Ghost Road, Maple Fire, Zombie Sunset, Sheer Agony, Red Viper . . . sounds a bit like the upcoming season of The Walking Dead, doesn’t it?

But no, these are a few of the 13 varieties of hot sauce available from MissFortuneS Unforgiving Hot Sauces, which are produced in the kitchens of St. Paul’s Anglican Church in Sydenham, by father and son team Erik and Taylor Miazga.

And after about three years in business, there are plenty of signs that they may just be on to something.

“We’re pushing 40 locations (where their sauces are available),” Taylor said.

These include where you might expect in the Frontenacs such as Food Less Travelled, Trousdale’s, Seed to Sausage and Foodland, but they’re also expanded out to Gananoque, Perth, Trenton, Belleville, Kingston.

The hot sauce business isn’t a full-time gig for either of them — yet — but that’s definitely looking like a distinct possibility.

Taylor drives truck for Findlay Foods and through his deliveries, he’s managed to cultivate a network of contacts that’s paying off.

Erik was injured a couple of years ago in a car accident and hasn’t really been able to do other work, but that’s OK, he’s kind of the creative end of the team — both in the kitchen and product development/artwork.

“I used to do a lot of the cooking around home,” he said. “But I’m not one of those who sticks to recipes.”

To that end, he started “experimenting” with red pepper jellies which he would give to friends and families.

“(But) with jellies, you have to put pectin in and I could never really come up with the right consistency.”

So, the natural progression of his culinary art led him to sauces — hot pepper sauces.

But Miazga is definitely his own man, and his philosophy led him to a rather unique product line.

“We’re not out to fry somebody’s face off,” he said. “We start out with a flavour and then add the heat.”

For example, Maple Fire is 30 per cent (“local” maple syrup) with hot pepper added.

“We have 13 flavours, all with their own heat level,” Erik said. “It might be cranberry, sweet & sour, curry or Louisiana style.

“Then we add what peppers, or combination of peppers, we think will work best.”

This isn’t your typical little bottle of Tabasco or Frank’s Red Hot.

MissFortuneS comes in a mickey-sized flask bottle with some of the most unique labelling around.

“People seem to like our labels,” Erik said.

For example, one flavour is “Kamikaze” which features the tag line “to die for.” And then there’s “Asylum Serum” for “when you can’t make up your mind.” That one features artwork of the asylum Lizzie Borden ended up in.

And even though their current product line is doing well, the Miazgas aren’t about to rest on their laurels. They see expansion into marinades, meat rubs and such. They’re also working with restaurants like Mesa Fresca in Kingston to develop house sauces and bulk for places like Gilmour’s who use in in their .38 Special sausages.

“And we’re trying to devise a logo for sway,” Taylor said. “I’d like to see this a full-time thing for sure.

“Right now, I can spend a full day in the kitchen, 10 a.m. to 2 a.m. and then have to work the next day.”

The way things are heating up this grilling season, that could easily be just around the corner.

Looking for something different in the artsy-craftsy-curiosity vein?

There’s a new kid in town in Northbrook for that.

“We try for the unusual, even if it’s only the people,” said owner Karen Anderson at the opening of her new gallery/boutique, The Kuriosity Shop in Northbrook Saturday. “Everything here is local, from local artists and artisans.

“We felt a need for someplace like this and wanted to make it a joining place for the public and artisans.

“Everything is in on consignment.”

Inside, you’ll find everything from paintings, to quilts, to knitted things, to stained glass to repurposed artworks to skin care products.”

You won’t find antiques, however.

“We don’t do antiques,” she said. “Unless they’ve been turned into something else.

“Like a chair turned into a flower pot.”

Or wind chimes made from old cutlery.

There are the works of 28 artists and artisans on display, she said.

She said the building is wheelchair accessible.

The Kuriosity Shop is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily.

For photos of what’s available, Anderson suggests visiting their Facebook page.

“We try to keep it up to date,” she said.

Chad and Nicole Van Camp have owned the Verona Hardware store for 15 years, but they have a way to go to match the longevity of the previous owners.

Ken and Evelyn Harper purchased the store in 1971 and ran it for 33 years. Steven and Victor Merrill, a father and son team, opened the Verona Hardware store in 1929 and ran if for 42 years before selling to the Harpers.

“90 years under only three owners, that’s a pretty good record for continuity in a small-town business,” said Chad Van Camp earlier this week. It wasn’t easy for him to find a lot of time to talk, because it is July and the summer traffic is here.

“It’s a very, hands on business. There is no hiding, people expect to see you, they expect you to have what they need and to be able to bring it in if you don’t have it. Service is everything in this business, and every day is different,” he said.

