News Release
For Immediate Release
October 19, 2009
Contact: Sally Worley, Practical Farmers of Iowa, (515)232-5661, sally@practicalfarmers.org
Celebrate the Harvest with Garlic and Great Foods at Practical Farmers of Iowa Fourth Annual Garlic Festival
Boone and Dallas Counties—What is the value of knowing your farmer and where your food comes from? Join Practical Farmers of Iowa Saturday, November 7 for our Fourth Annual Garlic Festival to find out. This year we are connecting the pitchfork to the salad fork, in a robust display of the diversity of foods and flavor Iowa has to offer. This year’s event will kick off at Northern Prairie Chevre near Woodward at 3:00 p.m. The event will continue at Snus Hills Winery near Madrid, where you can tour the winery, sample their Iowa wines, and purchase a bottle of wine for dinner. A 6:30 garlic tasting at Snus Hills will allow you to taste and rate heirloom garlic varieties. After the tasting, sit down to a dinner prepared by chef Donna Prizgintas, featuring garlic and food grown by local farmers.
Using multiple breeds and varietals Chef Prizgintas will create an evening of comparison that is not only delightful to your taste buds but also informative. Chef Prizgintas expects that, “the four varieties of corn will have as much difference as the heirloom garlics.” As she explains, “difference is important for taste sensation in that it allows people to eat more thoughtfully, to be more aware of the complexity of their food. Corn is not just corn. Garlic is not just garlic. There is an appreciation factor that travels all the way from the farmer to the person who is eating it.”
Northern Prairie Chevre produces fine-quality artisan crafted cheeses, handmade from the milk of Nubian goats. Cheeses are made on-farm in the traditional farmstead manner. Northern Prairie supplies cheeses to local restaurants, specialty stores, wineries, and sells from an on-farm store. The Northern Prairie Chevre tour will include: a visit with the goats as you learn about goat care and husbandry, and an explanation of dairy parlor cheese making.
Snus Hill is an award-winning family owned winery in rural Iowa, striving to create wines with a regional identity reflective of the soils and climate using American and French-American varieties. The Snus Hill tour will include a visit to the wine cellar where they press and bottle their wines. Also, wander the grounds among the grape arbors and enter their Corn Maze, if you dare.
The dinner is a fundraiser event for Practical Farmers of Iowa and is in association with Central Iowa’s Buy Fresh, Buy Local Chapter.
RSVP for Garlic Festival is required by October 30. Registration is available on-line at www.practicalfarmers.org or by contacting Suzi Bernhard at (515)232-5661, Suzi@practicalfarmers.org.
Directions:
Northern Prairie Chevere, 1247 310th St, Woodward: from Des Moines and Perry: From Hwy. 141, take the Woodward exit. Go through Woodward; turn left at N. 3rd St. Go west to the T intersection, turn right onto S Ave. (which quickly turns into M Ave.). Go to the stop sign and continue north onto gravel. The first 4-way intersection is 310th St. Turn right; it’s the first house (yellow) on the left. From Ames: Take Hwy. 30 west to the Hwy. 17 exit. Turn left onto Hwy. 17 and go to Luther. Turn right onto E57. Go across the river and to the top of a hill to Magnolia Rd.; turn left. Go approximately 5–6 miles; turn right onto 310th St. (there’s a radio tower just past the turn) and travel about .75 mile to the yellow house on the right side of the road.
Snus Hill Vineyard and Winery, 2183 320th St, Madrid: from Northern Prairie, head east on 310th St, turn right onto Magnolia Rd, turn left at 325th St, turn left at 334th Rd/IA-210 E, continue to follow IA-210 E through Madrid, turn left at Violet Road (approx 3 miles from Madrid), head north 1 mile, turn right at 320th street. The Winery is on your left. From I-35, take exit 102 for IA-210 west toward Slater/ Maxwell, turn right (north) at 510th Ave, turn left at 320th St go west 3.2 miles. The Winery is on your right.
This event is sponsored by the Ceres Foundation. Sustaining sponsors for Practical Farmers of Iowa Field Days are the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, Iowa State University Extension, Iowa Pork Producers Association, American Natural Soy, Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation, Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service, Midwest Organic Services Association, Henry A. Wallace Endowed Chair for Sustainable Agriculture, and the CROPP Cooperative of Organic Valley/ Organic Prairie Family of Farms. Major sponsors for the Field Days are Wheatsfield Cooperative Natural Foods Grocery, Hubbard Feeds, Michael Fields Agricultural Institute, Iowa Forage and Grasslands Council, King Corn and Mosaic Films, and the North Central Region Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education
PFI is a non-profit sustainable agriculture group dedicated to farming that is profitable, environmentally sound, and healthy for consumers and communities. Founded in 1985, PFI has over 2300 farmer and non-farmer members throughout Iowa. For more information, call (515)232-5661 or visit www.practicalfarmers.org.
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