courses start again next week and John’s family is coming over for Mother’s Day and I currently have some sort of chest virus that causes me to cough and hack for hours and I have neglected my running for several days and on and on. ::sigh::

This, too, shall pass… right?

Me hanging with some of Canada's most famous ladies on Parliament Hill in Ottawa

Last night I wrote about the reasons I will miss Huron County, my home since I was five. But this transition to the city truly is a bittersweet one. Yes, there are many things I will miss about Huron County, and the family and friends I leave behind are at the top of that list.

Still, there are some very enticing things about the city that contribute the “sweet” part. For one, you can go to the grocery store or the bank or Wal-Mart and expect to see no one you know. Yes, there really is something beautiful in total anonymity sometimes!

Then there is the much wider variety of stores and goods. I will be able to shop at a farmer’s market all year round! Or have my pick of several health food stores and specialty markets. So many furniture stores and antique shops and clothing stores and thrift stores!

I have access to a trail that goes clear across the city, and I can use it to run or walk or bike on. I no longer have to worry about getting run over by cars on the country road (not that that was ever a major problem). I can actually use my bike to get places and leave the car at home for an entire day!

Finally, I might actually use the membership I’ve been paying for at the gym at school, because I can go at times when I’m not already carting a bag with books and meals for an entire day.

In the winter and late at night, I will have more activity options than bowling, house parties, and Tim Horton’s. Imagine that, rural-ites! Tons of bars and restaurants and shows and galleries, more than I will likely ever get to see or experience.

The BF and I enjoying street meat in Ottawa a couple summers ago. Yes, I gained weight that trip.

I will always have a wide variety of movies to see without having to drive over an hour to get to the city. I never felt like I suffered for being from a town that screened only one or two movies, but it is still pretty cool that a wider variety will be more convenient for me.

Then there are the regular hours of stores and libraries. This is one of the most frustrating things about small town life for me. There are places that aren’t open the same hours from day to day or week to week, or have different winter hours, and it’s annoying. Yes, I get it. I know that business dies at certain times of the day or season, but still. There are few things more irritating than when you make a special trip for something only to find that the place is only open 10-3 today and it’s 4:15.

While it’s true that none of these things are as powerful as that smell I talked about at the end of yesterday’s post, they are all reasons to be excited about moving to the city.

Like I said, bittersweet.

My time as a resident of Huron County is rapidly ticking away: only four  sleeps left!

As excited as I am to move in with Johnathan and have our own place together with out own backyard and laundry room, and as much as I anticipate being able to regularly visit specialty grocery stores and discover new restaurants and take the bus or a bike instead of my car, I will miss rural life.

A backyard party with lots of yard... and a tent trailer

There are many aspects of life in Huron County that make this transition bittersweet. First, there’s that sense of community that is only possible in small towns and rural areas. I’m talking about when you can count on knowing a percentage of every group and gathering, or on running into someone you know in every store and on every street.

Then there are the small stores where you know the owner and at least a part of their personal story and they recognize you and maybe know your name.

After last August's tornado, Goderich held a fundraiser concert called Out of the Storm. It took up half the downtown square, and everyone we knew was there!

Small-town events are the highlight of each season, like Goderich’s Winterfest or Clinton’s Pluckinfest or annual beer tents and parades. That’s not to mention the stag and does/buck and does/Jack and Jills that happen every weekend from April through Thanksgiving in every town, and where you can expect to meet up with friends new and old and be greeted with the same selection of cheap domestic beer and plastic cups with shots of vodka, rye, and rum await ice and Coke.

I will also miss the vistas. Yep, I used the word vista. For example, I live across from a corn field. It likely sounds boring, but I love being able to look out my big dining room window and see not other houses, but corn almost as far as the eye can see, or a snowy field, with a line of evergreens at the far side of the field.

Who could forget the proximity to the beach? One of the very best parts about Huron County and one of the things that I missed the most when I lived in Mexico is how you can get to the beach of one of North America’s biggest lakes in less than half an hour. Huron County is Ontario’s West Coast, after all! Did you know that several of Lake Huron’s beaches have earned the Blue Flag organization’s designation of quality beaches? Yes, we’re proud, and rightly so.

What I will probably miss the most is that certain smell. It’s clean, fresh, slightly sweet, and I believe it’s unique to Huron County. But I could be wrong. If you haven’t experienced it, you won’t know what you’re missing. Having been raised on it, that smell is home to me. Nothing about having my own house in the city could replace that scent.

Luckily, Huron County is only a relatively short drive away, and I have plenty of reasons to visit.

My '52 Chevy, Flo, on a rainy country road