Joanne Williams
Editor

(Cindy Gaedert-Gearhart/TCJ – Crowds, food, music, rides, vendors, a parade, car show and so much more. What a great way to begin summer festival season, right here in Potterville.)

Do you know what a gizzard is?

They tend to “pop up” at Thanksgiving, when folks buy whole turkeys and discover a bag containing the bird’s organ meat – heart, liver, neck, and gizzard, which is found in the digestive tract of many animals and helps break down food. Some folks refer to it as a second stomach.

Gizzards are tough, so preparation requires time, unless you deep fry it, as Joe Bristol does at Joe’s Gizzard City in Potterville. Chicken provides the gizzard of choice.

Bristol’s restaurant, more than 65 years in the family, is famous for the dish, and is a destination for many summertime travelers.

This June 4-6, Potterville celebrates with Gizzard Festival, now nationally known because of its unique delicacy and a few choice television show spotlights.

It wasn’t always that way. The late spring, early summer festival used to be known as Potterville Days, and was more homegrown for a small, community celebration. Potterville’s population is about 3,100.

When the festival dwindled for lack of money and volunteers and took a COVID hiatus, it was resurrected as Gizzard Fest.

Today, three-day event, June 4-6, features vendors, amusement rides, contests, a pageant, entertainment, a parade, car show,  and so much more. Crispy the Chicken will be there, too. The gizzardfest.org site spells it all out, including the parade on Friday at 6:30 p.m.

Now run by a community committee, Potterville hosts around 20,000 visitors.

This year’s theme is Beach Party. Next year’s, already set, is “Under the Big Top.”

Perhaps by then, more folks will learn of the lore of the gizzard.

They will also be treated well by the organizers, who, with the help of townspeople and Police Chief Richard Barry, make sure things run smoothly.

For example, there is parking at the high school, just across the street, with shuttles to take people to and fro, or an under-the-highway bridge to keep people out of harm’s way.

Barry also advised caution, as with any crowd situation. Keep your vehicles locked and valuables out of sight, he said, and, if the weather calls for it, stay hydrated.

Barry has been in Potterville for nine years, and says the police force, with reserves on hand, feel comfortable with the crowds.

The crowds are urged to give gizzards a try. If not now, when?

According to Dave Stoltzfus of Dutch Meadows Farms in Pennsylvania, “While the gizzard is not wildly popular in the United States (yet) it is considered a delicacy in other parts of the world. In places like Haiti, Mexico, Southeast Asia, Europe and Africa, it’s quite common to find the gizzard as mouthwatering street food, adorning a salad, or paired with your main meal as the perfect side dish.

In the south, you’ll often find them fried to a deliciously crispy texture or stewed for hours in a soup until melt in your mouth tender.”

He says it is “an excellent source of iron and zinc.”