Monday, October 6, 2008

Vegan Mofo day 6: pumpkin festival!

Glad you all liked the sausage pics.  We liked the sausages themselves.  nom.

Get ready, this post has a buttload of pictures.

Michael and I went to the West Virginia Pumpkin Festival yesterday and we had a pretty rad time!  First and foremost, as soon as we walked in the gates, we saw this man:
stir stir stir that kettle

In order to buy this!
kettle corn.  oh.  yes.  hot and fresh and totally vegan (i asked to make sure)

Then we saw some birds that were sadly tethered to posts so that curious hillbillies could gawk at them.
looking for an escape route, i'm sure

Our next non-vegan thing to see was this lady in period costume spinning some wool:
some sheep is sad and cold because he no longer has his coat on.

Then we saw some uber creepy dolls!
they're staring at me...make them stop it!

I promise this will be the last semi-sad thing you see...  This little critter is a sugar bear and is also super adorable.  But I don't really like that they're called 'pocket pets'.
but just look how tiny it is!

Peanut man:
everything at this fair was completely over the top, obviously

There was even a little Native American village...
michael wouldn't go inside...  

The 'Native Americans' (I mean...they were just really tan white people in costumes and face paint, I swear) were making fried bread.  Which was selling for $3 a piece, what!
tasted like not so sweet funnel cake...but i like the setup here!

And now, finally, here are some huge pumpkins, since that's what this festival was supposed to be all about (not tents full of hokey crafts and greasy food).
huge

see how it says '694'?  that's how many pounds it weighs.

There was a contest for kids to decorate pumpkins...here are some of our favorites:
mean faced pickle nose!

i have no idea!


again...no clue, but i love the use of asparagus

there were bees all over those marshmallow eyes..it was a little morbid

And our personal favorite:
one eyed feather monster!

We managed to score some pretty awesome WV made stuff at this festival too...  we tried like 6 types of salsa, but didn't buy any of them.  They were all spicy as hell, but sweet, which is weird.  And I was a little miffed that one of the chips we ate with the salsa at a booth had cheese in it...  Checked the label after it tasted a little funny and sure enough...cheddar cheese.  Ugh.  But this is some really cool stuff we got:
dark hollow sauce (marinade..spicy but also sweet), molasses that will be cookies soon, pumpkin butter, and cranberry walnut jam that is fucking amazing with peanut butter

the kettle corn, 2 types of cornmeal (one is made from popcorn!  can't wait to make cornbread out of that one), and a frosted glass pumpkin made right in milton, wv

We also had dinner last night after we finally got hungry... nachos!  The salsas we tried put us in a mexi-mood.
my gigantic pile of a dinner..mmmmmmmmmm!

And today for lunch, Michael and I made BLTs!  I bought some 'bacon' at the store a couple days ago and I literally cannot think of a better way to eat it.
bacon.  lettuce.  tomato.  mustard.  rye bread.  yes, please.

Tonight I plan on making some cookies...(we'll see).  And also other awesomeness.  Stay tuned!

21 comments:

Lisa -- Cravin' Veggies said...

A friend of mine used to have sugar bears, although she called them sugar gliders. They make the most obnoxious sound I have ever heard. You really need to google it to see if you can find an audio file of it.

Oh, and P.S... they are nocturnal. So they made that nasty noise ALL. NIGHT. LONG!

Sarah said...

AW that looks like a fun little festival. The kids must have been masochistic some of them look like they've been attacked by needles! The glass pumpkin is adorable!

Chessa said...

Hilarious!!! That pumpkin with the marshmallow eyes is seriously going to give me nightmares though. Looks like you guys got some delicious take home goodies!

Virginia said...

looks like ya'll had a great time!

Chelsea said...

Wow, that was a lot of pics! haha I love one-eyed feather monster!!! And nachos... I just had some last night so I'm not allowed to eat anymore yet, right? I could eat nachos everyday.

miss v said...

hey! pumpkin butter! i want some.

Anonymous said...

Looks like a good day out - not for the poor birds and Sugar Gliders though! Loving the one-eyed feather monster!

allularpunk said...

that all night long noise would get pretty annoying, lisa..but they were still cute!

sarah - yeah, i'm not sure what was going on with some of those pumpkins...they were pretty nuts.

chessa - marshmallow eyes covered in bees are super scary, especially in real life, haha..

and it was fun, though tiring, virginia, for sure!

chelsea, you should know there is never a bad time for nachos. ever.

the pumpkin butter tastes just like pumpkin pie, miss v! if you find some, i highly reccommend trying it out.

i felt sorry for the animals too, becks... but the feather monster was worth the entire trip!

Jen Treehugger said...

Mmmmmm....nachos......

Monika K said...

Awww...I want to go to a pumpkin festival! (If I sent you a picture of the currently snow-covered ground here, it would become all too clear why there will be no pumpkin festival in Alaska). (:

Great blog!

BadYogi said...

OMG, I love the pumpkins. Love love love. I used to do that to fruit for a small friend of mine, it's so much fun.

and pumpkin butter -- what's on the ingredient label? I'm planning a pumpkin festival in my kitchen come Nov 1st when they're dirt cheap, I'd love to try knocking that off...

allularpunk said...

jeni - i know!

monika - so sad you don't have pumpkins... but i'm sure alaska is beautiful!

badyogi - i will check when i get home and put the ingredients on my post this evening. because i'm nice like that ;)

donesmoking said...

im craving those nachos now...mmm

how do you make the cheeze?

aTxVegn said...

I wonder why old timey dolls were so scary looking.

The festival looks like it was fun and the nachos at the end of the day look really yummy.

jessy said...

those are some fun & fantastical shots, Jessica! thanks for sharing all the fun with us! yay! i feel bad for the birds and the "pocket pet" - the little sugar bear - you totally should have pushed that kid and lady aside and grabbed him from that man! ahahahahaa! sugar bear rescue! wheeeeeee! he could had hid in kettle corn bag (opened of course, you know - so he can breath with his cute little nose! awwwwww!) yay! i love the frosted glass pumpkin - and that cranberry walnut jam sounds freak'n AMAZING!

i'm looking forward to cookies! mmmmmmmm! and now i want nachos.

also - what's up with cheese in a chip? jerks! oh, and i love the pumpkin with the one eye & feathers, too! and the one with the pickle nose!

alaina said...

what err interesting pumpkins! though i have to admit i am a fan of the morbid marshmallow one.

at the texas state fair we have huge sculptures made ENTIRELY out of butter. quite puke-worthy. but i love fairs!

Megan said...

What a fun day!

Vegan_Noodle said...

What a way to get in the fall mood!

Bethany said...

thanks for the cool post. I feel like I was there. I have to check and see when the corn mazes are open. There is one that doesn't have a petting zoo or any of that crap that depresses me. Just a maze to get lost in, pumpkins and veggies for sale. Though it would be great to have a kettle corn stand. I love that stuff - especially when it's fresh.

Bex said...

we sometimes have a kettle corn guy just outside my store. The smell drives us wild! hehe

The animals are beautiful even though it's sad. I always feel bad for the clearly not domestic animals having so many people around them, loud and smelly and touchy. It must be terrifying for them.

Your food looks awesome. And those dolls, um, I, ah *runs away crying*

Erin said...

This festival looks like so much fun! I enjoy the hokiness. And kettle corn, love kettle corn. And pumpkin butter. Okay, I kinda wish I could've been there too.