Great cheese-tasting weather in the County

The event, and the weather, got a thumbs up from Great Canadian Cheese Festival founder and organizer Georgs Kolesnikovs

Despite a forecast of rain all weekend, the sun broke through an overcast sky to shine on 3,800 visitors at the second annual Great Canadian Cheese Festival.
For Georgs Kolesnikovs, organizer, it was all about dreams come true.
“Friday it was raining like cats and dogs and although it’s overcast today, we have this wonderful cheese-tasting weather. This is the only place that I’ve ever been fortunate enough that when I do a rain dance, the rain Gods actually did hold off. We ended up with great weather to be enjoying County wines, Canadian craft beers and this huge range of  artisan foods from near and far. For me, Prince Edward County is working out like a dream.
“Prince Edward County is such an ideal location for a food event like we produce. It is the only pan-Canadian event that pulls producers from all across the country. Not only do we draw a fair number of people from the County to participate as vendors and to come as attendees, but we are also able to draw visitors from the Ottawa area, eastern Ontario as well as Toronto.”

Judging by the number of people lining up at Picton’s Crystal Palace, learning about cheese was as much fun as tasting. Learning highlights include a workshop by Food Network star Bob Blumer who demonstrated how to transform a backyard barbecue into a rustic pizza oven. He also made a guest appearance at the Cooks & Curds Gala Saturday night offering guests a blue-cheese cappuccino dessert.
A culinary adventurer, chef, artist and seven time Guinness World Record holder, Blumer is the creator and host of the television series Surreal Gourmet, and Glutton for Punishment, and a producer and host of World’s Weirdest Restaurants.

Kris Holden-Reid, co-star of the Lost Girl hit television series, was a big hit when he made grilled-cheese sandwiches Sunday at Toronto’s Cheesewerks stand to help raise funds for a scholarship for a young Canadian pursuing a career in cheese.

“But clearly the highlight of all highlights is this amazing range of artisan cheese,” said Kolesnikovs. “We have over 125 different cheeses from three dozen producers from Prince Edward Island to Vancouver Island.”

The Artisan Cheese and Fine Food Fair Saturday and Sunday featured a cheese marketplace, artisan food booths featuring more than 200 different foods to sample and a festival food court.

A Cheese Dairy Farm featured cows, goats, sheep and water buffalo, artisan cheesemaker Stephanie Diamant, leading farmer John Nyman, 4-H club members, and Moonika, a life-size mechanical cow children tried to milk, courtesy of the Farm To Table program of Dairy Farmers of Canada.

“This has become the largest cheese show in Canada and it’s been just amazing,” said Kolesnikovs.

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The Great Canadian Cheese Festival is produced by Cheese Lover Productions with the generous support of Celebrate Ontario. Dairy Farmers of Canada is Diamond Sponsor, Ontario’s Artisan Food and Beverage Region (FAB) is Gold Sponsor. A portion of Festival proceeds benefits a Cheese Scholarship Fund to encourage young Canadians to pursue careers in cheese.
http://www.CheeseFestival.ca