Henderson, Minn., has its annual sauerkraut festival. Every August, Hutchinson, Minn., invites visitors to munch on all things garlic.
Now Zumbrota has a festival dedicated to its own delicious treat: bull testicles.
That's right, this Saturday, the brave and adventurously-palated can head to the Goodhue County Fairgrounds and attend the first-ever Minnesota Testicle Festival, a country-western-influenced celebration highlighted by the longstanding ranch tradition of testicle eating.
"It's huge out there; it's the cultural norm," said festival organizer Lindsay Fulton, who said the fare is as prevalent out West as back-yard barbecues are in other regions.
Fulton, a native of Goodhue, Minn., who spent six years in Wyoming as an emergency medical technician and ranch hand, found she missed the cowboy way of life when she returned to Minnesota last September. After many nights of "chasing the white line down Interstate 90" between here and there, she decided to simply bring the fond experiences back with her.
"This is sort of a chance maybe for the cowpoke at heart, who is sitting in traffic, wishing he were on the open range," she said.
The festival brings together "real" country music, mechanical bull-riding contests and a Rockabilly Wear fashion show with a professional rodeo and, of course, the Rocky Mountain Oysters themselves, to mimic the "raw heaven that exists out on the open range," Fulton said.
Heaven, in this case, is the 2,000 pounds of USDA-grade bull testicles that took Fulton and four others four days to "shuck" -- peel the tough encasement away from the orbs of meat inside.
"Now that part is over," Fulton said with a sigh. "So it's got to be all uphill from here." The final product will be cut into slices about the size of "a thick potato chip," beer-battered and deep-fried.
Amelia Rayno • 612-673-4115
