The inaugural Farm to Fork Festival was held Saturday from 11am-5pm in downtown Sacramento. Mr.S. and I stopped by to take a gander and were quite impressed by the large community turnout and how organized the festival was. Capitol Mall was closed off between Third and Seventh Street, allowing only foot traffic, and the festival was spread out so that people could easily maneuver through the various stations. Many Sacramentans took advantage of the lovely sunny weather to walk, bike or lightrail over to the celebration. Additionally, Atlas Disposal was on hand to ensure that the F2F festival was a zero-waste event.
We had a pleasant time at the festival. There was a cornucopia of things to see and learn about. Our first stop was over at the livestock area, where 4-H and the California Dairy Council had numerous cute farm animals to "ooooh" and "ahhh" over and pet.
Some were small...
Some were large...
Some were just chillin'...
Around the corner from the livestock was Passmore Ranch's table. Their friendly staff engaged with passerbys, answered questions about their beautiful, sustainably raised sturgeon and talked about their new Provisions boxes (called Little Bounty and Big Bounty) that they plan on debuting in September.
On the main stage, there were some cool food demonstrations going on- like this one on butchering by Danny Johnson from Taylor's Market:
(Mr.S. was pretty excited to find out that Taylor's offers a class on how to breakdown/butcher wild game. Unfortunately, he'll have to wait until next August when they offer it again to take it. )
There were several tables highlighting local produce, gardening and nutrition education. You could chat with local chefs and farmers; as well as get more info on the potential Public Market project. Many companies such as Kaiser Permanente, the CA Rice Commission, Produce Express, and Green Acres had colorful displays, freebies/tastings and were happy to field questions about their products and services.
A rep talking about The Center for Land-Based Learning
Trinity Fresh
Slow Food Sacramento
These nice folks from Green Acres were giving away free seeds
Home gardens are quite popular in Sacramento
We even passed by a giant shopping cart and a lady spinning wool. This F2F Festival had something for everyone!
Oh! And don't forget about the beer garden (featuring only local beers) and the delicious food trucks:
Way to go, Sactown, what a celebration! The Farm-to-Fork Festival really came together well and did a phenomenal job of bringing "awareness to the Sacramento region’s local food production, consumption and sustainability." Can't wait to see what next year's Farm to Fork week brings...but until then I could use a small break from the deluge of "Farm to Fork" marketing. ;-)
freebies! butchering demonstrations! food! this sounds like my kind of experience. :)
Grace, next year you'll have to come out to Sacramento!