[EID ON AIR] Talking meads and merds on the Craig Fahle Show

Me with Craig Fahle. 

Just last week (ye gods has it only been a week??) I was a guest on the Craig Fahle Show on WDET talking about mead, thanks to this little piece in Hour. I put together a bunch of notes for the show which, of course, I never once referenced. So now I'm sharing them with you. Initially I was only going to share a few key tidbits, but then I figured I might as well just start at the beginning and not assume people already have a basic knowledge of what I'm talking about. 

You can listen to the Craig Fahle Show's snippet on mead with me here. I've also done a lot of mead primer work here, for your reference. 

PS, "merds." It's a thing now.

NOTES:

What is mead? 
Mead is an alcoholic beverage made from honey. The difference between mead and beer and wine is in the fermentables in the product - in beer it's grains, in wine it's grapes, and in mead it's honey.

Because honey is the primary ingredient, yes, it is sweet, but the sweetness can be tempered just like in a wine and meads can also be bone-dry.

Mead is the oldest alcoholic beverage in the world. The famous French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss makes a case for the invention of mead as a marker of the passage "from nature to culture." (And everyone who has ever written anything remotely significant about mead has referenced this.)

Meads are typically the strength of wine, roughly around 14% alcohol (though that can vary significantly).

Are there different kinds of meads? 
Much as there are different regions and varietals of wine and different styles of beer, there are dozens of different varieties of meads, but some of the most common that you'll find are as follow:
-Melomel - made with fruit
-Braggot - beer/mead hybrid using malt (with or without hops)
-Cyser - honey and apple juice fermented together
-Pyment - honey and red or white grapes (a wine hybrid)

Mead now has its own National Mead Day on August 3, an effort by the American Homebrewers Association.

B. Nektar Meadery, Ferndale
-Brad Dahlhofer is the co-owner of B. Nektar Meadery with his wife Kari and partner Paul Zimmerman.
-B. Nektar just entered the New York market.
-B. Nektar has expanded into a second production space, also in Ferndale, about six times the size of their original space, and recently added another 4,000 gallons of capacity.
-They are currently in the process of getting a brewery license so they can make braggots. UPDATE: As of October 31, 2013, they have received their federal brewing license and will soon begin making braggots.
-When they started producing the Zombie Killer, a lightly-hopped cherry cyser session mead, in 2011, it was a coup for the company and became their claim to fame; Ken Schramm and others credit them with bringing mead national attention.
-Next up was Evil Genius, a lightly-carbonated IPA-style mead that, to the best of their knowledge, was the first IPA-style mead in the country (though not the first hopped) - note, Evil Genius is no longer in production due to an issue with availability for one of the ingredients.
-Other carbonated session meads now include: Necromangocon, Kill All the Golfers (an Arnold Palmer style mead), Black Fang (made with blackberry, clove, orange).
-They will produce 25,000 cases of carbonated meads alone this year.
-New Devil's Night releases including new session mead Dwarf Invasion (made with cherry, hops), the Smoked Pumpkin Caper (made with smoked pumpkin, squash, and sweet potato, smoked honey, brown sugar, pumpkin pie spices, aged in a Goose Island Bourbon County Stout barrel clocking in at 15%ABV), Devil's Juice (orange blossom honey, smoked 'mutt' honey, pineapple juice, and a blend of 3 hot peppers), Eye Ball (like a highball, ginger and raw wildflower honey aged in rye whiskey barrels, one of partner meadmaker Ian Radogost-Givens' creations; he will be doing more experiMental B-Sides and a barrel-aged series.
-In the works: the barrel-aged series and more B-sides.
-We're seeing more and more carbonated mead at trade shows, presumable thanks to the success these guys have had.
-B. Nektar might be the largest meadery in the country right now, with Red Stone Meadery in Boulder next closest in size and production.

