Author: John Fladd

Where everything is about rhubarb

At the Bennington Rhubarb festival: “We’re ‘All Rhubarb, All the Time’,” said Festival coordinator Molly Eppig. You should expect to eat, drink, and be immersed completely by rhubarb. Every event at the festival is rhubarb-themed.

Eppig said this is partially because of rhubarb’s community-themed social history.

“One of its nicknames is the Neighbor Plant. Going back to Colonial days, [if] you’d move into a new place, the neighbors would give you rhubarb. You might show up with just the clothes on your back, and the neighbors would say, ‘Let me give you some rhubarb to grow in your own garden.’”

But why a rhubarb festival?

“In 2013 my neighbor and I took it upon ourselves to start a festival for two reasons,” Eppig said. One reason was that Bennington didn’t have a festival at the time, and the other was to raise money for the town library’s Building Fund. “Looking at other festivals in towns around us, we noticed that they tended to be later in the summer — and that meant rhubarb. It’s [ready to pick] before the strawberries; it’s before the blueberries.”

The people in charge of The Festival, including Eppig, have put a great deal of thought into the different ways in which rhubarb can be celebrated, and over the years the number of events has grown, all with rhubarb as a priority.

“The very first Rhubarb Festival we ever held [in 2013] was basically a bake table, and we’ve grown from there,” said Eppig. The Bake Table continues to be the most popular attraction at the Festival.

“I’ve had people call me at seven in the morning and ask me if there will be pie to buy,” Eppig said, then answered rhetorically, with forced patience, “Yeeess.” This is the area where local bakers have really let their imaginations take flight. There are rhubarb pies for sale, of course, but bars as well, and coffee cakes, muffins and more.

The most prestigious event, though, is the pie contest.

“I can’t go a spring without making [rhubarb] pie,” Eppig said. “Everyone loves pie; I can’t imagine what kind of person wouldn’t.”

There is also a Rhubarb General Store at the Festival, where different rhubarb products are sold: fresh rhubarb stalks, jams, jellies and rhubarb crowns, “if no neighbor has given you any rhubarb to plant in your own garden,” Epping said. There is also a Drink Your Rhubarb tent in the afternoon, where people can buy or sample rhubarb-orange juice, rhubarb soda, rhubarb beer and rhubarb wine.

“That’s always an eye-opener,” said Eppig. “People are so surprised that such good wine can be made from rhubarb.” There is a rhubarb wine contest the preceding day with entries from New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine and Massachusetts. “As far as I know, we have the only rhubarb wine contest anywhere,” Eping said.

A crowd favorite is a traditional “Hollering” contest. “Hollering is an old New England farming tradition,” Eppig said. “In the old days, the men and the older sons would be out in the fields, and women needed to be able to call out to them.” There was a certain prestige in the day to being a strong hollerer. The Festival has divisions for husband-hollering and wife-hollering, but Eppig says the children’s division is far and away the most popular — “Apparently, we have some very loud children.”

Bennington Rhubarb Festival
When: Saturday, June 1, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Where: Sawyer Memorial Park, 148 Route 202, Bennington
Admission: free, with free parking.
Schedule of events: townofbennington.com/rhubarb-festival

Also beer and barbecue at annual fest

Jeremy Garrett has a four-word mantra that would stop almost anybody in their tracks: “The Most Bacon Ever.”

Garrett is the Director of the New Hampshire Bacon and Beer Festival (nhbaconbeer.com) and he is excited about serving unlimited samples of bacon, beer and barbecue to Festival-goers on Saturday, June 1, at the Anheuser-Busch Brewery in Merrimack.

“I haven’t done the numbers,” he said, “but I’m pretty certain this is the largest sampling event in New Hampshire. There will be 18 companies giving out 25+ different bacon samples, more than 60 breweries, and tents with barbecue teams. We like to say that if you leave hungry it’s your fault.”

This is the eighth year for the Festival, which raises money for the High Hopes Foundation, a nonprofit organization that provides life-enhancing equipment, assistance and opportunities to New Hampshire children living with chronic health conditions. Over the past three years, the Bacon and Beer Festival has raised more than $150,000 for High Hopes.

When Festival-goers enter the event, they are given a 4-ounce sampling glass and two tickets, one to give to the vendor with their favorite bacon, and another to give to the maker of their favorite barbecue. Garrett said that there are serious bragging rights that go with winning the People’s Choice Award for best barbecue.

“The barbecue teams take it very seriously. Last year there was a Dancing Guy; if you gave him a ticket, he’d do a dance for you,” Garrett said.

On entering the Festival, a bacon-and-beer-enthusiast will be faced with a “plethora of tents,” each with a line in front of it.

“You go through the lines,” Garrett said. “You get whatever samples you want; you go get in the next line, you try that, go get in the next line, and keep on doing that until you’re full.” Because of the large number of vendors, none of the lines end up being very long, he said. “Even if we have 2,000 people there, nobody will be in line for more than three or four minutes.”

So what is an absolute can’t-miss item?

“There’s nothing that you can afford to miss,” Garrett said. Any food you can imagine with bacon will be represented, as well as a few you might never have thought about.

“There are any number of sweet or savory dishes to sample,” he said. “One of the barbecue teams is serving bacon-wrapped jalapeños. There’s a smokehouse that has bacon-infused sausage, so it’s bacon and sausage! Together!” There will be bacon popcorn, maple-bacon marshmallows, bacon whoopie pies, bacon pizza, bacon fries, bacon macaroni and cheese, and even bacon chocolate chip cookies.

Beer-wise, there will be a lot of old favorites, Garrett said, “and this year there are 12 new breweries we’ve never had before. It’s a great chance to try something you normally wouldn’t. I always end up trying some sours or fruity drinks that I normally wouldn’t, but this gives me a chance to see if there’s anything I like.” Because people in line are only committing themselves to a bite of bacon or barbecue, or 4 ounces of beer at a time, Garrett says, nobody’s overly invested in any of the samples. “If you don’t like it,” he said, “go get back in line and try something else. That’s the beauty of this opportunity.”

An hour or two before the end of the festival, many of the vendors start to run out of bacon. That’s when the barbecue teams rotate in and provide attendees with a different flavor profile — pulled pork tacos, nachos and more. By that time, though, it is too late for some Festival-goers. “At the end of the day,” Garrett said, “we have people leaving at like 3:30 — and the event goes until 4:30 — and we’re like, ‘What are you doing?’ They’ll go, ‘I can not eat another bite; I’m done.’ In that case, OK — you’re allowed to leave.”

Bacon and Beer
8th annual New Hampshire Bacon and Beer Festival
When: Saturday, June 1, 1:30 to 4:30 p.m.
Where: outdoor fields of Anheuser-Busch Brewery, 221 Daniel Webster Hwy. in Merrimack. Tickets: $60 each, or $120 each for VIP tickets, which allow early admittance and on-site parking. Tickets are available at the Festival’s website (nhbaconbeer.com). General admission tickets will be available at the gate for $80. Tickets for designated drivers will be $35 at the gate, while supplies last.
Live music will be provided by The Slakas (theslakas.com).
Free overflow parking across the street at Elbit Systems.
Event is 21+. No one under 21 years of age may enter the festival gates, including designated drivers, babies and toddlers.