Sunday Focus With Christine Manika
2024 Chislic Fest
Summer is a big deal for chislic lovers in the Sioux Empire. The annual South Dakota Chislic Fest is on Saturday, July 27th in Freeman. This is a huge celebration for the state's nosh and for the Freeman community. This year is all about the volunteers who help make the South Dakota Chislic Fest possible. BINGO is back, the Menno fire department will be hanging out at the beer tent, and 200-300 volunteers will be helping you have fun throughout the day! This festival is all thanks to the awesome volunteers! More information on this year's festival can be found at sdchislicfestivial.com
- Duration:
- 29m
- Broadcast on:
- 23 Jun 2024
- Audio Format:
- mp3
This is Sunday Focus, a weekly public affairs program that looks at the topics affecting our society and the people who are making a change in the community each and every day. The people who have vision for the next generation. Sunday Focus presents new challenges for us, keeping you informed with topics of local and regional interest. Now the host of Sunday Focus, Christine Manica. Hello, good morning, welcome back to another edition of Sunday Focus. It's always fun to celebrate traditions. South Dakota brides itself on its history and heritage, especially when it comes to food. For anyone new to South Dakota, the state's delicacy, otherwise known as the state's nash, is Chislic. The town of Freeman loves the state nash so much that they dedicate an entire day to Chislic. This year, South Dakota Chislic Fest and Freeman will be held on Saturday, July 27th, and we have special guests in the studio to tell us more about it. We have the president of the Chislic Festival board, Andrea Behr, and also the secretary and the vendor committee chair of the Chislic Festival board, Jeremy Daniel. Good morning, guys. Good morning. I am hungry already. I can just smell the Chislic already and it's just going to be another great festival. Again, it's going to be on Saturday, July 27th. Now let's talk just like, what is it for anyone who is new to town and it's been hearing a lot about this Chislic. Okay. Well, Chislic is traditionally lamb or mutton, skewered and either deep-fried or grilled. And it is the traditional meal that our ancestors brought with them when they came to the Southeast area of South Dakota. Yeah. I love hearing about that story, about the ancestors bringing over the state NASH to South Dakota. Can you tell us a little bit more about it? Yeah. So we actually had some Germans from Russia immigrating to this area of South Dakota and brought with them a delicacy they called a Chislic, which is actually kind of a larger looking version of what we have currently as Chislic. Now, actually, if you come to the festival on July 27th, one of our board members gives a demonstration on actually cooking Chislic while giving a nice history of all of that. So that sort of led to a lot of the people in this area that grew up with that tradition, bringing it forward year after year after year, and now we're left with a smaller version of Chislic. And it's tasty. It's very good. Absolutely delicious. So I'm a transplant to the state of South Dakota. So you're a transplant. Yeah. Moved here about 10 years ago and had no idea what Chislic was. Actually, when someone first described it to me, I was like, "Oh, like steak tips?" And they got very offended. Because again, as Andrew mentioned, it's traditionally lamb or mutton that we have seen an expansion into beef, venison, bison, even depending on what different vendors do. But tried it once, hooked, not going back. Yeah. It's really good too. Now, it officially became the state's NASH not too long ago. How did this process start? Well, back in 2018, we heard in Freeman, South Dakota that the state legislature was looking at making Chislic the official state NASH of South Dakota because it is such a uniquely regional food and very social tradition of food. So we got very excited in Freeman where we serve a lot of Chislic on a daily basis and decided that we wanted to gather our community to celebrate the official state NASH and that becoming the official state NASH. And we just planned a little block party. We thought maybe 1,500 people would show up, but it was a lot more popular than we anticipated it being. And that night we had about 10,000 people show up in Freeman. Yeah. That was in 2018, wasn't it? That's correct. That's when the festival first came about and who had the idea to say, "You know what? Let's bring Chislic to life and give it its own day in Freeman." So there was a group of people and as words spread that we're planning this party, more people kind of jumped in and jumped on board. But like I said, that initial group of like five or so quickly realized that we were on to something bigger than what we had anticipated. So after the chaos of that first festival settled down and we all had a good nap and a day or two to decide which way was up again, we decided to form an