Imagine being at a food festival where you can try amazing local food and grab a pint of local craft beer without being confined to a beer garden? Where you can take your pint with you to one of eight free workshops and learn about cider making, sausage making, wild foraging, fermenting, backyard chickens, and more!? You can at Local Food Fest!
The winner of the Ontario Culinary Tourism Alliance’s 2015 Event of the Year award, Local Food Fest is now in it’s 13th year! Happening June 24th, enjoy the tastes of Guelph-Wellington in one amazing day. Taste Real partners with Minga Skills Building Hub to offer amazing free workshops offered throughout the day. Wondering which workshops will be offered this year? We’ve got you covered:
Sausage Making
Join Chef Katherine Sowden owner of Bella Roma foods as she demonstrates the art of sausage making. You will learn how to break down a bone-in pork shoulder butt, grind the meat, develop your own sausage spice blend, stuff, and link custom dinner sausages from scratch at home without the fillers, preservatives, excessive fats, sodium, and gluten found in many store brands.
Wild Foraging
Come enjoy the wonders of nature by foraging for wild edibles in a late spring hike through out the Jesuit Centre. Join avid forager and nerdy biologist Luke Eckstein in celebrating spring ephemerals. Whether you’re keen to learn about nature, want to be more self-reliant or perhaps lack a green thumb, foraging is a fantastic window through which to explore the natural world and increase our awareness and respect for its beauty and complexity. Wild foods are very nutritious and often have much higher amounts of minerals and other nutrients than their domesticated counterparts. They can also be used medicinally – and they’re free.
Fish Butchery
Join University of Guelph Chef Andrew Bilyk for an inspiring workshop all about fish. In this demonstration, you will learn the proper way to fillet a fish and then cure it using a traditional process. We will focus on Arctic Char from the University of Guelph’s Alma Research Station and discuss the fantastic research taking place there. At the end of the demonstration you will have the opportunity to sample the finished product.
Cider Making Workshop
Join Wellington County’s brand new cidery, Hartwood Farm and Cidery for a hands-on cider making workshop. Learn the different steps involved in prepping, mashing, extracting juice and all about the fermentation process.
Composting for Everyone
Come and learn about the benefits of composting. Whether you have a large or small yard, a balcony, or no outdoor space at all, we can help you compost.
Fermenting
Learn how to wild ferment local seasonal produce in small or large batches as it becomes available. We’ll be chopping, mixing, spicing and filing jars in this hands-on workshop where we’ll cover cabbage ferments like sauerkraut and kim-chi.
Growing Oyster Mushrooms
Growing your own mushrooms is an easy way to increase the productivity, health and interest of your gardens and your plate. This workshop will offer an overview of some of the many ways you can grow delicious edible and medicinal mushrooms in your garden and in your home or apartment, by reusing easy to acquire, usually free natural materials.
Backyard Chicken Workshop
Join us for an exploration of raising hens in a backyard. Backyard hens are a powerful way to connect with easy, low-cost, delicious, and nutritious local food. You can have fresh eggs every day, just outside your back door!
Courtyard Garden Tours and Living Food Box Demonstrations
Follow the green arrows to the peaceful courtyard in Orchard Park where you will find a cool, accessible and beautifully diverse garden with creative features such as a small willow house, living food boxes, vertical gardens and lush beds filled with flowers, herbs and vegetables. Come and taste the delicious organic produce and products students have made throughout the spring and fall season. Pick up some good quality garden tools at the silent auction, or take home some plants students have grown from seed. Learn how to assemble and plant a “Living Food Box”; a container garden that is ideal for gardening on patios or balconies. See you in the garden!Living Food Box Demonstrations are happening at 11:00 and 1:30.
Local Food Fest workshops are free and happen at the ReSkilling Hub at: 12:30-1:15, 1:30-2:15, 2:30-3:15! For all the details, head to the Local Food Fest website!
