Another highlight of our visit to Amatciens
was a visit to nearby Zaubes to take in the annual Savvalas Kulinarais Festivals, or
Wild Food Festival, which takes place every year in the middle of
July. The festival exhibits local foods, wines, crafts, and
entertainment. It is a nice way for visitors to get a glimpse of local
culture. It was a short drive from our host's house, and we all braved
the intermittent rain to sample the food and fun of the festival. As
shown in the map to the left, the festival itself is divided into three
basic areas. The entrance from the road and the walk in the the Manor
Park is devoted to locally produced foods and wines, and also featured
an archery area. In the adjacent Manor Park exhibits were centered
around a stage and
featured local cooking, crafts, and entertainment. Following the road
at the western edge of the Manor Park brought us to Manor's Gate, where
we were able to view local produce, crafts and well as cooking
exhibitions centered on Latvian cuisine. Each of these areas is covered
in order on this webpage.
Zaubes
Savalas Kulinarais Festivals Promotion Video
The Entrance: Local
Food and Wines.
The
entrance is from the street, and fronts a large meadow and a smaller
wooded area. Next to the Welcome booth are a series of displays that
all featured locally produced herbs and foods, many of which were
available to sample. Just past the displays and to the left was a
wooded area in front of a small pond which offered archery for young
and old alike. Since Tracy and Sergey had already proven their archery
prowess at the Turaida Castle, we turned inward toward the Manor Park
Area. In this more wooded area local foods were on display, but many
of these were more geared toward
immediate consumption, as shown in the
photos of the pastries (left) and ice cream (right). We 
also purchased
some
delicious caramel sauce, and did stop by to sample the local
wines. Fortified by wine and chocolate, we ventured into the Manor Park
area, located in the more wooded section of the festival, which
provided some shelter from the impending rain.
Manor Park: Music,
Food, and Fun
Manor Park is comprised of the wooded interior of the
festival area, and it was at the heart of most of entertainment. It
featured a stage (photo to the right) where there was a constant hub of
activity, ranging from culinary contests and handicrafts
exhibitions (photo to the left) to
live music. Ringing the stage area were cooking exhibits serving Latvian
cuisine and a play area for children that featured the Latvian version
of Legos (or Lincoln Logs for those viewers of a certain age.) These
photos are shown below to the left and right repectively. From here we
headed out to the main road, and walked west to visit the exhibits at
the third and most interactive area of the festival, Manor's Gate.
Manor's Gate:
Handicrafts and Hands-on Cooking
Manor's Gate is an open meadow to the west
of the forested Manor's Park, on the banks of Lake Lejas. Exiting
Manor's Park along a main road, we turned left and walked down a small
path leading to the meadow. This pathway was dedicated to "Latvian
Museum of Nature," and featured the flora and fauna of the region.
Prominently displayed were two tents exhibiting the abundance of local
mushrooms, and the uses to which they may be put. Further down were
exhibits of herbal (medicinal) mandalas, oak acorn coffee, and a vegan
cafe.
The northern
edge (the side nearest the road) was dotted with small booths that sold
handicrafts as well as that staple of life everywhere, beer. The photo
to the left shows one of the handicrafts booths. While we were there,
Tracy picked up some wooden spoons for our kitchen and for gifts. Shown
in the photo to the right is one of the numerous tents touting beer and
beer-making ingredients.
Crossing over to the shore of Lake Lejas, we
entered the most interactive area of the festival. A row of tents
hugging the shoreline were given over to a international cook's
festival featuring game and local foods. After chatting with some of
the chefs and learning what they were preparing, we left Iron Chef
Latvia and ventured a bit further down the lake shore to the Priekuli
Cooking School's exhibit, which featured a unique way of cooking. Logs
had been cut up into sections of about 3/4's of a meter, and then a
chain saw was used to cut a series of slots extending midway down the log
section. At the intersection of the slots embers were placed and log
begain to burn, with its top serving a cooking surface. This can be
seen in the photo to the left. Local produce was placed on a long
bench (photo to the right) and visitors could load up a frying pan and
cook over the improvised stove. This was way more fun than Boy Scouts!
A bit further down was local cooking exhibit featuring wild game . The photo to the left shows venison with rosemary
awaiting the cook's attention, while the photo to the left show a whole
deer being roasted on a spit. With this, our visit came to an end and
we wound our way back to the entrance. The food, the crafts, and the
entertainment provided a wonderful day-long trip, and the Zaubes
Savvala Kulinarais Festivals is an experience not to be missed if you
are visiting Latvia in the summer.
