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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Farmers and gardeners alike were able to show off their gems of the growing season during the fifth annual Ecology North Fall Harvest Fair on Saturday.

Tasha Stephenson won third place for biggest vegetable with her rutabaga, or yellow turnip, at the fifth annual Ecology North Fall Harvest Fair on Saturday at Northern United Place. - Candace Thomson/NNSL

The fair, held at Northern United Place, included a canning workshop led by Dave Taylor. Taylor taught about a dozen people how to can vegetables, like beets and green beans, and fruit such as peaches. People in the workshop cooked their vegetables, prepared their mason jars and mixed the brine and spices.

The harvest competition came later in the afternoon when green thumbs brought in their largest, weirdest and tastiest goods of the season.

There were 12 prizes given out. Among the winners were Kerry Wheler for most unique vegetable - she won with her tomatillos - and Grant Pryznyk who had the biggest vegetable - a cabbage weighing nearly three kilograms.

Wheler became familiar with tomatillos - green tomatoes with leaves akin to a ground cherries - while spending a year living in Mexico. The strange looking fruit is traditionally used in Mexico for salsa verde, or green salsa.

Every year, Wheler said she experiments with a new vegetable in her garden because she wants to expose her young children to different tastes. She planted the tomatillos early in a raised garden bed in her yard among snap peas.

As for Pryznyk and his cabbage, the trick for getting a cabbage as large as his was a combination of soil prep work with sheep manure and topsoil, and regular watering.

"Cabbage is very easy to grow, but when you first put it in the garden, it looks like it's going to croak," he said. "But it comes back with a vengeance. We just seem to have the right climate for it here, too."

Pryznyk said his parents always had a large garden and he was involved in planting and weeding from a young age. He and his wife, Karen Pryznyk, also make their own sauerkraut from the cabbages they grow at home.

After the competition, there was a pot luck which drew over 100 people with music and a variety of locally-grown foods, which were evaluated and then scored by judges. The award for best soup or chowder went to Bren Kolson with her cold rose hip soup, and Karla Cairns won an award for her rhubarb pie.

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