Oct. 15 offers oodles of autumn fun
Tamarack Time! makes taste buds happy
One of the best-loved festivals in Bigfork is just around the corner. Tamarack Time! is Saturday, Oct. 15, and organizers are looking for entries in 17 categories and subcategories this year. The traditional groups are still available, and in recent years there has been separate judging in hot and cold appetizers and hot and cold ethnic entries. Also, there are casseroles and non-chocolate desserts.
All these additions should broaden the opportunities for specializing and expand the opportunities for winning.
The categories and their chairpersons are:
Chocolate desserts: Need a volunteer
Non-chocolate desserts: Katie Brown 837-7050
Cookies: Peggy Atchley 837-5105
Pies: Lynn Wood 755-6995
Soups: Charlotte French 837-2036
Stews: Guy Laurendeau 837-0043
Chili: Need a volunteer
Yeast breads and sweet breads and jam: Sue Hanson 837-5323
Kids: Amy Schwinghammer 212-4039
Pickles: Betty Mathews 837-4396
Appetizers, hot and cold: Cheryl Harber and Jennie Harris 837-6303
Ethnic, hot and cold: Katie Callan 837-6072
Casseroles: Janet Loranger 837-3771
Remember, entering your dish is free. You may enter as many categories as you want. You may win several times. Call the appropriate chairperson to let him/her know what to expect.
Participants provide a batch of their specialty, then serve from the offerings to be judged and sampled at the Oct. 15 event.
Some cooks have entered every year. This is the 18th year. Each year there are also new cooks and new winners.
Early in 2004 the Tamarack Time! Cookbook was published, and it continues to be a popular gift for friends and relatives.
Judging will begin at 12:30 p.m. Sampling will start at 1 p.m., Oct. 15 and will last until we run out of food. The dues of $3 has not changed.
This year applications are required for judges in advance—just call Elna Darrow 837-4400 and tell her what category you feel qualified for. Also call her to volunteer to help with anything.
Frame of Reference will serve as Tamarack Time! headquarters this year.
Cowboy up during annual Harvest Barn Dance
Bigfork's fourth annual Harvest Barn Dance will take place on Saturday, Oct. 15 at the River Bend Ranch on Eastman Drive at 6:30 p.m.
The Barn Dance will feature one of America's hottest country bands, Live Wire, from the Joplin, Mo., area. They are returning again this year due to popular demand. Once the music starts playing, you will be dancing until they unplug their guitars. Four of the five band members are 26-30 years old and play drums, acoustic guitar, and bass, while the fiddle and mandolin player is only 20 years old. With a voice sounding much older than their young ages, these talented and lively musicians are the real deal.
The opening act will feature the Flathead Valley's best bluegrass from Leftover Biscuit. Live Wire will hit the stage at 9 p.m.
A barbecue dinner from the talented chefs at Great Northern Foods will include roasted pork loin on a bed of sage dressing with sauce, barbecue chicken, au gratin potatoes, Spanish corn, tossed salad, fresh homemade bread, and yummy brownies. Beer and wine will be provided by the Garden Bar and Flathead Beverage. Western attire and cowboy boots are encouraged as the River Bend Ranch is the real deal, too—horses and all.
Tickets for the Harvest Barn Dance will be going fast and are available at the Jug Tree and Bigfork Drug. The price is $110 per couple and includes dinner, drinks, live music and a chances to win cash prizes for $100 to $1,000. For those who would like to hear Live Wire only, you can purchase a ticket for $25 per person for entry to the dance at 9 p.m. Single tickets for the entire event are $60, so find a partner and save yourself $10.
The Harvest Barn Dance is a fund-raiser for the Rotary Club of Bigfork, who in their four busy years of existence have contributed many volunteer hours to sponsoring the Bigfork High School's Interact Club, cleaning the highway, restoring the tennis court park, and currently restoring the WPA built steps by Bjorge's and Bigfork Inn. They have made cash donations to fund turkeys for the food bank, holiday food baskets for Bigfork families, Bigfork QRU, Red Cross, Bigfork High School track and stadium, Bigfork Playhouse Children's Theatre, Bigfork Youth Baseball, Glacier Orchestra Outreach Program, Junior Miss, Destination Imagination and Ravenwood Youth Natural Science Center and more. This year they will be funding their annual Douglas Wulf Scholarship, Youth Leadership Flathead Program, an Interact Scholarship, Rotary Youth Leadership camp, the Bigfork Children's Fund, the new park in Crestview, Veterans Programs, Victims of Katrina, a program to help Russian orphans and more.
The Rotary Club of Bigfork is part of Rotary International that has more than 1.2 million members in over 180 countries. With the motto "Service Above Self" they roll up their sleeves and get things done.
So, come on out, dust off your dancing boots and cowboy hat and don't miss out on this year's harvest Barn Dance with Live Wire on Oct. 15. Call 837-5888 for more information.