official organization and started planning for the next South Dakota Chislic Festival. So what does this not only serve for the community of Freeman, but the state of South Dakota? You know, the benefit of having Chislic Fest here in our state. So although the Chislic Festival is located in Freeman, South Dakota, we refer to Freeman as the heart of the Chislic Circle. If you take a map and look at about a 60-mile radius, whichever year grows a little bit further out from Freeman, South Dakota, that is the area where Chislic is very well known and extremely popular and that's where those traditions of Chislic started. So that is why we chose Freeman, South Dakota and the entire Chislic Circle to be the place of honor because six years ago, seven years ago, when we started this, people outside of that circle didn't really know what Chislic was, but the popularity is growing. I just came back from the Black Hills out in Spearfish and it is now traditional lamb on the menu in Spearfish. Is that right? They didn't know that in Spear. I'm shocked. I mean, the word travel is a little slow sometimes, right? I mean, it's become much bigger than the state of South Dakota, much bigger than even the region where we have people internationally at the Chislic Festival. I actually know of a group from Canada that has already RSVPed that they're going to come down out of the festival again this year, but we actually just sent a group out to New York City and I'm sure Andrew would love to talk about that, but when up to New York City, we have people coming from all over the United States just to experience this festival. We talk about the community and the Chislic circle, certainly it's about the heritage and community building in that area, but it's also about getting people to South Dakota to just experience what we have in our area. Since we're talking about a group from Canada coming to the Chislic Festival, can you make Canadian Chislic, Canadian Bacon Chislic? I mean, as I said, it's traditionally a Lammer mutton, but we do any meat, so I guess you could probably figure that out. I'm actually just thinking about maple syrup on there that would be pretty good. I mean, even moose could be a possibility I guess, depending on what part of Canada you're from. I guess. So we could probably make that happen, but at our booth that we have at our festival, we do still have a traditional way where we have both Lam and mutton, it is stuck, it's served with garlic, salt, and crackers, the way that it's traditionally intended, but we see it evolve into a number of different ways as you look around at different restaurants in the area. I asked you this question last year, Andrea, but the appropriate dipping sauces, what it comes to Chislic? Traditionally, there would not be a dipping sauce. The hardcore fans from the Freeman and the Chislic Circle are going to tell you that it is seasoned with garlic salt and served with saltine crackers, which is actually kind of an interesting story in the evolution of Chislic, when our ancestors were traveling to this area and cooking over the open fire on the prairies, they would have used a flat bread to remove it from the hot meat from the skewers. Somewhere along the line that flat bread became easier to serve as saltine crackers and is the most popular way to eat it now. How do you like your Chislic? So personally, I'm still a fan of garlic salt, right? I'm kind of a plus or minus ranch kind of guy, which again gets a little bit of hate from the diehards, as Andrea mentioned with in the Freeman Circle, but I also prefer it fried. Some people grill it, so I'll eat it grilled, but that's a possibility, but yeah, air fryer has even something that I've done at my house as well, but yeah, the sauce for me may be ranch, maybe not. It kind of depends. Okay, and then Andrea, I think I remember you saying that Chislic is a staple for your family party, so how do you usually serve it? Absolutely. Most of the time we're going to do it fried or grilled. The other night we had some neighbors that popped over and we threw some Chislic in the air fryer to quickly make a little snack for everybody, but it is just so uniquely social of the tradition all the way back into the late 1800s. They would finish harvest and then they would get together to have Chislic. Now my youngest son just graduated from high school and several people said, "Are you going to serve Chislic at the party?" Because it is such a social tradition. So who taught you how to make Chislic then since it is a big tradition in your family? You know I'm not even sure because it's just been a part of my life ever since I was very small. It's just something that you do when you have friends or neighbors or visitors, or you're celebrating something, you have your Chislic. Again, you're just making me hungry. We are being joined in the studio with Andrea, Baron Jeremy Daniel about the upcoming Chislic Fest in Freeman, South Dakota, can't emphasize that date enough. It's