Ken Schramm, Schramm's Mead, Ferndale
-Read about his new Ferndale meadery here.
-Heart of Darkness is his signature mead, which used to be made at B. Nektar before Schramm got his own licensed meadery. It is made from homegrown, hand-harvested fruit from Schramm’s orchard and berry patch. The cherries are of the Schraammbeek variety, an intensely flavorful, European morello type, the raspberries are Heritage and Latham, and the black currants are Crandall and Consort. Production is extremely limited, as the amount of care and labor which go into each batch is substantial. Much of the fruit is netted to prevent birds from eating what should be your mead. This is a hand-crafted mead, if ever there was one.
-Where B. Nektar's meads appeal to the beer nerds, Schramm's meads are more elegant, akin to fine wines.
-Schramm is a world-renowned expert in mead, having wrote the book on it. The Compleat Meadmaker was released in 2003. It is still considered the current book of reference for meadmaking, and Schramm plans on a second edition soon. He is to mead what Brian Polcyn is to charcuterie.
-He plans on producing 300 gallons per month, all self-distributed.
-He also co-created the Mazer Cup, the largest mead event in the world featuring both home brewers and commercial meads in competition.
-Schramm has his standard blackberry, raspberry, and ginger meads, but he also has special meads like the Heart of Darkness, the Statement (made with Hungarian cherries) and Black Heart, a black raspberry melomel being released on Halloween.

Kuhnenn Brewing Co., Warren + Clinton Twp.
-The cult favorite craft brewery just bought a new production facility, which will open next spring
-The new brewery also has the capacity to produce 2,000-3,000 barrels (120,000-180,000 gallons) of mead.
-They will focus on braggots, lightly carbonated session meads (beer/mead "hybrids"). They will still make limited release still meads for brewery release only.
-They will distribute their braggots starting in Michigan and expanding out.
-Still meads will be special releases likely brewery only
-Every March they host "Mead Madness" with a slew of new limited specialty mead releases every week.
-They were covered in Imbibe Magazine's recent article on American meads, along with B. Nektar.
-They're currently known for meads like their Bourbon Barrel French Toast mead and Imperial Bourbon Barrel Braggot.
-Meadmaker Frank Retell has taken home scores of golds, silvers and bronzes at the Mazer Cup for his braggots, pyments, dessert meads, melomels...the list goes on and on.

Other Michigan meadmakers
-Dragonmead in Warren (currently going through a major expansion)
-Superior Lakes in Harrison Twp.
-St. Ambrose Cellars (now making some carbonated meads)
-Bardic Wells

[Hour Detroit] The Need for Mead

Schramm's Meadery. Photo by Nicole Rupersburg.

With the opening of Schramm’s Meadery in downtown Ferndale scheduled for this fall, the city might well be the epicenter of a growing craft beverage industry that’s gaining a lot of “buzz.”

Schramm’s joins B. Nektar Meadery — the “beer geek’s” mead that uses cult movie imagery on its labels (think Star Wars and Evil Dead) and now exports to a dozen states.

While mead is gaining new fans, it’s certainly no upstart. Some consider it the ancestor of all fermented drinks. Mead, an alcoholic beverage made from honey, is often referred to as “honey wine.” Much like beer or wine, mead has dozens of styles and can be flavored in countless ways. Popular styles include cysers, made with apple juice; melomels, made with fruits; and pyments, made with wine grapes.

Mead more.

[HOT LIST] Dream Cruise avoidance guide

Much like snow in the winter, every year at this exact same time the Dream Cruise happens and every year everyone who isn't an eager cruiser seems equally surprised and annoyed by its existence.

Look, if you live in downtown Royal Oak/Ferndale/Birmingham, it sucks. I get it. And if you live on one side of Woodward and need to get to the other, it sucks. I get it. But for everyone else, even those who live in the middle of it, there are ways for you to find relief. And that is by avoiding it. Entirely. Here's how: pick one side of Woodward and stay on it for the next three days. And here's where to go to do that.

#1 Visit the breweries of Warren
You know what isn't on Woodward? Warren. And for east- and west-siders alike, Warren is pretty easy to get to (696 runs right through it). Spend the weekend on a makeshift local brewery tour of Kuhnhenn Brewing Company, Dragonmead, and Falling Down Beer Company. Try the award-winning beers and meads at Kuhnhenn and Dragonmead (Falling Down is still too new to have those kinds of distinctions), and get some good eats from Detroit BBQ Co. at Kuhnhenn and at Falling Down, where there's a serious chef running the show in the kitchen. And Mo Pop is happening in Sterling Heights which isn't too far from there, and there will be food trucks. I know how much everyone loves food trucks.

The patio at Palate. Photo by Nicole Rupersburg.

