It is truly a delight for me when I have the time to enjoy Sunday brunch with friends. Starting with a selection of breakfast pastries, baked fresh that morning, croissants, scones, fruit danishes; just waiting for a pad of butter and a dollop of raspberry jam. Breakfast pastries are my favourite, especially when I have the time to sit and enjoy them.
I was thrilled to learn that the Muskoka Food Coop was offering Sunday Brunch a couple of weekends in December. Seating was limited, and dates filled quickly, but I was able to reserve a spot for two on their first seating last Sunday.
If you haven’t been, the Muskoka Food Coop has opened at 1 Crescent Road, Huntsville; the main level at The Hub. A community-owned not-for-profit grocery store, and café. Open Monday through Saturday, the grocery store features local meats, produce, and eggs. The café features locally roasted coffee, a selection of local craft beers, and a breakfast-lunch menu that changes daily with a selection of home-made soup, stews, wraps, bagels, and salads made with local produce.
A recent addition to the Uproot café team is Chef David Kealey, known from his recent time in the kitchen at Café Wilgress. Chef Kealey’s designed a Sunday brunch menu inspired by many of the local farms and producers’ seasonal offerings available at the Food Coop.
All of the guests were seated around a beautiful live edge table in the café and offered a choice of Muskoka Roastery organic AKI coffee, or a chai tea made with oat milk. The first course was a selection of diced fresh fruits served along with a raspberry scone and one of the Food Coop’s signature sunrise muffins.
Our second course was a choice of a micro-green salad, beet and pear salad, or Soba noodles. I love beets, especially this time of year, so I went with the dish described as Roasted Midlothian Farm red beets, Santosha Farm squash, pear, Best Ever nuts & seeds, pomegranate molasses on Croxall Farm greens. Which didn’t disappoint!
The third course was a choice from a selection of eggs benedicts, omelets, Huevos Bosque, or ricotta pancakes. Like breakfast pasties, my favourite breakfast to eat out is eggs benedict, so I had to choose this entree. Although, the ricotta pancakes sure came a close second. I chose the eggs benedict, served with sweet potato latkes instead of traditional English muffins, mixed with wilted greens and nutmeg infused caramelized red onion, poached Gamble farm eggs, and house-made hollandaise sauce made with Thornloe grass-fed butter.
The final course, dessert, was the perfect ending to this brunch. A choice of apple & pear Tarte Tatin, rhubarb upside-down cake, or Sunrise Heirloom Farm Carrot Cake. A lover of my dessert a la’ mode I chose the apple & pear Tarte Tatin, but to go, so I could enjoy later in the day when I wasn’t so full!
Muskoka Food Coop’s General Manager, Kelli Ebbs, and Chef Kealey did an amazing job organizing their first Sunday Brunch at the Food Coop. The next seating was arriving as we finished up and were in for a pleasant surprise.
