Canada 150 photo: Pakenham General Store

I dare you not to come home with dessert from the Pakenham General Store.

Now this is what I call a bricks-and-mortar store. (Well, actually, it’s made of lovely limestone, but you know what I mean.) The Pakenham General Store, which dates back to 1840, is Canada’s oldest general store to have operated continuously on its original site.

Just as residents did in the generation before Confederation, you can come here to buy locally produced groceries, such as maple syrup, eggs, cheese and honey. Behind the long main counter is a fascinating display of vintage packages that once contained mustard, cocoa and other staples. You can also buy all sorts of other items, from clothing and cookbooks to Cheerios, detergent, art and throw pillows.

However, one of the main draws for day trippers is undoubtedly the groaning bakery counter, packed with pies, brownies, butter tarts, Nanaimo bars, cookies, loaves of banana bread and all sorts of other diet-busting treats. Hey, you can always walk off those calories with a hike in the nearby High Lonesome Nature Reserve. (Just don’t go hiking alone; the trails can be quite deserted and it would be easy to get lost.)

Other sites to check out in and around Pakenham include the much-photographed five-span bridge, one of the last of its type in North America; a pretty candle shop, Olde Crow Creek, where you can also browse for linens, picture frames, clocks and other home decor items; the eco-friendly Cartwright Springs Brewery. In winter, you can go skiing, snowboarding, tubing or snowshoeing at Mount Pakenham.

Throughout July and August 2017, I’ll be posting one photo a day that I’ve taken somewhere across Canada, in celebration of Canada’s 150th anniversary. Want to see more photos in this series? Click the “Canada 150 photo” text in bold near the top of this post.