It’s about People! 

Potential diners started pouring in early, even though biscuits-makers waited to serve us at 9:00 AM.  Didn’t matter, though.  People “meeted and greeted” to pass the time and shared who the big winners were in years past.

County Commissioner Mark Campen, wife Emily, and their two children wanted a taste of Tupelo Honey’s Peach of a Chicken Biscuit,  even if meant wrapping around three blocks to get one.

Commisioner Mark Campen, wife Emily and their children wait for Tupelo Honey to open their booth.

Alan Benton, owner of Benton’s Smoky Mountain Country Hams, wasn’t waiting for anyone — he was just getting started frying those legendary country ham pieces to a golden brown.

Alan Benton cooks his world-famous country ham

Lisa Duncan, Director of the Dogwood Arts Festival, volunteered at the Southern Living booth where Pickle Biscuits made from the recipe in the April 2014 edition were free for the taking. (Click here for the recipe that they say tastes even better with a little ham and mustard!)

Lisa Duncan, Director of Dogwood Arts Festival, volunteers at Southern Living booth

Communications Director at UT-Battelle David Keim held an empty plate as he searched for his next treat-worthy delight. On a mission.  A biscuit mission.

David Keim on a biscuit mission

And you could get free stuff, too, from people on the street.  Like Papi Joe’s Tennessee Pepper Sauce served in those little cups we use for Communion at church!  When I asked this guy about the cups, he replied, Yes taking a sip of this good stuff is a religious experience!

“It’s a religious experience,” says Papi Joe’s Tennessee Pepper Sauce volunteer.

As it were, our next stop had to be the Lipton Iced Tea booth for something cool to wash it down!

Free tea for me and thee!

It’s about Biscuits!

See, you get to pick 5 biscuits with your $10 ticket.  But sometimes, with long lines and long waits, you just dart in to any booth to feast on what’s handy.  Doesn’t matter.  Everything we tasted was scrumptious! (Did I really eat 5 biscuits on one day? Yep.  Did.)

Winning the award for Best Biscuit Booth, the ladies at Buttermilk Sky Pie Shop couldn’t work fast enough to create the biscuits hundreds of people waited for:  Pork Belly & Pear Moonshine Biscuits. (Click here for our post on how they got their start.)

Preparing Pork Belly & Pear Moonshine Biscuits: Buttermilk Sky Pie Shop

Over at the Applewood Farmhouse booth, a guy with a megaphone conned us into picking up their biscuits in a bowl — kinda like apple/biscuit cobbler, if you ask me.  And a band from Asheville sitting right beside them kept us in a toe-tappin’ mood all through the long-but-worth-it wait.

Flourhead Bakery and the Tomato Head won the People’s Choice Award for their colorful creations — topped with a tomato, of course.

Capitol Grille had quite a following, too.  Here’s a nice-looking Strawberry Rhubarb Buttermilk Biscuit  for your picture, he said to me!

Passing out Capitol Grille’s Strawberry Rhubarb Buttermilk Biscuits with a smile!

Folks in line at the Popeye’s booth just smiled as the crowd asked for more — like one of these biscuit hats to go along with their famous chicken biscuits!  Wouldn’t you be happy wearing a biscuit hat, too?

Passin’ out Popeye’s!

And what about these two guys from Tupelo Honey Cafe workin’ up a sweat?  Well, didn’t I say the lines were long? For good reason.  Word was out that the marinated chicken in their Peach of a Chicken Biscuit was mile high. They couldn’t serve ‘em fast enough.

Piling the chicken high on Tupelo Honey Cafe biscuits

The Plaid Apron filled their biscuits with Paw Paw Fruit. (According to a description we overheard them tell some patrons, it tastes like a cross between a mango and a banana.  Worked for us.)

Plaid Apron employees explain what paw paw fruit is.

Our personal fave — and maybe because it was the last of our five, and we wanted something sweet — was a fluffy light biscuit with a creamy, sweet white sauce topped with a strawberry from Callie’s Charleston Biscuits. What a company!  Biscuits, pimento cheese, cookbooks, and more. (You won’t believe what this company sells, so click here to see — so many biscuits, so little time!)

