Foodies, farmers and families got together Sunday afternoon to celebrate the local food community and what it means to good nutrition and strengthening the local economy.
The annual Food Fest took place at the Ignatius Centre and the focus this year was on the DIY workshops.
“The workshops are really popular – I think they’ve become the main attraction,” said Christina Mann, the Taste Real coordinator for Wellington County, which organized the event.
“People have a hunger and an interest in learning food skills. (North American) society has moved away from food preparation and there are a lot of people who want to learn those skills.”
And so there were numerous workshops to keep visitors interested and engaged – workshops on foraging for food, how to butcher a side of pork and a chicken, cheese making, how to raise chickens, fermenting, cider making, and container gardening.
Brent Klassen and Bill Whitehead lead a session on how to make apple cider from fallen apples. They had 2X4s and participants pounded apples to a pulp in a bucket. Then they put the apple mush in a press, squeezing the juice into a container for fermenting and leaving the pulp, which will be used to feed farm animals.
“People have fermented apples for thousands of years,” Klassen said. “For a time, back in history, cider was safer than water. Cider was even used as currency.”
Now interest in home-made cider has spurred an interest in reforesting some of the old varieties of apples, which aren’t great for eating but make fabulous cider. Klassen and Whitehead launched their new business, the Heartwood Farm Cidery, at the festival.
Mann said what Guelph and Wellington County has going for it is its rich, Class 1 soil, its diversity of crops and the number of farms that sell direct to the consumers.
“We have small-scale farms here, ‘real’ farming, and a real opportunity for residents and tourists to visit a farm and get authentic tastes,” she said.
That makes the region a popular destination in food tourism, which itself is a growing industry.
“Every tourist is a food tourist,” Mann said. “Everyone is going to eat. The decision is will it be a chain restaurant or a local one that celebrates the unique flavours of the region?”
Food Fest brought local farmers to the market to sell their wares and there was plenty of fresh produce, bread, cheese and products like natural candles and soaps for sale.
Local restaurants and breweries provided food for visitors and local musicians provided entertainment. Hundreds of visitors attended, despite the thunderstorm that swept through and threatened to wash out the event entirely.
Bill Stevens, at Thames River Melons in Innerkip, said it’s tough to get a booth a Food Fest and when the business was invited to the event, “we jumped at the chance,” he said.
“It’s nice to be at an event where so many people are interested in so many aspect of food.”
Mann said Taste Real was also giving out its 2017 Local Food Map that shows the locations of its member farms, farm gate stalls and farm stores, local farmers’ markets, restaurants, cooking schools, and retail outlets that sell local food.
“That’s our main network,” Mann said. “That builds our terroir. (the environmental factors that lead to local soil quality and crops, and that make the food grown here unique.)
“We want to promote local food and the best way to do that is to engage the consumer directly.”
