Food Briefs: Eôté Coffee summer tour, ForkLift Food Fest and more

Open house

There’s making coffee, and then there’s really making coffee. For those interested in how the beans get to the bags, Eôté Coffee hosts a summer open house 5-8 p.m. Thursday at 416 NE 48th St. The free event includes tastings of Eôté coffee products and food from local  businesses.

Guests can tour the facility, including a pair of custom-built coffee roasters, Big Red and Little Red; see brewing method demonstrations; and talk with Eôté staff about where the coffee is sourced and created.

A silent auction with limited edition art proofs of Eôté posters, coffee gift bundles, limited edition cold brew growlers and dining packages will benefit Willow Springs Boys Ranch in Chandler. Visit www.eotecoffee.com.

Food fest

“People have lost the talent, skill and knowledge to prepare food,” said Cleveland County Conservation District education director Chris Ward.

As more people recognize that fast food and heavily processed foods are not the healthiest diet options, they want to make a change but don’t know how, she said. A visit to ForkLift Food Fest 8 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday at Cleveland County Fairgrounds, 615 E. Robinson St., in Norman might be a good first step.

“This is something the Conservation District has wanted to do for a while,” Ward said. “The farmers market approached us and said they wanted help promoting local food. This is what we came up with.”

Buying locally grown food isn’t just healthy, Ward said; it’s community-minded.

“You’re supporting your neighbors who are trying to make a living in agriculture,” she said. “My parents and my grandparents raised a lot of their own food, and what they didn’t raise came from people they knew.”

ForkLift Food Fest will include a farmers market with a youth-friendly scavenger hunt, cooking classes by Langston University for children and adults and jam-making classes and information on raising hoop houses to grow your own produce. Visit clevelandcountyconservationdistrict.com or call 405-364-7319.

Winning wines

Made in Oklahoma company Canadian River Vineyards & Winery in Slaughterville recently took home silver medals from the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition for its Ingels Vineyard Dry Riesling and Indy International Wine Competition for the winery’s Chardonnay. It also received a bronze medal at Finger Lakes International Wine Competition for its semisweet Sangiovese. The competitions put the winery up against more than 4,000 other entries, said winery owner Gene Clifton. Canadian River Vineyards & Winery’s winning wines were made with Oklahoma-grown grapes.

Canadian River’s vineyards are 17 years old.

Since the passage of State Question 688 in 2000, which allows for winery tasting rooms at vineyards, Oklahoma has seen a resurgence of local wineries. To help produce higher quality wines, Oklahoma State University Robert M. Kerr Food & Agricultural Products Center organized an Oklahoma wine-quality project to test chemical structure and sensory impact of locally produced wines.

Visit canadianriverwinery.net.

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