TORRINGTON – Autumn means different things to different people.
For some, it’s the return of high school football. For others, it’s a chance to sit around a fire pit, enjoying the early-evening cool.
And, for a handful of die-hard chefs, it’s the return of the Torrington Farmer’s Market Soup Cook-off, now in its third year.
The market had moved to the City Park near downtown the year before. Faced three years ago with declining attendance in the fall, the market board of directors was looking for innovative ways to bring people out.
“We were talking, as a board of directors, ways to attract people to the Farmer’s Market,” said Caleb Carter, Goshen County Extension educator and board member. “We really wanted the market to be a place where the community felt they could gather, where they thought it was their market.
“We thought, ‘Why don’t we do some kind of a competition at the market to bring people in?’” he said. “We decided, well, there’s this chili cook-off – a very famous one, actually – every year in Chugwater. We could do something like that, but with soup.”
The rules of the competition would be simple: Participants were encouraged to come up with a soup recipe – whether of their own invention or a tried-and-true family recipe – and bring it to the park. They are encouraged to procure as much of the produce and other ingredients as possible from the Farmer’s Market, and to make and bring at least three gallons of the finished soup.
That way, Carter said, there would be plenty of soup to go around for all the tasters. The competition was to be judged by anyone and everyone who wanted to come down and sample the soups.
The next question became, how do people taste the soup? They can’t just walk around with spoons, dipping into a three-gallon vat. Then an obvious solution presented itself.
“We had these big soup mugs that were donated by the Ag Extension at the university,” Carter said. “They had a bunch left over from their 125th anniversary, which had been the year before.
“They donated those, so that’s what we used – everybody who came out got one of those soup bowls.”
The mugs, featuring the Extension Service anniversary logo, were a hit – and they’ve become somewhat of a coveted attraction at the cook-off, with a few remaining even three years down the road. But it quickly became obvious additional vessels would eventually be needed if the soup cook-off was to become an annual event.
“We realized we were going to have to start getting some other mugs or some soup bowls, or something,” Carter said. “We looked at buying some, but decided, ‘Well, that’s pretty expensive.’
“We were going to maybe do the Farmer’s Market logo on some soup bowls, or something,” he said. “In the end, we decided we could just go to some second-hand stores and pick up mugs, or ask for donations of mugs – that’s what we did.”
This year, cook-off tasters were given their choice of mugs, ranging from cups in the shape of a pig’s snout to Christmas-themed and seasonal mugs.
“Now, we have a very wide array of mugs people can come and choose from,” Carter said. “I think that’s good – people seem to enjoy being able to come, pick out a mug and go around and taste all the soups and vote for their favorite.”
Each of the three years, the Farmer’s Market Soup Cook-off has attracted a group of cooks as varied as the selection of mugs for tasting. New this year was Tucker Wells, who brought his own invention – Snowman Snuggy Soup.
“It’s a creamy chicken-and-noodle with bacon,” Wells, of Torrington, said.
“It’s something I kind of came up with,” he said. “We’ve built on it over the last couple years. It started from an internet-based recipe; we just kept adding different things to it we thought would be good until we got it where we wanted it.”
And it seemed to be a hit with the crowd, as Wells and his friend Zach Bennett served up Wells’ concoction from their table at the City Park shelter, surrounded by snowman dolls, keeping with the theme of the soup.
“We encourage people to decorate around their space,” Carter said.
This was Wells’ first time entering any kind of a food competition. Bennett had heard about the cook-off from local media and convinced his friend to enter.
“I was convinced … the soup was good enough it needed to be in the competition,” Wells said. “This is pretty fun. I’ll probably do it again.”
This year featured five soup cooks. There were four more who’d planned to attend on the original day, Oct. 10, but couldn’t make it last Thursday after the event was pushed back a week by weather, Carter said.
In addition to the newcomers, the cook-off featured several repeat competitors, including Dale Radford of Torrington, who’s creamy potato soup took the People’s Choice for best soup in the inaugural competition three years ago.
“I’m back this year – I just enjoy cooking,” Radford said. This year’s entry was a spicy chipotle butternut squash soup that also seemed to go over well.
“I wanted to try a different recipe,” he said. “And it’s a perfect night to have a soup supper.”
His entry this year arose from a combination of sources, Radford said: The basics came from an internet recipe to which he added his own touches.
“I figured out the ingredients I thought would taste good together and kind of made the soup my own,” he said.
Radford said he doesn’t have a specialty – he just likes to cook, trying out his recipes on family, coworkers and at his church.
“And the recipes people enjoy, I enjoy cooking them again,” Radford said. “We have fun at our church get-togethers, we have fun at work, trying out different things.
His family in particular enjoys the role of guinea pig for his new inventions.
“They look forward to seeing what Dale can come up with,” Radford said.
Proceeds from this year’s soup cook-off will go to benefit ongoing recovery efforts by Goshen Irrigation District from the July irrigation tunnel collapse, Carter said.
