Woodstock, Ontario: The Dairy Capitol of Canada
Yesterday evening I returned from a short business trip to Woodstock, Ontario. The city's website describes it thus, "We have much to offer in our city of 38,000 including tree lined streets, century old homes, abundant parkland and friendly citizens. Woodstock's history is preserved not only in our Museum and County Courthouse, but in our downtown buildings and beautiful Victorian heritage homes." 
It sounds like a quant small town and a nice place to wander around after finishing work for a day, right? Yeah, well that didn't happen. Over the first three days of this week I have managed to put in just over forty hours of work so in the limited time I wasn't working I was exhausted and trying to get a little sleep. Speaking of sleeping, the hotel I was staying at, The Woodstock Holiday Inn Express, apparently hosted Donny Osmond at some point. In the lobby next to the elevator was a photocopy of his portrait which he had signed expressing his thanks to the hotel staff. In my exhausted stupor this picture caused me no end of amusement every time I passed by it.
On the food front, I managed to squeeze in a few distinctly Canadian things to eat. Monday night we had finally arrived in town at eleven at night. We were starving since we had driven straight from work and hadn't eaten anything. Actually, that is not quite true. I ate a bag of Cheetos and drank a Coke that I bought from the work vending machine before we took off. Unfortunately I have Coke and Cheetos way too often for dinner. I digress. It was late, we were hungry and everything was closed but the lights at Tim Horton's were still on. We drove by and luckily enough the drive through was open. I got my go to Timmy's meal: egg salad sandwich, soda and a honey crueller. After I checked into my room I quickly devoured it and passed out asleep. We have Tim Horton's in Michigan but I tend to only go there when I am in Canada. I think that somehow being in Canada makes it taste better.
On Tuesday I was up at 5:30 and didn't finish work until nearly 9:30 that night. My colleagues and I opted to eat at Montana's Cookhouse solely because it was across the street from our hotel. It is a Canadian restaurant chain and the food was pretty good. I ordered a chipotle firecracker burger which was topped with bacon, colby cheese, fried jalapenos, crispy onions and chipotle honey BBQ sauce. Being in Canada, of course I had gravy with my fries. I don't normally drink on weeknights, but after the day I had I thought something was in order so I got a Caeser to drink. A Caesar is a classic Canadian mixed drink and is kind of like a Bloody Mary but with clamato juice instead of spicy tomato juice. It's pretty fantastic.
Wednesday after we finished for the day we decided to get a little something to eat before driving back to Michigan. A quick option was needed since we wanted to get on the road as soon as possible. We spotted a little roadside shop called Great Greek Souvlaki. It had a walk up window decorating with signs proclaiming the food's excellence and picnic table seating with umbrellas out front. I got an excellent lamb and beef gyro and couldn't resist a small order of poutine as well. Poutine is French-Canadian in origin and consists of fries topped with cheese curds and gravy. The version I ate had shredded cheese instead of curds, but it was still pretty good and hit the spot before we hit the road.
On the way out of town I did manage to see one sight: the Springbank Snow Countess Monument. As we were driving toward the highway I spotted it on the side of the road and convinced my co-worker to stop for five minutes so I could check it out. The Countess was a famous cow in her day, earning the world record for producing more butterfat over her lifetime than any other cow in the world. She held the record from 1933 through 1954 and the life-size statue was erected in her honor in 1937. No wonder Woodstock is known as the Dairy Capitol of Canada!
Do you have any favorite (or favourite) Canadian foods or drinks? Have you ever stayed at a hotel that Donny Osmond stayed at? Would you make your co-worker stop the car to take a picture of a cow statue?
Thursday, July 12, 2012 at 9:00AM | Posted by Lisa | 6 Comments | Share Article | Email Article | Print Article 
Reader Comments (6)
Tim Hortons is one of our national treasures - they are everywhere - in Guelph there are at least 12. Montana's has a great veggie burger - a bit of a surprise to many, but the best fries are at Swiss Chalet (mostly chicken) and are owned by the same chain as Montana's. We have some great wine makers too - Jackson Trigg do a nice Merlot and our ice wines are world renowned. I have not stayed at the Woodstock Holiday Express - maybe Donny stayed there when he was performing in Joseph. And yes I would stop to take interesting photos that are along the roadside - I have stopped to photograph live cows - we have a herd close by that wear different tone bells on their necks - quite a choir of sorts. I did not know that a Caesar is a Canadian drink ....................
Hi Lisa,
I have never stayed in a hotel that Donny has stayed at but I truly enjoyed seeing his show in Vegas. He and his sister are so very talented and respcted -- love their career stamina after 45+ years in the business. She is soon launching her own talk show!
I ALWAYS have my friends and family pull over the car when I want to snap a shot - can't pass up that opportunity!!
Thanks for all your posts.
V
Mary-Lou- Tim Horton's are everywhere in Canada. At the factory I was visiting they even had a small shop in the cafeteria. Also I completely agree that Canadian ice wines are wonderful. That is really neat that the farm near you uses different tone bells for different cows. That must sound wonderful!
Veronique- How cool that you got to see Donny Osmond perform! I bet he put on quite a show. That must have been fun! I think I drive people a little nuts when I take so many pictures but I can't help it!
Loved your pic of Donny Osmond!
My best high school friend was Mormon and Donny and his entire family came to her church to give a fireside if I remember that name correctly.
She invited me to go with her and we got to see in the second row of the church.
At any rate, it was an amazing a capella performance and every member of the family also gave a short speech.
It was quite something and their voices were so pure and beautiful.
Kathy- What a special treat to get to see that performance! It sounds awesome!
I was born and raised just on the outskirts of Woodstock on a dairy farm. I currently live in Woodstock Ontario. I never really looked into the history and why Woodstock was called the dairy capital. I currently clean in buildings. I have old photographs and pictures of later days when Woodstock just started to grow. Pictures of cows lined up in the winter time there was no snow in December back in 1938. Can you believe that? I do
We have a cow statue on the main street in Woodstock. We also have a cow statue at our hospital as well as a local food market. Although Woodstock has grown Quickly in the past decade. It still holds fond memories for me. But Woodstock is not the city. I grew up in knowing it has changed a lot, but it still continues to be known as the capital.