If you're someone who relishes the harvest season, with its heaps of fresh, juicy veggies and summer-fattened livestock, you're the perfect candidate for the Dig In Horticulinary Festival. It's a three-day celebration, St.
If you're someone who relishes the harvest season, with its heaps of fresh, juicy veggies and summer-fattened livestock, you're the perfect candidate for the Dig In Horticulinary Festival.
It's a three-day celebration, St. Albert's salute to farmers and ranchers that grow the foods we cherish, and the chefs that turn these precious natural ingredients into mouthwatering delicacies.
Hosted at various locations throughout the city including the Enjoy Centre, Bellerose High School and several local restaurants, it runs Oct. 12, 14 and 15.
Now in its third edition, Dig In brings back the ever-popular downtown restaurant tour, a gala dinner and workshops series.
“This is a St. Albert event. It allows people to know what can be grown locally, sourced locally and it allows them to meet new people and have a great time,” said festival chair Carolyn Forsyth.
The festival kicks off Wednesday with a sold-out restaurant tour that includes stops at La Privada and 12 Acres. This is the second straight year tickets for the tour were snapped up well before the festival.
“People enjoy it because it's an intimate event, the food is delicious, you interact with the chefs and you get to know the history of Perron Street,” said Forsyth.
The festival showpiece is Friday night's exquisite gala dinner, a six-course collaboration between seven of Alberta's top tier chefs. Each course at the long-table dinner is paired with Canadian or international wines.
Chef J.W. Foster of Fairmont Banff Springs gets the ball rolling by serving three canapés: charred squash velouté and walnut hare porchetta, roasted suckling pig with lemongrass-ginger aioli, and heritage beef tartare with crispy potato skins.
Although elegant, the long-table experience is very much hands-on which adds special interest to the dinner, noted Forsyth.
“J.W. will actually be carving the sucking pig in front of everybody as they come into the Moonflower Room.”
Instead of a traditional salad, chef Paul Shufelt from Workshop Eatery has created an organic pickled beet dish with goat cheese, candied pecans and fennel.
From the Alberta Hotel Bar & Kitchen, chef Spencer Thompson has channelled his creativity into creating a pumpkin agnolotti (pasta) with brown butter, sage and pecorino cheese.
The tag-team duo of Andrew Cowan and Matt Phillips, who recently opened Northern Chicken, are frying up a southern style delicacy with cherry smoked chicken in double bacon cream corn flavoured with mushrooms and thyme.
I have tasted it. The calorie count is high, as is the cholesterol. But the flavours just pop in your mouth and linger comfortably.
Locally, chef Tony Krause from St. Albert's La Privada whips up a braised wild juniper rabbit in a herb emulsion with cranberry jelly, compressed apples, creamed dandelion polenta and mustard greens.
A graduate of the Art Institute of Vancouver, Krause spent the last 10 years studying the fine art of food preparation at various restaurants in North America and London, England.
“I really believe people should grow more of their own food and take advantage of what's around them,” said Krause.
A man of his word, Krause and some friends have spent time lately searching for wild-grown dandelion greens as well as dead leaves, bark, acorn shells and moss to make a forest juice.
“It (juice) sounds funny, but it sure is fun. It tastes earthy, but there's a sweetness in it,” Krause said.
And speaking about sweet, Danielle Job, an independent chef, is baking a harvest confection, a vanilla bean spiced cake topped with pumpkin, a fruit compote and warm chocolate sauce.
The festival closes Saturday with a series of workshops filled with hands-on experience, demonstrations and general talks.
As in past years, Bellerose High has cleared its two fully equipped laboratory kitchens to offer hands-on classes.
This year organizers have booked cheese making, sausage making, curing meats and meat mastery. A new workshop, presented by ATCO Blue Flame Kitchen, is the art of making plump gnocchi.
Over at the Enjoy Centre, eight organized presentations range from coffee tasting, herbal liqueurs and beer brewing to growing tomatoes, pruning and indoor winter growing.
Two new workshops that are sparking interest are backyard beehives and rocket stoves. Both explore self-sustainability.
Dustin Bajer, an urban beekeeper accompanied by one of his homemade hives (no bees) will spend one hour discussing the merits and challenges of beekeeping in cities.
“I'll talk about my experiences so people will have some knowledge needed to be successful,” said Bajer.
The Edmonton-based beekeeper usually attracts a wide variety of interests.
“Whenever I do a talk, I get a lot of questions. It tends to draw people who are pretty inquisitive. Other people have heard bees are suffering and want to know more, and some are tinkering with the idea of a hive.”
On the other hand Kenton Zerbin is introducing the concept of rocket stoves, an efficient method of burning a small amount of wood to create a high heat.
“It's shaped like a letter J. You put fire at the short end that causes a draft. Use bellows or your breath to force the heat to go up the tall end and it continues to pull heat up,” Zerbin said.
Excited about this inexpensive back-to-basics outdoor application, he is hoping to fire up new ideas for a more sustainable future.
“We all need energy and heat. This is a fantastic way to meet our needs. Fire is a big part of our life. Learning about it is to our benefit.”
Tickets for the gala dinner run at $125 and workshops are $25 or three for $60. For more information, visit www.diginstalbert.ca.
