This year’s Great Saskatchewan Mustard Festival is bigger and better than ever.
After nine years at the Willow on Wascana, the event had to move to the lawn near the Legislative Building to hold all of the mustard fans.
“From the first year 10 years ago, 200 people attended,” said Greg Hanwell, co-owner of Beer Brothers Gastropub and co-chair of the festival. “Last year, we had 1,600 and overran our site.”
The province is responsible for nearly 80 per cent of the world’s mustard production. The festival wants to celebrate all that Saskatchewan mustard has to offer.
“It’s a very important crop in Saskatchewan for agricultural producers,” Hanwell said. “We always think this is a wheat province, or canola, but mustard is way up there as well in terms of its importance.”
The annual event showcases local restaurants, all challenged to create a dish using mustard as a key ingredient.
“Everybody gets to use the same ingredient, so it’s interesting to see what everybody comes up with,” Haley Blackmore, owner of Sprout Catering, said. Sprout Catering brought a mustard macaroni and cheese to this year’s festival.
“Our mac and cheese is always really popular,” Blackmore said. “So we thought, let’s try to incorporate the mustard into that.”
The 16 vendors spent the day competing for bragging rights and the ultimate prize: The coveted yellow jacket.
Industrial Park Café hoped to make 2016 a three-peat.
“We get to hang that in our restaurant and everybody gets to see it and talk about it,” co-owner Carrie Taylor said about winning the jacket. “It’s a good conversation opener.”
Competition aside, the Great Saskatchewan Mustard Festival is promoting all that the province’s mustard producers have to offer.
“Mustard’s great with everything. It’s king,” Taylor said. “If we’re going to keep our industry going, the farmers going and everything else, we kind of have to promote it.”
