This month, food writer Eva Fisher grabs a pint at the Kawartha Craft Beer Festival, explores the competitive world of butter tarts in the Kawarthas, makes a perfect cheese plate with Delectable Fine Foods, and discovers unusual wild edibles with Art of Awareness.
Try the Brun au Mars: the Kawartha Craft Beer Festival takes over Millenium Park
On the banks of the Otonabee River, with live music playing and the smell of wood smoke in the air, 11 craft breweries and one cidery sampled their best draughts for the Kawartha Craft Beer Festival. The event took place this past Friday and Saturday (June 10th and 11th) at Millennium Park in downtown Peterborough.
At the Church-key Brewery booth, owner John Graham was pouring Wheatus (a North American style wheat beer), West Coast Pale Ale, and Brun au Mars — a spring brown ale worth catching a grenade for.
At Boshkung Brewery, founding brewmaster Johnny Briggs began Saturday by pouring their Cream Ale and their Dark Ale, but ran out and moved to their Kellerbier and White Cap Wheat Ale. They have won Canadian Brewing Awards with their Kellerbier and their Cream Ale.
Johnny welcomed the move of the second annual festival from the streets of downtown into Millennium Park.
“Having it on a grass field in the park by the water is just so much more cozy, more intimate,” he said.
Five food vendors offered snacks including wood-fired pizza from Vintage Pizza Pie Company, beer-infused beef jerky from Bay Meats Butcher Shop, and captain crunch fish tacos and mac and cheese balls from The Food Dudes Inc.
The brewers and cidery in attendance for the festival were The Publican House Brewery (Peterborough), Smithavens Brewing Company (Peterborough), Bobcaygeon Brewing Company (Bobcaygeon), Boshkung Brewing Company (Minden Hills), The Old Flame Brewing Co., (Port Perry), William Street Beer Co. (Cobourg), The County Cider Company (Prince Edward County), The Brock Street Brewing Company (Whitby), Church-Key Brewing Company (Campbellford), Northumberland Hills Brewery (Cobourg), Wild Card Brewing Company (Trenton), and Manantler Craft Brewing Co. (Bowmanville).
Kawartha bakers sweep provincial competition as the butter tart wars continue
Doo Doo’s Bakery (187 County Rd. 28, Bailieboro, 705-939-1394), Whistle Stop Cafe (141 Charlotte St., Peterborough, 705-740-2036), and Betty’s Pies & Tarts (7380 County Rd 2, Cobourg, 905-377-7437) all vied for the top honour.
This year the competition was divided into two categories: traditional and “perfect pairing”, which allows one innovative ingredient.
Diane Rogers of Doo Doo’s Bakery swept the perfect pairing category, winning first, second, and third. Diane also won Best in Show, and was selected to represent Ontario’s Best Butter Tart Festival at the Canadian Food Championships in Edmonton next month.
Doo Doo’s Bakery was the frontrunner coming in to the competition. Diane has won first place at the competition for the past two years. Last year, she won first place with her pumpkin butter tarts. She also won at the Royal Winter Fair last fall. She received the Reserve Grand Champion and Judge’s choice for her cheesecake butter tarts, as well as first, second, third and sixth place in the Special Ingredient Butter Tarts category.
Competition is stiff in the Kawarthas butter tart scene. Although Diane has won many awards provincially, at the 2015 Kawartha Butter Tart Taste-Off it was Peggy from the Whistle Stop Cafe who won the best locally sourced butter tart for her cream cheese butter tart. Diane went home with the People’s Choice Award. Ali Jiggins of Betty’s Pies and Tarts is also a very strong contender, having won first place in the plain butter tart category at last year’s Royal Winter Fair.
Want to judge the tarts for yourself? Find a map to all of the top butter tart destinations in the area at kawarthasnorthumberland.ca/experiences/butter-tart-tour/.
Making a perfect cheese plate with Delectable Fine Foods
I spoke with owner Christel Rumgay about how to make the perfect cheese plate.
- Odd numbers look better on the plate. Christel recommends sticking to 1, 3, 5, or 7 cheeses.
- Variety is important. This can mean a variety of flavours and texture. Christel suggests using cheeses made with different milks to achieve this. “It’s nice to do one cow, one sheep, and one goat.” And don’t forget to include a bloomy rind cheese. “Most people do love a creamy cheese; the triple creams are always fantastic.”
- Play to your audience. Unless you know the tastes of your guests, Christel suggests keeping your selections mild. “Not everybody loves the stronger-flavoured cheeses, so I recommend having a really good cheddar on the plate or maybe one of the alpine-style cheeses.”
- Ditch the grapes. “Everybody likes the look of grapes, but I prefer nuts and dried fruit. I can honestly say I don’t eat cheese and grapes together. We have fruit cakes made with dried dates and walnut or fig and almond. You get a wedge and they’re beautiful with some of your harder Mediterranean cheeses, your Manchego, even with a Parmesan.”
Delectable Fine Foods offers cheese plates made to order and complimentary sampling of the cheeses they carry in store. They are hosting a grand opening party on Saturday, June 25th from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Beyond Wild Leeks: learning about edible wild plants with Art of Awareness
“Many of the most tenacious garden weeds such as sorrel, goutweed, chicory, plantain, chickweed, lambsquarters, and purslane are actually fantastic edibles,” she says.
Courtney recently started the website “Art of Awareness” with artist Nadia Tan. There they feature recipes for lilac-infused honey, fiddleheads, wild leek and dandelion pasta, and sauteed daylily tubers — which taste similar to fingerling potatoes.
Courtney recommends caution when tasting new plants.
“Rather than reading a guidebook front-to-back and trying to label and memorize all of your local plants, I encourage people to get to know a few plants very well,” she explains.
“Make sure you are able to identify the correct species with 100% certainty before consuming a plant that is new to you,” she adds, “and that you are familiar with poisonous look-alikes.”
Even if you have identified the plant correctly you could be allergic, so start with a small portion.
Learn more about wild plants at www.artofawareness.ca.
Wild Leek & Dandelion Pasta
