Taste of Highland is Saturday July 23

Taste of Highland is coming up on Saturday, July 23.  It’s The Highland Center’s main fundraiser to support operations and community programs.

Elizabeth Lohr-Myers is the Executive Director of The Highland Center in Monterey.

“The Taste of Highland started as part of The Highland Center’s initiative to promote local food and food producers, so we’re really trying to get back to those roots this year,” says Lohr-Myers.  “As you can imagine, there have been lots of iterations of the event over the years, but we are really trying to get back to our roots this year.  So, we are featuring Highland products in the menu.  Also, a new development for this year, is that the Arts Council has created Culinary Week as part of their Arts Academy.  So, there’s a week of workshops on different foods and techniques leading up to Taste of Highland and foods and recipes that those students learn will be featured at Taste of Highland.  So, we’ll have some focaccia that students create on the menu at Taste of Highland, we’ll have some lamb items on the menu that our students will learn that week and a variety of other things.  This was the brilliant idea of Donna Bedwell, who is the Highland Arts Council President, and she has been really instrumental in getting all these pieces lined up.”

Taste of Highland is now in it’s 13th year.

“The Highland Center, it was initiated to save this wonderful historic building that we now occupy,” says Lohr-Myers.  “A group of concerned citizens didn’t want to see this building just fall into disrepair once it stopped being used as a school.  So, a group of people came together to save this building, which is now 100 years old this year, and to provide programming that they thought was critical for the community.  So, we are keeping this wonderful building open as an asset for the community that can, and we hope will really, be used by everybody.  We lead a number of programs that we also hope benefit the community.  In the summer months, the most obvious of those are the weekly Farmers Market and the Youth Employment Program, which provides jobs and job training to about ten local youth.”

Taste of Highland is Saturday, July 23.  It will be held outdoors at the pavilion at The Highland Center in Monterey.  Drinks and appetizers will be served beginning at 6pm and dinner is at 7pm.  The cost is $40 per ticket, which includes alcoholic beverage, appetizer, dinner and dessert.  There will also be live music and a silent auction.

“I would just like to say thank you to all the local businesses who have offered support to Taste of Highland,” says Lohr-Myers.  “So many people have either donated food products, like Big Fish Cider, or items for the silent auction, like Heart and Soul Massage and High’s Restaurant.  There’s a lot of local support and that means a lot to us here.  We’re very grateful.”

Tickets are available by calling The Highland Center at 540-468-1922, online at www.thehighlandcenter.org and tickets are also available at the Highland County Farmers Market on Fridays from 3:30 to 6.

Please try to purchase tickets in advance, if possible.

Story By

Bonnie Ralston

Bonnie Ralston is the Assistant Station Coordinator at WVLS and a Highland County news reporter. She began volunteering at Allegheny Mountain Radio in the fall of 2005. In 2006 she became an AMR employee and worked in Bath County for eight years as the WCHG Station Coordinator and then as the news reporter there. She began working in radio while in college and has stayed connected to radio, in one way or another, for more than thirty years. She grew up in Staunton, Virginia, while spending a lot of time on her family’s farm in Deerfield, Virginia. She enjoys spending time outside, watching old TV shows and movies and tending to her chickens.

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