Frementation Fest & Farm/Art DTour

The Fermentation Fest runs from October 4th – 13th and The Farm Art DTour is available to view the entire time.  The Fermentation Fest is a food and farming festival with a focus on fermentation and fun! From sourdough bread to home-crafted beer, pickles to soy sauce, chocolate to cheese, compost to silage, the Live Culture Convergence has it all. Farmers, chefs, artists, poets and cheese makers converge in the beautiful working lands of Sauk County with a series of tastings, demonstrations, cooking classes, art events, brewing seminars, farm tours and more.

The Wormfarm Institute, which coordinates Fermentation Fest, has a mission to integrate culture into agriculture which they address with the Farm Art DTour.The Farm/Art DTour, a fifty-mile backroad tour of art installations, Roadside Culture Stands (part of the Food Chain initiative), Field notes, Pasture Performances and more in Sauk County, Wisconsin. The Farm/Art DTour is a self-guided back roads tour by car, bike or buggy through the beautiful, unglaciated hills and valleys of Sauk County.  The DTour is punctuated by temporary art installations and artist-built Roadside Culture Stands selling fresh, locally grown produce as part of our new Food Chain initiative. You’ll also find Field Notes (rural culture education sites), Farm Forms (creations made by farmers, area businesses and community groups), Pasture Performances and more!

A few shots from our visit to enjoy the events in 2012:

A window display promoting the Fermentation Fest in downtown
Reedsburg.  The Green Giant in the window drew our attention
as Chris once worked for Pillsbury marketing their  products and
developing new products.

Field Notes: Corn
LandowneRs: biLL & deb kinsman
Bill and Deb Kinsman are 4th generation farmers on the original family farm established in 1899. 
They started out as dairy farmers, but now are strictly crop farming, growing primarily corn and soybeans. 

Tower Rock

Tower Rock School

Note Little Free Library on left

In 2012, the events were held the 3rd week in October coinciding with the Fall Art Tour which draws  visitors to artists' studios tucked away in the scenic hills in and around Wisconsin's art communities of Baraboo, Spring Green, Dodgeville, and Mineral Point. During the three-day tour, artists are in their studios, demonstrating and selling their work. These artisans include painters, sculptors, potters, weavers, jewelers, woodworkers, mixed-media artists, and more.  Many of these studios are open only for this event, providing a unique opportunity to meet the artists and purchase their work.  This year this Art tour in Southwest Wisconsin will be held from October 17-19.