8/29/12

Urbana Sweet Corn Festival 2012

This past weekend, 50 thousand people converged on the tiny hamlet of Urbana to participate in the annual Urbana Sweet Corn Festival. Held every August in the shadow of the Champaign County Courthouse, this festival bids farewell to summer and welcomes the yearly immigration of more than 40 thousand UofI students.


Unlike Austin festivals, both parking and entry are free. Friday and Saturday nights feature local blues, rock, and jazz bands. We missed the Jazz band Friday night because I was busy getting second place at Poker Night. Which means I broke even. However, I didn't miss the Sweet Corn Festival Mascot: Corny.


I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, James, if Illinois produces mainly Field Corn, where did they get all this Sweet Corn. For most of the 40 year history of this festival, promoters imported Sweet Corn from a variety of locations all over the US (one of the largest being Colorado... go figure). For the past two years, all the Sweet Corn for the festival came from one source: Maddox Sweet Corn Farm.


Jim and Ted Maddox started their 80 acre farm 15 years ago near the small town of Warrensburg (pop. 1300). You'll find Warrensville about 10 miles northwest of Decatur. They pick their corn fresh every morning to distribute to individual customers, roadside purveyors, and big chains like Wal-Mart. They sold unshucked corn for 5 bucks a bag at the festival.


You can't go to a Sweet Corn Festival without partaking of Sweet Corn, so we headed straight to the corn booth to purchase a cooked and buttered ear. This corn was fresh. You want to know how fresh? Here's how fresh: you had to pick the silky corn hairs out of it as you ate it. That's how fresh.


The corn cost a buck an ear. If you ride your bike, they give you a voucher for a free ear. We drove. While Aine's old new bike still functions in a satisfactory manner, the new old bike demonstrates a reluctance to brake effectively. That's not entirely true. The front brakes work fine. The back brakes not at all. Riding the new old bike feels akin to playing Russian Roulette with a trebuchet.

Back to the corn. I found this video on YouTube about the Maddox Sweet Corn Farm. Watch this:


The Maddox Bros also operate a Christmas Tree Farm. Illinois has over 500 Christmas tree growers producing almost 150 thousand Christmas trees annually. In case you were curious.

The Good Book says man can't live on corn alone, so we rounded out our culinary experience with a slice of Shepherd's Pie Pizza from a booth run by an Urbana pizzeria, Manolo's. They top their Shepherd's Pie Pizza with ground beef, mashed potatoes, and (of course) corn.


This festival had all the classical festival elements, including street vendors...


a dunking booth...


and a petting zoo.


We didn't go into the petting zoo. It didn't feel right without Mr. Higgins. But word on the street had it that this one included an alpaca, a kangaroo, and a camel. We got a close up of the camel.


We spent most of our time near the One Community Together Stage. The community stage was sponsered by the Sousa Archives and Center for American Music, named in honor of John Philip Sousa, best known for writing the Stars and Stripes Forever and dressing like a kaiser. The Sousa, an archival branch of the UofI library system, works to support and preserve music of all the cultures that make up our great Melting Pot.

First we saw a Korean Drum performance. They were rockin'.



We also watched a Balinese ensemble. One of the band members clearly doesn't look Balinese. But we forgave this small indiscretion when we heard them. The instruments look and sound incredible. It's not the type of music that gives you an adrenaline rush. I wouldn't listen to this while exercising. But, as Aine mentioned, the music seems to have no clear pattern, so it's amazing they were able to memorize these songs.


These next jokers took about half an hour to get their microphone cords straightened out. I almost got up and left. Then they played the best set of the day. They are Del Sur, a local band that plays South American Folk music. Check out the hats on these guys.


As they played, a little Incan abuelita got up and started dancing. She had to have been three feet tall, but layed down some of the most epic dance moves I've ever seen.