Callie’s ladies show off cookbooks, products, and great biscuits!

And if you didn’t get your fill of biscuits from the booths, food trucks like this one — Savory & Sweet – offered their own versions.  We thought this Go Big Orange Biscuit had everything going for it locally, but we were just too full to try it! Next time. 

Go Big Orange Biscuit from Savory & Sweet food truck

It’s about Music!

If biscuits feed the body, music fills the soul.  So it was with great anticipation that we gathered ’round for our friend Jimmy Brown Johnson and the Band of Awesome.  They’ve made work (and fun!) of writing songs about biscuits and then standing on this old truck flatbed to deliver big band sound on the streets of Knoxville!  Singing our favorite —  Royal Redneck Wedding — they wowed the crowd again this year. Jimmy brought the Biscuit Fairies (a small band of precious winged children) who dropped red rose petals along Biscuit Boulevard as they joined the band in another original hit.  It all just added to the awesomeness.

If you missed the International Biscuit Festival this year, check out the website for next year’s carbo-loading weekend.  And if you attended this one, let us know what your favorites were.  As Biscuit Boss John Craig said to the cameras, Who doesn’t love a biscuit?

John Craig, Biscuit Boss of International Biscuit Festival

For more information:

International Biscuit Festival: http://www.biscuitfest.com

Jimmy Brown Johnson and the Band of Awesome: Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/jimmy.b.johnson.3?fref=ts

“People, biscuits fill downtown for fifth annual biscuit festival.” (May 18, 2014). Knoxville News-Sentinel.  Retrived from http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2014/may/17/people-biscuits-fill-downtown-for-fifth-annual/

Related blogs:

Click here for ‘The biscuit is America’s croissant’ by Cynthia Moxley, posted on her blog, The Blue Streak.

Vendors mentioned in this post:

Applewood Farmhouse & Farmhouse Grill: http://www.applewoodfarmhouserestaurant.com/

Benton’s Smoky Mountain Country Hams: http://bentonscountryhams2.com/

Buttermilk Sky Pie Shop: http://buttermilk-sky.com/

Callie’s Charleston Biscuits: http://www.calliesbiscuits.com/collections/biscuits/

Capitol Grille Nashville: http://www.capitolgrillenashville.com/homepage.aspx

Lipton Tea: http://www.liptontea.com/

Papi Joe’s Tennessee Pepper Sauce: http://www.papijoes.com/

The Plaid Apron: http://www.theplaidaproncafe.com/

Popeyes: http://popeyes.com/

Southern Living Recipes April 2014: http://www.southernliving.com/food/kitchen-assistant/southern-living-april-2014-recipe-list

The Tomato Head: http://www.thetomatohead.com/

Tupelo Honey Cafe: https://tupelohoneycafe.com/knoxville

Erin Donovan, Biscuit Festival Queen

Not ones to let a little rain dampen the day at Knoxville’s International Biscuit Festival (May 18, 2013), we grabbed our umbrellas and headed to Biscuit Boulevard alongside a handful of hungry folks milling around waiting for the 9:00 serving of the best biscuits in town! (After all, even if we did get wet, we’d be attending the top-ranked of the Top 10 Food Festivals in America named by Livability.com!)

We passed the Cruze Farm Milk Truck on our way to get coffee and then checked out the booths as they prepared for the onslaught of 20,000 festival goers — ready to dig in to the doughy delights.

The crew from Plaid Apron stopped a minute for a picture but quickly got to work setting up their chalkboard with what had to be the longest name in the best biscuit competition: Candied Benton’s Bacon, Clabbered Cream, Honey & Balsamic Reduction Buttermilk Biscuit!

Sapphire‘s was ready early on, so this blueberry specialty was one of my first of five samples I could get with a $10.00 ticket.  Delicious!

By this time, the crowd packed the boulevard and long lines were ahead of us.

We waited about 15 minutes for a Green-Eyed Monster Pimento Cheese Buttermilk Biscuit from Tupelo Honey Cafe. Later, we learned this fab concoction tied for runner-up in the Best Biscuit category, but it garnered (deservedly so) the award for Best Biscuit Name.  It wasn’t the name, however, that won us over:  These biscuits were hearty yet light, creamy rich, and HUGE! (I knew I had to pace myself with more walking, waiting, and coffee sipping!)

