ECHO to hold Food & Farm Festival on March 7-11
Every year, the ECHO Food & Farm Festival has gotten bigger and better, and this year’s version promises be the biggest and best yet.
The 31st annual event, which started as a one-day Farm Day in 1991 (COVID scrubbed the 2021 version) has grown into a five-day extravaganza with food tastings, lunch, farm tours, seminars, workshops and much more.
The ECHO Food & Farm Festival will be held March 7 to 11, with seminars and a farm-fresh lunch from their community garden on the first four days, with the final day being the biggest, with onstage cooking shows, samples of food, classes and seminars and much more.
“The opportunity to have workshops that educate the community with agricultural skills we share around the world is time sensitive,” said ECHO spokesperson Danielle Flood. “To make space for people to attend more of the events, we try not to schedule them simultaneously. By spreading them out, we are able to add another day so more people can enjoy it.”
Tuesday will feature a hands-on seminar on bananas and a workshop on drip bucket irrigation.
Wednesday will feature learning about goats with homeschoolers, which is something new to the event, and Thursday will feature seed saving and hands-on grafting, a traditional favorite.
Saturday, March 11, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. is Farm Day, where you can spend the day at ECHO’s 57-acre Global Farm and tour a tropical rainforest demonstration or learn about alternative energies as they are demonstrated in the appropriate technology area.
Kids of all ages can taste, touch, and experience their way around the world as they learn about world hunger and how they can make an impact.
Workshops include pest management, edible landscape design, climate change and its impact and renewable energy. Cooking demonstrations include coffee tasting, cooking with tropicals, making Pad Thai from scratch and mushrooms and growing them safely.
Interactive demos include creating an urban garden, goats and how they feed the garden, starfruit, and how to make you own tea and much more.
“Saturday is the only day we throw open the entire farm and let people walk at their own pace around all the demonstrations,” Flood said. “The opportunity to be in a beautiful garden is one draw, but then coming across starfruit samples and a dry tea you can make yourself or a food tasting could help them decide what to plant in their backyard.”
Parking is free. Saturday tickets are $8 or $35 maximum for a family. Kids 5 and under are free. Lunch tickets are $25. Prices vary for seminars during the week.
The ECHO Global Farm is at 17391 Durrance Road. For more information, visit echonet.org.
To reach CHUCK BALLARO, please email news@breezenewspapers.com