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Rurban – When a Rural Area has Urban Culture

Contributed by Dan Taylor, Economic Development Office.

Rurban, a succinct but relatively obscure word, is generally defined as a rural area with a je ne sais quoi sort of urban flair to it. Urban Dictionary defines rurban as I understand it… “A rural or small town dweller who adopts an urban lifestyle. You live in the country, but you own no cows. You have all of the piped-in, cable-driven commercial needs as your rural brethren, but with far less concrete.”

The new Prince Edward County is a rurban blend of old loyalist heritage, classic rural Ontario agricultural country charm, with newly arrived wineries, artisan cheese and an urban influence of creative class thinkers, cafés serving cappuccino, art house films, fusion jazz and more.

Once off the beaten path, Prince Edward County is undergoing a rural renaissance where Volvo driving urbanites seeking organic heirloom veggies and heritage breeds, are mixed with parking lots full of pick up trucks at church suppers.

When Andrew Mackenzie of Buddha Dog tossed out the word #rurban on twitter a few weeks back I was smitten as I understood what it meant immediately. When describing the TASTE! event, as an example of our rurban transition, I have always described it as an event with urban flair in a rural environment.

Many newcomers here are urbanites, living fairly urban lives and lifestyles in this rural enclave. This is what rurban meant to me. Interestingly there appears to be several meanings. Word Spy says it combines aspects of both rural and urban or suburban life. Answers.com defines rurban as a rural area on the über out skirts of Urban and Suburban, as per the illustration at the top of this article.

I am sure some people may not like the term, what do you think and what does rurban mean to you?

Prince Edward County is an exciting and vibrant rural area with a mix of urban culture and country charm, if you are interested in relocating to Prince Edward County give me a call, I’d love to talk to you about it 613-476-2148.

Tags: Buddha Dog, rural, Rurban, urban
Comments (7) | Posted over two years ago by Dan Taylor

Community Eats Tamworth Pork Hot Dogs Together to Break a World Record!

Contributed by Karin Desveaux-Potters, EDO, Gastronomy Cluster

Buddha Dog is celebrating their 5th Anniversary with a Heritage Pig Out to champion our Canadian Pork Producers! Details below…

“On Canada Day, we’re inviting our loyal fans and everyone interested in supporting local agriculture to join us, one hotdog at a time. On July 1st, we’ll attempt to set a world record for the most hotdogs eaten by as many people simultaneously. Imagine our Main Street filled with proud Canadians raising and gobbling a handmade, Blaine Way heritage Tamworth Buddha Dog for a great cause.

We’re inviting our partners from farms, dairies, restaurants, inns, government, education and the people that simply love a good hotdog, to come to Elizabeth Street in Picton on Canada Day at 1PM to register and get ready for the big event at 2PM. After the Pig Out, enjoy the Canada Day celebrations complete with BBQs, cake and fireworks.

Kaitlin Kiss will lead us in singing the National Anthem then we’ll countdown to the chowdown and see if the good people from Guinness will recognize our community’s effort to put the County and Canadian Pork in their World Record Book! Funds raised from each $5 registration will be used to support our youth in agriculture. Email, Tweet (#buddhadogpigout), Facebook and call your friends and family to be part of our 5th Anniversary Pig Out to thank our local producers and enjoy one delicious afternoon celebrating Canada.
Register now*! Bring your $5, your appetite and your enthusiasm on July 1st to downtown Picton.

Buddha Dog “Making you one with everything”

*Please note – we are asking you to register online so we know to prepare for your participation. The $5 fee to participate will be collected onsite – please bring cash with you!

For more information please contact Andrew Mackenzie at mac@buddhafoodha.com or (416) 451-3162″

Tags: #buddhadogpigout, Blaine Way, Buddha Dog, Canada Day, Canadian Pork Producers, Heritage Pig, Kaitlin Kiss, World Record
Comments (1) | Posted over two years ago by Karin Desveaux-Potters

#internationalpigday

In like a lion, out like a…pig? Yes indeed! March 2010 marked the first #internationalpigday that quickly became Pig Month here in Prince Edward County.