#2 Go west - really far west
You know what else isn't on Woodward? Milford. Milford is very, very much not on Woodward. In fact, the whole western Oakland County lakes area is pretty far removed from Woodward. Been meaning to check out the Root in White Lake for dinner? This would be a great weekend to head out that way. Another cool spot to check out is Palate in downtown Milford, with a great beer list and fantastic patio. You can even make a whole day of it by starting with hiking, biking, fishing or kayaking at Kensington Metro Park - there's also a nature center and splash park for the kids.

#3 Really far west
And by that I mean Ann Arbor, which sometimes seems so far it might as well be Chicago. Really it's only 45 minutes and I just like to complain. There's plenty to do and see and eat and drink in the old Ace Deuce - there's the Hudson Mills Metropark and the Dexter-Huron Metropark, both of which offer plenty of opportunities for outdoor recreation including hiking, biking, kayaking/canoeing, fishing, BBQing, and more. Right in downtown Ann Arbor there's the Nichols Arboretum, with more hiking and biking trails. There's the University of Michigan Museum of Art, which is a small but great museum on the U-M campus which is pretty much across the street from Ashley's, one of the top beer bars in the country and a place I recommend heartily for both beer and pizza. Plus the kids are not quite yet back in school which makes doing anything in downtown Ann Arbor during the summer about 100 times better. (Less people = better.) And also Jolly Pumpkin.

#4 Or go north
Take I-75 straight up to hit Clubhouse BFD in Rochester Hills, another one of the best beer bars in the country, Rochester Mills Brewery in downtown Rochester, and the recently-opened 51 North Brewery in Lake Orion. Basically what I'm saying through all of this is go drink beer somewhere not near Woodward.

Houndstooth Craft Hot Dog Co. at Downtown Detroit Days.

#5 Or south
Because the Dream Cruise does not actually happen in Detroit, the entire city of Detroit is safe. Mostly. The Tigers are home so there's that to contend with. And I won't have been the only person to make that realization that the Dream Cruise doesn't happen in Detroit. But Downtown Detroit Days is this weekend, a Dan Gilbert Joint with Tashmoo Biergarten and Alley Wine pop-ups because pop-ups, and also Guns + Butter is happening this weekend in Eastern Market because pop-ups.





Also there's the first-ever Zombie Con in Troy. 

[HOT LIST] Mead Day

Mead Day is this Saturday, August 3. Metro Detroit is pretty much the best place in the country to be right now if you're a mead fan. But let's back this up a bit for newbies: mead is an alcoholic beverage made from fermented honey, which is ultimately what differentiates it from wine, cider, beer, and other spirits. It is believed that mead is the world's oldest alcoholic beverage, dating back to around 2000 B.C. The father of modern anthropology, Claude Levi-Strauss, stated that the invention of mead marked the passage "from nature to culture" for modern man.

Mead carries with it this imagery of Vikings and Knights and dudes who play Dungeons and Dragons. None of that is patently untrue, but in contemporary culture mead is on track to become the country's next "IT" artisan alcoholic beverage of choice. But don't take my word for it; take Imbibe's. Craft beer is booming, artisan spirits aren't far behind it in terms of the rate of industry growth and increasing number of artisan distilleries and consumer popularity, craft ciders are taking off in apple-growing regions (including, hi, Michigan), and wine...well, wine has had its day and eventually will again.* But mead? Mead as a commercial artisan beverage is still in its infancy but if the growth of Ferndale's own B. Nektar Meadery is any indication (now in almost 20 states, including California), it's primed to EXPLODE over the next 2-5 years. Much like the craft beer and artisan spirits before it.

So, it's made from honey. Is it sweet? To quote one industry friend of mine, "No, it tastes like burgers." Yes, it's sweet. It's made from honey. But much like craft beer, mead comes in a variety of forms and flavors, from lower-ABV (like, around 6% - still high-ish by beer standards) carbonated meads to bourbon-barrel-aged bombs, traditional meads that taste like luscious liquid honeys to its dozens of variations that include cysers (made with honey and apple juice), melomels (honey and fruit), braggots (honey and malt), and pyments (honey and juice from wine grapes).

In metro Detroit alone we have meadmakers B. Nektar in Ferndale, Kuhnhenn Brewing Company and Dragonmead in Warren, Superior Lakes in Harrison Township, and the soon-to-open Schramm's Mead in Ferndale - which is to say nothing of the many other meadmakers in Michigan. This Mead Day, celebrate with Michigan-made meads. And here is how.

