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.
