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PLYMOUTH — Being a judge, whether it be in a courtroom, a beauty pageant or, yes, a Kielbasa Festival, is a serious matter.
For 12 years, I have dedicated several hours to being the best darned kielbasa judge I could be. All for the good of the Plymouth Kielbasa Festival — to be held for the 13th year in August in my hometown.
And at times, it hasn’t been easy.
But hey, I’ve been sort of a kielbasa connoisseur all my life — from my early days helping my mom and dad in our kitchen. Dad would man the meat grinder, stuffing pork and beef or whatever into the grinder, while mom would wrap the casings around the grinder’s output. I would watch in amazement as the kielbasa rings took shape.
Of course, my mom would mix the meat first, adding the ingredients that she learned from her mother years before. And always added were mustard seeds — those little yellow beads that somehow elevates average kielbasa to a top-shelf delicacy.
So you can imaging how honored and humbled I was to again be asked to sit as one of the judges for the annual Plymouth Kielbasa Festival — set this year for Aug. 12 and 13. The Kielbasa contest will be held on Aug. 13, a Saturday, at the Plymouth American Legion on Center Avenue.
Terry Womelsdorf, chairman of the annual Plymouth Kielbasa Festival, refers to himself as “Mr. Kielbasa.” He said there’s a new twist to this year’s contest – the 13th by the way.
Terry — I’ll call him Terry so I don’t have to type Womelsdorf or “Mr. Kielbasa” every time — tells me they are opening up some judges’ seats to interested people from the general public.
Here’s what Terry sent me:
• Do you want to be a judge for the Plymouth Alive 2016 Kielbasa Competition? It will be held Saturday, Aug. 13, at 1 p.m. at the Plymouth American Legion Post No. 463, 33 Center Ave., Plymouth.
• All entrants must be 21 years or older.
• If interested send a post card with your name, address, phone number, occupation to: Plymouth Alive, P.O. Box 83, Plymouth, PA 18651.
• Judges will be randomly selected from all entries.
This should be interesting. Some judges have come to the table unsuspecting of what they were about to experience. My advice is to go slow.
When you are presented with a sampling, just take a small bite to see what your initial reaction is. Most of the kielbasa I have judged has tasted very good and deciding which is best is difficult.
However, there have been a few — and I stress few — entries that defiled the kielbasa tradition. Those kielbasa imposters made just one appearance in the contest, never coming close to winning. And that is good, from a judge’s standpoint.
But you never know what could happen. That’s why you have to take the cautious approach to tasting each entry. They don’t issue antacids to each judge for nothing, ya know.
But the atmosphere at the festival and the contest is pure joy. There is an accordion player, banging out traditional Polish songs (polkas) as the crowd sings along. Some even get up and dance the polka a bit. And there is some joke-telling. Some are funny, most draw groans from the crowd.
And then there is the contest. It starts with a parade of entrants. Each kielbasa presentation is shown to the judge. It always amazes me the way these vendors manage to display their kielbasa. We have seen everything from kielbasa volcanoes to kielbasa villages to kielbasa floral displays.
After the parade of kielbasa, then the tasting begins. We are asked to judge the presentation, the texture and, of course, the taste.
All of this is done anonymously — we never know whose kielbasa we are tasting. They are identified only by number.
We submit our tally sheets and the officials add them up and announce the winners and runners up. The accordion blares and the crowd cheers.
And as you leave the hall, you return to Main Street and everybody wants to know who won.
My answer is always the community. My little hometown, which has seen its struggles in recent years, really does come alive for these two days in August.
All thanks to kielbasa.
