Monday, May 04, 2009

Fiddlehead Festival

Saturday was a great day spent with Mom. We went to the Fiddlehead Festival at Vermont Technical College in Randolph Center. It was the perfect start to the growing season!
When we got there, we spent a bit of time walking around checking out the tables and vendors set up, watch the tractors drive through on the tractorcade, and bought our lunch tickets. There were many different types of vendors from food vendors, Integrative Health, Woodsong Herbals, Habitat for Humanity, a local coalition working to get ride of the Wild Chervil naturally, and many others.
Mom decided to sit in on the gardening workshop, and while she said she didn't learn a whole lot new, she found a great tool! The CobraHead Short Handle Tool! We both have already tried it, and if you are going to only own one hand tool for gardening, this is the tool!
I sat in on the wild edibles workshop, and learned a few things. I already knew I loved fiddleheads, but that was the only wild edible that I had ever really had. The one time I had dandelion greens, they had been cultivated (strange I know). I was able to sample ramps, a sweet spicy young wild onion, which was incredibly TASTY! An onion, who knew ;-) Japenese knotweed, also known as red asparagas, was another tasty wild edible. I would have liked a bit more information on more edibles and where to find them and a little less of the politics of foraging/gathering.
Mom and I met up after our workshops and had a fantastic chili lunch with cornbread, salad and ice cream. Everything was made with local ingredients from the butter and cheese, to the vegetables and the meat, the butter for the ice cream!
It had been a bit dreary in the morning, but the afternoon brought wonderful sunshine. We spent the afternoon watching some sheep dogs work some sheep. Watching the men with their dogs was pretty incredible, especially getting to see the dogs at different levels of training. The amount of control a single dog has over a small group of sheep is pretty intense, and with just whistle guidance, they dogs can move the sheep anywhere!
All in all it was a great day and I can't wait until next year.

2 comments:

cecile said...

Hannah, Fiddlehead Festival sounded great! Can you believe I've never tried fiddleheads before? What do they taste like?
Also, I think it's hilarious that you like ramps! You're one fierce onion hater. How's your garden doing?

Unknown said...

Fiddleheads remind me of a cross between brocolli, green beans, and asparagas! They are really yummy. If you can find them out there at a farmers market you should try them.
I so thought I would really despise ramps as they are so oniony, but they are so different from regular onions, they dont have the bitterness to them which I think is part of what I don't like about onions.
Garden is going awesome! The peas are poking up, as is chard, parsnips, carrots, beats, and so much more. We have peppers, hot peppers, eggplants, and more tomatoes to get transplanted. All of us have been working on getting $50 strawberry plants into the ground, and Mom and Lynda got some grape plants in as well. I am looking forward to a yummy summer lol