Just imagine receiving dried seedhead gifts from woodland creatures, a nod or nuzzle from a unicorn, or a gracious greeting from a Snow Queen and you might awaken to why winter never tasted so good as on February 24 at Eat Your Art Out Mid-Winter Feast at the Lions Hall in Killaloe.
All of the cast and collaborators deserve kudos for creativity both in the design and execution of the fundraiser for OV-CAOS (Ottawa Valley Creative Arts Open Studio). None more so than chefs and food producers, Jackson Franchetto and Blakeney Malo, of Seed and Stone Farmstead who were responsible for the menu. And oh what a menu!
Cabin Fever platter: pickled mushrooms, radishes seasoned with truffle salt, beet-brined devilled eggs
The inspired flavor combinations throughout the six courses included: subtle beetroot soup with frybread, a vegetable platter served on fresh cut wood slabs, rich roasted carrots and squash with tiny refried potatoes, wood-fired beef kebabs with chimichurri, sunchoke and celeriac sauce, sophisticated grapefruit pavlova with fresh cream, mint and lavender sorbet and soothing wild foraged chaga coffee with gingersnap biscuits.
Snowed In: grapefruit pavlova garnished with fresh cream and mint, lavender sorbet
Live music accompanied the meal offered by charming wintery costumed servers. Courses were introduced by MC Roberta Della Picca reciting the course-composed poetry of Andy Trull, who engaged diners to compose a Snowed In poem read to introduce the final course.
Between courses guests enjoyed theatrical performances accompanied by musicians on drums, flute, fiddle or penny whistle playing Schroeder Nordholdt compositions, along with a winter ballad, traditional Anishinabe songs and superb shadow puppetry performances by Emma Manchester.
It would be a challenge to find a dinner to rival this February feast for the senses. Bravo!
For more information about Ottawa Valley Creative Arts Open Studio click HERE.
About the author: Kim Hanewich is a practicing artist, writer and Accredited Family Mediator (OAFM) who runs www.circlesofbalance.ca She grew up rurally on the north shore of Lake Ontario and has lived in the Madawaska Valley, where she raised her two sons, for the past 30 years.
