For the eighth time, the Zaubes Wild Culinary Festival will gather visitors on 7 September 2024 to celebrate the knowledge of nature’s bounty passed down through generations with chefs and hostesses, hunters and fishermen, nature connoisseurs and artisans. This year’s theme is “Mushroom Time”. It has been chosen in honour of the inclusion of the mushroom tradition in the National List of Intangible Cultural Heritage. The gathering and use of mushrooms is a long-established tradition in Latvia, which is still alive today. The main use of mushrooms is for human consumption. Almost every family has its own recipe for mushroom sauce, soup or mushroom chops. They can be salted, pickled, pickled, dried, boiled and baked. It is an essential part of our culinary heritage.
This year’s festival programme, organised together with the Latvian Mycological Society, will offer a diverse world of mushroom knowledge – an exhibition “Edible and inedible mushrooms”, cooking masterclasses and demonstrations, mushroom workshops, environmental education activities, competitions and lectures. You can learn not only about the nutritional and medicinal uses of mushrooms, but also about creative uses in crafts and households, and about the importance of mushrooms in nature.
As in other years, the festival programme will be complemented by traditional wild seafood cooking demonstrations by Zaubes hunters and fishermen, new meetings with Vidzeme craftsmen in creative workshops, musical interludes and a crafts and home producers’ market.
Entrance is free.
Event programme*
‘ZAUBES WILD CULINARY FESTIVAL 2024 – “MUSHROOM TIME”‘
Time: 7 September 2024, from 11:00.
PREPARATION WORKSHOPS and DEMONSTRATIONS
Cooking masterclasses by Chef Ingmar Ladig
Cooking masterclasses by Chef Kristaps Reimāns
Cooking masterclasses of Latvian hostess Mara Zemdega
Laura Grēviņa’s “School for Little Cooks”
Outdoor cooking demonstrations of Vidzeme Technology and Design Technical School
CREATIVE WORKSHOPS
“VIENKOČI” Nature jewellery workshop
CLAY workshop – clay vessel making with ceramist Liene Zipa
Wooden banners, wooden bark decorations and braiding workshop with craftswoman Ginta Kalniņa
Natural, fresh cosmetics workshop with Laura Rose, talk-lecture “It’s easy to be beautiful (yes)”
Felting workshop
Gingerbread painting workshop
OPEN-AIR LECTURES OF THE LATVIAN MYCOLOGICAL SOCIETY
Maija Pohodņeva “Piepes for health and taste”
Audra Spārīte Jansone “Toxic mushrooms and their good properties”
Diāna Meiere “Truffles – collection and preparation”
“Spore” mushroom film tent and mushroom growing in bags
MUSHROOM WORKSHOPS/ LATVIAN SOCIETY OF MYCOLOGISTS
Yarn dyeing with mushrooms
Making mushroom butter
Making mushroom cosmetics
Making foam paper
Basket weaving
COMPETITION
The most interesting dish – “Mushroom in a jar” for winter. Various competitions with the chance to win prizes will take place throughout the day. Cooperation with the seniors’ organisation “Sidrabozols”
EXHIBITION
“EATABLE AND UNEATABLE MUSHROOM” – consultations with specialists, children’s activity corner
MUSIC AT THE ZAUBES OAK TREE
Singing with the Zaubes Mixed Choir
Dancing with the Madona brass band
GREEN MARKET
Delicacies, drinks and food from home producers, crafts
ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION
Nature Conservation Agency activities “Natural meadow products”
ACTIVITIES
Rupuči boats and SUP boards on the lake, archery, youth activities, radio-controlled jeepney track
Various wild meat meals will be offered by the local “Zaube” hunters’ club
*The programme of the event is still subject to change.