HCPM26: Belmore Maple Syrup Festival Committee serving up breakfast at match

BY SCOTT STEPHENSON

A day at the Huron County Plowing Match (HCPM) starts early, and it doesn’t take long for visitors and competitors alike to build up a hearty hunger. Those lucky enough to attend the traditional Friday morning breakfast are in good hands, as this year’s meal will be prepared by an elite team with a lot of experience feeding hungry crowds.

 

That’s right, the Belmore Maple Syrup Festival Committee (BMSFC) will be travelling from Huron-Bruce’s favourite hamlet with a heart to serve breakfast at the match on Aug. 21. In addition to all the morning meal staples, the BMSFC will be bringing along decades of volunteer experience and, of course, plenty of locally-sourced maple syrup for the annual agricultural celebration.”
The Citizen sat down with committee chair Marilyn Ashley to learn a little more about how this sweet opportunity came together. It all started when members of the Huron County Plowmen’s Association (HCPA) struck out in search of a suitable community group to take on the breakfast. “They’d had somebody else maybe lined up, but they just weren’t able to get enough volunteers for the breakfast,” Ashley recalled. “So, Joan Vincent contacted Ellen Underwood, because she’s in charge of the Belmore Catering Group. Ellen reached out to me, and I reached out to some of the BMSFC members.”

 

After attending a planning meeting to learn more about the event, the committee decided to commit. “We decided we’d give it a go,” she told The Citizen. “We were invited to Nelson Underwood’s, to learn more about what it would entail, and now we’re moving forward with it. The response from the rest of the committee has been great - we’re always up for doing events to raise money for Belmore!”

 

Fundraising efforts at events like the Belmore Maple Syrup Festival (BMSF) and the HCPM helps to support the local community year round. “Everything we do supports our arena,” she explained. “It’s all run by volunteers and with the income we generate from the maple syrup festival and other events.”

 

While preparing breakfast for hordes of hungry guests might seem like a daunting undertaking, the BMSFC remains utterly undaunted. “There’s a lot of planning, but we have a lot of experience,” she pointed out. “We’ve been doing this for over 50 years.”

 

Over that long history, this crew of syrup-slingers have developed a tried-and-true approach to organizing large events. “I always say the festival is a well-oiled machine,” she declared. “Doing an event like the plowing match is pretty easy for us, compared to the festival - we just have to gather all our equipment, take it to the site, and set-up in a way that works for us.”

 

For Ashley, volunteering at the BMSF has been a lifelong tradition. “I’ve never missed a festival,” she pointed out. “I’ve probably been volunteering for 40 years, or more… I remember being there as a kid, running around and having fun with my family and friends. Our cousins would come. It’s always been like a reunion every year - I have family and relatives who come from a distance every year just to enjoy the festival.”

 

Although this will be her first time attending the HCPM, this won’t be Ashley’s first festival of the furrow - she was at the 1978 International Plowing Match in Wingham. “The Belmore ladies catered one of the main food tents,” she recollected. “I remember getting on a school bus early in the morning and going to the plowing match to help in the catering tent. That was a big undertaking for Belmore."

 

As preparations continue, she is grateful for the support the committee has received from the Plowing Match organizers. “I’d like to thank the plowing match committee for inviting us to participate,” she said. “They've done a lot of work to help us get prepared by sourcing supplies and arranging donations of products we'll use for the breakfast.”

 

Visitors can expect the kind of special breakfast the BMSF is known for, with maple syrup taking its rightful place as the star of the show.  It will also feature sausage from a longtime community partner - Wingham’s own Green’s Meat Market. “They’re a great supporter of Belmore - when we do any catering in Belmore, we get all our meat products from Green’s. They supply the sausage for the festival every year, so you can expect it will be very good!”

 

As an agricultural community, Belmore has always valued opportunities to support local farming events, and the HCPM is no different. “This is a way for us to give back, support agriculture, promote our festival, and promote Belmore,” Ashley said. “For me, it’ll be interesting all the way around, because I’ve never been to a county match, and just being there with our community and our friends from Belmore will be fun. Doing breakfast is always fun!”