Just that morning, a call came in from a customer in Toronto, saying his wife was at their cottage with a dead battery in her vehicle.

“Just as our truck was headed out the man phoned back said a neighbour had stopped by and boosted the battery so we didn’t have to. Our truck as going that way anyway on a call, so it wouldn’t have been a problem. When the phone rings, you never know what’s going to happen.”

Since Verona Hardware sells Rona products, Chad feels they can compete on price with stores in Kingston, but as an independent store he is also able to bring in product lines, like outerwear in winter and fishing tackle in the summer, that he can’t get from Rona. And he can provide the kind of service that creates loyal customers.

This Saturday, to mark the 90th anniversary, Verona Hardware is holding a party. The first 100 customers in the store will receive a free 5-gallon Rona pail, and everything they purchase that fits in the pail will be half price. There will be specials throughout the store all day, as well as $10 propane tank fill-ups.

Between 11am and 3pm there is a fundraising BBQ, with all proceeds going to Frontenac Minor Hockey.

“We want to celebrate, and bring people into the store,” said Chad, “it is the summer time, after all.”

Rodger Holden, a resident of Kaladar, has been working day and night to get his showroom in Cloyne (next to Grand’s store across from the Pioneer Museum) ready for his grand opening this week.

The renovated showroom is filled with free standing Wood Stoves an inserts, Pellet Stoves, and BBQ’s, all from top brand name suppliers, such as Pacific Energy, Enviro, Saber, Green Mountain Grills, and Black Olive Grill.

“My intention for this business is to provide the best service I can to my customers. I stand by my products and will make sure they are serviced all year round,” he said.

He comes into this new business venture with varied experience as a pastor, a former Goodyear worker, and as a wood carver.

Since he started carving 28 years ago, he has won top honors in local, regional, national, and international fowl-carving competitions His pieces can take hundreds of hours to complete.

After opening his stove showroom open, he will be setting up a gallery space in a separate room, and in addition to his carvings he will be showing the work of fellow artists as well.

The grand opening of Holden’s Hearth and Home takes place on Saturday, June 29 from 10am – 3pm. There will be a BBQ. Featuring meat from Milligan’s Meats, over the lunch hour.

Customers haven’t really been screaming, but they have been asking, if Limestone Creamery might consider starting to make their own ice cream using the single source milk that they produce and process on their farm, located on the same property as the farm store at the southern edge of Frontenac County on Sydenham Road.

It is a logical extension for a business that has been following a path that started when Kathie and Francis Groenewegen decided to take transition their traditional dairy farm to an organic farm about 20 years ago. Their business has been evolving ever since, particularly once they began processing and marketing their milk themselves.

They sell their own organic milk at a farm store on their property, deliver it to customers living within a reasonable distance from their house, and extend their reach by selling it through selected stores that are located a bit further away, such as Local Family Farms in Verona.

“Our location, it turned out, was ideal, since we can easily deliver to Kingston and our store is located on a busy commuter road for South Frontenac residents,” said Kathie, as a steady stream of customers shopped for milk, fresh baked goods, and a variety of organic products from other local and regional farmers, bakers, jam makers, and others organic producers.

Everything in the store is available for delivery as well for weekly deliveries to Kingston, parts of South Frontenac and into Stone Mills township.

One of the reasons the Groenewegen’s decided to get into the marketing end of the milk business was to make their operation capable of supporting another generation of farmers, as their children Olivia and Patrick were interested in farming.

When they were building their processing facility, the Groenewegen’s talked to the Frontenac CFDC, and they were able to get a grant to cover half the cost of one of the major pieces of equipment that they needed.

The next big project that they are embarking on is to replace their aging barn with a new, open barn. These modern barns eliminate the need to gather cows twice a day for milking as the cows are able to decide when it is time to be milked. With the aide of a little bit of training and the incentive provided by a little bit of grain (the Groenewegen cattle are 94% grass fed, supplemented by peas and corn that are grown organically on the farm) the cows will be able to control the milking, at the same time making life a little less onerous for the farmers who have been waking up for 5am milking duty for generations. It will also be tied to technology, with the cow’s milk production, body temperature, and other information being monitored every time they come in to be milked.

“It will be good for the animals, which is really important to us,” she said.

The larger barn will also allow the farm to reach its capacity of Holstein and Jersey milking cows.

Ice cream is a bit of a side business, but it is also a response to customer demand, and it has involved the purchase of equipment and the necessary approvals from inspectors, and learning new recipes.