going to be July 27th. Every time I hear about this Chislic circle, it's a very exclusive club. I feel like is it hard to maybe have someone else come into the circle or the circle is set pretty much? You know the circle has been growing as the popularity of Chislic has been growing. That invisible boundary is where people knew what Chislic was even 10 years ago. But like I said, it just grows every year and more and more people are learning and experiencing what Chislic is and taking that tradition home with them. So now even into Northwest Iowa, we're seeing fans of Chislic. And further out, we had a couple years ago some people that saw one of our posters from South Africa and decided to come to the festival and we're very excited and we're wanting to know where they could buy it to take it home. And we actually have a board member from Nebraska that lives down there. And again, he's the one who actually traditionally cooks Chislic at our festival in our historical tent, which is one of the many things that you can do on that day. But he's also bringing it to that area, right? So I mean, I guess historically you'd look at a 30 to 50 mile area outside of Freeman. But any more, it just seems to, as Andrea said, get bigger and bigger every year just as more people learn to love just looking what it is. And as Jeremy mentioned before, Andrea, you're very excited to tell us about a New York experience that Chislic had. I kind of want to go at the start of this journey for you and going to New York because I remember hearing it from sale executive Scott Smith saying, hey, they're going to New York and I'm like, wait a minute, for Chislic? So what was that all about? Yeah. Um, last fall, I received an email in our, you know, Chislic email and looked at it but I thought, yeah, this is probably, you know, spam or whatever and then a little while later received another email and kind of looked at it harder and realized it was a partnership with Travel South Dakota and the state of South Dakota. So looked into it a little bit more and decided that, yeah, we are excited to bring Chislic to the national stage. There was a whole group of businesses and attractions from South Dakota. And we all met in April in New York City at a media event where we spent four days teaching all different types of media influencers, big publications, television shows, what South Dakota has to offer in order to promote travel here in South Dakota. Wow. So out of that trip, what stands out in your mind when it comes to maybe a personality that tried Chislic or when you were just in the city in general? I was shocked at the number of people who we would offer them Chislic as we were telling the story and found out that it was lamb and that it was deep fried and whatnot and they were like, maybe later, no thanks. But by the end of the story and learning about how Chislic came to be in the Chislic Festival, we're excited to try it. And every single one of them were like, can I get some more of that to go, please? I don't think we met anybody who didn't enjoy it. But the other shocking part of the experience was the number of national publications that had already heard about the Chislic Festival and the chaos of that first year. I didn't realize it had become a national story, but apparently it had. Wow. So are we talking like people from USA today when I'm thinking publications, the Times? I don't know anything like that. I will cautiously say because of the media deal, I have to be a little bit careful of what we say. But I spoke with very large television morning show producers. I spoke with very large national publication producers and we were kind of all the rage on Twitter for a few days there in New York City. Wow, that's awesome. And by the time the trip was done, do you think you accomplished bringing Chislic to the national stage? Absolutely. I have heard from a couple of those publications who are hoping to come to the festival either this year or next year and learn more about it and give us a little more national publicity. Oh, is this breaking news? But yeah, probably giving us a scoop right now. I might be. Yes, yes. So we're excited for all of the things that this means for the state of South Dakota as well as the Chislic Festival. Was that your first time in New York City? It was my first time in New York City. Oh. We stayed in Soho, worked in Soho the whole time. But of course got a little bit of free time to go exploring. So yeah, it was quite an experience. I would have taken like the Chislic with me as I was visiting all these sites like in front of the Statue of Liberty, hold up the Chislic basket in my hand and just snap it in front of the Statue of Liberty. That's a great idea. If it hadn't been raining most days, we probably could have done something like that. But some other nature always wins in that. Well, that's so exciting to hear about Chislic reaching beyond South Dakota limits and just people really opening up to the idea of eating