Thursday, May 11, 2017

National Cornbread Festival

I love my Lodge cast iron (and carbon steel) cookware.  So when I learned that you can tour the Lodge foundry only one weekend each year, during the National Cornbread Festival, I added it to my mental Tennessee wishlist.  It's just under two hours for us to get to South Pittsburg from Franklin, so we made a day trip out of it a couple of weekends ago!




The festival is held in a small town, and it draws a crowd!  I think Dan was a bit overwhelmed by the droves of people who came out for cornbread, cast iron, food, and crafts...  but I was loving it.  We hit up Cornbread Alley, where for just $5 you could sample a ton of really creative recipes.  I think the strawberry walnut one was the most interesting to me, and there were even recipes with bacon in them.




The other nice part about attending the festival?  I got to have a day date with my husband, and I got to catch up with a couple of my beloved DAR friends!  And it pays to know the locals.... I got the hookup for some corn omelette-pancakes (hard to explain, but soooo yummy) and even got to meet Henry Lodge, the President and COO of Lodge!



This is totally the nerd in me, but I love factory tours.  I think it's fascinating to be able to see how things are made on such a grand scale.  I've toured a pet food factory, a large scale craft beer production facility, and now a cast iron foundry.  I was so surprised by the beautiful silver color that the cast iron has before its seasoning.  It also surprised me how the product was sort of all mixed up along the line.  I wonder how they track production and inventory, and what percentage of items don't pass muster.  I'm sure it's a science and an art!



We also made a pit stop in Monteagle, which, along with Sewanee, I think is so quaint.  Here's a pic from when we stopped at the Amish Hippie, where I picked up a jar of crackberry (cranberry blackberry) jam.



 I love a good festival!  What's your favorite kind of fest,
and what do you like most about them?

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