INNISFAIL – After a three-year hiatus, the Asparagus Festival is back.
The festival will take place at Edgar Farms west of Innisfail, on May 27, and June 3 and 10.
The return of the springtime festival comes after a series of devastating hailstorms destroyed a portion of their asparagus crop in 2014.
“I’m so thankful that people were so understanding about what has happened,” said Elna Edgar. “Weather rules everything we do.”
The current crop of asparagus is doing well, she added, thanks to recent above-average temperatures.
“Right now we’ve got little tips that are just poking out of the ground in the new field. They’re about a quarter of an inch high and there’s tons of them,” she said.
“We think we’re going to have a great year.”
Edgar noted some steps the farm took to preserve what was left of the crop to ensure its future viability.
“We were careful not to over-pick it in 2016, but did harvest the new 22-acre field for about three weeks last spring,” said Edgar. “We were very impressed with the quality and quantity of asparagus.
“We feel confident we will have enough production this year to be able to bring the Asparagus Festival back,” she added.
As in past years, there will be a number of activities for families to enjoy, including narrated wagon tours of the asparagus patch, a farmers market with about 20 vendors, games, a food truck, displays and a bale maze.
In addition, Innisfail and area chef Matt Burton will be at Edgar Farms during the festival to prepare creative dishes.
“Matt Burton (is new to the festival this year) and is preparing dishes for people to purchase,” explained Edgar.
Two other chefs from Calgary will make a return visit to the festival as well.
“We’re going to have chef Matthias Fong from the River Café on May 27 and chef Jamie Harling from the Deane House on June 10,” said Edgar. “They’re going to be out here doing tastings for people and talking about asparagus.”
For more information call Edgar at 403-350-0659 or 403-227-2443, email [email protected] or visit www.edgarfarms.com