“People love ice cream, of course, and they want to be able to eat some that is made from organic cream and other ingredients that are locally sourced, so we are working with Gorr’s Maple Syrup, Fruition Berry Farm on Hwy. 15, and others to develop recipes. And it tastes pretty good. We hope to have our ice cream available later this summer,” she said.

There are a few others who are hoping for that as well, now that the warm weather has hit the region. Even if they are polite, local food lovers, Limestone Creamery customers are at least silently screaming for ice cream.

David Craig starting out his working career as a caterer.

When he realised there was large demand and little supply for mobile kitchens, compact commercial kitchens capable of preparing 1,500 to 2,000 meals per meal time that can be hauled to wherever they are needed, he saw a business opportunity, and jumped into a new venture.

He was living in Inverary at the time, so he set up a facility on a vacant lot on Davidson Road, just south-east of the village, hired a crew and began retro-fitting stock trailers with stainless steel counters, sinks and refrigeration units, stoves and everything else that is needed in a commercial kitchen.

His company. Mobile Kitchens Canada, began leasing the mobile kitchens for short term use, and festivals and other special events, and longer-term use during major renovations to large institutional buildings. FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the United States, heard about his services through other contractors that they use, and that has brought the kitchens, and Craig, to some of the major disaster sites in the United States over the last 15 years.

“We had a fleet of trailers in New Orleans after Katrina, and I went down to set them up and manage them. We had to have a police escort when delivering them because of sniper attacks in the area, which gave me an idea that this wasn’t going to be a job like any other I had been involved with.”

David ended up spending nine months in New Orleans, and since then Mobile Kitchens Canada have supported relief at numerous disasters since then, including in Houston during the major flood there and in Pan Handle of Florida for hurricane relief. They have also been across Canada, most recently during the BC wildfire season last year.

Mobile Kitchens Canada became a very successful enterprise, and a time came when David Craig was planning to pull away from the business and let the staff that he had developed over the years run it for him while he moved into semi-retirement.

Then he took a drive back to Ontario from Florida with his Chief Financial Officer. The hours in the vehicle gave them an opportunity to talk about what David wanted to do, and the conversation came round to a discussion about opportunities.

“I had been frustrated over the years because we always had to fit our mobile kitchens in the stock trailers that were built for us. If we could control the entire process by building custom trailers for ourselves, we could make not only mobile kitchens, but other fully customised trailers for fire departments, emergency services, concert stages, and list goes on” he said, in an interview last week from his office.

The first idea they had was to build standardised trailers in order to have orders in hand when investing in the necessary upgrade to the factory in Inverary.

He made some calls while they were driving and by the time they had made it through the Carolina’s they had commitments from distributors to purchase hundreds of trailers.

“We were in business. What I did not realise was that it was a lot easier to sell that may many stock trailers than it was to build them,” he said.

RTD trailers did not end up in the generic trailer business because the work that they were really interested in doing, creating custom trailers for specialised uses, has consumed the company.

Recently, RTD needed a larger metal bending machine, and just as the Eastern Ontario Development Program (EOCP) was wrapping up, with assistance from the Frontenac Community Futures Development Corporation, they applied for and received one that covered some of the costs of a new machine.

“We are also looking at putting in an application to the new granting for a new piece of machinery that we need,” he said. “the CFDC has been great to work with.

A major expansion which will more than double the size of the manufacturing facility on Davidson road to over 20,000 square feet is in the works. This will give the company the capacity to develop a much better workflow and will lead to an increase in staffing levels.

There are already over 16 full time employees and 9 new positions were created in the last year.

“Once our expansion is complete, we will need even more people. Most of our employees are from the local area, and we will need more skilled workers in the future,” he said.

There seems to be no limit to the amount of business that is open to the company as order outstrip their manufacturing capacity on a regular basis.

“We have always done well in the United States, partly because of the Canadian dollar, but I have to thank Donald Trump for an upswing in demand from Canada. More and more Canadian clients are looking a made in Canada option.”

Leslie Gauer and her husband, Bruce, decided to move to Sharbot Lake from the Hamilton area to open up a bed and breakfast.

They opened The Cottages at Windrush on Sharbot Lake a year ago and have been surprised by the number of visitors they have welcomed who are from far flung corners of the globe.

“We were also surprised how busy we were this past winter,” said Leslie.

Working with other local business owners, Lesley and Bruce have been taken with the energy and range of businesses in Frontenac County and are supporters of the Infrontenac branding initiative as well.

All of this, and the fact that Leslie has always liked the idea of running a small craft store with a good selection of exceptional items, led her to consider opening a gift store with a focus on locally made artisan items for both the local and tourist traffic.

When a small space became available at the high traffic corner of Hwy, 7 and road 38 she grabbed it and Windfall Fine Gifts began to take shape.

