Celebrating the Spud


It’s starting to look like fall. My viburnum has changed from green to red in less than a week, the weather forecast is for cooler weather, and my daughter-in-law said she is starting to look forward to “the holiday season.”

                Most people think “the holiday season” begins the end of October with Halloween, includes Thanksgiving in November, and goes on through December with Christmas and New Years. But here in Shelley, Idaho, the holiday season begins earlier--on the third Saturday of September with Spud Day.


                Ah, Spud Day. Small town USA celebrating a carbohydrate rich vegetable. It is Americana at its best, a festival not to be missed. It involves a beauty pageant to crown “Miss Russett”, a parade where enough candy is thrown from floats that children can collect sufficient to last until Halloween, a 5K “Spud Run” for adults and a children’s race called the “Tator Trot.” Free baked potatoes with all the trimmings are handed out to anyone willing to wait in line. For those not willing, there are a plethora of food booths serving everything from
hamburgers to funnel cakes. There are children’s rides, games, vendor booths, and a free stage where entertainment goes on all afternoon long. And then there are the competitions: horseshoes, Frisbee golf, and spud picking, which harks back to the way potatoes were harvested before mechanization. The highlight comes late in the afternoon with the Spud Tug, a tug-of-war across a pit filled with mashed potatoes that have been prepared in a cement mixing truck. Someone always ends up in the pit, and that is always the picture that makes the front page of the newspaper.

                One of my daughters told me that when she moved away, she was surprised to find out that people outside of the Shelley area don’t celebrate Spud Day. They don’t even know about it. I was raised outside of this area, so this didn’t surprise me, but what does is how often I run into people who live right here who have never been to Spud Day. Really? That is like living in New York and never going to see the Statue of Liberty or living in Paris and never going to see the Eiffel tower. Yes, I know I could probably find New Yorkers who haven’t been to the Statue of Liberty and Parisians who have never been to the Eiffel tower, but that doesn’t make it right!

                So, don’t forget—third Saturday in September (which right now is in two days.) There will be a baked potato with your name on it.

 

Comments

  1. LaFonda MerrickSeptember 17, 2015 at 10:37 AM

    What a fun celebration. I would come just for the baked potatoes with all the fixings!

    ReplyDelete
  2. LaFonda MerrickSeptember 17, 2015 at 10:37 AM

    What a fun celebration. I would come just for the baked potatoes with all the fixings!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What if Your Burning Bush Isn't Burning...

Image
       If a poll of "favorite autumn plants" was taken in southeast Idaho, I have no doubt dwarf burning bush ( Euonymus alatus 'Compactus') would win hands down. It doesn't just get red in the fall, it gets fire engine red. That is, it gets fire engine red MOST of the time. But what about when it doesn't? Who wants a burning bush that doesn't burn?                 Look on line, and most sites will tell you that if a burning bush doesn't get red it probably isn't getting enough sunlight. In most places this might be true. But here in southeast Idaho we are at a high altitude with a thin atmosphere and very intense sunlight. I have seen burning bushes growing on the north side of buildings in about as shady of circumstances you can find, and they are still bright red in the fall. So what else could be the problem?      As I was driving around the other day I noticed a row of burning bushes that seemed to be struggling to turn
Read more

Hydrangeas for Alkaline Soil

Image
         Hydrangeas are a plant most people associate with the Pacific Northwest with its humid climate and acid soil, not southeast Idaho with its dry climate and alkaline soil. But there are some varieties of hydrangea that are adaptable enough to grow well here. The following are a few varieties I've had enough experience with to vouch for.   Endless Summer Hydrangea (Hydrangea macrophylla 'Bailmer')               I was skeptical when I first saw this hydrangea being sold in nurseries in this area. It is a Hydrangea macrophylla , a species of hydrangea that is not particularly adaptable. But happily time has proven me wrong. I have a neighbor who has been growing several of these bushes successfully for over five years. Bear in mind that the flowers on these bushes are blue in the nursery, but they will turn pink when growing in alkaline soil. With consistently repeated applications of soil acidifier it might be possible to keep the flowers blue, but
Read more

Eating Shrimp and Self-Isolating

Image
                At the end of our Communications Committee Meeting on Monday, Gustavo asked if anyone had anything else. Ron said, “Just one thing, when are we going to get shrimp?”                That harked back to a couple of months ago when Armando told us there was a place where people line up to get shrimp. We said we wanted to go there sometime, but we never had.                Gusatvo laughed at Ron’s question and said, “I like how you think, Elder Searle. We’ll go tomorrow.”
Read more