Savour Stratford

Stratford held its Savour Stratford and Perth County festival over the weekend. What a great event this is! It is a true culinary festival foresure. Every vendor there was either a local farmer or a local food-related business. Even the food offered for sale (i.e., hamburgers, pork sandwiches, etc..) were all made from locally-grown foods and sold by not-for-profit organizations in the area.

For lunch we had hamburgers topped with fried onions and purreed garlic from the Community Living booth. They were also giving away free drinks and cookies. What a great deal! The three of us had lunch for $10.00. We definitely didn't leave hungry either because most vendors had some sort of treat for us to sample, from sheep's cheese to chocolate covered strawberries to jams and mustards.

One particular vendor caught my eye, however.... Has anyone see anything like these berries before?
I sure hadn't.... These are Sea Buckthorn berries... The berries originate from China and Russia and have only been found in North America as an ornamental plant. The vendor who is currently growing them on their research farm in the Wingham area (The Healing Arc) has been experimenting with them with the University of Guelph to see if they are a viable food source in Ontario. The man I spoke with told me that eating only 8 of these berries will give you double the Vitamin C than an orange will. They are apparently in the same class as the acai and goji berry in terms of being a nutritional superfood. (see: www.thehealingarc.com/seabuckarticles.asp)

Although they taste extremely sour and aren't meant to be eaten raw there were some jellies and juices that they were able to create with this cute little orange berry.

It'll be interesting to see if we start seeing more of these types of berries in the future. It was definitely the most interesting thing I found at the festival today!