Evergreen Brick Works Wild Blueberry Festival 2017

The Evergreen Brick Works hosted two fantastic events celebrating Wild Blueberry: Wild Blueberry Summer Wednesday and Wild Blueberry Weekend.

Wild Blueberries, which are found in the wild only, have been growing in our northern climate for over 10,000 years. They have twice the antioxidants of regular blueberries, and they are also smaller with a more intense flavour and colour. They also freeze better, maintain their shape, colour, taste and nutritional value when used in cooking and baking. Wild Blueberries also are naturally low in fat, high in fiber, and low in calories. Adding one-half cup of wild blueberries a day gives many health benefits.

Evergreen Brick Works Wild Blueberry Festival 2017

Evergreen Brick Works Wild Blueberry Festival 2017

(photos by Sally Warburton)

Scientists are currently studying the benefits of wild blueberries for improving motor skills, reversing short term memory loss, in inhibiting inflammation, cancer prevention, stroke prevention, urinary tract health and stroke prevention; and the on top of all is that they taste amazing.
So on a beautiful Wednesday evening in August, we headed over to the Evergreen Brick Works. Forno Cultura was in charge of the pizza oven. Forno Cultura is a third generation bakery located on Toronto’s King Street West, that prides itself on only using natural ingredients and organic flours.
Forno Cultura had its delicious biscottis, brioches, cakes and olive oils for sale. There were delicious blueberry pizza and blueberry pie. It all tasted quite delicious. We met an adorable Pomeranian who was enthralled with the blueberry delicacies.
At the children’s garden, the Summer Adventure Camp was celebrating blueberries. In the Pavillions, there were a few food trucks, beer, and cider samplings. Collective Arts Brewing had a live art demonstration to accompany their selection of beers; Be Good Gelato had a Wild Blueberry Swirl gelato.

A few days later we attended the Wild Blueberry Weekend. It was a two day celebration with over 20 food producers creating wild blueberry products and dishes including Feast On‘s wild blueberry and rosemary pork sausages, Augie’s Ice Pops , Van Dyk‘s 100% wild blueberry juice, Stonewall Kitchen Wild Maine Blueberry Jam, wild blueberry pie Oakridges Finest blueberry jam, Pimenton’s wild blueberry BBQ pulled pork, wild blueberry parfait , wild blueberry circus and wild blueberry lemonade. The Wild Blueberry Association of North America provided wild blueberries to taste.
One of the highlights of the weekend was the wild blueberry demonstration by “The 3 Way Chef“, Christine Tizzard. Her new book, Honest to Goodness: Recipes for the Everyday Home Cook, has over 100 nutritious, and stress-free recipes using raw ingredients and whole foods. During the weekend, she prepared quinoa tabouli salad with wild blueberries and summer wild blueberry trifle. It was also a great way to meet Christine and get an autographed copy of her book.
The weekend market was fun to walk through as well. For the children, there was wild blueberry smash jam and bannock to make.
Overall, both events inspired us to add wild blueberries to our regular diet.