This 10-course tasting menu is worth an overnight stay in Grey County

Farm-to-table. Sustainable. Nose-to-tail. It’s all starting to sound a bit samey. While I love and appreciate the commitment to local sourcing, the language can feel nebulous — especially when you’re experiencing it from a dining room in snowy downtown Toronto. This year, I’ve decided to level up and seek out the table-on-a-farm movement wherever possible.

Down Home, a restaurant offering a multi-course tasting menu in Markdale, is the perfect place to start. I’d heard rumblings about this charming farm in the rolling countryside of Grey County, helmed by Joel Gray and Hannah Harradine. The pair first launched Sumac and Salt, a pop-up that partnered with local farms to create seasonal, intimate dining experiences, before opening Down Home in 2022.

Though it’s set up like a home — guests wind up an unlit backcountry road to reach the farmhouse restaurant — it isn’t the Gray and Harradine's actual residence. Still, it was important for the couple to create a space that reflects the rural, truly seasonal nature of the menu. No matter the time of year, every diner is greeted on the back porch and given a tour of the open hearth — longer or shorter depending on the weather — which the kitchen uses for every service.

The dining room, which seats just 16 people, is spread across three areas: a large communal table, a cluster of smaller ones in a cozy fireside nook, and the chef’s counter, where the kitchen team turns out intoxicatingly fragrant dishes from the oven. From my perch, I watch the chefs prep and plate, but it doesn’t feel like the usual fine-dining aquarium. Instead, Gray and the team chat with us about the food, asking questions and sharing stories in turn.

Many of the ingredients are grown or foraged right here on the farm. Plums are fermented, potato buns are baked and the arctic char is kissed with charcoal when grilled over the fire. What can't be made on site is sourced locally from producers like Brilliant Meadows Duck, and cheese from Secret Lands Farms. 

The menu balances whimsy with Michelin-level finesse. A miso soup to kickstart our appetite is poured into cups from a copper kettle; at our table, a rich, mouthwatering sauce is ladled over perfectly cooked duck from a saucepan just like the one your grandmother had.

The molasses cookies that cap off our incredible meal come from a family recipe, the handwritten version sitting right in front of me on the counter beside a bobblehead of the Michelin mascot, Bibendum — a poignant symbol of nostalgia meeting the future.

I upgrade my multi-course meal to include a local wine pairing, a reminder of the breadth of Ontario's grapes. Down Home's sommelier walks us through pours from Rosewood and other Ontario makers, highlighting the province’s range from zippy sparkling wine to expressive pinot noirs from Rosewood Winery.

You could do the four-hour roundtrip, but Down Home deserves a moment — not a drive home in the dark. There are a few accommodation options in Markdale, including Danby House, a cozy countryside retreat just an eight-minute drive away. I stay overnight at the newest outpost of The June Motel in Beaver Valley, where cozy paisley patterns and lodge-chic touches meet an easy, riverside calm.

Our meal in the depths of Canadian winter was fantastic, but I can't wait to hang out in the garden in the summer months and sample Down Home's bounty all over again.

The tasting menu is $190 pp, downhomerestaurant.com