Chislic. And I think that's fantastic. And again, the Chis Festival is in Freeman going to be on Saturday, July 27th. What can people expect when they drive down to Freeman? Lots of things going on on the festival ground. So festivals open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. that day on the 27th. We have live music. Several bands already lined up that are very well known within the region, going to play for us throughout the day. Lots of food vendors, seven of them, including our very own organization serving Chislic as well as some others serving anything from funnel cakes to ice cream to really anything you can imagine at a festival. Also have a whole area of non-food vendors where you can find anything from prepackaged hot sauce you can take home to clothing items or kids books or personalized thermoses that you can take home. So lots of lots of different non-food vendors there too. We're not forgetting our literalist people though. We do have a kids zone as well that has inflatables. There's going to be a storyteller on site to give lots of stories with some comedy to our young kids as well. And if you're a bingo fanatic, we have a tent full of that too. So lots of lots of good opportunities when you come down to Freeman that day. I can imagine that you won't come hungry but you'll leave not hungry anymore. Yeah, if you leave hungry, I think that's your own fault. If you do that, there's certainly a lot of opportunity again in our own booth as well as a number of vendors that have been here since the beginning. We actually have a couple of vendors that have been with our festival from the very first festival way back in 2018. So it just seems to become more popular and people love them so they keep coming back. How many Chislic vendors will people be able to try? Have you had a rough guess? Yeah, so including our own there are seven total and then I think we have five or six other food vendors that don't serve Chislic but again serve a number of other items as well. Now, I believe there will be some local brews to try and also wine. I know what I'll be drinking. Let's say we partner with our distributors here to make sure that if people want an age-appropriate beverage that is available to them, especially in a hot day in July in the middle of a field in South Dakota, I'm always good to have some Mike Fappy, our partnering with one of our local vineyards to also bring some South Dakota wine to our festival. I remember when I was there last year, there were a lot of great live bands and there was one, I can't remember a couple of their names but they really stood out so do you have an idea of the performers that are going to be there this year? We do. I'm working on solidifying a few of them still. However, I know that we're going to have a great 50s and 60s band in the morning. Amy Ellsworth will be there as well, kind of over that noon hour time and the Prairie Rock Garden tour, which is a local favorite, will be joining us again this year. They are a lot of fun to watch but something new and exciting this year on the main stage is we will have a comedy show for an hour to an hour, half in the afternoon with several local comics from the Sioux Falls area as well as a gal from Chicago who is well known for doing comedy about, guess what, just like, you're serious. Yeah. Oh my gosh. So I guess she had performed in South Dakota a couple of years ago and tried to just look for the first time and now that is her signature bit. So we're excited to have her come as well. Yeah, that's awesome. And the best thing is, I mean, you don't have to just sit there in front of the band shell all day. We actually have the whole festival on speakers. So as you're just, again, shopping through all of your non-food vendor areas, eating your chislic from your third or fourth chislic vendor that day, you can also just hear the live music, hear the comedy as well throughout the whole festival grounds. I'm curious why bring the comedy to the stage and what came with that decision? One of the comedians is originally from the Chislic Circle. So when he contacted us, we, you know, talked it over and thought that just might be something new and different and exciting. And we're just, you know, excited to offer the biggest variety of entertainment that we can. I know that Jeremy mentioned our Kid Zone is also growing this year and we're very excited to announce that Phil Baker will be joining us in the morning for the Kid Zone. And we have some storytellers lined up over there. We are also adding a Frisbee golf tournament this year. Oh boy. Yeah, I cannot believe the number of phone calls we have had to register for that already. And then of course, we have the Beanbag tournaments, which the state of South Dakota VFW hosts. The cool thing about any of the activities that are happening at the festival is that money raised by that organization goes directly back to that organization. So the Bingo is a senior center that is being, is run