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Currant-centered workshops offer hands-on experiences

A series of workshops before and during the third annual Far North Currant Festival will give participants hands-on opportunities to learn about, cook with and taste currants. 

The festival itself is a free, family-friendly event from 1-4 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 23. It celebrates currants (Ribes spp.), delicious, nutrient-packed berries that thrive in Fairbanks’ sub-Arctic climate. The festival is organized by the University of Alaska Fairbanks Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station. The festival and all workshops will be held at the Georgeson Botanical Garden Pavilion on the ºÚÁϺÚÀúÊ· Troth Yeddha’ Campus.

The workshops are:

• Black Currant Flavor Experience (guided taste-testing)  — Wednesday, Aug. 20, 5:30-6:30 p.m. Currants have flavors unlike any other berry. Lily Hislop, the black currant breeder for the Savanna Institute, will guide participants through a taste test, from the basic building blocks of flavor through identifying aromatics. $25
• Currant Propagation — Thursday, Aug. 21, 5:30-7:30 p.m. Pat Holloway will lead a hands-on workshop and share the secrets of multiplying currants by taking cuttings and rooting them. Participants will leave with a propagated cutting and a bonus currant plant. $30
• Berry-Infused Luxury DIY Lip Balms — Friday, Aug. 22, 5:30-7:30 p.m. Participants will learn to make homemade lip balm in this hands-on workshop by blending natural beeswax, healthy oils and currants with Mallory Smith, garden manager for Alaska Harvest Collaborative. Participants will take home lip balm. $40
• Black Currant Flavor Experience (guided taste-testing) — Saturday, Aug. 23, noon-1 p.m. Currants have flavors unlike any other berry. Lily Hislop, the black currant breeder for the Savanna Institute, will guide participants through a taste test, from the basic building blocks of flavor through identifying aromatics. $25
• Cooking Healthy with Currants: Bison Meatballs with Currant Jelly — Saturday, Aug. 23, 2-3 p.m. This workshop will explore a delicious and nutritious way to prepare currants in a savory dish. Taught by Alaska chef Flora Deacon, participants will learn how to make bison meatballs with currant jelly and have the opportunity to taste the final product. $25
• Cooking with Currants: Currant Curd with Meringue — Saturday, Aug. 23, 4-5 p.m. Chef Lianne Peryea, production chef at Stone Soup Cafe in Fairbanks, will teach participants to make mini pavlovas topped with a currant curd. Attendees will take home a jar of curd. $30

Register for each class separately using the or visit. Learn more about the Far North Currant Festival .

Currant breeder Hislop will also present a free webinar on Tuesday, Aug. 12, from noon-1 p.m. on currants, why they were banned in the United States for 55 years and what their future looks like. Register at .

For more information, contact Katie DiCristina at kmdicristina@alaska.edu.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: Accommodation requests related to a disability should be made five business days in advance to Alda Norris at amnorris2@alaska.edu or 907-474-7120. Language access services, such as interpretation or translation of vital information, will be provided free of charge to individuals with limited English proficiency upon request to amnorris2@alaska.edu. 

This work is supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

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