The Pillsbury Dough-Boy stood ready with his newly acquired friend Rather from Crested Butte, Colorado.  Husband Bert grabbed a Grilled Biscuit Sloppy Joe from their tent!

Flourhead Bakery and Tomato Head offered another cheesy delight: Sweetwater Valley Smoked Cheddar and Onion Biscuit that tied for runner-up with Tupelo Honey. All that yellow goodness on top really is that fabulous smoked cheddar you get from Sweetwater Valley Farm in Philadelphia, Tennessee. (Visitors welcomed!)

After spying another long line, we knew something good was waiting where the man in a red shirt from Applewood Farmhouse greeted everyone with a smile.  Sure ‘nough.  Winning the People’s Choice Award with the most guest votes was their Andouille Shrimp and Grits Biscuit — hot, spicy, and not on anyone’s diet, for sure.  No wonder they took home the Biscuit Sunsphere Trophy!

But not to be outdone, RT Lodge now has bragging rights from the critics with their Deep Fried Biscuit with Braised Short Rib and Pickled Onion.  Mmmm. A mixture of savory, spicy, and vinegary all in one. Deserved that Critic’s Choice Award!

We saved our last biscuit on the ticket for a sweet treat — the Strawberry Shortcake Biscuit from the Southern Living booth served to us by Whitney from Birmingham, Alabama.  (Bet the whole staff wishes they’d had this assignment.)

If biscuits alone weren’t enough, there was even our favorite East Tennessee syrupy goodness from the Guenther family in a booth down the street: Muddy Pond Sorghum!

At the Biscuit Festival, even little kids get into biscuit eatin’ — like this happy fella who likes packin’ it in while strolling . . .

and these rather cooperative brothers in the children’s tent patting and rolling and cutting biscuits just like the chefs do!

Since we were stuffed from more carbs than we usually eat in a month, we were glad to take a break and enjoy the lively lyrics and thumping, hand-raising sounds of Jimmy Brown Johnson and the Band of Awesome on the Flatbed Music Stage.  No one stood still — or even wanted to!

Click here to watch this YouTube video of “Biscuits in the Front, Party in the Back” as seen and heard on WBIR’s “Live at Five at Four.”

We stopped to talk to our friends Kathy and Dan Hamilton who were on their way to the Blackberry Farm Biscuit Brunch in Krutch Park Tent.  From all accounts, this is the culinary route to a great Saturday, so we may have to try it next year.

Harry and David set up a booth for the first time this year . . .

and B97.5 motioned us over for more freebies on a plate.

We almost did a double-take when we saw the Benton’s Smoky Mountain Country Hams booth with the owner himself, Allan Benton, serving his nationally-famous smoked country ham and bacon.

I said to him, It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Benton.  And you’re still smiling after being on your feet all morning?

He politely replied in his Southern gentleman way: Any time I’m holding Benton’s bacon, there’s gonna be a smile on my face!  (Sure enough.  He was still smiling when we passed by a little later in the morning, too.)

We mozied back around to Market Square to take in some of the crafts and farm-fresh foods brought in for the day.  We found Biscuit Festival mugs . . .

and Blackberry Farm products you can purchase online or from their catalog.  (No surprise: They have blackberry jam!) Click here for more information.

And wouldn’t you know, we’d find something never seen by us before. Thrifty Girl brought something every biscuit lover needs to wear: biscuit head bands — I kid you not!  One of kind, wouldn’t you say?

In fact, it’s just the sort of thing Erin Donovan, broadcaster for WBIR, might like to add to her growing wardrobe of must-have wearables with a biscuit theme!  She’s the Biscuit Queen for a reason!

If you haven’t been to the International Biscuit Festival, make plans for next year: May 14-16, 2014.  It’s a feast.  It’s a fun day.  And as organizer John Craig says, Who doesn’t love a biscuit?

International Biscuit Festival

www.biscuitfest.com

Click here for another blog on the International Biscuit Festival from Stuck Inside of Knoxville with that Urban Blues Again.