The Day Ahead

The Pudding Hollow Pudding Festival is coming up! Save Sunday, October 6, as your date for Hawley Magic in 2019. This event takes place only once every five years so you won’t want to miss it. The day will begin with the arrival of puddings, which are due at 11 a.m. Lunch will take place at 12:30 or thereabouts, and our entertainment will get going around 1:30 (when everyone has eaten and the judges have made their difficult decisions).

Our judges this year will be Dennis Picard, a living-history professional who specializes in puddings and ice cutting; Charlotte Rutledge, manager of the test kitchen at King Arthur Flour; and Kathleen Wall, colonial foodways culinarian at Plimoth Plantation.

 

Do check out our roster of wonderful prizes. And the menu to the right will give you lots of information about where we are, what we do, and how you can participate.

If you’re planning to submit a pudding, you won’t be left to twiddle your thumbs until lunch. Our neighbors at Headwater Cider will offer hard ciders to taste, and we can direct you to local sites like the Hawley Bog, the Old Town Common, and the Charcoal Kiln. If you’re NOT planning to submit a pudding, feel free to come at noon and join us. The day offers plenty of fun even for non-cooks.

By the way, if you DO plan to enter the contest, bring along a cooler. You may win a food that needs to be preserved.

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A Pudding Festival Memory

We are making progress on the next Pudding Hollow Pudding Festival, scheduled for October 6, 2019!

Prizes and donors are being lined up. We have a couple of judges lined up as well. An entertainment is in infant form. And we hope lots of people are practicing their pudding recipes!Meanwhile, here is a memory of the first revived pudding contest in 2004, from Martha Ackmann, one of our judges that year. Another judge was the legendary cookbook editor Judith Jones. After Judith’s death, Martha recorded a remembrance of their afternoon together. I may be found here on the website of our local public-radio station, NEPR: https://www.nepr.net/post/proof-pudding-encounter-modesty.

Thank you, Martha!

 

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Ready, Set, Pudding!

Carrot Pudding by Kelly Morrissey, a delicious entry from the past

Pudding Day is almost here!

Judges are debating attire, contestants are honing recipes, and members of the Sons & Daughters of Hawley are collating scripts and programs.

Please join us this Sunday, September 28, in Hawley, Massachusetts. (Past participants will recall that the last few Pudding Festivals took place in Charlemont, but PudCon is coming Home to Hawley this year. Visit this page for directions.)

A quick reminder of times:

11 a.m.

Puddings, recipes, and entry fees are due at the Hawley Grove, across the street from the Meeting House.

11:15:
Farm Tour at Sidehill Farm

12:30 p.m.
Lunch back at the Grove

1:30-ish
Pudding Parade, Entertainment, and Judging at the Meeting House.

Feel free to contact organizer Tinky Weisblat if you have any questions. And if you’d like to hear her talk about the festival, listen to Tuesday’s Bill Newman Show. The pudding segment begins at about 34:03. (You can also hear Tinky talk about her book Pulling Taffy at about 17:34.)

We’ll see you in Hawley!

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Pudding Time Approaches!

There are only three weeks left until the Pudding Hollow Pudding Festival—and the day is shaping up! Prizes are starting to arrive, including the first prize (a combination of gifts: a blender/chopper from Cuisinart, a tea cozy from Ann Brauer Quilt Studio, and maple syrup from Wilder Brook Farm, plus much more).

And we have our judges lined up. Two have been with us before. Kathleen Wall, colonial foodways culinarian at Plimoth Plantation, has judged almost every year. And Michael Collins, chef at the late Green Emporium, will taste pudding again in between work searching for a new restaurant. They will be joined by first-time judge Dédé Wilson. Dédé is a baking expert, a cookbook author, and the founder of the online baker’s resource Bakepedia. We are honored to welcome her.

If you’re a cook, keep honing that great recipe and prepare to dazzle Kathleen, Michael, and Dédé. Please note that you need to enter ONLY on the day of the contest. Be sure to bring your recipe and a $15 entry fee (checks payable to the Sons & Daughters of Hawley).

If you’re not a cook, plan to join us anyway for a day of fun, food, and music for a good cause…….

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A Day of Fun and Pudding

2009 Pudding Head Paula Zindler

 

The 2009 Pudding Hollow Pudding Festival is over—and it was a success!

 

We were worried that the date (Halloween) might keep people away. It actually seems to have attracted them. Several festival-goers competed for the best costume prize, which went to local chef Marty Yaffee attired as “The Lion Chef.”

  

The Lion Chef

 

Lunch was a mob scene (but a tasty one), thanks to the efforts of Juanita Clark and her family, along with Sandy Cronin.

The kitchen crew was cheerful and efficient.

 

Our entertainment, “The Witches of Pudding Hollow,” involved the title witches, their hapless male counterparts, a couple of ghostly spirits, and a lot of laughs.

Witch Melanie works her magic with John and Ray.

The Reverend Jonathan Grout and Witch Pamela

Musical Director Alice Parker

Original Pudding Head Abigail Baker--a witch AND a chanteuse.

Ghostly spirits of Pudding Hollow cement the witches' spell.

 

Our judges worked extra hard to discriminate among the novel puddings entered in the pudding contest. We had entries from five out of the six New England states. (New Hampshire, where art thou?)

 

Bob Hall of Maryland won a bag of apples as the contestant who came the farthest.

 

Here the replete judges announce the winners (left to right: Edie Clark, Kathleen Wall, Michaelangelo Wescott). Thanks to the generosity of our donors, everyone went home happy as well as full.

 

 

Mardi Smith of Newtown, Connecticut, took home the prize for Spookiest Pudding with her Fright Night Pudding.

 

New Pudding Head Paula Zindler of Cummington, Massachusetts, looked a little astonished at her victory, but it was well deserved.

 

Her luscious Pumpkin Gingerbread Pudding (pictured below) featured a creamy custard made with sun-colored local eggs.

 

Congratulations to all–and especially to all of our volunteers for making the day so joyful!

 

One of our fabulous judges, Edie Clark, has written a blog post that sums up HER experience that day.  Do take a look!

Meanwhile, here are a few additional images, just for fun.

Costumed contestants await the start of the Pudding Parade.

A Table Full of Pudding

MORE pudding!

Paula De Fougerolles and her family entered FOUR puddings in the contest!

Our actors weren't highly rehearsed, but no one seemed to mind!

 

EXTRA SPECIAL THANKS to Phyllis Gotta, our wonderful photographer, for her contributions to this site and to our big day………

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