Thursday, May 24, 2012

Dandelion Festival 2012


Earlier this month, we packed up and headed off for the weekend to Dover, Ohio and the 19th Annual Dandelion Festival that is held at Breitenbach Winery. We had never traveled to Ohio, and the scenery was very rolling and relaxed. The green pastures were punctuated by barns, silos, cows, and farmhouses. The whole area supports a large Amish population, and we witnessed horse drawn buggies and shopped at Amish markets for some cheese.

We attended the festival on Saturday, May 5, pulling into the secondary location at the Roadhouse Amphitheater up the road from the winery just as the marathon runners were starting off on their 3.5 mile run. The day started out overcast, but the haze burned off and the sun came out. Music, entertainment, food, the dandelion cook-off, and kids activities were on the calendar for the day, along with a tour of the winery and a visit to the retail store.



The fair food was pretty standard, but it also included some dandelion-based offerings. I tried the dandelion sausage, and had a cup of the dandelion wine-based sangria for lunch. Robert tried some mushroom and dandelion soup and some curly fried potatoes. Gillian ate a big bowl of dandelion ice cream, made with yellow flower petals. The winery was making mashed potatoes with dandelion gravy, and another vendor was selling dandelion lasagne. The winery was also offering samples of their many wines for 25¢ apiece. We purchased two bottles of the dandelion wine for ourselves, and another copy of The Great Dandelion Cookbook for a future giveaway!



The dandelion cook-off was the main draw for us. The winery had just completed a new building at the second location, and inside was where the cook-off was held, along with some cooking demonstrations. The cook-off contributors made a wide range of dishes featuring dandelion greens and flowers. Most of the cooking demos at the building were pretty basic recipes that just had some dandelion greens tossed in, but the cook-off dishes were great. Yahoo was on site, filming the festival for a show called Blue Ribbon Hunter, about interesting festivals and fairs. First place went to Sherry Schie for Dandelion Stuffed Pork Loin. You can look at her full recipe here, along with the second place winner, Dandelion and White Bean Crostini. Robert took several pictures of the dishes, and we also purchased a hand painted wineglass, covered with pretty, yellow dandelion flowers to enjoy our wine.


Panko Crusted Chicken with Dandelion
Artichoke Sauce

Dandelion Cookies

Buffalo Chicken and Dandelion Stuffed Peppers

Dandelion Calzone

Dandelion Oladi (Russian Pancakes)

Dandelion Stuffed Beef Braciole

Dandelion and Goat Cheese Flan with Cheese Fondue

Dandelion Blossom Custard Peach Pie

Italian Wedding Soup

Dandelion and White Bean Crostini

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow that festival looks great! I've never seen so many different dandelion meals in one place! And it all looks so yummy. :)

Bubbaloo Magoo said...

I sure got hungry quick from reading this post! Thanks for sharing!