Montana has so many activities in the summer -- every week there is a farmer's market in almost every town around the Flathead Valley. Polson holds their farmer's market on Friday morning and the Kalispell market (which is pretty good size) happens on Saturday morning, along with Bigfork. On Tuesday evenings is the Whitefish market -- I went yesterday and am always amazed to see how many people attend and the large number of booths with fresh produce, food, art, crafts -- and Whitefish usually has a band. On Thursday night in Kalispell, there is a market featuring a band for a free concert. Yesterday the Flathead Valley Community College had a free performance of "Julius Caesar". On Friday evenings, there is karaoke at the "Kickin' Chickin'" in Bigfork. So you see.....in the Flathead Valley you can literally have an activity almost every day of the week.
And Montana does love their festivals -- several weekends ago there were 3 different Huckleberry Festivals in the area -- a 3 day Huckleberry and Art Festival in Whitefish, a 1 day festival in Swan Lake, and a 2 day Huckleberry Festival in Trout Creek, MT. Of course every festival has its huckleberry ice cream, huckleberry desserts of every description (the turnovers were my favorite), huckleberry jams/jellies, huckleberry syrup, huckleberry candy/fudge -- the list goes on and on. And there is a famous restaurant called the "Huckleberry Patch" in Hungry Horse, MT. Their huckleberry pies have been rated #3 in the entire country. If you go to their web site, you can order Erna's famous made-from-scratch huckleberry pie for just $44.95 (includes shipping), along with everything else huckleberry.
For those who are not aware, huckleberries look a lot like blueberries, only smaller. And huckleberry bushes are only found at elevations of 3,000 ft. and higher. I also read that the huckleberry is state fruit of Idaho. They grow wild in mid-alpine regions usually on the lower slopes of mountains, and apparently cannot be cultivated and grown in a farm environment. So when you see a fruit stand with huckleberries, someone has gone up on the mountain and picked them. Just another note ..... grizzly bears also like huckleberries, so watch out if you are picking.
The term huckleberry is also used in slang. If you saw either version of "Wyatt Earp", you saw Doc Holiday (a Georgia native) say to Johnny Ringo "I'm your huckleberry", meaning "I'm your best gunman" or "I'm the best man for the job" as he takes Wyatt's place in a shootout, and puts a bullet through Johnny's forehead (my favorite part of the movie).
My friends Jane and Jack went with me to the festival in Trout Creek. We arrived just in time to experience the little home town parade. I love these little "windows" into the people and flavor of the small towns. But I do find several things in common with all parades:
- There are always fire engines blowing their horns and sirens which makes us all go deaf.
- There is always a bag pipe marching group -- and I'd love to know why. I don't even know anyone who plays
a bagpipe, but apparently if you do, you'll have a career walking in every local parade. Do you think that pays well?
- Every political candidate running for office will have a group or car or funny float in the parade, but you will rarely see the actual candidate.
- If a business owns a delivery truck or trailer, it will be in the parade. Lots of free advertising (but very boring for spectators).
- I've never seen a parade without a group of Shriners with their silly little cars. I just didn't know there were so
many Shriners spread all over this country.
(This was the strangest Shriner vehicle I saw -- from the Trout Creek Huckleberry Festival)
(The more traditional "Shriner-mobile")
- And EVERY car, float, band, walking group, etc., will have candy that they only throw at KIDS. I might be an adult, but I'd love to have a piece of candy. It's like a second Halloween for the kids -- they even come with bags to hold all their candy.
(Thank goodness this guy h
ad a big horse)(This was one of my favorite floats -- advertising a plumber. As I mentioned every one gives out candy, and guess where they got the candy. From the toilets, of course)
(Two Princesses for the NW MT Fair)
(With the horse entries, comes the "pooper scooper", and this wins the award for the best decorated wheel barrel)
(One of the more unusual ridden entries in the parade -- does anyone know the name of this hairy cow?)So.....if there was a parade for the North West Montana Fair, obviously there was a fair. This reminded me of my childhood days when I was in several 4-H clubs and had projects with steers and my horse. During the day, the activities seem to be very focused on 4-H judging. I came across a livestock pavilion, where they were judging swine (or pigs). This appear
ed to be some type of organized chaos, as kids were running around in a circular arena with their pig, a stick, and a brush. All the kids were holding the brush in their hand and holding it behind their backs, so I guessed this was the appropriate "etiquette" for pig showing (who knew?).(Organized Chaos -- note the brush in the hand held behind the back)
The stick was to steer the pig, but it appeared to me that rather than the kids steering the pig, the pig was going where it wanted with the kid following behind. There was a judge in the ring, and he would run around with the kid and pig asking questions. If you have been around pigs, you know they SMELL.....so I didn't stay to see the winner.
("I've got the right of way", "No, I've got the right of way")
One of my favorite things at a festival or fair is all the "junk food", and this fair had more junk food that I think I have seen at one of these. I had m
ade up my mind NOT to eat the junk -- be good and go home and have a salad. But there were some names I had not hear before -- like "tater twisters". So I stopped to ask, and the next thing I know, I am ordering the tater twisters and a polish corn dog. Very nutritional!!(YUMMMEEE!!)
This year's fair had attendance of over 75,000 people (vs. 48,000 in 2009). And according to the paper, this was because of the concerts, rodeos, and horse racing. The racing apparently stopped about 5 years ago, but was re-introduced this year.
Okay.....last weekend. I rode my horse on Saturday, and that was the day of the Polson Cookoff and Brewfest. I've mentioned my friends Jack and Jane Clapp, who own the Heart of Sky Ran
ch where Ludo lives. They are ex-attorneys, cattle ranchers and also volunteer firefighters for Polson. Jack is also a great cook, with BBQ Pork being a speciality. So the Polson Fire Department has a booth every year, and Jack is the "pit boss". I stopped over for lunch, and it was excellent.From the Cookoff and Brewfest, I could hear high powered motors on the lake. It was a boat race on Flathead Lake. So I took a nice walk along the lake until I came upon many very aerodynamic boats. They were both loud and fast. Ap
parently, each boat was lowered into the water
by a large crane, did their qualifying laps (3 boats at a time), and then hauled back out of the water.I was standing on the pier, and an "official" in a purple shirt gave me some information on the race. It was the 3rd in a series, but had been put together last minute, and the racing boats were from Seattle (normally there would have been more boats). As I watched, the boats were doing time laps to qualify for the race. So while one of my pictures shows all 3 boats (and sorry, it's a bit out of focus -- they were going fast), they are not actually racing each other at that time. I asked this official if it was dangerous, and he told me one of his best friends has been killed on the lake with the boat flipping.
So yes.....it is dangerous.
It made for a fitting ending to a beautiful, sun filled day -- eating BBQ, sitting on the pier, and enjoying the beautiful lake.
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