September is upon us and this means it’s time to celebrate that sweet white goo invented just outside Union Square, Somerville. We are talking about Marshmallow Fluff, of course. It was Archibald Query who invented the stuff back in 1917. He whipped up the confection in his kitchen and peddled it door-to-door. Sadly, wartime food shortages ended his business; but post war, he sold his invention to H. Allen Durkee and Fred L. Mower for five hundred bucks. The duo started mass producing the stuff, promoting it with a “Flufferettes” radio show starting in 1930. America has been eating Fluffernutters ever since.
To celebrate the great culinary gift Somerville has offered the world, on September 24 from noon to 4pm, we Arts Council folk present our last ArtsUnion summer event: The Sixth Annual “What the Fluff?” Festival. This sticky extravaganza is organized and curated by our fab ArtsUnion partners, Union Square Main Streets. There will be food, games (including Blind Man’s Fluff), entertainment (including Booty Vortex), even a celebrity appearance by Susan Olsen, or ‘Cindy’, from the Brady Bunch. And there’s still time to enter the Fluff cooking contest,which boasts some top prizes, including a tour of the factory (a rare treat)! Can you top the explosive volcano cake, featuring a fluff magma chamber, that was created by Rosie Branson Gill back in 2006 (below)?
There are other ways to attain Fluff glory and prizes. Wicked Good Travel & Activities is having it’s first-ever giveaway contest. Simply go to the site and leave a comment, haiku, video or recipe that convey your deep love for Fluff. Prizes include a Fluff tote bag and a gift certificate for 2 free studio class at The Training Room, right here in Somerville (what better way to work off all the Fluff you’ve been eating while recipe testing?). The deadline is Sept. 12th.
Hope to see you in Union Square on the 24th! Until then, we trust culinary adventurers will be holed up in sticky kitchens, whipping up Flufferiffic new recipes for the festival cooking contest. At left are judges from 2010; this year judges are State Representative Kathi-Anne Reinstein, @eatBoston’s Aaron Cohen and Rick Linnehan, a vet and NASA astronaut who fueled up for his 2005 space walk from the Space Shuttle Endeavor with a Fluffernutter.
