10th Annual Indiana Hotluck & Fiery Foods Expo

CaJohn WILL be there on Saturday, Friday night is a maybe. WILL + maybe = supposed to be there?

[Comment ID #19033 Quote]

Jim did that math. 😉

CAJohn is this a bid festival?? At a winery though, it can’t be too bad.

It’s a relatively small function Reilly. If I remember correctly, John told me there were only about 4 vendors participating.

Here’s another function….On Thursday, April 20 in Gatlinburg, TN is what they call the “RibFest”. I’ll join John late Tuesday in preparation to sling some wings. Afterwards I’ll spend some time with them in Columbus, OH. I’m dying to learn how all this hot sauce stuff works behind the scene!

if it was on the weekend i could make something like the Ribfest. Hard for me to make it otherwise. I just wish there were more things like this around here. Then again I havent looked so hard. But let me know about anything like this in the south 🙂

[Comment ID #19066 Quote]

Tell me more about the ribfest MSK!! I may be able to make this!! I want to go..

The Indiana Hot luck, John’s math not withstanding, is a pretty well established event by now. It’s not huge, as in the number of vendors there (more than four, less than twelve) but as pointed out- it’s in a winery and that alone makes it fun 🙂 Plus, Madison is a pretty neat place if you’re into old buildings, history, and river towns. There’ll be well over a hundred folks through on the hotluck portion. All kinds of chile related dishes, some hot, some not, some downright weird 😉 There might be a bit of alcohol present also :-p

Evening Jim…..

I hope it didn’t sound like I was deminishing the quality of the Hot Luck event. If so I apologize. In the planing stage of my trip north, John and I were going to meet there before I went on to Columbus. I was looking as forward to it as any other opportunity to make new friends. A few days later he mentioned the Ribfest. My decision to make this one over the Hot Luck had everything to do with timing and not preference. With regards to the number of vendors, I was strictly going on low memory cells.

One thing I can say with certainty, John told me if you want to meet up with a bunch of salt-of-the-earth chiliheads in a relaxed but funfilled atmosphere, the Hot Luck event was the place to be!

Well now, there will be a contingent of folks from Central Ohio at the Hotluck/Chile Pepper Festival in Madison. I know of 4 invites to people whose sauces come from my kitchen. How may will go is yet to be seen. I’ll be there.

Gatlinburg WING & Ribfest… They seem to do all of their events like this mid-week (I guess they don’t have any trouble getting people there on the weekends). If any of you want more info on the goin-ons of this event, I’d suggest you contact Craig at the Pepper Palace in Gatlinburg (one of the largest Hot Shops in the country) you can contact him from his site. Don’t forget the Wing part of this. There will be eating contests and some great prizes offered from what Craig has told me. He also has quite a bit of collectables available.

Tracy, I look forward to meeting you, hope you can make it!

[Comment ID #19116 Quote]

I’m really going to try and make it to Gatlinburg. We have a conflict of interest that particular week, however, there’s still a slim chance for us to try and make this trip possible. As for the Pepper Palace, that’s where I made the leap from tobasco into the real world of hot sauce. That place is unreal! Have a Great Night!

Thanks for posting this info. My significant other and I will head down from Indianapolis for it!

Did I hear wings? Hmmm, perhaps a cameo isn’t out of the question.

If your all going to hotluck then you all need to stop at jungle jims in fairfield ohio. They sell 1000s of hot sauce all under a fire truck. Its something too see. They have some behind glass so small kids can’t see and some in lock box big bucks they have one for 2000.00 You got to see it.

I’m confused. Is the “hotluck” on Friday and the expo on Saturday? Hotluck sounds like potluck, is everyone expected to bring food?

Yes, Ethan. The hotluck is on Friday and the expo is on Saturday. A ‘hotluck’ is like a potluck except themed around spicy foods. You are not required to bring food, although it’s welcome. You can also bring recipes to swap, or just bring an appetite. There are usually enough folks that bring stuff that no one goes away hungry. Must of us evil corporate types try to incorporate one of our products into our dish- gives you incentive to buy it the next day a the expo 😉

Do you all mine if we at Jungle Jims make a appearance on Saturday. Just kidding. I should beable to make it over. By the way thanks for plug.