#1 2013 Summer Mead Fest at B. Nektar Meadery in Ferndale
Their first Mead Fest started with probably 100 mead nerds (merds?) standing in the parking lot of the original B. Nektar Meadery production facility in Ferndale. Since then the event has grown and packs in hundreds - thousands? - of people over two different annual festivals, one held in the late summer and now a Spring Mead Fest (2013 was the first year), with live music, several food trucks, exclusive specialty meads on tap, and the eagerly-anticipated releases of rare and limited meads. Summer Mead Fest is always held on Mead Day, and this year's is also the company's five-year anniversary. They'll be debuting the new Black Fang, a carbonated blackberry clove mead, and the Zombies Take Manhattan, a rye whiskey cask-aged Imperial Zombie Killer (their most popular mead). The popular Cherry Chipotle is also making its return at Summer Mead Fest.

With mead names and label designs that nod to geeky cult movies (from Star Wars to Army of Darkness) and playful flavors that tend much more towards craft beer than wine (like Evil Genius, the hopped and carbonated IPA-style mead, currently out of production due to availability issues with one of the ingredients), B. Nektar has a distinct appeal to the local craft beer community. So it will come as happy news when I tell you that they are currently in the process of acquiring a brewing license, which is different than their current license, so they can do more collaborations with breweries and make beer-style meads/mead-style beers. The B. Nektar Brewery will come online as soon as the state approves their license.

#2 Kuhnhenn Brewing Company, Warren
Though not in distribution, Kuhnhenn Brewing Company's meads have their own cult following that even Imbibe noted. Every March they host "Mead Madness" with a slew of new limited specialty mead releases every week. They've also got several special Mead Day releases planned, including Sunflower Bourbon Barrel (Heaven Hill 3 year), Sunflower Bourbon Barrel (Heaven Hill 6 year), Sunflower Rye Whiskey Barrel (Heaven Hill with heavy char), and Saison Braggot (1/3 saison and 2/3 honey, fermented together, then spiced with ginger and coriander).

Happy news for Kuhnhenn fans: they have purchased an industrial building in Clinton Township at the corner of Groesbeck and Metro Parkway that will serve as a large-scale production facility and will also be home to a second, and much larger, tasting room. And THAT you heard here first.

#3 Dragonmead Microbrewery, Warren
I mean, it's right there in the name. This multi-time award-winning microbrewery is the most unabashed about its D+D roots with imagery that celebrates it rather than tries to downplay it. The three partners - Earl Scherbarth, Larry Channell and Bill Wrobel - started as homebrewers (and mead makers) who would throw wassail dinners (part of their own D+D backgrounds) but weren't able to find a quality mead to serve. So they started making their own. They ended up bringing their meads and beers out of the dungeon basement and into the mainstream, and are now also undergoing a major expansion that will allow them to significantly increase their brewing operations and distribution.

#4 Schramm's Mead, Ferndale
Okay, it's not actually open yet and you can't just GO there, but you should still be aware of it. Ken Schramm wrote the book on mead. No, but really, he wrote The Compleat Meadmaker, which is pretty much to mead what Brian Polcyn's Charcuterie was to meat. Though his new meadery and tasting room in Ferndale won't be open yet for Mead Day, he's getting close. An inspiration to meadmakers far and wide (including his new neighbors at B. Nektar, with whom he has made his own recipe Heart of Darkness, a highly sought-after limited release), he is also a co-founder of the Mazer Cup, the leading international mead competition. This guy is serious business (he even grows his own fruit for his meads, and by "grows," I more so mean "orchestrates") and I've heard the name "genius" tossed around quite a bit in reference to him. We're probably mere weeks away from his eponymous meadery opening; this is definitely one to watch for.

#5 Motor City Brew Tours Mead Day Tour
Want to check out all of the above meaderies including a sneak peek at Schramm's? Let Motor City Brew Tours bus you around to each of the above four destinations for $49.99 including a light lunch, mead samples at each stop, and transportation so you don't have to worry about driving. Your final stop is Summer Mead Fest at B. Nektar where you can choose to either sober up or go all out and call a friend or Uber to take you home.

Honorable mention: Superior Lakes in Harrison Township 
You don't know about this place yet because I haven't written about this place yet, but give me a few hours days.

