Sandhill Creek Tulip Fest — Wednesday-Monday, May 13-18 | 10 AM-7 PM | Sandhill Creek Flower Farm, Hepworth

If you've never seen 350,000 tulips blooming at once, this is the week. Sandhill Creek's flower farm just outside Hepworth is open every day this long weekend, with four acres of tulips planted in long ribbon-rows that look unreal in person. Pick your own bouquet on the way out for $1.50 a stem. Last entry at 6pm.

Essentially Lavender — Season Opens — Friday, May 15 | 9 AM-5 PM | 1379 Concession 10, Teeswater

Bill and Cathy Kirk's lavender farm wakes up for the season Friday. It's an 1869 homestead in the Teeswater hills, with a boutique full of small-batch lavender soaps, lotions, balms, honey, teas, and lavender plants you can take home for your own garden. The blooms peak later in summer, but the season-opener weekend is a quiet way to get out there before the crowds find them.

A Taste of Summer — May 16-18 | 10 AM-9 PM Sat, 11 AM-3 PM Sun | Queen Street, Kincardine

Brand new festival, first year ever. Queen Street gets busy for three days with local food vendors, downtown merchants, and a long weekend excuse to wander the main drag. Saturday runs all day into the evening. Sunday is the brunch-and-stroll version. If the long weekend doesn't have a plan yet, here's one.

The store opens for the season this Friday. If you've never made the drive to Big Bay, this is the weekend.

It's been on this corner since 1862. Sits on Colpoy's Bay east of Wiarton, with a pier the locals jump off all summer.

The ice cream is the main event. Made on site, real ingredients, no artificial colours. They run a rotating book of more than 120 flavours with 24 in the case at any given time. If you've got a flavour idea, you can email or text it in and they'll make it. Not a marketing line. That's how they do it.

There's pizza and grilled cheese coming out of the kitchen too. And the rest of the store is what you'd hope a 160-year-old general store would be. Local jams, pies, maple syrup, candles, and shelves that feel like stepping back in time.

Pack the family in the truck, follow the bay, and end the day with a double scoop on the dock.

250854 Big Bay Side Rd, Wiarton. Opens Friday.

Our Community Calendar covers Grey & Bruce Counties. It’s a large area, so if we missed an event we are sorry, we will do better next time!

This week's calendar is a beast. A taste festival in Kincardine, the WODL drama festival in Hanover, three farmers markets opening, a tulip fest in full bloom, World Fiddle Day, and Symply Skynyrd at Blue Mountain. We moved it to its own page so the email doesn't break your phone.

Tap the button for the full lineup.

There's a restaurant in a turn-of-the-century home in Southampton that
roasts its own coffee, smokes its own salmon, and
hand-rolls every pizza.

Head Chef Hodgkins is the engine. He's doing the kind of from-scratch work most kitchens stopped pretending to do years ago. Boils his own stocks. Mixes his own vinaigrettes. Cures and smokes the salmon in house. Pastry Chef Sawyer shows up at 5am to bake muffins, scones, quiche, and cakes before the doors open.

The coffee is roasted on site, light to full-bodied, served beside
breakfast or sold by the bag to take home. The butter tarts have quietly
won awards.

The food itself is what they call simple and contemporary, leaning hard
on Bruce County's seasonal best. Pasta, salads, soups, pizzas, and a
menu that changes with what's good that week.

The building does its part too. Two outdoor balconies look straight out
over Lake Huron, and the dining rooms still feel like the home this used
to be.

Patio weather is finally here. This is the move.

There's a Beaver Valley orchard where the founder spent 30 years at a
desk before he ever pressed a single apple.

He toured a few Ontario cider houses, fell down the rabbit hole, and
started experimenting in his basement with 1,600 lbs of apples bought
from a Beaver Valley neighbour. By his second or third batch, one of his
ciders took home a Gold Medal at GLINTCAP, an international cider
competition out of Michigan. The judges told him to go commercial. He
listened.

In 2016 the family bought a farm just south of Thornbury that used to be
part of an old commercial apple operation called Major Perkins. A
blight wiped most of those trees out about 60 years ago and the land sat
fallow for decades.

In the spring of 2020, he and his sons hand-planted 1,700 heritage cider
apple trees into the untilled fields with a one-man auger. 29 different
varieties, some of which don't exist anywhere else in Grey County.

The ciders ferment with wild yeast straight out of the air. No
commercial yeast. No sulphites. Nothing rushed. The Spruce of the Bruce
uses spruce tips foraged from the property. The Wildflower uses
chamomile that grows wild in the meadows. There's even a small apiary on site. The bees are part of the project.

The orchard-side bottle shop is open for the season. Tastings Thursday
through Monday, noon to 5pm, or by appointment.

788171 Grey Road 13, The Blue Mountains.

Know a hidden spot that you want to share? Reply to this email and let us know!

If one of today’s events sparks a little adventure, hit reply and tell us how it went, we love hearing your stories.

Forward the Buzz: Know a friend who’s always asking, “What’s happening this weekend?” Pass this email along and help them get in the loop.

Catch you next Tuesday with a fresh batch of local events, hidden gems, and small-town surprises.

Stay curious,
— Cody & The GB Buzz Team