Home Grown InFrontenac Festival

Craig Bakay | Sep 20, 2019

Last Saturday was a great day to be a foodie in Frontenac County as The Cheesecakery’s Stephanie Newman hosted a gathering of locally made foods, artisans and businesses along with some special guests to her large spread on Forest Road.

“This is our second one and it’s definitely bigger,” she said. “There are more vendors and more people.”

“It definitely is bigger,” said Frontenac County’s Alison Vandervelde. “And this year, Stephanie did it all herself.

“Last year we were involved helping navigate the red tape, this year, it’s all her.”

Obviously, Newman is interested in finding new markets and customers for her own business, but she also believes that having a network of similar businesses benefits everyone involved.

“My goal is to connect vendors and showcase all the people I’ve met while growing my own business,” she said. “We’re also connecting Kingston with the Frontenacs and showing Kingston customers there are great things here.

“Everything here I know is great because I’ve tried it all before.”

She said now that they’ve got the hang of putting one of these things on, it’s likely to become a yearly event.

“Everyone’s really on board,” she said. “The organizing went great and we’ve even got great weather.”