Hot Luck & Fiery Foods
Thomas Family Winery offers fun event to tickle your taste buds
Several food vendors take part in two-day food festival
(April 2018) – Now that the Hot Luck and Fiery Food Marketplace at Thomas Family Winery has reached its 22nd year, it should be considered to be one of the legacy festivals in Madison, Ind. But winery co-owners Steve and Elizabeth Thomas work hard to add new spice to the event each year.
“Our changes come from the fact that we always want to provide something new,” said Steve Thomas. “But also because our clientele wants to see something new.”
The event is scheduled for Friday - Sunday, April 13-15, at the Thomas Family Winery, 208 E. Second St.
The new offering this year is a continuation of something long honored at the event, local food sourcing.
“The importance of locally sourced food items was a brilliant opportunity to team up with the Indiana Grown group,” Thomas said. “The group promotes Indiana made food with Indiana products. Several of their vendors will be joining us this year.
Hoosiers spend $16 billion per year buying food, but less than 10 percent of that is sourced from within the state.
Indiana’s farms grow, produce and process some of the highest-quality products around the world. However, even as the 10th-largest farm state in the nation, Indiana hardly feeds itself with locally sourced items.
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Photo by John Sheckler Catherine Cicierko samples some of the tasty fare at a previous Hot Luck event at Thomas Family Winery. |
Because the demand for locally made products is at an all-time high, the Indiana State Department of Agriculture created Indiana Grown, a statewide branding initiative. By allowing members to use the Indiana Grown logo on their products, the initiative aims to not only form a clearer designation of which products truly come from Indiana, but to also help Hoosier consumers easily identify and buy these products.
“A good example of the Indiana Grown members is Smoking Goose, selling a variety of smoked and cured meats known as charcuterie,” said Thomas. “They started as a small place that has grown hugely because they have such a good product. It is surprising to see what they do. They have traveled the world to see what charcuterie is all about. We sell a lot of charcuterie cured and smoked meat, so they are an excellent fit for the festival and our product line.”
Thomas remembers one of their products he has tried.
“If you have never had lamb bacon, you need to try it,” he added.
Back in the guild days when people were coming out of the middle ages to the Renaissance, it was necessary to cure or smoke meat to preserve it.
“That is what we do here at the winery,” Thomas said. “What you see at the winery is a classic charcuterie place.”
Thomas mentioned that modern charcuterie tends to be cut in small pieces, however, the British are more likely to use bigger pieces that can be cut down to size.
There will be examples of both at the Hot Luck festival.
Indiana Grown is a new generation of Hoosier farmers, foodies, and families that have new ways of growing their business, creating jobs, and eating healthy.
Indiana Grown Members selling at the Hot Luck Festival include: Newfangled Confections with sweet and spicy pecans; Swayzee Tenderloins with spicy tenderloin; SonShine Kombucha with spicy (cherry ginger and turmeric) kombucha and SonFire Kombucha Tonic; BONZ BBQ with spicy barbecue sauce; Smoking Goose with samplings and selling Capocollo Di Dorman, Saucisson Rouge and Smoked Mexican Chorizo; Steckler Grassfed with samplings and selling variety of cheeses; and Bonus BarBQ LLC with spicy barbecue sauce.
The event will kick off on Friday night with the popular Hot Luck pitch in picnic at 7 p.m.
Visitors are encouraged to bring a dish to share with their fellow Chile heads. There will be spicy food delights from around the world in the back room of the winery. There are dishes from Africa, South America and India as well as Texas and the American Southwest.
The fun continues at noon Saturday with the marketplace, where visitors can sample and purchase salsas, sauces, dried and fresh spices, hot breads, chili powder, vinegars and pepper plants as well as the opportunity to meet and chat with the vendors, who will offer cooking demonstrations throughout the day.
Tent sponsors are the Big Green Egg and Steinhardt Heating and Cooling, who will offer samples and demonstrations of everything from grilled pineapple to apple pies done on the Big Green Egg.
Chile heads can enter the salsa contest. New this year is a category for guacamole. The evening will wrap up at 6 p.m. with a performance by Madison musician Rusty Bladen.
Sunday morning is a bit calmer at the Chileheads Sunday Brunch from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m. The event also features Sunday Morning Jazz.