Thanksgiving Thoughts
I look at this time of year as a time of reflection and that reaches into the new year. Remember Liz's famous ‘annus horribilus' speech of a few Christmas's ago. She talked of all the bad things that happened to her family but the big thing is to not grieve about what happened but to embrace the good and bad and grow from both. I work in the engineering field so I can relate to Liz, but I know it will get better.
I just look to what one vintner said to me this weekend, ‘if this is really bad, I can't imagine the good times'. What does that say: things aren't that bad and maybe the economy will reemerge like the peach blossoms do in the spring and grow to great things.
The good things: the local wine is getting better. I remember when I refused to drink it and now I look forward to it. The quality increase has not been incremental, it's been slightly exponential, and with every new winery, the competition will get everyone into it. Well Friday I went to the licbo to buy wine for Thanksgiving dinner, but decided that I could get better from the county. That is a big sea change.
Local restaurants are slowly getting into the local thing-people tell me of more. There are not nearly enough but hey it's a start
Harrow is starting to look like the hub for the region. I would never have expected this but I see development and that is great. We may start that long change into a post industrial city. Glasgow, Montreal, Pittsburgh and now Liverpool have done this or in the case of Liverpool making the change. Now this doesn't mean that there is no manufacturing, there just isn't as much and artsy/fartsy stuff takes over. Funny as it seems we could end up like an ancient market town where craftsmen dwell and basically go there to be able to sell their goods. Look to artists to settle down there (its cheap) and set up an eclectic buzz. If you laugh at me just go 30 miles to Ann arbor. Seems they have full employment in the economic morass that has left Michigan 50th in the union for jobs. This will be a long term change, but I hope it comes ASAP as we need a break down here.
Seem people from Ohio like it here. I seem to meet them everywhere and they are quite nice. They really like our wine so that will expand the change. Remember they should be our target market along with Michigan and Illinois, and that my friends is a lot of potential customers.
And the last, which is a function of our lousy economy is real estate prices. We have a lot of waterfront and prices which make the people from the center of the universe laugh. Why is this good? Well, if you are an artisan, chef, etc who doesn't have to live in Toronto and who would prosper in a wine region, we may end up as a destination for these people. Take a wartime and ship it Toronto and one looks at 250k for it. Get a nice house in Kingsville, Amherst berg for a lot less and live better. Face it Niagara is very expensive, so we may be a good 2nd choice.
See all is inter- related. We are all related if you go back far enough too. The auto jobs will leave (certainly not all) but we may morph faster as it will be cheaper to start a business here. Breweries, distilleries, and cider mills have/are doing well here, but maybe we can get a boutique distiller. There is a reason Crown Royal is done here along with Canadian Club. Pastry has to be tough, but I see all kinds of potential. We are rich with people and if we can just keep a few or have them come home we will be fine. Gee, I had a though. Just watching the Tigers and what happens if some of the Northern California types come for the away games??? I can't see them not going for some wine. That my friends ‘would be a good thing'.
