Four days a week, co-owners Hannah Harradine and Joel Gray tend the land surrounding their red-brick century home — planting, harvesting and preserving. For the remaining three, they welcome guests with bountiful hospitality — a sip fireside, a hello to the chickens, an exploration of the gardens. Then come the first small bites from the kitchen. Spring might bring a shattering croustade of cultured cream, Japanese knotweed, leeks and mustard. When warm enough, tables are set on the deck. Otherwise, dinner continues indoors. A single seating of 16 guests spills across three main-floor rooms. Gray cooks within arm’s reach of the coveted chef’s counter. Harradine adroitly runs the room and guides the wines — all Canadian, favouring small producers, and marked up reasonably. The 10-course tasting menu is shaped by what is ready, either from their own farm or others in their local Grey County (about two hours north of Toronto). Whole grilled Arctic char, stuffed with green alder catkins and spruce tips, carries a thread of smoke. Brilliant Meadows Farm Pekin duck breast roasted over blackcurrant wood sits glossy beside a quail Scotch egg (the duck leg made into its sausage). The singular constant is one of the desserts — Gladys’ molasses cookies, a family recipe.

Owners Hannah Harradine and Joel Gray.

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Owners Hannah Harradine and Joel Gray.

You’ll never forget your Down Home experience.” Natalie Goldenberg-Fife