THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 18, 1996 TAG: 9608150032
SECTION: FLAVOR PAGE: F1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LINDA MCNATT, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 98 lines
ROBERT BISHOP was pushing peanuts at the Virginia Food Festival recently.
Handing out samples in plastic cups, the director of the Zuni Presbyterian Center in Isle of Wight County was touting peanuts processed by mentally-challenged young adults who live at the center while learning skills of the work-a-day world.
But the first question everybody had to ask Bishop wasn't about his tasty peanuts or even the unique concept of the center. It was: ``Where is Zuni?''
Bishop wasn't the only one from a place most people had never heard of. The 15th annual festival at the State Fairgrounds brought folks bearing sauces from Locust Grove, apple products from Syria (Va.), hominy from Lottsburg and spices and marinades from Woodford.
In all, more than 75 of the state's food producing companies prepared their specialties for sampling. More than 5,000 people turned out to put the bite on everything from broilers to corn and zucchini.
Many of the samplers were farmers and their families involved in growing the food products.
The festival was conceived years ago as a kind of showcase for Virginia's food products. It's held by the Virginia Agribusiness Council, in cooperation with Virginia agricultural commodity organizations and supported by farmers throughout the state.
One of the highlights of the festival this year is one of Virginia's largest exports to the Orient: chicken feet.
The idea was spawned by a trade mission Governor and Mrs. George Allen took to China this past spring, said Donna Pugh, president of the Virginia Agribusiness Council.
``We have four major poultry producers and processors in Virginia,'' Pugh said. ``We've been exporting chicken feet for several years. The markets are in China and the Far East. When the governor was in China this spring, chicken feet were served at a luncheon he and Mrs. Allen attended.''
The story goes that Susan Allen commented that she knew her husband was much hungrier than she was and said, ``Here, honey, you can have my chicken feet.''
But Miss Virginia, 21-year-old Michelle Kang of Fredericksburg, wasn't afraid to try something different from the traditional pork barbecue, grilled chicken, steamed crabs and fried catfish at the festival.
``They are kind of startling when you first look at them,'' she said, flashing her beauty-queen smile. ``They really do look like little feet, the bones and all. There wasn't much meat on them, but the sauce was nice.''
The Peking Restaurant in Richmond provided the sauce, along with the skill required to cook more than 700 chicken feet for the special taste testing. Considered a delicacy in the Orient, the chicken feet proved just as popular in Richmond. They ran out long before the festival was over.
``They have very low fat and a lot of protein,'' said restaurant employee Jimmy Chen. ``A lot of people tried them; some even came back for seconds.''
Chicken feet, Chen commented, are not on the restaurant's regular menu, and there are no plans in the near future to put them there.
When it came to presenting The People's Choice award, it was no contest. Farm-raised catfish was the overwhelming winner. Festival-goers ate more than 1,400 pounds of fillets and nuggets from fish raised on Virginia's farms, Pugh said.
Last year, the first time the people's choice award was given out, Virginia-produced beef, sliced thin and piled high on rolls, came out on top.
Rosalie Glick of Rustburg spent more than three hours working in the booth that offered catfish and hush puppies.
``Whew! Hard work,'' Glick said, smiling as she wiped sweat from her brow and settled onto bleachers to watch a cow-milking contest.
Glick and her husband, Wesley ``Doctor'' Glick, are members of the Virginia Fish Farmer Association. They got involved with catfish farming when he retired after 28 years of selling automated milking machines.
But tragedy struck when the Glicks were away from home last summer. A fuse blew in the electrical system, causing the climate-controlled ponds the fish are raised in to get too warm. Glick is looking now at revamping the ponds and putting them under a greenhouse to raise tropical fish he plans to sell to pet shops.
But the couple still are members of the Fish Farmers Association, and, like many of the workers in the booths who belonged to other farm-related groups, they were there to support their association.
``If you've never tried the catfish, you should,'' Wesley Glick said. ``They have no muddy taste. They're great!''
The people obviously agreed.
The food wasn't the only thing that was just about perfect. For once, the weather cooperated. It wasn't as hot this year as it usually is on the first Wednesday in August.
``This year, the weather was wonderful,'' Pugh said. ``It was in the mid-80s, with a nice breeze all afternoon.''
The event culminated with an auction of leftover food, drinks and plants from Virginia's nursery industry. The auction, for years, has been one of Becky Martin's families' favorite activities.
``This might last through one meal,'' Martin said, laughing as she looked over six, dozen-sized packages of hamburger rolls she bought for a bargain.
Martin lives on a 3500-acre farm in King William County with her husband, four children and 500 head of beef cattle. The Food Festival, Martin said as she tucked a bag filled with yogurt-covered soybeans in her pocket, is a day away from the farm, something her family looks forward to each year.
As the sun set over the Richmond fairgrounds and agricultural types from all over Virginia got ready to head home, John Milteer, executive secretary of the Virginia State Dairymen's Association - still cleaning up from the cow milking contest - had a final word of advice.
``Always be kind to udders,'' the dairyman said. by CNB