The Pepper Festival

This weekend Kevin's worksite hosted a Pepper Festival. It was put on by a local group here who supports what is known as the farm to table movement where what is eaten whether it be at home or in a restaurant is grown locally thus supporting local farmers and receiving the benefit of fresh, nutritional food. Wow, that was a really long sentence!  I'm thinking my English teachers would not be proud.

There were lots of booths with area restaurants all serving samples that included...peppers, all locally grown. Because I have germ issues, I am not necessarily a big fan of the buffet or "free sample" concept.  All those filthy hands touching food that I might be putting in my mouth. Yuck.  But I was ok here because the workers at each booth were either handing out the samples or they were nicely arranged in individual serving cups or napkins on a big platter.  Touching more than one was a big no-no.  The food was very random.  I didn't realize you could put peppers in just about anything and call it a delicacy.  Some were just downright weird.  Peppers in ice cream.  Peppers in chocolate cake.  RC Cola with peppers served with homemade moon pies.  Some were really good - poblano pepper and chicken soup, pepper pizza, bacon with a pepper sauce (who doesn't love bacon), pimento cheese with a pepper jelly and the list went on.  The kids weren't crazy about trying any of it.  A nice lady at one of the booths (Mexican restaurant) gave each of them a cup of plain tortilla chips and they were happy.

The thing the kids loved the most was the Bubble Guy.  Each bubble wand had two sticks with two pieces of rope attached to the end. One rope was a larger "U" shape and the other rope sort of connected the top of the "U".  (See picture).  The ropes were soft and flexible, but had a thickness to them (maybe 1/2").  All around the field were buckets with bubble solution (I saw the guy filling up the buckets and what he had looked like Dawn dishwashing liquid mixed with water or something).  Dip the wand in the bucket. Wait 5 seconds.  Pull it out.  Spread out the sticks and wait for a gentle breeze to "blow" your bubble.  When the bubble is as big as you want it, pull the sticks close together, causing the ropes to collapse and close the bubble.  The boys could have done this all day!  The Bubble Guy also had some really big wands and some adults were out there making HUGE bubbles.  Fun to see and even more fun for the kids to pop.

Obligatory festival face painting.  The kids had Awana Sunday night after the festival.  We had to go straight there and did not have time to go home and wash off said paint.  I heard them in the back of the van talking about how they were going to scare the kids at Awana.  I am sure the Awana teachers love us now.  The boys were sad when we made them take the paint off before bed because the bedsheets and school are more important than their happiness.  We are so mean.