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You say tomato
Garden fest celebrates organic foods
by JILL MOON
The Telegraph
GODFREY -- The Rev. Jacques Lau saw red Friday evening
when he visited the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate's Community-Supported Garden at La Vista.
Visiting from a retreat house in Minnesota, Lau's classic French cuisine-trained eye roved around a table
full of tomato-based dishes at the Missionary Oblates' second annual Tomato Fest. Lau, who judged the tomato recipe contest, dipped tiny shrimp into mild gazpacho, wrestled with a tomato slice topped with mozzarella
and basil, and spread homemade ketchup on an oval of bread.
"I can't make a decision yet -- there's more to taste," Lau told the awaiting crowd while stirring soup in a slow cooker. "Ahhh,
okra."
Lau finally ended the suspense by declaring the tomato tart the winner. An Alton YWCA yoga teacher, Valerie White of Florissant, won the honors of being deemed the best by Lau, who studied at the
Culinary Institute of America.
The fest was a way for shareholders in the organic garden and guests to share fellowship based on a belief in supporting local farmers, being in tune with nature and promoting
organically grown food. The garden began in 2002 under the umbrella of the Oblate Ecological Initiative. Lau is here for a week, cooking for an initiative seminar on ecology and spirituality.
Lau and the
Rev. Maurice Lange, the director of the Oblate Ecological Initiative, attended seminary together in Texas.
"For the last three years, I've done the cooking, and it's all vegetarian," Lau said.
"I try to broaden people's horizons and educate them in the diversity of food."
Lau prepared kamute, an ancient Egyptian precursor to wheat that has 20 percent to 40 percent more protein than
traditional wheat. For dessert, he prepared two different flavors of tomato sorbet that everyone shared with their own spoon from large metal bowls.
Full-time manager and head farmer Kris Larson manages the
garden, while the organizational responsibilities are overseen by a core group of volunteers who recently formed a board.
"The fest is one of the highlights, when I get to see everybody at once,"
Larson said. "My life is the fields and the crops. It's been a great year. A lot of people have turned out for the fest."
Although the garden's several pesticide- and herbicide-free tomato varieties
suffered from the drought this year, there was plenty of use for them in the fest's tomato games, including Tomato Golf. Children and adults filled in their game "passports" each time they completed one of
the four games. Once completed, the "passports" were entered into a drawing for a "Community-Supported Agriculture" T-shirt.
jill_moon@thetelegraph.com
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