Column: Festivals revolve around food

What's a small-town summer festival without all the great food?

Eastern Iowa has plenty of celebrations overflowing with sandwiches, lemonade and homemade pie.

But some go even further and name their festival after a favorite staple.

Lisbon is celebrating the 100th anniversary of Sauerkraut Days this week.

In the early days, the Linn County town was a German settlement. Eldon “Bish” Stahl ran a grocery store and greenhouse. His garden provided produce for the store. One of his largest crops was cabbage, which was made into vats of sauerkraut for the town's celebration.

Lisbon History Center volunteer LaVonne Bova says the celebration started in 1909 as Sauerkraut Days and has continued with the exception of taking a few years off during World War II.

Sauerkraut Days starts today with outdoor family movie night. Events are held through Saturday, and free sauerkraut is served with brats in the Kraut Tent.

Event chairman Bob Hill says 150 gallons of Franks Bavarian Style sauerkraut, donated by Franks from Fremont, Ohio, will be ready to serve.

According to Atkins City Clerk Dick Lange, the Benton County town always had a Fourth of July celebration. But when the Freedom Festival in Cedar Rapids began to draw more people, a committee got together and came up with a new summer celebration in Atkins.

Watermelon Days was “pulled out of midair,” Lange says, and has been held for the past 13 years. The event was moved to August to avoid conflicts with other Fourth of July celebrations. This year's celebration will be held Friday and Saturday, mostly at Atkins City Park.

Cassil Motors of Cedar Rapids provides the watermelon and everybody gets a free slice. Among the events Saturday are watermelon spitting and eating contests and watermelon bowling.

And, let's not forget about Iowa-grown corn.

Several streets in downtown Waukon will be closed at 4:30 p.m. Thursday for Corn Day.

About 3,500 ears of corn will be picked Wednesday by Allamakee Community Schools FFA members at Adam Quandahl's farm northwest of town. Volunteers husk it Wednesday and boil it in two large cookers Thursday.

Waukon Chamber of Commerce Director Danny Schlitter says it is a social event where people sit at picnic tables and chat. The corn is free and pork loin sandwiches are available to purchase.