2026 American Cured Meat Championships in Milwaukee
Over the past 77 years cured meat artisans and purveyors have gathered together once a year to crown their kings or queens of ham, bacon, mortadella, baloney, and every kind of sausage under the sun.
In the early days, beginning in 1949, it was just a few dozen men having fun, eating meat, drinking beer and enjoying the camaraderie that comes with being butchers, farmers or rural charcuterie experts.
Bragging rights were at stake.
The Times-Picayune (New Orleans) 1941
Switzerland to host 27th International Chicory Biennial in September
The biennial event, held in different countries every two years, serves as the industry’s most significant gathering.
Gamper Gemüsekulturen AG will again host the International Chicory Biennial, welcoming approximately 160 industry professionals from across Europe.
The company was established in 2016 by a collective of seven leading vegetable producers in Eastern Switzerland. The goal of this merger was to consolidate their regional offerings to provide a broader, year-round selection of Swiss vegetables.
The biennial serves as a critical forum for root vegetable producers, seed companies, researchers and agricultural equipment suppliers to foster cross-border collaboration and exchange technical expertise. Organizers said sustained high registration figures reflect the event’s enduring importance to the sector.
Switzerland to host 27th International Chicory Biennial in September
This may or may not be as fun as a get-down in Crowley on a Saturday night.
The program is as follows:
Day one, Sept. 23 at the Revier Hotel Säntispark, located at Wiesenbachstrasse 5 in Abtwil. The program features a series of international expert presentations on practical research and applications, anchored by keynote addresses and a panel discussion focused on structural challenges currently facing the global chicory market.
The program concludes on Sept. 24 with a tour and trade exhibition at the Gamper Chicorée AG facilities in Stettfurt, located at Hauptstrasse 4.
The day’s itinerary features a firsthand look at conventional and organic chicory forcing operations and an exhibition showcasing more than 25 European companies. Additionally, the event will highlight technical advancements through a presentation of herbicide trials conducted by Agroscope, alongside live field demonstrations of automated weeding technology from Ecorobotix and Carbon Robotics.
Depending on how deep your love for chicory goes this may or may not be an event for you.
Nature’s Roast Chicory has replaced Reily Foods’ Coffee Partner Chicory
If you don’t have the time or money to travel to Switzerland but need a good chicory fix head over to Canseco or Zuppardo’s and pick up a packet of Reily Foods new chicory product.
For more information and registration:
www.biennale2026.ch
2026 Lafcadio Hearn Festival in New Orleans
We get exactly one healthy dose of voodoo every year in New Orleans at 5am on Mardi Gras day when Voodoo Queen Kalindah Laveaux comes out of her Treme bungalow and leads a procession of priestesses through the streets of the 6th Ward.
It’s eerie, macabre and joyful.
This weekend, at events scattered across New Orleans, International Vodou Day will be celebrated in this northernmost outpost of the Caribbean. We are most excited to see Queen Nqwamary Janiqwa Nganga pour libations at the slave marker near the US Mint in the French Quarter.
During the dark days of US slavery, within a one-block radius of this marker, you would find roughly a dozen slave-trading firms operated out of bank-like offices, luxury showrooms, and private pens. Their business? Selling their fellow man into slavery.
Expect Queen Nqwamary Janiqwa Nganga to offer serious wisdom on these matters.
Luzianne Coffee and Tea advertisement. July 1911
And it’s due to the efforts of an 18th century French botanist and a Louisiana entrepreneur who built a beverage empire in the first half of the 20th century that ice tea is the common language of southerners across the United States.
Cowboy’s 5th Annual Treme Gumbo Pop Up
It’s a family bar and this is a family affair. If you bring Lil Ray Ray nobody’s gonna say one word.
It’s our annual daytime party. We start ladling out big hot bowls of Cajun gumbo at 1pm and finish up when we drain the kettle.
I hired DJ Seprock to spin a nice long set of vintage 45 vinyl. Old school, two turntables and fat slabs of New Orleans Mardi Gras wax.
Sunday February 15th, 2026
1pm
Little People’s Place
1226 Barracks St.
New Orleans
Add to your calendar right here
16th Anniversary Scrumptious Chef New Orleans Gumbo Party at Tamale House East in Austin
It’s hard to believe it’s been 16 years since we started throwing big gumbo parties in Austin. But here we are. What started as small backyard gatherings in the French Place neighborhood slowly turned into big affairs at Tamale House East on 6th st.
What a wonderful ride it’s been. Thanks for supporting us over the years.
Sunday January 18th 2026
16th Anniversary Scrumptious Chef New Orleans Gumbo Party
Tamale House East
1707 e. 6th st
Austin, Texas
78702
5:30pm cocktail party
6:30pm dinner
William Frantz Elementary. 3811 North Galvez Street, New Orleans, Louisiana, 70117
“Their words written down are dirty, carefully and selectedly filthy. But there was something far worse here than dirt, a kind of frightening witches’ Sabbath. Here was no spontaneous cry of anger, of insane rage.
Perhaps that is what made me sick with weary nausea. Here was no principle good or bad, no direction. These blowzy women, with their little hats and their clippings, hungered for attention. They wanted to be admired. They simpered in happy, almost innocent triumph when they were applauded. Theirs was the demented cruelty of egocentric children, and somehow this made their insensate beastliness much more heart-breaking. These were not mothers, or even women. They were crazy actors playing to a crazy audience.”
Swans Down Flour. May 31st, 1886.
When I tell the story of a brand with a history as long and vivid as Swans Down flour the tale must begin with the people behind it, and just as importantly the development of the marque.
Swans Down branding leans on imagery of softness and purity: swan down evokes feathers, lightness, delicacy—qualities desirable in cake baking.
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