I think I might be the first to write a non-positive review on this and I might earn a few enemies by doing so.... here goes.... For Labor Day we went to a local village's Cheese Festival. Right there you would have great expectations. I will start by saying that this was the last day of the festival and while I wanted to go on the first day I was stuck inside writing a church talk on short notice. I don't blame anyone for that, I accepted to speak and am still glad I got the chance to. Well anyway, with the idea that this was to be an "Amish Country" festival we were very excited about it. I refer to it as a mouse trap as it seems they enticed us with what appeared to be a big slice of good fun and yummy snacks but it really was a money/time/heat trap waiting to snag us off the interstate. Ok, maybe that is going too far but the heat made us grumpy.
The first day of the festival was filled with the cheese cutting ceremony and the cheese curling competition and the cheese eating competition and we missed all of that. Well the Monday events seemed ok (free subs, tractor pull, circus, cheese giveaways, etc) but when we got there we came to realize that they sorely misrepresented the days events and so we basically drove 30 minutes to eat a few slices of cheese and bake ourselves in the hot hot sun.
These poor mascots. I sure hope they stuff ice packs in their costumes or something because it was murderous hot out. The kids just wouldn't turn for the picture though... This whole event kind of reminded me of a time when we went to an Amish restaurant that advertised home style Amish cooking and we were served up instant mashed potatoes. It was so obvious too. I have nothing against Amish, it is just one of those things...
Not to sound like a food snob or anything but I was expecting good cheese. It was ok, edible even, but I suppose I just built it up in my mind so much that I was a bit disappointed. And I wasn't the only one in our party that felt this way. At least the kids ate it. These kids (Aedan's cousins H, A, and D) were really the only highlight of the day - somehow taking their pictures and having them say "Cheese!" helped us not be too put out from the whole event.
At least I have this weekend's festival to look forward too... hope I don't get let down!
We went to the cheese festival too, but late on Saturday afternoon after all the events were over. (We went to the temple and stopped on the way home.) Anyways it seems to me if you miss Saturday and the cheese curling, then you have missed everything. And corndogs were $3.00--- too much for me! What festival is this weekend?
ReplyDeleteAhem. The only day worth going to is the first one (Saturday) when you curl cheese and get 10 pounds of swiss. As far as I know, too- it is called the Arthur cheese festival (because there used to be a cheese factory there)- they do throw around the word Amish to get tourists to attend, though. Still worth the 6 pounds of cheese we came home with (after entering the cheese eating contest and splitting our wheel of swiss with our curling partners). Sorry you had a bad time. The first year we went I was 8 1/2 months pregnant... so yeah, I know it can get pretty hot there.
ReplyDeleteWasn't that us with you at the restaurant with the instant taters? I think it was! That was too funny. Fun restaurant though!
ReplyDeleteJessica - the corndogs were hand dipped though... we actually had one but I don't think it was worth it.
ReplyDeleteTweedlediva - we even went to the cheese stores and had samples and we were still disappointed. sigh...
fuji mama - yes! that's right! wow, I can't believe we exposed you to amish instant tay tohs! Shameful...
You haven't had a whole lot of luck with these festivals, eh? Guess you better make a trip home & go to Swiss Days with me.
ReplyDeleteI think they have changed things. Each visit to Arthur seems to get progressively worse, at least for us. Mostly due to the cheese quality. I don't know if they've changed their source for the cheese or what, but now I just find it nasty. The first year we were here in Champaign it was to die for.
ReplyDeleteUm--is that CHEDDAR cheese they were giving out?! Seriously?! Sorry the festival was so disappointing!
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry you had such a bad experience, but the kids sure look cute!
ReplyDeleteI felt pretty bad when I read how you missed the good part of the festival because you were preparing a Sacrament Meeting talk. I had no idea about the festival, nor your intentions of attending. If I had known you were planning to be busy all Saturday, I may have encouraged Mike to call someone else on Thursday night. He says he's really appreciative of you being willing to speak on short notice. I hope we don't have to deal with last minute talk cancellations again. Anyway, thanks again Jackie!
ReplyDeleteMichelle, no need to feel bad - like I said I'm glad I had the opportunity to give a talk. No I'm not so disappointed that I went Monday vs. Saturday so much as it overall didn't live up to my expectations from what they advertised it to be. And I didn't like the cheese. Wow, this post is a real downer isn't it? :)
ReplyDeletewell this one did sound disappointing, but I liked the broom festival post. I think we'll have to check out some of these local festivals if we are around next year.
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