The Ocracoke community will celebrate the summer’s fig bounty at the 10th annual Fig Festival Aug. 1 to 3 with special guest Sheri Castle, the host of “The Key Ingredient,” an Emmy-winning cooking show from PBS North Carolina that airs across the country.
Castle is also an award-winning professional food writer, recipe developer and cooking teacher known for melding stories, humor and culinary expertise.
The Southern Foodways Alliance named her one of 20 Living Legends of Southern Food, calling her “The Storyteller.”
Castle grew up in Watauga County in the Blue Ridge Mountains and she now lives in Chatham County. Her website is shericastle.com.
The festival will take place at the Berkley Barn and will include live music, traditional Ocracoke square dancing, children’s crafts, talks by local fig experts and vendor booths. The weekend concludes with a dance with the Ocracoke Rockers.
Castle will be the Fig Festival’s special guest at the “Garden Fresh” Savory Fig Dinner on Thursday evening, Aug. 1. This popular fundraising event features savory fig dishes from local chefs and this year’s entrée will be the dish that Castle prepared for her Ocracoke figs-themed episode of “The Key Ingredient” that aired Sept. 11. Space is limited; tickets for this evening will go on sale on Monday, July 1.
In addition to the Savory Dinner, the Fig Festival is offering a Cooking Class & Luncheon with Castle on Tuesday, July 30. Castle will share cooking tips and techniques in an informal setting to a small group of students while making a delicious luncheon served up with Fig Mimosas. Space is limited; tickets for the class go on sale on Monday, July 8.
Public events with Castle include a cookbook signing on Friday afternoon and a public Q & A on Saturday. She will also serve as a guest judge at the Fig Cake Bake-Off, the showpiece of the Fig Festival on Saturday afternoon.
All are welcome to submit a cake in one or all categories, Traditional, Innovative, Youth (15 and younger), or the special category for 2024: Garden Fresh Figs – any dish that incorporates fresh figs and any other summer garden ingredient.
The Traditional category is limited to the old-fashioned recipe, available in local cookbooks. Even as our bakers use the same recipe, there are subtle differences: the type of fig preserves used, the delicate balance of spices, or the cook’s magic touch.
Innovative entries must be desserts; anything goes in the Youth category as long as there are figs in it.
During the week leading up to the festival, island eateries will offer fig-infused menu items both savory and sweet. Local shops will stock this year’s selection of fig preserves.
The Ocracoke Fig Festival is presented by the nonprofit Ocracoke Preservation Society. All funds raised after expenses go to Ocracoke Preservation Society to support their mission. For more information, contact Sundae Horn (252-921-0283), Andrea Powers Tolson (252-928-7375), or www.ocracokepreservationsociety.org.
