On October 20 over 125 people from all over Hastings County celebrated Creative Hastings at a Harvest Hastings Supper. The idea behind Creative Hastings was to showcase some of the people and organizations that are driving the growth of Hastings County’s creative rural economy. But we wanted to go beyond Richard Florida and the creative class. We wanted to make sure that we recognized the creative and innovative things that people were doing on the many farms across the county. That is how the Harvest Hastings Supper and Creative Hastings came together. It was a perfect opportunity to talk about the creative rural economy, highlight the creativity of Hastings County’s farmers, and taste some of the food that is grown right in our backyards.

The Lazy John Band kicked the evening off with some toe-tapping bluegrass music inspired by the “salt-of-the-earth” people who make Hastings County go. Local caterers Doug and Helen Turpin cooked up a delicious meal that featured some of the best ingredients Hastings County has to offer – roast beef from Maples Farms of Stirling, pork from Haanover View Farms in Shannonville, potatoes from Murphy Farms in Tweed, Maple Dale cheese from Plainfield, Ivanhoe Cheese horseradish, locally-baked apple pies with Northern Spy apples from Russett Orchard at Wellman’s Corner, Stirling Creamery butter balls, and organic herbal teas from Porcupine Creek Farm in Stirling.

The stories of creativity came after dinner. Kevin Durkin, founding chair, spoke about the Harvest Hastings initiative, which showcases the creativity of the agricultural community in Hastings County. Mark Donnan of Donnandale Farms talked about how his progressive dairy farm in Stirling is on the cutting edge of alternative energy production in Ontario, by producing biogas from manure through the process of anaerobic digestion. Bonnie Marentette described the efforts of the Tweed and Area Arts Council in converting the 145 year old Marble Church in Actinolite into a community Arts Centre. John and Nancy Hopkins revisited some of the stories and photographs that have showcased what Hastings County’s creative rural economy is all about in their Country Roads Magazine. And lastly, Shane Crumb from the Lazy John Band spoke about his experiences making music and finding inspiration from all around Hastings County.

In the end, Creative Hastings was about, to steal the tagline from County Roads magazine, Discovering Hastings County. There are people doing new and exciting things all across Hastings County in agriculture, tourism, publishing, the arts, and many more areas. There are many more creative stories to be told, new projects underway, exciting flavours being planted, and innovative business ideas being developed. Our county is as diverse as it is large, so I encourage everyone to grasp the opportunity to discover more about the creative people in Hastings and come out to one of the upcoming Creative Hastings events and share your creative rural economy experiences.

The next Creative Hastings events are November 30 at 7p.m. at the Marmora and Lake Municipal Building, Marmora and December 1 at 6 p.m. at the Fish & Game Club, Bancroft. For more information or to RSVP, please email register [at] hastingscounty [dot] com.