by a senior center. The Frisbee golf tournament will be benefiting the Lions Club. Like I said, the VFW will benefit from the Beanbags. And there is another non-profit organization that's coming in to run that Kid Zone for us. That's so awesome. If you are just listening, being joined with Andrea Behren, Jeremy Daniel about the upcoming Just Look Fest happening in Freeman on Saturday, July 27th. How cool is it to see from 2018 to where it is right now this Just Look Fest continue to grow? It's absolutely amazing. I actually attended the very first festival, not on the board, but just as a person. And I only got to try two vendors because off the record, I cut in line because the lines weren't really all that well defined and moving. I didn't say that. You didn't hear. You heard nothing. I was listening at home, but was able to kind of slip in and try a second vendor. And it was, Andrea described it right. It was pure chaos that first year because they were expecting a very small crowd and got 10,000 people. So they announced they were doing it again as I decided to come back. And it was a much larger space, still the same large turnout, but they made a lot of awesome changes. I actually left some feedback on Facebook and joined the board shortly thereafter after I saw a group. So just being involved with the vendor group and seeing the board evolve, seeing the festival evolve, it's been awesome that we just have such great partnerships with our local community, with the people within the Just Look Circle and beyond to keep coming back year after year, bringing in new things year after year to keep the festival fresh and it still grows every single time. Andrea, what about you? Because you have been really at the forefront of this entire festival. What do you think? You know, most days it's completely overwhelming to see what we have created. And we are very fortunate to be able to use the beautiful Prairie Arboretum in Freeman, 40 acres, plenty of shade trees, bring a lawn chair, hang out all day, or you can choose to hang out under the beer tent if that's more your style. But to see something like this grow in the sense of community and the way that it has has just been something completely overwhelming. Every year I think, okay, maybe this is our year where we feel normal and every year there's so much new and so much exciting that I kind of joke that we haven't had a normal year yet because every year has brought something new. Yeah. And that's so exciting. I believe I know someone that's going to be emptying the stage. Who is that? Well, I think you might already recognize her voice. We're very excited for you to join us or Scott or any combination of you. Oh, you're leaving it to me. Okay, I'm definitely going to need to hear some of Scott's comedy again this year though. If anybody missed it last year, it was delicious. Operation Behind Bringing Comedy to the stage. That may have been the seed of the idea, yes. You got what do you want to say right now or no? You're going to have to come to Freeman to hear it. There you go. I promise. I won't do any bad comedy. I won't. That's at the experts there. Anything else you guys want to add about the Chiswick Festival, anything like that? I just want to say, like I keep saying, I'm completely overwhelmed, but there's no other way to describe it between the chaos of the first year and the growth that we've seen and the way that the community jumps in. We count on like 300 volunteers to join us the day before, the day after, and the day of the festival for everything. Everything is run by volunteers. So we're so incredibly thankful for those people that volunteer. And if you want to get involved, go to our website. You'll find a link on how you can do that. And the other part of it that has been just almost magical is the financial support that we get. We are a nonprofit. So without our sponsors, we've got Merchant State Bank in Freeman. We've got Courtrust Bank in Freeman, Hoots Bar on a larger scale. We've got Helena. These sponsors that come in and make this all possible is just amazing. And you also give back to the community, too, with this festival. Absolutely. At the end of any given year, any profit that we sit on gets given back to our community in the form of grants. Now, this is going to be the toughest question out of the entire interview. Who has the best chislic? You know, that's a really tough one. If you come to find me on Festival Ground Dale, I'll be sure to point you to my favorite booth, just as I go around and try everything. But I wouldn't be a member of the board if I didn't represent our own board. That again, we are the only group sometimes that does the traditional way. If we look at the festival last year, we were the only group that still stuck it on skewers. With the Fridays for the garlic salts and saltine crackers. Any more in Sioux Falls when you get it, it is just loose in a basket. But there's just something a little unique about eating an office stick