Even though it has just opened, the store already has a curated feel to it.

Some of the featured artists are Dave Travers from Hartington, who makes finely crafted folk-art inspired bird houses, and wood worker James Hanley whose small tables and other items are carried. Cards and smaller Batiks from Sarah Hale are available, as well as original work by Judith Versavel. Signs from Backwoods Country Creations, local honey and maple syrup, Perth Soap products and more are available at the store.

Free coffee is in the pot these days as Leslie encourages everyone to check out this new store in Sharbot Lake.

The store is open from Thursday to Sunday at the moment. Summer hours will be coming soon. Contact - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Jim Gilmour tried to retire after closing up his meat shop in Belleville in 2010. But a couple of years later his son Nick approached him to help him when he wanted to open Gilmour’s Meats on Highway 38 in Harrowsmith.

Jim’s been working with his son ever since. They were optimistic that Harrowsmith would be a good location for Gilmour’s, which carries groceries, pre-made meals, local baked goods, and has a popular lunch counter in addition to a full meat shop.

“The rapid growth of the business from the day we opened up, was a surprise to us,” said Nick, when interviewed at the shop last week.

Early last year, the Gilmour’s began working on a new project, a store to be located in a new plaza that will be located on a property they purchased just metres to the north of where Gilmour’s is currently located.

Plans for the new location have developed over time, and Nick says that he is confident that it will be something that “fits well with the local area” as it brings in brand something that will be a step up for food retailing in Frontenac County.

If planning the new location was not enough, a new venture has cropped up for the Gilmour family. In Belleville, where Jim still lives, an opportunity to purchase an existing plaza and open a new location for Gilmour’s presented itself. They jumped on it.

With the new location and the building project on the go, and a busy store getting ready for another summer season, Nick and Jim needed some more help.

That’s where Jordan Gilmour came in. Jordan is Jim’s son and Nick’s older brother. He has been living in Cambridge and working as an engineer for years. He has been involved in project management, among other things, working for a large engineering firm in the golden horseshoe.

“I was ready to move back here and take on a new opportunity,” said Jordan last week, just a few days after moving to Harrowsmith with his wife, Jackie, and their sons Eric and Brock.

Before going to University, Jordan trained in the butcher shop with his dad, and the chance to bring his business and management skills back to the family business, and bring his own family to live in a rural Frontenac setting, was something he could not pass up.

“With the three of us, we can run the two butcher shops and work on the construction project. It gives us the opportunity to build the business as a family, which is the way we have always done things,” said Nick.

“We’ve only been living here for a few days, and we’ve already seen that this is a great community,” said Jordan of the move to Harrowsmith. “The boys started school on Monday and were made very welcome, and through all of the contacts with people that Nick has made through the store, we have been able to connect with all of the services we needed to move in and set up our house.”

“We are going to bring something to Harrowsmith that has never been here before,” said Nick, about the new store project. I don’t want to get into details until everything is finalised, but I can say that it will be a big change for Harrowsmith.”

With all of this happening, it looks like Jim, who just turned 68 last week, won’t be retiring in earnest for a while yet.

Darrel Gerus has been running his contracting business, D&G Total Home Improvements, out of Arden, for the past ten years, but he has been working in the area for about 20 years,

“D & G is a varied construction business. From general construction, yard landscaping and maintenance, to site preparation. We do everything,” said Darrell, in an interview from his home near Arden.

Aside from working on construction jobs throughout Central Frontenac and beyond, Darrel, and his company, have been participating with the Friends of Arden in promoting the services and community activities in Arden and the surrounding lakes.

And the Frontenac CFDC has been with him along the way, providing loans for equipment purchases when necessary, including a loan which enabled D&G to purchase a full-sized truck recently to add to the inventory of equipment that keeps D&G crews busy throughout the construction season.

“For a contractor, a reliable truck is a must.! Being able to get to a job site in all weather conditions, be it pulling a trailer with supplies or a backhoe certainly benefits my company.

“The CFDC has been really helpful. Sue Theriault at the office has been our contact and she’s been great to work with, as have the business officers in the office that we have dealt with over the years,” he said.

With D&G, Darrel is committed to maintaining quality workmanship for all the jobs that the company takes on, and he runs a four-member crew in the construction season each year, employing a mixture of experienced carpenters and younger workers.

“We are always looking for young workers who want to make a start in the construction business. There are lots of opportunities in the market in the skilled trades, including carpentry, and one of the great things about running a company like D&G is that we can provide training in a number of different work environments.

”With the contacts that D&G has developed over the years, Darrel has been moving more into the role of a General Contractor.

