Our once-every-five-years event, the Pudding Hollow Pudding Festival, was a joyous day of eating, singing, laughing, and of course PUDDING. (We also made lots of money to help renovate the Hawley Meeting House!)

The festivities began with registration of contestants at the Hawley Grove. Our judges (Dennis Picard, living-history specialist; Charlotte Rutledge, test-kitchen manager at King Arthur Flour; and Kathleen Wall, colonial-foodways culinarian at Plimoth Plantation) got to work tasting the puddings.

While everyone awaited lunch (it was too cold to do a lot of outdoor exploring) Peter Mitchell of Headwater Cider served samples of his cider.

While our sumptuous lunch was being served, the judges deliberated long and hard.

After lunch, contestants and spectators trooped over to the Meeting House. John Sears welcomed everyone, we sang a song, and the contestants and judges paraded around the old church with their puddings. The contestants introduced themselves to the crowd and talked briefly about the genesis of their puddings. The puddings all sounded delicious … and very, very rich.

Our impromptu players then performed their entertainment, “The Vampires of Pudding Hollow.” Its highlight was a brand-new “Vampire Song” composed for the occasion by our own Alice Parker. Audience members participated in the music lustily, shouting “PUDDING!” repeatedly throughout the chorus.

After the skit, we got down to business. The judges noted that there were no losers among the puddings but also confessed that they might have liked a few more savory puddings; there was a definite aura of sugar in their tasting room.

The first-place pudding-head award went to Matt Stinchfield of Guilford, Vermont, a brewery consultant who concocted a Scottish-Style Spiced Steam Pudding. (Alcohol was involved!) Our second-place winners were a mother-and-daughter duo, Deb Smith and Kate Corwin of Southfield, Connecticut, with an August Sunshine Pudding.

We are grateful to our many wonderful donors and sponsors, as well as to our hard-working judges. No one went home empty handed. Organizer Tinky Weisblat would like to express special thanks to all the community members who helped out.

The Pudding Festival will return sometime in 2024. We trust that day will be as memorable as this one was. One of the contestants, Janice Sorensen of Buckland, gushed, “I love this event. I look forward to this even more than to a trip to Europe.”