that just makes it feel just a little bit more traditional South Dakota. So I would definitely have to represent our group. But you know, it's really tough to pick a good food vendor, because we just have so many great food vendors that come to our program year after year. What about restaurants when it comes to chislic here in South Dakota? There are a ton of great restaurants in and around the chislic circle that specialize in chislic. There's Sandy's Bar and Emory. And of course, Meridian Corner, which I think is probably the most famous for chislic is just a few miles south of Freeman. Meridian has a bar that serves wonderful chislic. And Meno has several places that serves chislic. Tenders? Even here in Sioux Falls, Tenders is fantastic. The Attic has great chislic barrel house also has great chislic. Talking a lot of east side restaurants, so there is an Attic over here on the west side of Sioux Falls now. But lots of good and lots of good chislic places, kind of from those one off places here in Sioux Falls. Yeah, and people can try all the chislic here in South Dakota. Again, that's happening in Freeman Saturday, July 27th. It's the sixth annual festival for the South Dakota Chislic Fest. And guys, before we let you go, what's a good website to check out, as you mentioned, or a phone number to call? So our website would be the SD, chislicfestival.com. As Andrea mentioned, there is a contact form on there if you're interested in being coming involved as a volunteer. If you're a business owner and, again, feel like really helping us out to grow this mission, you can certainly reach out to us there. If you're interested in being a vendor in following years, we don't have any more space for food vendors at the moment. But even if you're listening to this program a few weeks out, and you have a cool product that you want to sell in your non-food vendor, still reach out and might be able to work you in. But that will be vendors at SD, chislicfestival.com. Be the best email for us. Awesome. And then are you still looking for volunteers for this year? We are always looking for more volunteers. Like Jeremy said, there is a form on the website that you can go to and fill out, or you can call us at the festival phone number or just reach out in the contact through the website. And for volunteering, you just eat the chislic, right? We could probably work something out, yeah. We, like I said, everything is done that day with volunteers. So from setup of all the tents, tables, chairs, to sanitation, to helping people find what they're looking for, we are in need of volunteers. Awesome. Again, it's Andrea Baer, the president of the South Dakota Chislic Festival Board and Jeremy Daniel, the secretary and the vendor committee chair. And again, that fest is happening on Saturday, July 27th. Guys, I'm looking forward to it. And I'll see you there. Thanks so much for joining us this morning. Thank you for having us. We're excited to have you at the festival. Absolutely. And I'll be hungry. Trust me. We'll be back. Most important search engine for businesses is still the one in the consumers' minds. In a buying situation, a category buyer draws on existing memories to identify potential brands for purchase. Unconsciously to save time and energy, the brain almost always picks the obvious choice, the one you think of first and feel the best about. The real focus for marketers should be brain engine optimization, not SEO. That's right. SEO is the new SEO. Memory generation is the best form of lead generation. Roy H. Williams said it the best. People do business with people they know, like, and trust. In 2024, your marketing needs to create an emotional connection that people will remember. I'm Chad Jacobs with Results Town Square Media. We help businesses create stronger memories of their brand, so people trust and remember them. We'll show you how we do it and who we're doing it for. Give us a call. No pressure. No pitch. 605-940-3355. Ever seen a house painted Attention Deficit Avocado? Bet you have. Lead-based paint was commonly used until 1978, and it's been breaking down into the air, water, and soil ever since. Now it's the leading cause of childhood lead poisoning in South Dakota that causes learning, behavior, and health issues as kids grow older, including Attention Deficit Disorder. If you have paint that's starting to chip, peel, or shred, get your kids tested for lead. Learn more at leadfree.sd.com. I'm Christine Manica, and you've been listening to Sunday Focus. Thank you to Andrea, Bear, and Jeremy Daniel from the South Dakota Chisholick Festival board for joining the program today. Once again, the town of Freeman, they are celebrating Chisholick during the sixth annual festival, the Chisholick Fest, happening on Saturday, July 27. For more details about the South Dakota Chisholick Festival can be found by visiting SDChisholickFestival.com. Sunday Focus is a public affairs program of a results radio, Town Square Media Sioux Falls.