The Sweet Potato is A Cut Above!

Andrea Bruce and Joey Yagminas have a sweet dream.





As every good entrepreneur knows when you have a dream, you simply lay out your goals and objectives and start knocking down your list. Theirs goes like this - open one Sweet Potato chip stand in Carp (completed April 2008), then open a few more Sweet Potato franchised chip stands (planning now) around the Ottawa area, and eventually open their own restaurant.

When they do open that restaurant we should all get reservations on opening night, because I just had some of the best side dishes and starters I have had in a while. The Sweet Potato namesake is the literally one of the best plates of fries I have had in a long time. Their particular flavour of sweet bright orange goodness is big on flavour, short on the bad fats, and their homemade chipotle mayo dip is good enough that you kind of want to clean out the little bowl with your finger when you're done.

And they make some berry healthy choices at the Sweet Potato. My blackberry, goat cheese and raspberry vinagrette salad was very tasty - and you have to admit that there aren't very many (none) chip trucks that serve you up a gourmet salad. Also on the menu are smoked meat sandwiches and a few other tasty unexpected treats.

I had a chance to talk to them about the Sweet Potato on video. Watch it below. Special thanks to Sawyer Watson, my most excellent cameraman, checking his new camera out for this interview and who thinks the Sweet Potato fries are the "best in the world".



After you are done watching the Overlay.TV video and clicking on the links you will want to stroll, drive, bike, horseback or stroller down to 405 Donald B Munro Drive in Carp and get your hands on a Sweet Potato fry. Or you can contact them at 613.266.2634 or by email to thesweetpotato (at) sympatico (dot) ca .

Vote for your favourite movies for Carp Fair Drive-In Movies

You can now vote for which movies you want to see in the Carp Fair Drive-In Movie night. Vote here - http://www.carpfair.ca/fairinformation/driveinmovies.htm - for your favourite movies from the following list:
- HappyFeet
- ET
- Open Season
- Over the Hedge
- Dreamer
- Charlottes Web
- Jaws
- Superman 3

The winning movies will be announced here and will appear at the Carp Fair Drive-In Movie Nights on August 13 and 27.

Carp Fair Website Up To Date!

The Carp Fair website is all locked and loaded. Registration, entertainment, concessions and more are now update. Take a browse to start dreaming about or planning your trip to the fair. Leave comments here if you want to see something different or more!

http://www.carpfair.ca

Feels like summer in Carp

The flowers are up, the river is down, the kids are playing in the creek and the dog is sleeping on the grass - I know its almost a month away but it definitely feels like summer to me.

Last weekend we had a huge breakthrough (literally). For a couple years now we have been attempting to navigate from the east to the west across the Carp Ridge on mountain bikes, ATVs and other wheeled devices - we have been turned around, gotten lost, gotten stuck, gotten wet and never actually made it through at all.

Well - it appears if you hang a left at the big rock, navigate down the small cliff over the dead trees, then wade or spin your way through the abandoned beaver dam at the halfway point, that you can actually make it through. Bring a winch though, because I got buried past the fenders and it took about half an hour to get it out.

The only disappointing thing is that when you finally get around Hidden Lake you run smack into a big construction site that poses it's own unique challenges for navigation. But, we love it here, so it follows that more and more people would want to live in Carp, so we don't really mind having to hop, skip and jump through the rock and dirt piles. :-)

Carp Fair - That's A Wrap!!!

Awesome weekend of sun and fun at the Carp Fair in Carp, Ontario...we all had a blast and it was packed with events, music, rides, games, shows, exhibits, and more. I think everyone who attended would agree that the saddest thing is having to wait a whole year before we can do it all again! Pictures and more posted online at www.carpfair.ca

The Carp Fair is X sleeps away...

Just wanted to let everyone know that the Carp Fair website is finally finished, and that there are some pretty big changes from the site you knew in previous years. In addition to creating a very easy-to-use and logical navigation for the site, we also added a ton of new features, including:

• Forms for registration in all fair classes, including heavy horse, light horse, sheep, cattle, homecraft and more.
• Forms for sponsorship and concession booths
• Slideshows from previous years and special events
• A newsletter subscription offering to get regular updates from the fair
• Revised fair calendar, maps, directions and more to find the fair

Take a look at the new Carp Fair site, and let me know what you think.

Maybe we have to really BUY the Village Green...

So it would appear that our work to "Buy the Village Green" as part of a non-profit, user-driven, consortium of loosely coupled villagers may not actually work out.

The Honeywell family, well within their right to do so, are proceeding with the rezoning for at least the first part of the land.

I have a suggestion that I am going to throw out there. What if, rather than doing it through fundraising, non-profit style, we actually create a coop and come together and actually buy some of the rezoned land and maintain it. Here are some proposed uses for the land under this scenario:
- public gardens - thanks Jake Hunt, for your awesome suggestion to have a space where we could start public gardens. A small plot for each of the coop members used as a public garden would allow the villagers to really "go local" on things like produce etc..
- economuseum - yes this was in the original plan for the Village Green but it was pretty cloudy as to who that would be and what would happen and when or if it would ever happen
- park space - I would be more than happy to donate part of my coop share for public use. I think this brings up insurance and liability issues - probably all of this does - but I am sure that these are not insurmountable.

It really is too bad that no big donors other than the Carp Agricultural Society tipped in over the 5 figure mark. That could have made all the difference, and would definitely have been a great investment in a lasting legacy for the "green investor". But seriously considering the coop model, I am wondering if I am not actually on to a better investment scenario. If you decided to leave the village or lost interest in your share, or didnt keep it up properly, then it could be sold.

There are thousands of examples of things like this working.

For the record, I am COMPLETELY supportive of the Buy The Village Green model, and I spent a lot of hours trying to make this work. Now I am worried that the opportunity will slip through our collective fingers. There is $40K there already and that could be allocated towards the "public portion" of the coop. The rest would be up to the best of Carp...I mean you.

Comment. I will push this forward if I get more than two positive responses.