Downtown Chili Festival, free music and ice cream social

Today was the annual chili festival in Downtown Hutchinson. I'm not a big chili fan, so I didn't eat it, but Greg said much of it was really good. You paid $3 and then you could sample it at the different booths.



There were about 30 booths and there was a crowd lining up at some of them.



There was also entertainment. Greg took this photo of a sax player near the old "rooms" sign. Greg has an incredible eye.



Just as the chili cookoff was winding down, the band, The Fabulous Shirtheads started playing in Avenue A park.



The Shirtheads have given hundreds of performances throughout the Mid-West over the last 26 years. Spin magazine rated them asone of the top regional bands in the country. The group has performed with artists such as Blue Oyster Cult, Peter Frampton, Delbert McClinton, Buddy Guy and many others. In concerts for as many as 50,000, the Shirtheads have consistently been crowd pleasers.



While they were playing, people could enjoy a custom car show.



Kids were playing in the water.



And we were all enjoying ice cream. Not just any kind of ice cream - home made ice cream. Made with a twist. A gentleman in Yoder, which is an Amish community nearby, made a machine that churns the ice cream. Having "Poppin Johnnies" ice cream is a treat.



It was made just like you make it at home when you churn, except it was being turned by this motor. They added ice and salt, just like at home. When the ice cream cylinder was taken out, he just took the belt off of that wheel until he had a new cylinder with a mixture inside ready to put back in.



They did move that pole up and down by hand periodically - I'm guessing to keep the ice from becoming a big chunk. They were so busy I couldn't really ask them too many questions. I did ask if I could take photos - the Amish generally do not want photos taken as a religious consideration. But he told me it was fine to take photos of the machine.



This is what it turned out - fluffy, creamy, perfect ice cream. They had syrups to add to it, but I didn't want to sully the ice cream with those. It was amazing.



I took a lot of video for my brother, Jackie. It's rare I'm doing anything that Jackie would find even remotely interesting, but I'm betting he thinks this machine is pretty cool. I love the idea of a homemade machine to make homemade ice cream.

I was being careful to not photograph the family, so that's why you don't see their faces at all.

The first video is more of an overall, the others show the machine from different angles.

The top part of it had an open hole with water bubbling. A passerby I was talking with said that was the radiator.











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