"It always floors me and how great our community is at pulling together to pull this off." - Honey, Garlic & Maple Syrup Committee Chair Juanita Cobb
Many people took in Manitou's Honey, Garlic and Maple Syrup Festival this weekend. With tours of the Nellie McClung Homes, RM of Pembina Bus Tours and a Coffee House at the Manitou Opera House featuring music from the band, Leaf Rapids started off the weekend on Friday.
Saturday added a host of activities on the fairgrounds starting off with a pancake breakfast complete with Manitoba Maple Syrup. a craft show, farmers market, car show, children's tent and Mighty Machine Display, and a free stage featuring local musicians followed by the gourmet all-you-can-eat supper.
Festival Committee Chair Juanita Cobb remarked they couldn't have asked for a better day with a bit of rain overnight allowing the farming community to take in some of the weekend.
"At the pancake breakfast. I think they had record numbers. Throughout the day, we had lots of people around visiting the vendors, the car show, and Gourmet Alley supper was great. I don't know that we could ask for anything better."
Cobb beamed at all who contributed to the festival.
"We probably have 300 volunteers that touch this festival. We are a committee of seven in charge of it, and everybody works really hard, but without the community support, we would never do it. We have every organization come out. Our youth is fabulous, we just had all the grad kids wash dishes until 9:00 on a Saturday night. It always floors me and how great our community is at pulling together to pull this off."
The wooden dance floor is a signature piece to the event where guests can spontaneously dance to the music provided by the musicians who played a variety of music.
Warren Friesen, The Harvey Allan Band, Brian Jacobs and Knock Knock Folk played in the arena, while a young band from Manitou, The Stowaways boomed classic rock from a trailer for Show and Shine guests.
Funds were raised at the event for the festival as well as for the Windygates 4H Beef Club who worked all day to wipe the tables, clean up garbage, and sell 50/50 tickets.
Saturday night's gourmet, all you can eat buffet capped off the day, dished out by more volunteers, sent guests home filled with food flavoured with honey, garlic, maple syrup and a pumpkin dessert.
