Last month, I attended the 3rd annual Howard County Film "Feastival" at the Clark Elioak farm. It's an event that celebrates local county restaurants and farms that join forces to create culinary masterpieces using HoCo farm fresh ingredients.
Participants get to taste the restaurants's food samples, buy local produce from several HoCo farm stands, and watch movies about the environment. This event acts as the kick-off to Howard County Farm-2-Table summer restaurant weeks.
Since Charles was involved in a tennis tournament, Thomas went solo.
I was thrilled to attend the "Feastival" for the second year in a row. Last year, I met so many interesting farmers and restaurant owners, plus I also premiered a movie I made at school about the advantages of buying local food. In fact, it was 2 Dudes first blog post -Our first film How2Chow: BeeNatural.
The Feastival showcased several Howard County restaurants and their amazing samples including:
Here's a look at the restaurant and farms......
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| Bistro Blanc's Peach Ginger Bellini - soda water, peach nectar and ginger - was delicious. |
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| Bistro Blanc |
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| AIDA Bistro's food featured a fresh mozzarella, tomato, basil on a cracker. When I bit into the sample, the tomato and cheese weren't two different ingredients, but tasted as if they were combined as one. I also enjoyed the way that the tomato and cheese were very delicate and that the cracker was crunchy, putting two opposites together on a dish makes a very interesting taste. |
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| Eggspectation |
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| The Eggspectation folks gave me a "Pagé Pass"which entitles me to one free fruit smoothie at any Eggspectation restaurant. Very cool! |
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| Eggspectations also cooked up a wonderful sample of pita bread and dip, with a splendid hint of garlic. |
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| Town Grill's BBQ ribs (above left) had a wonderful kick of sweet spice. I tried their food for the first time last year and it made a lasting memory. I'm looking forward to going to their restaurant soon. Bistro Blanc's Goat Cheese "Caprese" (below) - gazpacho, fresh basil, balsamic vinegar and grilled flatbread  Baldwin's Station served Smoked Salmon Flatbread which had the most mouth-watering and fresh salmon. |
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| The Iron Bridge Wine Company |
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| The Iron Bridge Wine Company handed me a 10 dollar gift certificate to their restaurant. |
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| I learned some cool facts about honey. The dark type of honey has a sweeter taste and the lighter honey has a more subtle taste. A number of Howard County's farms set up mini farmer's stand loaded with their fresh, locally grown produce and products.  Here's me with Nora Crist, Clark's Produce Stand operator. Her roadside stand is opposite The Iron Bridge Wine Company on Route 108. |
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| Love Dove Farms |
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| Fresh Produce from Roundabout Hills Market Garden in Glenwood. |
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| Love Dove Farms |
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| Bowling Green farm owner Mitzi Jones who with her family operates a 10th generation farm. |
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| We bought both the tomato basil hard cheese and a Chesapeake cheese spread. We made grilled cheese sandwiches with the tomato basil that were great! |
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| Flacon Ridge farm sold ice cold peach popsicles. |
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| Falcon Ridge farm had lots of berries and jams. |
| University of Maryland Cooperative Extension, one of the event's sponsors, had a great stand with all kinds of free brochures about seasonal foods, receipes and local resources. |
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| I spoke with University of Maryland's Cooperative Extension and Master Gardener Georgia Eacker, one of the county's leading expert on growing natural foods, about local food. I'm looking forward to attending again next year. |