Diversity is the Way To Go “It’s terrible. If I didn’t have a little bit of everything, I wouldn’t be able to still survive. At one time, they said we had to be bigger, but now diversity is the safer way to go.”

-County Farmer Blaine Way on the state of the pork industry right now. He is hopeful that initiatives like International Pig Day celebrations next month will help create opportunities to sell his product locally since the bottom has fallen out of the export market.

(QUOTE OF THE WEEK: Picton Gazette, February 26, 2010)

On Monday February 22, 2010 a group of local pig farmers, processors, promoters and media gathered at Buddha Dog on Main Street Picton for the announcement of the first annual International Pig Day in Prince Edward County. Buddha Dog is working with local pig farmer Blaine Way of Milford and Ted Aman of Aman’s Abattoir in Wellington to create their first “Pork Dog”; the dog was sampled at the event and was a smash hit. Also included in Buddha Dog’s Pork Dog feature was Black River cheddar, an apple/onion chutney by local chef Michael Potters and Sage Buns Pastry House Bakery proprietor Peter Grendel.

Local Pork board director Oliver Haan was in attendance, saying that without the support of local food initiatives in conjunction with direct marketing and sales that pig farming would not survive.

Based on media interest from Toronto writers (generated through the Social Media network of the EDO and Ontario Culinary Tourism Alliance Executive Director Rebecca LeHeup), a second press conference was scheduled at the Toronto Buddha Dog location three days later.

The Toronto event was also well attended with over 15 members of the press who showed up to sample the dog and hear the story about pork in Prince Edward County. They were directed to video streams of the Picton event that were immediately uploaded to the PEC Youtube channel to see and hear what our producers and processors had to say about Pig Day.

Recognizing opportunity to stimulate economic growth is the primary responsibility of an Economic Development Office (EDO); these opportunities can often manifest in exciting, cutting edge ways. As the world moves toward a new era of Social Media networking, PEC’s EDO Team is making it a top priority to understand and utilize this technological opportunity to destroy barriers of geographic distance and bring the various messages of local business to the desired markets. The Pig Day Media Release and Press Days were a prime example of the power of Social Media tools to get a message to the desired audiences quickly.

Twitter is a Social Media platform where businesses and individual connect and “tweet” communicate with one another using a series of short messages. It was the tool EDO used to gauge interest in celebrating Pig Day upon Dan Taylor’s return from an investment attraction mission where he got the idea from US contacts. The response from the Twitter world was positive and strong, prompting local business owner Andrew Mackenzie of Buddha Dog to connect with Blaine Way to acquire a pig and Ted Aman of Aman’s Abattoir to create Buddha Dog’s first ever Pig Dog. Recognizing this as an opportunity to tell the story of local pork producers using value add products as a way to make pork farming viable, EDO immediately set in motion the Pig Day Media Days. The rest unfolded naturally.

The objective of these efforts is to draw attention to the value add opportunities and encourage stakeholders to work together to dream up opportunities that can transform ag-related products into financially viable business models. The pig dog is one example of an effective value-add use of pork, but countless others remain untapped including salami, various sausages and specialty bacon products.

Having accessed funding dollars through Savour Ontario, the EDO is organizing a pig roast on Tuesday, March 30 as a part of the annual Harvestin’ Farmer-Chef Meet and Greet. The meet and greet is an opportunity for chefs to make direct connections with local farmers and facilitate buying locally grown. Pig farmers will be featured prominently at this event, as will other kinds of farmers; a new addition this year at the meet and greet will be wineries, the County’s newest kind of farm.

Local business owners can learn more about the power of Social Media and how t access it at a series of free, brown-bag lunches called #SMBB hosted every Friday by the EDO in the large boardroom on the second floor of The Edward Building, 280 Main Street, Picton.

Rurban – When a Rural Area has Urban Culture

Community Eats Tamworth Pork Hot Dogs Together to Break a World Record!

#internationalpigday

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