Heritage Fire returns to Snowmass Village on Saturday. The culinary festival features cooking whole animals over open flames. The focus is also on locally raised meat and produce.
The name “Heritage Fire” refers to the event’s emphasis on using animal breeds not often seen in large-scale industrial farming. The organization Cochon555, which puts on Heritage Fire, partners with several local sustainable farms that raise a variety of "heritage," or "heirloom," animal breeds and crops.
Rock Bottom Ranch, run by ACES, is one of the local farms that provides beef, poultry, rabbit and goat meat for the event. Jason Smith, the director of Rock Bottom Ranch, said raising different breeds from industrial farms protects biodiversity.
“If we think of something like the Irish Potato Famine, the reason that it happened was there was one variety of potato, disease hit it, there was no diversity, and everything got wiped out,” Smith said.
He said that cooking the whole animal, as is done at Heritage Fire, eliminates lots of waste.
"A pig has two tenderloins. Two! So we’re getting three pounds of tenderloin off of 240 pounds of meat. So where’s that other 237 pounds of meat going if I’m only using tenderloins?” he asked.
Smith, a former chef, said while “Heritage Fire” is focused on agricultural variety, ultimately it is still a dining experience.
“When you work with a whole animal, a chef is challenged to think creatively,” Smith said.
He hopes this weekend’s attendees see for themselves that sustainability and flavor go hand-in-hand.
