Take a DTour for Art at the Reedsburg Fermentation Fest
REEDSBURG, Wisconsin – Weaving through the spectacular Driftless Area around Reedsburg, Wisconsin, is the fifty-mile-long Farm/Art DTour, a journey that can be traveled by car, private bus, motorcycle or bicycle. As the main attraction exploring the timeless connections between land and people, the Farm/Art DTour complements the cooking demos, food samples and culinary seminars on the menu at the nationally-acclaimed, ten-day-long Reedsburg Fermentation Fest, running October 12 through 21, 2012.
Billed as A Live Culture Convergence, the Fermentation Fest is a delicious and educational way to hone your cheese making or baking skills, join internationally renowned “fermentation fetishist,” Sandor Katz, author of Wild Fermentation, to ferment your own sauerkraut and dill pickles, or sample a spectrum of live cultured and home made dishes at Reedsburg from Scratch. With numerous culinary classes on all things fermented – including chocolate, sourdough bread, kombucha, kefir, beer, wine, hard cider, sausage and corned beef – there’s plenty to taste. Plus, workshops on beekeeping, raising chickens and making compost jump-start participants eager to live the good life.
The Farm/Art DTour combines art, live performances, educational exhibits and breath-taking scenery. On the DTour are captivating ephemeral art installations by leading national artists as well as six, unique artist-made Roadside Culture Stands. There are also Field Notes where a hayfield as well as a dairy farm, wetland or cornfield are interpreted for visitors, plus “pasture performances” by such musical groups as Graminy. Visitors never know what to expect around the next bend, hill, turn or town.
“Sandor Katz, our featured workshop speaker this year, says that ‘fermentation is the flavorful space between fresh and rotten where the world’s most prized delicacies exist’,” explains event organizer Donna Neuwirth, executive director of the award-winning Wormfarm Institute. “He really understands the complexity of the ‘live cultures’ employed in this ancient practice. Fermentation is transformation: from grain to beer, milk to yogurt, cabbage to Kimchee, hayfield to stage and from one kind of community to another. During the transformational process, nutrients and flavor develop and energy is released – the perfect ingredients for an annual festival.”
“The Art Installations along the DTour punctuate the landscape and capture our sense of place,” adds Neuwirth. “One of the featured artists this year, Martha Glowacki, will install Earth and Sky.” Found on the map that guides travelers through the Farm/Art DTour, Glowacki’s sculptures frame two particularly fine landscape views. One frame, surrounded with a wreath of twisted vines, looks towards farmland. The other frame, surrounded by models of constellations and planets, looks up to the sky.
For the latest information about the Farm/Art DTour and the growing line-up of activities planned for the Reedsburg Fermentation Fest, see www.fermentationfest.com.
