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Fall Festival Barbecue

© Lee Ward

On of my favorite festivals in my area is called Poage Landing Days. It happens every year in Ashland, Ky., where I work full-time as the Lifestyle Editor at the local paper.

This year's Poage Landing Days was special, because it was commemorating Ashland's 150th year as a city. The best part of the festival is, of course, the food. For years, I looked forward to buying up a bunch of candy apples and enjoying them over the next few days at home.

I have only made them once, and decided it was too much work and that I didn't have a knack for it, so I planned to buy them instead. I'm not talking about caramel apples, which are great, too. I'm talking about cinnamon-flavored candy apples, the ones with the hard-as-rock red candy coating. They are just as messy, gooey and delicious as the caramel apples.

Last year, though, I swore off candy apples. Apparently I'm getting to the age where I'm too old for candy apples. They were so hard and difficult to eat, I really believed they would take my teeth out. I realize that before you unwrap them and eat them, you have to bash them against a hard surface to crack the coating, but even with that preparation I was expecting a trip to the dentist along with a root canal and a good scolding.

That didn't happen, and I was relieved. This year, I thought I'd better not push my luck.

There is plenty of other good food to enjoy at Poage Landing Days. Sure there's cotton candy, fudge and funnel cake, all of which makes my sweet tooth water (gladly I still have a sweet tooth), but let's really get down to business and talk barbecue.

The Flame and Fiddle Cookoff is a competition within the festival for local barbecue restaurants.

Why the "Fiddle" part of the name?

Ashland is known as being the home of the country music mom-and-kid duo The Judds and neighboring Flatwoods is where Billy Ray Cyrus was born. But countless musicians hail from this area. The stretch of U.S. 23 that runs through the area is known as the Country Music Highway and along that road, signs designate the county of birth for many a star.

This area is a hotbed of local music, too. I should know; I try to keep up with the concerts and acts every week on my entertainment pages in the newspaper, and believe me, there's plenty to keep up with. I'm sure I miss a few opportunities to inform readers about where to hear music. I encourage anyone who loves country and bluegrass music to consider visiting the area sometime.

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