The 2026 Longest Barbecue in Elora brought thousands of hungry visitors to the small community. The annual event stretches all through the downtown core, packed with barbecues and food vendors showing off their best ingredients sourced across Canada. “It’s a great environment. There’s lots of smoke in the air. Smelling everybody else’s food, tons and tons of people walking through. It’s great to see excitement about food, about Canadian food, about local food, and to be able to share just what we do,” Jon Rennie, Co-founder, odd duck | wine & provisions said. “It’s always a blast. Brings a lot of people together,” Sean Mills, Head Chef, Handsome Devil Bistro said. The event is a kickoff for Food Day Canada on Saturday, a nation-wide celebration supporting local farmers and encouraging shopping local, cooking and dining Canadian. “Mom started, Anita Stewart, started the Food Day Canada here in Elora in 2003, and we started this event to pay tribute to her when she passed in 2021. And it’s grown and grown and grown, and it’s now become what we think is the biggest local food event in Canada,” Jeff Stewart, Executive Director, Food Day Canada said. “It also supports our local farmers because at the end of the day, all of this right here is local farms, local meats, local produce, and all of that comes back to supporting our community.” “Everybody wants to participate. The chefs want to participate. The farmers, the butchers want to participate, and the public because you know what? Anita Stewart and Food Day Canada stands for cooking, shopping and dining Canadian. And to get to sit around a table outside on a gorgeous day in Elora, we get to share food together and there could be nothing better,” Christine Couvelier, Chair of the Board, Food Day Canada. Kitchener based odd duck | wine & provisions was participating in the event for the first time, featuring ingredients all sourced locally in Ontario. “Got ducks that are from Dundalk County. I’ve got Noki Farms mushrooms. They are from Guelph. And then a fair amount of herbs, they’re from some of our local farms, Fertile Ground Farms and Alexander’s farm. And then our crackers we made with Arva Mills flour. And then local goose berries as well, foraged by our forager,” Rennie said. One of the unique spots not barbecuing was the oyster shucking bar that was also serving up seafood from across Canada. “Miss Anita Stewart was a fantastic person to introduce us all to that idea of Canadiana. And we’re following through showcasing on the ocean side, we have some gorgeous Raspberry Point oysters coming out of New London Bay, Prince Edward Island, and then we’re showcasing Fogo Island Atlantic shrimp. I don’t know if you ever knew that we had shrimp in the Atlantic up in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, on Fogo Island in Newfoundland, and that’s the little baby shrimp that you see right here, but fantastic stuff. It’s like gorgeous and fresh and delicious,” Patrick McMurray, World Champion & Guinness Book of Records Oyster Shucker said. “We have great food. And it’s in our area, so we want to stay sustainable. You lower your carbon footprint by supporting our own. Keeps some money in the area as well. Not just Elora, but also to the Maritimes of Canada, to British Columbia, wherever the oysters are coming from or your other food. So, it’s really supporting your own and getting that type of thing going on.” “Support local business, support local restaurants and also support local music,” Mills said. While the barbecue wrapped up on Tuesday night, Food Day Canada is on Saturday, where any Canadian resident can participate just by purchasing regional products, cooking Canadian-grown ingredients and dining locally.
