The Sudbury Colonial Faire
Saturday, September 27th, 2008Â We haven’t had a chance to do an event like this, so this was interesting. Jim Doherty had contacted us via email a while ago about popping at the Sudbury Colonial Faire in Sudbury, Massachusetts. Everyone gets dressed up in period costumes from the revolutionary war and reenacts chasing the British out Sudbury…or Massachusetts..or whatever. Their normal kettle corn vendor couldn’t make it this year, so they had contacted us.
I KNEW our bright yellow tent would be an issue with somebody someday. They try to get everything to blend in with the ambiance of the event so you can delude yourself into thinking you had lived in that era, for a short while anyway. I’m not too sure if they used yellow dye #9 back in the 1700′s. I had sent him photos of our setup and after some head scratching, they decided to go with us. I kind of promised that if this event were lucrative, we could scrap together the 200 bucks to get a plain white tent and fit in better next time.
Of course it rained like [insert funny analogy here]. Normally on a weekday farmers market, if it rains we don’t make the trip because it’s VERY tricky to make kettle corn in a downpour. If you don’t bag everything within a few minutes you end up with a bin of mush. Jim had mentioned that MANY people come JUST FOR THE KETTLE CORN, so we were concerned about not disappointing the crowd that will “soldier through” this event, come rain or shine. We couldn’t just blow them off even when the forecast predicted “suck”.
The event went off as planned, we went through 5 oils which isn’t too bad of a day. We normally do that on a regular day at the Framingham Farmers market. The rain held off pretty much during the day, but waited for us to start loading the trailer before it really turned on the faucet. Of course an hour later, when we’re sitting in our cars, ready to pull out of there is when it stopped completely. I think the kettle corn Gods were giving us the finger for our incongruous tent color.
What is also notable (to us anyways) is that THIS field, which is located next to the Wayside Inn, was the location of another kettle corn vendor which inspired us to get into this business. For years, “Grand Pa’s Kettle Corn” has popped here at their yearly craft festival which Velma and I would always visit, just to get their kettle corn. Many people were wondering if we were the same people who pop there every year. I took that as a compliment since I’ve always loved “Grand Pa’s Kettle Corn”.
