Repeat winner at Butter Tart Challenge in Sharbot Lake

Craig Bakay | Sep 06, 2019

For the second year in a row, Tanya Labelle took home first prize in the Sharbot Lake Farmers Market annual Butter Tart Challenge Saturday for her Golden Goodies.

This was the fifth annual challenge held at Oso Beach in Sharbot Lake.

Labelle said she was “challenged by my grandmother to learn to make pastry” and she’s been doing it ever since.

This year’s entry was a little different than last year’s but she’s hard pressed to explain the details.

“I don’t know,” she said. “It changes every time.

“I don’t really measure all that much.”

“Next time, we’re going to call them ‘Stars,’” said daughter Addison.

When asked if she’d be back next year to defend her title, Labelle replied: “Oh yeah!”

Second prize of Conboy’s Maple Syrup went to Tiffany Massey for her Country Buns Butter Tart and third prize (a bottle of white wine) went to Heather Brown for her Simple and Sweet tart.

Actually, the judges selected Andrea Duggan’s True Blue Canadian (with blueberries and pecans) second but since Duggan is organizer/emcee of the contest, she withdrew her entry.

“I always make some to enter,” she said. “I’ve been doing it since the first one because I’m always worried we won’t have enough entries.”

She needn’t have worried, there were 14 entries this year.

“We’re also getting a lot more non-traditional entries,” she said. “So next year, we may split it into two categories —traditional and wild-side.”

This year’s competition was dedicated to long-time Sharbot Lake resident Virgil Garrett, who had been a judge in the first couple of events. Garrett’s funeral was held the same day.

Once again Hazuki Ono served as tallyer, while Natsuki Ono and Audrey Bateman wandered through the crowd distributing samples.