*When it's wine's turn again the focus will be all about small-production family estate boutique wines from lesser-known growing regions. Napa? No-thankya. In fact, that's already happening, but outside of the wine world the drinking public seems to have lost interest in the industry for the time being. But, like anything, and everything, it's cyclical. 

Metromix: Spring Beer Guide 2010

"Spring is in the air; time to drink some beer!

'Well, ANYTIME is the right time to enjoy some of Michigan’s award-winning locally-brewed craft beers, but the changing of the seasons inevitably ushers in a shift in the beer drinker’s (and brewer’s) tastes. We bid a fond farewell to the malty dark ales and head-spinning strongs that kept us warm all through the winter and open our arms to cloudy, refreshing wheat beers; hop-heavy pale ales; and crisp, light lagers. The weather outside is quite nearly delightful; it’s time for some solid patio-drinking!

'Light, refreshing, clean, crisp, citrusy -- these are the characteristics of a Michigan spring beer, and these are the places where you can get them:"

Read the rest of the article here.

The Beer Series #2: Dragonmead Microbrewery

Most microbreweries will have about 8-12 beers on tap at any given time. Dragonmead Microbrewery has 45 or more, with about 60 different beers available in total (they have more beers than they do taps).

Dragonmead Microbrewery is tucked away in an inudstrial park right off the I-696 service drive at Groesbeck in Warren. If you're out that way, odds are pretty good you've driven by it dozens of times without ever noticing it. But inside this nondescript building is the highest-variety brewery in the world, thanks to an innovative three-barrel brewing system, which allows them to brew multiple times throughout the day in smaller batches enabling more variety as compared to most microbreweries’ 15-barrel system. Okay, for the layperson that might sound like so much mumbo-jumbo, but when co-owner Larry Channell walked me through their brewing operations and explained them to me it made PERFECT sense.

Put it this way: yes, having a three-barrel system is much more work-intensive, which isn't necessarily practical for most small breweries. A 15-barrel system yields 5x as much beer as the 3-barrel, allowing brewers to spend less time brewing (and more time focusing on other aspects of the business). However, if an ambitious brewer with a 15-barrel system tried to match Dragonmead in variety, they would end up having to dump about 5,000 barrels of wasted beer every year (keep in mind, most beers are only good for about 90 days), versus Dragonmead's 20 wasted barrels. "We designed it to be simple," Larry tells me. "With this system it takes about 6-8 hours to brew a single beer but we can overlap the brewing because of the different vessels we use, which means we can brew multiple times throughout the day."

Translation: they've got A LOT of different beers.

Larry went on to explain that their goal in opening this microbrewery was to target a niche market. They wanted to make every single style of beer in the world available at all times, and have each of those beers be excellent examples of that particular style of beer making. "We would ask ourselves, 'Why would anyone buy our beer over someone else's?' and 'Would the company last at least 50 years?'" Larry recalls. "We had been wanting to start a business for 10 years before this, but every kind of business we looked at we saw it gobbling itself up after a few years. The niche we created here is something no one else was trying to do. It's difficult to offer such variety, but it's something that can last forever, and we already knew people would pay more for superb beer."


And so, in 1997--long before craft brewing became the exponentially growing trend that it is today--Dragonmead was born. "We were all home brewers before this, and we found that we were making better beer than most breweries," Larry says. He was a chemical engineer, Bill and Earl (the other partners in the business) had backgrounds in sales & marketing and metal model making, respectively. Between the three of them, they had the trifecta for a successful brewery. Earl made the vessels, Larry made the beer, and Bill made it marketable: voila.

The rest of the story is rather simple: they chose this location in Warren because it was a central location to all of their homes and workplaces (of course they've since been able to quit their automotive jobs, and lucky for them) and because they wanted trucks to have easy access to get in and out. The name "Dragonmead" came from their background as avid Dungeons & Dragons fans. In fact, this was their whole inspiration for getting into home brewing. "We held a Medieval Wassail Feast and the only thing we didn't make or kill ourselves was the beer." So they started home brewing, and kept trying until they got it right.

And got it right they did! At the World Beer Cup, the Oscars of beer held on alternating years, they've taken home medals in the last three competitions, including a gold for the English-style mild ale Crusader Dark Mild Ale, another gold for the Belgian-style tripel Final Absolution Trippel, and a bronze for the strong Scotch ale Under the Kilt Wee Heavy.