Speaking of Jungle Jim’s, we just shipped out a good sized order to them this morning. It’ll be nice to see our stuff hit the shelves.

Absolutely you’d be welcome over Bret… even if you didn’t order from me at the show 🙂 Jungle Jim’s isn’t that far of a side trip for anyone making the Indiana Hot luck. We (wife & I) usually side trip over there on the Friday before the hotluck anyway. It is well worth the extra few hours if you’ve never been! Just better bring some spending money and allow for some time to wander the store 😉

MSK- re: I hope it didn’t sound like I was deminishing the quality of the Hot Luck event. If so I apologize

No apology needed or warranted! It *is* a fairly small event, but that is a great part of what makes it so neat. Plenty of time to party with the vendors and have conversations about all aspects of everything chile at length over good food and good wine. If somebody starts quoting Yeats though, give CaJohn some room 😛

Sounds like a grand old time. Wish I could just go! Take lots of pics and share them with me MSK!

Sorry Jim I though Tom made a order with you. Call me Thursday at ext 6208. And I’ll give you a order. Any body else I miss at show give me a call….

Thanks Bret! You forgot to order from my other brother Jim, and my twin brother Jim, and my cousin, and…. 🙂

Will be delivered on the sorta way over to the Hotluck!

InCaneFan- you bringing anything down for the Hotluck?

I’ll be hungry 🙂

Jim, we’re just going to be there for the event on Saturday unfortunately.

I’ll be hungry as well, will there be food for consumption on that day as well?

Also, had a few questions on the event itself. I imagine you’ve been to it before, so is the best way to get ahold of you through the number on your website? Thanks in advance!

Yup- there’ll still be food the next day. Not too often does everyone manage to eat everything Friday evening. It’s leftovers though.

Ummm… I’m one of the sponsors of it so yeah- I’ve been there once or twice or nine since this is the tenth annual 🙂 Should be able to sound like I’ve an answer for any question you might have!

Good luck on calling any number you might find on my web site- I’m never home. Email is a better option: jim at wildpepper.com

Thanks for the speedy reply Jim. I’ll shoot you an email through my girlfriends addy since she checks hers all the time while I never check mine.

Thanks again!

[Comment ID #24523 Quote]

Is anyone else (besides Jim of course) going to be at Madison on Saturday?

[Comment ID #24594 Quote]

Not I sir, I’m just starting to make myself a name in the hotsauce world and Blair keeps draining my bank account 😛

[Comment ID #24596 Quote]

Well best of luck to ya pilgrim, we’ll see ya in the big show oneday!
No pic, just a caption…
Whoops! Wrong topic…

Hey. I’m one of the new guys just starting out. I’m the owner of SHAKEY JAKE’S HOTSAUCE. Hopefully I’ll be at the show, I would like to meet you guys and get some pointers.

Welcome aboard Shakey! Happy to share everything I know- shouldn’t take more than a minute or two 🙂

See you in Madison!

[Comment ID #24803 Quote]

Looking forward to meeting you Shakey!!! Jim means more like a day or two, he’s the guy who taught me most of what I know…

Welcome to The Inner Sanctum, Jake. There is virtually an infinite amount of resources in this group. Need pointers, ask away.

Hi Jake… This is a pretty cool place on the web that Nick has here. A wealth of information.

I’v been missing bases with Nick here about reviewing my hot sauce’s
Hopfully I’ll catch him today. He’ll be sampling 3 of my sauces the Hot, Very Hot and X-treme. I’ll bring some down to the show and let you all try some. In the near future my BBQ (4 styles) and salsa (2 styles) will be on the market as well.

We had a good time at the Thomas Winery, met Shakey, although I didn’t get to talk to him much, I was setting up when he introduced himself. He must have left early. Makes a pretty tasty trio of sauces I must say. They were left on a common table and I got to try them. Good work Shakey.

Met Eathan and his friend from Lexington next, talked for a while and set him up with some sauces. It’s always great to meet new folks, especially from the blog. Good luck on the collection Eathan, sounds like you have a good start.

