Re: [CH] the 9th open fields, 2007...
JohnT Love2Troll (Love2Troll@kc.rr.com)
Mon, 1 Oct 2007 17:54:55 -0500
Bill,
I agree that it was great. Only my 3rd in the last 4 & I really enjoyed it.
ButchT and lovely wife Shirley stole the show as far as cooked on site
vittles. (IMO) I swiped 3 of his breaded catfish chunk/fillets just before
I left on Sunday and cussed myself out the entire way back to KC for not
taking more. It was so nice to visit with old friends (like you) and meet
some new ones that I had previously only cyber-known. I regret spending
all day Sat making my "Fresh From the Fields" entry instead of walking
around visiting and next year will come up with something less labor
intensive than the salsa I made. I'm so stinking slow at everything that I
do. Byron looked great in spite of the oxygen tank was dragging around!
I could absolutely live on Sue's habanero/peach ice cream! "Local Paul" is
a BBQ contest judge you know & what he serves will always be great. I
missed out on Kendra and Brooke's offering.
The prizes in the lottery/auction were awesome. I won a bag of Texas pecan
wood chunks that Beth donated. My fav wood for smoking and BBQ!
Have you ever seen better looking plants? Nope! I found a couple of ripe
Bhuts, some beautiful green Spanish Spice and enough ripe habs for my
contest entry and that was all I ever wanted. We don't go there for the
pods. The C pubes were heavily flowered and looked like plants should in
May or June. Never seen better looking plants and a shame will freeze
before producing. Such a tricky species to grow anyways. I treat them as a
2nd year producer even though have a few varieties that are 1st year ones.
Thanks to CameronB for seeds of Red Rocoto that he gifted me with at OF.
Gave some to Ian (Horned Fox brand hot sauce in England) to smuggle back to
his home & I'll be sharing with other rocoto fans.
JohnT
----- Original Message -----
From: KnoxBill
To: Chile Heads
Sent: Monday, October 01, 2007 1:03 PM
Subject: [CH] the 9th open fields, 2007...
what if you gave a chile festival and the chiles didn't show up?...
the consensus is that it was the best ever...every year i hear that
phrase uttered a few times (even when standing ankle deep in mud), but
this year i heard it everywhere...
the weather (even tho it was at fault for the chiles not being there)
was perfect...sunny skies, nary a cloud in sight, high 70's, slightly
cool at night, enough breeze to keep the bonfire going...
the food...my gawd...*tons* of delicious food...butch outdid himself
with the gator tail and the fried oysters...paul's curried pig and ted's
vegetarian stew and the zangers yeast cornbread and those hog wings were
amazing...it went on, and on, and on...old faves like the hab-peach ice
cream and new favorites like kendra's amazing fresh habanero brats...no
one went home hungry...
people who hadn't been seen in years showed up...l.b. was there, and the
zangers (who brought the food network to the field for the first time
with 'eat the heat') made a long overdue appearance...cameron was back
after missing last year (gavin, 'the smores king' served up his
specialty around the campfire)...
to be sure, there were chiles...most of them were not ripe yet, but
there were lots of green ones and enough ripe (mainly fatalis and
members of the hab family) that i didn't hear any complaints...people
just picked fewer than in years past, and as always, appreciated what
they got...once again proving that we don't drive hundreds of miles for
the chiles...
the first annual open fields world-class step-up-for-charity sauce
contest went on all saturday afternoon...i don't know how many salsas
and sauces were entered, but it must have been close to a
hundred...every time i walked past the judging tent, it didn't seem like
the number of bottles and jars awaiting tasting had diminished, but the
pile of tasting cups had doubled...toward the end the tasters wre
slowing down a bit, but they evaluated each and every one (except for
one they disqualified 'cos they couldn't get the lid off)...
the first annual open fields world-class step-up-for-charity chile
lottery was a total success...there were three tables full of items,
ranging from a pink flamingo to pecan wood (smoked chiles, mmmm) to
chile photos and chile x-rays (nice framing, jeff), chile paraphernalia,
and other chile memorabilia...some really nice stuff...
tickets were a buck apiece, then jim drew numbers and the winner picked
a prize...the tables were restocked as the event went on...i heard that
we donated $1600 to jim's charity with this event...hooray for
us...double hooray for jim...
sunday rolled around, and we had to leave...it was harder this year than
most, because it was the best yet...the only way we can make it better
is if you are there next year...hope y'all can make it...
--
knoxbill
I'm free -- and freedom tastes of reality.
-- The Who
--
No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.5.488 / Virus Database: 269.13.36/1041 - Release Date: 10/1/2007
10:20 AM