The Fiesta de Salsa!

Last week, Wasatch Community Gardens hosted the hottest par-tay in town: our annual Salsa Party and Competition. Our Fairpark Garden (1037w 300n) isn't really that big, but we fit about 150 people in the gates!  The community members that came either brought their homemade salsa or their stomachs ready for salsa tasting.  There was live music by the Bueno Avenue String Band as well as kids activities. I really wanted to get my face painted inside the "Sunflower House"...but I never stopped running around long enough to get that dragon I wanted painted on my forehead.

I also never stopped running around long enough to try any of the salsas...which is a total bummer. There were 15 very different salsas this year competing for various prizes as well as the title of "best salsa in town". Below are the competition categories as well as the winners for 2010.

Best Overall: Richard Ream "Yellow Pear Salsa"
Best Red: Tie; Hunter Merrit "Awesome" and Dara Michalski "Smokey Corn and Tomato"
Best Green: Frank Bedolla "Westside Spice"
Most Homegrown Ingredients: Jonathan Krausert "No. 9"
Best Fruit: Steven Erb "Avocado, Kiwi, Strawberry, Raspberry"
Most Unique Ingredient: Denise Horton (blueberries)
People's Choice: Chambay Thompson "Hot Sauce of Doom"

I haven't even told you the best part of the Salsa Party and Competition...it's FREE! Everything about this event is FREE...except for the tacos from the taco cart. So, besides the tacos, the entry to the competition is free, the salsa tasting is free, the kids activities are free, talking with your neighbors is free (yep!) and hangin' out in our beautiful community garden is free. We made it all free because it's an event for you (yes, even you can come for free). We wanted to make our Salsa Party and our garden a place where people come together. And, were we successful? Yep!



Thanks to all who came out, made a salsa to share,  plucked a banjo, volunteered your Friday evening, painted some faces, ate all of the salsa, donated to our organization, played bean-bag, and especailly to those that helped plan this most excellente event.