During my visit, I got to chatting with Jack, who was himself enjoying a pint of Wee Heavy. Jack is a regular at Dragonmead and a home brewer himself. As I talked with Jack, a thought occurred to me: Jack is Michigan's beer industry. The more I spoke with various brewers, brewery owners, and beer lovers--the more I saw their passion for craft brews and the excitement they displayed when talking about different beers and the craft beer industry in general--the more I realized that this is a community unto itself. Most brewers start at home, they seek the advice of professional brewers on equipment and grain blends, the professionals in turn are more than happy to share their expertise, some even go on to open their own brewery (Dragonmead, Kuhnhenn, Sherwood, Liberty St.), and others just truly love the beer and want nothing more than to be around others who love it too. The craft beer industry is like one big extended family; if you're in one of these places enjoying a pint, then consider yourself a second cousin.

Oh, but the beer. Most of the beers at Dragonmead are high gravity and high alcohol (which also means they can store for a year or more). I've already mentioned Wee Heavy, a smooth and creamy Scotch strong with notes of toffee. I also sampled Lancelot's American Cream Ale, a light, smooth, slightly malty beer that appeals to a wide audience of beer drinkers. Nagelweiss is their Hefeweizen (a German-style wheat beer), with all that familiar hefeweiz-ian banana-clove goodness. The Crown Jewels Imperial Pale Ale starts out hoppy but mellows over time. The Russian Imperial Stout had the robust chocolate notes familiar to Imperial Stout fans. Bill's Witbier is everything Oberon could be. The Ring of Fire is brewed with hot jalapeno and habanero peppers (though the heat isn't overpowering; it mostly just lingers on your palate). Then there's Final Absolution.

Final Absolution: the beer that could be a video game. As with most Belgian-style brews, it is fermented with Belgian Candi Sugar. It's a very high gravity beer with a deceptively smooth finish, but don't be fooled: this baby's 10% alcohol by volume. Three pints of this are equivalent to one full pint of Scotch. This is a serious beer. (Another bar owner recently told me that the reason they don't carry Final Absolution is because most people can only have one--"We're not trying to encourage people to get drunk, but we definitely want them to be able to have more than one beer.") There is also a dark version of Final Absolution available, called simply "Evil Twin." Final's big brother Armageddon Grand Cru comes out once a year in May to celebrate their anniversary. Like all big brothers, Armageddon makes Final Absolution look like so much child's play.

All these high-alcohol beers will probably leave you nibbly. Dragonmead does have a deep fryer and can cook up some burgers, mini tacos, fries and such. They also have a cheese plate and venison sausage, which fits with the whole Wassail feast concept the brewery was born from. Otherwise, they have menus from all the local restaurants that deliver and encourage guests to go ahead and order some food. They also make their own wines, meads, and sodas (sold only on premises).

Efforts to expand the taproom (and the number of taps in said room) continue, and there may even be a second clone location in the future (possibly Frankenmuth, but this is all very premature). In the meantime, if it's quality and variety you seek and good company to share it with, Dragonmead awaits you. Say hi to Jack for me.

Hop Aboard! Michigan's Best Breweries on Metromode

"Since the Stroh's Brewery opened in 1850 in Detroit, Michigan has had a booming beer industry. Beer has always had a way of keeping the economy chugging along, as it continues to do even now. Michigan is the sixth-largest state for craft breweries, a local industry that just keeps growing.

'Currently there are nearly 90 craft breweries in the state of Michigan producing hundreds of different styles of handcrafted beer. Michigan's brewing industry contributes more than $24 million in wages and has a total economic impact of over $133 million annually.

'2009 has been a big year for Michigan beers. The winners of the 2009 Great American Beer Festival (the Emmy Awards of beer) were just announced in September, with Great "Beer" State brews sweeping up seven medal competitions. October brought the inaugural Detroit Beer Week, a celebration of local brews with coordinating events held all over Metro Detroit, followed by the first-ever Harvest Beer Festival hosted by the Michigan Brewer's Guild and featuring over 40 Michigan breweries inside Detroit's Eastern Market..."

Read the rest of the article here, and be sure to check out the inaugural Harvest Festival at Eastern Market this Saturday!