megram - Index

megram - 55GTA - Index

St. Jacobs Visitors’ Centre
offers maps detailing the
locations of regional farm
businesses.
PHOTO: ST. JACOBS COUNTRY
St. Jacobs is home to about 4,000
Old Order Mennonites who live private,
simple lives, rejecting many contemporary
technologies and embracing
a strict religious code based on
Christian principles. One of the best
ways to learn about the Old Order
lifestyle is to visit the St. Jacobs
Visitors’ Centre (519 664-3518),1406
King Street North. New this year (and
financed by the church) is an interactive
educational exhibition called
“Telling the Mennonite Story,” which
includes an 11-minute video.Admission
is by donation. The Visitors’ Centre
guest book is filled with addresses from
around the world.Apparently, an interest
in Mennonite culture attracts international
travellers making the car journey
from Niagara Falls to Toronto.
While you are at the Visitors’
Centre you can also pick up a detailed
map pinpointing all the local homebased
farm businesses in the area
(which are closed on Sunday, of
course). So if you want to interact with
the Mennonite culture, decide upon
some apples, maple syrup or a homemade
pie and follow the map. Or head
to the village’s very popular Farmers’
Market (519 747-1830), 878 Weber
Street North. The Farmers’ Market is
open Thursday and Saturday year-round
from 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and Tuesday is
added from mid-June to mid-
September.About 100 vendors — many
local farmers — cart in preserves, produce,
meats, cheese, and baked goods.
On market days from April to
October, Nathan Kuepfer harnesses
two large horses to a red trolley car and
offers Horse Drawn Tours (519 656-
9989) from the market to a Mennonite
farm that’s been run by the same family
for seven generations. Participants
tour the apple orchard and maple sugar
bush, learning how everything is
farmed and how corn is dried for feed
in a large outdoor vat. On-site is a small
home-based gift store selling locally
made syrup starting at $8 and handmade
quilts starting at $550.The tours
last about 75 minutes and cost $15 per
person ($14 for seniors).
If you want to fill a shopping bag
or two, St. Jacobs’ compact “downtown”
King Street North has a deceiving
number of opportunities for drifting
from shop to shop.Across the street
from the Mill at the Riverworks
Shopping Emporium are even more
clothing, home decor, food and book
May 2008 • 93 • Fifty-Five Plus Magazine
shops stacked vertically so you can
meander for hours.
But if you want to stay outside,
King Street North is lined with four
blocks of boutique, clothing, home
decor, antique and gift stores.
Magnolia’s (519 664-3464), 1399
King Street North, combines quality
contemporary women’s fashions with
household accessories. La Crème and
its sister store, Essentially Black (519
664-3275), 1364 King Street North,
sells women’s clothing and accessories
themed around colour (one store is
notably darker than the other).
Magic Mountain (519 664-6350)
is also filled with women’s fashions,
many pieces its own label and many
for the cruise scene.This is one of 10
Ontario locations for this company,
which locates its stores along neighbourhood
street fronts rather than
malls. Other interesting stores include
the Casa Latina (519 664-9934), 1389
King Street North, selling artistically
crafted silver and gold jewellery from
pearls to amber. Angel lovers will
rejoice to find Angel Treasures, (519
664-1599), 1389 King Street North.
This store specializes in all things
angel from concrete garden statues to