Tasty Testes

Rocky Mountain Oyster. Montana Tendergroin. A bull testicle by any other name would taste as sweet.¹ Some certainly think so. While many are made squeamish by the idea of eating bull balls, others gather together in what have been dubbed “testicle festivals” for the express purpose of devouring them.

The most famous of these festivals is probably the Rock Creek Lodge² Testicle Festival in Clinton, Montana. The Lodge hosted its first Testicle Festival in October, 1982, and boasted a crowd of 300-400 hungry people. The festival now boasts around 9,000 participants a year, and at its peak in 1997 over 10,000 people attended consuming over two tons of bull testicles. Eating is not the only thing done in excess at this festival. It also features lots of drinking and lots of nudity, including both a wet t-shirt contest and a hairy chest contest performed on a two story high platform named “The Stairway to Heaven.”

According to this article there also are (or at least were…the article’s kind of old) testicle festivals in Fromberg, Charlo, Ryegate, and York, Montana.

Another long-lived testicle festival is held in Oakdale, California, as a fundraiser for the town’s Rotary Club and the Cowboy Museum. The 28-year-old festival, originally called the Calf Fry boasts over 450 participants a year who eat around 400 pounds of this delicacy.

In Huntley, Illinois, the Parkside Pub puts another twist on the event providing diners with turkey testicles instead of the more traditional bull testes.

So whether you prefer bull or turkey testicles, there are plenty of options if you wish to go out and “have a ball.”

For more on the festivals:
Rock Creek:
http://missoulanews.com/index.cfm?CFID=2318525&CFTOKEN=98608759&do=article.details&id=FEAE0C61-9A1A-542D-AE5F472DD952A131

Oakdale:
http://www.modbee.com/featured/story/643121.html
http://www.oakdalecowboymuseum.org/festival.htm

Elsewise

Infomantic is now on twitter. You can read my updates in the sidebar under “Infomantic’s Sweet Tweets” when it’s working (which so far isn’t always) or if you have a twitter account, you can subscribe directly. Lots of links, random facts, and general nerdiness.

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1. Or in the style of Gertrude Stein: Testicle is a testicle is a testicle is a testicle.
2. The Rock Creek Lodge opened its doors on February 12, 1982, 173 years after Abraham Lincoln’s birth. Happy birthday, Mr. President!