First ever meat & cheese fest gets Okanagan taste buds going

Kelowna’s Laurel Packinghouse was filled with patrons eager to sample what the Okanagan has to offer during the Cheese and Meat Artisan Food and Beverage Festival.

Festival Director David Bain was busy setting up a vast array of glasses and serving boards Saturday.

“When we started this festival, we saw that there was a real need to highlight specialty food products and not just stop at cheese and meat, and expand to things like pickles and spreads and breads and of course, what pairs with them,” Bain told Kelowna10.

“I think it's much more engaging for anyone who attends the festival to taste a sip of wine and try a bite of cheese than just tasting the cheese on its own.”

A whopping 40 vendors were at the event, providing samples of their product, from fine cheeses to unique spirits and everything else you might find on a charcuterie board.

Bain was interested by the many vendors that originally had reached out to try and take part in this occasion, some even making five-hour trips to have their own booths at the festival.

He saw this as a true testament of the quality and variety of the Okanagan’s specialty foods sector.

“We actually ended up with a 15-vendor waiting list just to come on board,” he explained. “And what that means for us is that we saw a real need for the development of the Okanagan local food movement.”

In terms of future plans for the festival, Bain said that he doesn’t really think they ever want to expand too much in size, but rather to expand the footprint of buying local when they host their event in different cities.

“We feel there's a gap there where you often don't get to learn about the brands unless you come to a festival like this,” he said. “We want to encourage that consumer to consistently come back to the brand and learn more about it and we're hoping to be the conduit for that.”