Terra Vita has your tickets on sale now | Charlotte Observer

What’s Terra Vita? That’s Chapel Hill’s annual festival that involves food, drink and lots of deep thoughts on sustainable food production. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution named it “One of the 10 Southern Food Festivals You Need To Taste.”

I had the good luck to be invited as a speaker last year (OK, so everybody provides the deep thoughts, I just keep talking and hope I say something smart), on a bourbon-focused panel with Gary Crunkelton and chefs Bill Smith Jr. and William Dissen of Asheville’s Marketplace. I have to say it was a fascinating event, with classroom-style discussion bracketed by dinner events and drinking events.

Tickets have just gone on sale for this year’s festival, Oct. 8-10: You can get day passes ($65 for Friday, $55 for Saturday) or a two-day pass for $110 that gets you five total classes.

The lineup looks pretty swell:

Waste Not: Scraps, Bites & Bits; Me, Myself & Ribeye: An Exploration of Home Butchery; Beyond the Bar: Cocoa from Salty to Sweet, Lands of Milk and Honey: An Exploration of Terroir in Wine and Cheese; Apple of Our Eye: Cider and the Apple; NC in Five Drinks; NC in Five Plates; Spirited: The Souls and Stories Behind the Cocktails; Praise the Lard: Show & Tell With a Misunderstood Fat; and Sour Power House: Demystifying Sour Beer.

Speakers range from Andrea Weigl, my colleague at The News & Observer, food writer Robert Moss and Phoebe Lawless of Scratch.

Get the full lineup and schedule, and tickets of course, at www.terravitaevent.com.