INcanefan and Mandy, spent quite a bit of time with these two. They were there later in the day and most of the visitors had moved on. Great couple of chileheads. He was able to score a couple of real good items as Jim & I had brought together our “spring cleaning” finds to cross sign. Talked us out of a couple. Nick will be getting a list this week of what we’re putting up for sale. Watch for it. Yes, there are a few new Light You Ups to be had. I also got to celebrate some good news from New Iberia with them, got a phone call to tell us we were the Grand Champion for the second time at the Cajun Hot Sauce Festival! We did very well in the competition with a whole list of winners. I’m sure Nick will get a report on everything soon. I hope I do tomorrow, it was pretty noisy down there. Eddie & Mandy, thanks for your support and the brews! It was a great pleasure to spend some time with you two!

Jim caught a plane for the wilds of Utah for a little pre-planting season R&R, so he will be gone for a bit. He’ll probably post a bigger & better review when he gets back. To all involved, thanks for a great day!

Welcome back CaJohn! SOunds like a great time. Missed around here.

Sorry CaJohn, wish I could have stayed longer, but I had to be back at work that night (5 hr drive). But it was great to meet you and Jim. I just wish I could have had more time to chat with you guys.
Jim filled me in on what to look forward to the night before. So I’d like to say thanks to the both of you for the time and answers given.

Eddie and I had a wonderful time at the Winery with “the boys”. There were a few times when Eddie became giddy like a school girl when items were “unveiled” for sale. Eddie was able to snatch up the “holy grail” of his collection and get it signed (pictures forthcoming of our additions). We certainly added to our growing collection on Saturday. We thought we would only spend a few hours at the event, but we ended up being there for about 6. That shows you how much fun we had talking to John, Jim, Chip (aka C-Hip), Ron, Anthony and the “Chili Woman”. Thanks for the good time and happy that you enjoyed the brew 🙂

[Comment ID #25805 Quote]I had a great time also..I think..The band after the show was great..I think..Man, my head hurt. The Free Hard Cider samples were great..I Think, and everybody that stopped was pretty darn friendly..

Meeting Bret and his wife was REAL COOL and I loved the stop we made at Jungle Jims.

It was cool hanging out with Cane Fans and the Funny part about meeting Eddy was that he Looks like Jimmy Fallon and he is as bad a Cane fan as Fallon was a Red Sox fan in that movie Fever Pitch..Will definately try this again

[Comment ID #25818 Quote]

Dude, how can you remember anything? 17 by 6!!!

First off, thanks to all the nice people we met down at the show. Myself nor Mandy had any clue that we’d have that much fun nor did we expect to stay so long as we needed to get back to the city for a friends birthday festivities. Thanks to the good company which included basically everyone there as noted above (Mandy did forget to mention Bret from Jungle Jim’s who happened to give me a very nice Blair’s item!) we’ll have to do another “chilihead” event as time allows. This was our first, but surely not our last!

When I get a chance I’ll shoot some pictures of the things I added to my collection, which I’m happy as a pig in ____ to now have! Giddy like a schoolgirl is correct as Mandy said for that’s what I was and still am. No doubt, the highlight is the “Light You Up” but that’s only the tip of the iceberg.

Anyhow, enough for now and I’ll get an email out to all those I met as soon as possible with pictures included.

Thanks once again to all we met as well as your incredible generosity!

17 by 6?….wow..I thought it was the time change thing.

Well, I’m to email Nick a review of the Indiana Hotluck & Fiery Foods Expo, except I think that by the time I get back to somewhere that has good email, it will be too late. This will have to suffice 🙂 Besides, my pics didn’t turn out all that great. A good time was had by all the brave souls that dared to attend though it was hard to say which had the bigger impact on the crowds- the tornados (2), hail (golf ball sized-1, pea sized- twice), 70 mph winds, or flooding amounts of rain. Still, those that made it were treated to some awesome food (those pics turned out good & will be mailed to Nic), GREAT wine (ever had a bad time in a winery?), and best of all- good company 🙂 There was some hot stuff and some not hot stuff and plenty of it to go around.

The expo the following day was better attended though still down since the temps were only in the upper 40’s low 50’s. It was in the 80’s the day before- welcome to Indiana in the springtime 🙂

Several bloggers were there and got the jump on some of the stuff that John & I pulled out of storage as well as some pre-release stuff. Maybe some more ought to plan on attending next year 😉

Anyways, it was great to see all of the folks and hope to see more of you next year 🙂 Hope we made it worth your while!