Of course, we caught it all on video:


The only thing better than a pickle surprise is a car show surprise. At the end of one of the four streets covered by festival goers, we happened upon the Urbana Motor Muster. This is one of the major annual events of the Illini Collector Car Club, an Urbana club started in 1961 by 6 guys who really liked old cars. This show had everything from a 20s era steam powered car to a hearse from the 80s.

The cars were parked close and they were surrounded by car enthusiasts, so it wasn't easy to get many good pictures. I did want to get one of Ainers posed in front of a car. Here she is standing next to a hardtop, two-door Oldsmobile 88 Holiday. I told her to give me a sexy pose. This is what I got:


The Muster featured a restored bus from the Champaign-Urbana City lines.


Started in the late 30s, this bus company hit its high water mark in 1958 with over 1 million passengers for the year. After Eisenhower invented the insterstate highway, though, everybody wanted a car and the company withered and died. The city government decided the bus line was too big to fail, so they funded a bail out, took over the line, and supported it with tax dollars. Now only socialists ride the bus.

The bus on display dated to 1958, the magic year. Unlike the 50s, anyone can sit where ever they want to on it now.


There were also, placed with an awkward proximity, booths for the Republicans...


and the Democrats.


I asked the Republicans if they hated women and poor people. They said no. I asked the Democrats if they hated America and freedom. They said no. So, that's settled. Turns out, they mainly disagree on things they have no control over, like the movement of the planets and the economy and cats. Also, they use different colors on their signs.

A little down the way from the pundits and the spitballers, we saw the folks from the Urbana Bible Education Center (located a few feet away in Lincoln Square Mall). They provide low cost Bibles and free Bible classes to the community. Low cost Bibles seem a bold move, given the competition: the Gideons still hand them out for free.


We also saw a military booth, set up in front of the Veteran's Memorial and operated by veterans.


I spent the most booth time at the Forest Preserve Booth, though I didn't get a picture of the nice ladies that worked there. Master Naturalists every one of them. Back when we lived in Austin, I considered taking the classes and becoming a Texas Master Naturalist. I asked her about the Illinois Master Naturalist program (modeled on the Texas program), but they only hold classes on Tuesday afternoon. I asked her if they have night and weekend classes for individuals who are gainfully employed. No. She said they had plenty of volunteer opportunities at which you are welcome whether you are a Master Naturalist or not. I had to explain to her that I don't want to make a difference. I just want to learn a bunch of stuff. But they do have a Tree ID course and several interesting programs.

This is their website:
http://www.ccfpd.org/

And these are examples of some of the events they host:
http://www.ccfpd.org/StarwatchesBatsCoyoteHike.pdf

Before we left, Ainers needed her obligatory bag of Kettle Corn.


Remember, Popcorn (Zhea mays everta) is a whole different animal from Sweet Corn (Zhea mays saccharata). Over 300 Illinois farms produce Popcorn, placing Illinois in 3rd place among Popcorn Producing States (Nebraska gets 1st place).

In 2003, Miss Holister, a teacher at Cunningham Elementary, had her 2nd and 3rd graders petition their state legislators as part of a civics project. The petition? To make Popcorn the State Snack Food of Illinois. Former corn farmer, Senator Larry Walsh sponsored the bill and Governor Rod Blagojevich (now incarcerated) signed it into law.

The kids became known as the Cunningham Kernel Kids.

After we left the festival grounds, we ran into a small table:


Some local politics for you. The Champaign-Urbana Citizens for Peace and Justice are protesting the new jail proposed. The county wants to spend 20 million on new jail facilities, the current jail, built in 1980, is in abysmal shape. Detractors argue that almost 60% of the inmate population is black, which is disproportional to the county demographics: only 17% of the county population is black. Also, they say the money should be spent on proactive measures: mental health centers, youth job training, substance abuse treatment, etc. One of the primary concerns is how tax dollars are being spent: why other programs that could alleviate overuse of the current jail are being underused and why the jail is beyond repair after only thirty years.

More info here:
http://cucpj.org/jail-campaign

Here's your Parting Shot. The creepiest hats I've ever seen.


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