“It’s taken me ten years to assemble a group of excellent, very professional, sub-contractors to work with. For new home construction, for example, we can sub-out jobs like the electrical and the plumbing and roofing, and, with our own crew and equipment, it all adds up to a good way to build a house on schedule and with all the proper warranties and insurance in place for customers,” he said.

Having worked with a series of building inspectors over the years, Darrel says that what he appreciates is consistency and clarity from the department.

“They’ve generally been pretty good to work with over the years,” he said. “It’s all part of the process. For us it goes along with being fully licensed and fully insured. We like to keep everything above board.”

Transparency is key for Darrel, which is why he brings copies of all of his documentation with him the first time he meets with a client to look at or quote on a job.

“Anyone with a hammer and a pick-up truck can call themselves a contractor, but that does not mean that the customer will get what they expect at the end of the day. In our case, we take everything into account when we quote on a job, and that includes making a profit.

“What I like about the construction business is that it is a creative way to make a living, it is profitable, and the customer gets a good product that they can enjoy for a long time,” he said.

Beyond that, Darrel also has a favourite kind of job.

“I personally love doing fences and decking,” he said.

“Even though there isn’t that much call for fencing in our region, we have all the equipment to do any kind of fence, even chain link fencing for commercial applications. But we do a lot of decks, of all shapes and sizes.”

To contact D&G, phone 613-583-0146 or email

Clayton Conboy grew up helping his Mom and Dad, Joyce and Mel, make maple syrup each spring. It was a labour-intensive effort, tromping out to the bush, gathering sap from holding tanks around their farm property on Bell Line road, which is off the 509 north of Sharbot Lake, and hauling it to the evaporator to be boiled down into syrup.

Clayton is now 31, and works in Ottawa, but he looks forward to coming home during syrup season. The family syrup operation, which is called Oso Sweet, a play on the former name of the township where their farm is located, has developed significantly over the years.

All of the sap now flows from the bush into a central shed, thanks to a vacuum system. It goes through preliminary filtering, and is then pumped into a 2,800 gallon stainless steel tank that is housed in a new building. The sap then passes into a reverse osmosis machine, where, through the use of air pressure and microfiltration, the sugar content of the sap is tripled. The Conboys bring their sap to 7.5% sugar before sending off it to the wood fired evaporator where it is transformed to maple syrup, precisely 67% sugar. Even elements such as the barometric reading are taken into account. The finished syrup is filtered, graded as golden, amber, or dark and then bottled for sale.

“The best syrup is made from the freshest sap, and with all that we’ve done over the years, when the sap is running well, we can process it into syrup pretty quickly,” said Mel Conboy, in an interview at the farm last Friday, a cool early spring day when the trees “weren’t really hurting themselves to run that much” as Clayton Conboy put it.

The other advantage of the technology that the Conboys have put in place over the last ten years or so, is that instead of boiling well into the night when the sap is running hard, they can be finished and becleaned up by supper time.

“I’m 68,” said Mel, “I don’t need to work until midnight anymore.”

Putting in the reverse osmosis machine cut the boiling time for syrup significantly, saving on wood and lessening the environmental impact of syrup production. But it was not just a matter of buying a machine. It required the construction of a new heated building, which took time and money. When the Conboy’s were ready to make the purchase, they applied for, and received, an Eastern Ontario Development Program grant.

With the cost of the reverse osmosis machine, the building and hydro upgrades, we were very appreciative of the grant that we received from the Frontenac CFDC. It helped fund a project that we had long dreamed of, covering about 10% of the cost. That was a big help,” said Joyce Conboy.

The Conboys are planning still more upgrades, in a constant effort to create an efficient operation that produces consistent, high quality maple syrup.

They purchased a new finish filter machine this year, and in the long term would like to build on to the new building to house their evaporator and bring their entire production into one space. As well, as they increase their capacity to process sap into syrup, they are looking at expanding by tapping some more of their maple. They are already producing as much syrup out of 1,600 taps as they used to produce from 3,000, and by expanding they can start to make more syrup than ever before. But nothing is simple. Even with automation, syrup season is a busy time of year at the Conboy farm. Lined need to be checked, the sugar bush monitored, and the technology has to work in harmony, one malfunction and the entire system is challenged. And the wood for the evaporator doesn’t cut, split, and dry itself.

“We love this time of year. It’s like a breath of fresh air and the end result is uniquely Canadian,” said Joyce.

Oso sweet syrup is available at the farm gate at 2379 Bell Line Road, and in Ottawa through Clayton’s home store. Check their website Ososweetmaple.ca. They are participating in Maple Weekend on April 6 and 7 as well, one of two Frontenac County locations, which are both located on the Bell Line Road.