Kinda interesting story about cooking from my old home town area for ya
folks.

In a tiny town called Wakarusa, IN there lived the Nelson family. Wakarusa
is basically one huge corn field with travel trailer factories scattered
about amidst the corn. There also is a large community of Amish that reside
through out that region of Northern Indiana.

(The story behind the name Wakarusa is that years ago when the are area was
still undeveloped. a surveyor along his Indiana guide were marking off the
area. The guide was to walk out the surveyors stick whilst the surveyor made
his measurements. One day in the late fall, while walking the stick out, the
Indian guide dropped through the crust of ice and called out, WAKARUSA!.
This was the word for "knee deep" in his language and it was then the
surveyor decided to name the area for the guides exclamation, WAKARUSA!!!!)

Well one day one of the Nelson brothers (a family of farmers), who happened
to make the family's favorite Amish style marinated and grilled chicken,
couldn't keep up with demand for his chicken. (Amish grilled chicken is
chicken marinated in something like a water, vinegar, pepper, salt, butter,
etc. concoction. A salty/ peppery taste)

So thinking about how he could make a grill that would handle large, large
volumes of grill chicken. (As the story goes) His inspiration occurred as he
was out in the field scattering manure with the farm manure spreader.

What he came up with was a huge rotisserie grill that could handles hundreds
of pounds of chicken or whatever you wanted at one time using briquettes.
Eventually he made many of the these cookers and started a fund raiser
business where by he would cook the meat, and sell you the meat which was
packed into ice chest hot for you to sell on the street corner for a markup.
Or they would tow the cooker (which work like a trailer) to your corner
where the aroma would draw the crowds in as it cooked.

They even sold several units to one of the Saudi princes to back to Arabia.
From there they opened a hall in their back yard serve a buffet to the
locals and expanded to have a huge prep building to service the charity
sells.

Now talk about you bizarre ideas, coming up with a cooker designed off a
manure spreader, to a very nice family business!

Peace and Love,
Piedmont

Piedmont ) opined:

> Kinda interesting story about cooking from my old home town
> area for ya folks.
>
> In a tiny town called Wakarusa, IN there lived the Nelson
> family. Wakarusa is basically one huge corn field with
> travel trailer factories scattered about amidst the corn.
> There also is a large community of Amish that reside
> through out that region of Northern Indiana.
>
> (The story behind the name Wakarusa is that years ago when
> the are area was still undeveloped. a surveyor along his
> Indiana guide were marking off the area. The guide was to
> walk out the surveyors stick whilst the surveyor made his
> measurements. One day in the late fall, while walking the
> stick out, the Indian guide dropped through the crust of
> ice and called out, WAKARUSA!. This was the word for "knee
> deep" in his language and it was then the surveyor decided
> to name the area for the guides exclamation, WAKARUSA!!!!)
>
> Well one day one of the Nelson brothers (a family of
> farmers), who happened to make the family's favorite Amish
> style marinated and grilled chicken, couldn't keep up with
> demand for his chicken. (Amish grilled chicken is chicken
> marinated in something like a water, vinegar, pepper, salt,
> butter, etc. concoction. A salty/ peppery taste)
>
> So thinking about how he could make a grill that would
> handle large, large volumes of grill chicken. (As the story
> goes) His inspiration occurred as he was out in the field
> scattering manure with the farm manure spreader.
>
> What he came up with was a huge rotisserie grill that could
> handles hundreds of pounds of chicken or whatever you
> wanted at one time using briquettes. Eventually he made
> many of the these cookers and started a fund raiser
> business where by he would cook the meat, and sell you the
> meat which was packed into ice chest hot for you to sell on
> the street corner for a markup. Or they would tow the
> cooker (which work like a trailer) to your corner where the
> aroma would draw the crowds in as it cooked.
>
> They even sold several units to one of the Saudi princes to
> back to Arabia. From there they opened a hall in their back
> yard serve a buffet to the locals and expanded to have a
> huge prep building to service the charity sells.
>
> Now talk about you bizarre ideas, coming up with a cooker
> designed off a manure spreader, to a very nice family
> business!
>
> Peace and Love,
> Piedmont
>
>

I used to work across the hall (in an old factory turned into a
small business incubator) from the guys who build these trailers
for Nelson's here in South Bend. When they rolled out a new
trailer, all bright and shiny stainless steel, it was a thing of
beauty.

The chicken ain't bad either.

--
George B. Ross is
remove the obvious bits for email
Why is it that being a good boy and being good at being
a boy don't require the same set of skills? - anonymous

Piedmont ) opined:

> Kinda interesting story about cooking from my old home town
> area for ya folks.
>
> In a tiny town called Wakarusa, IN there lived the Nelson
> family. Wakarusa is basically one huge corn field with
> travel trailer factories scattered about amidst the corn.
> There also is a large community of Amish that reside
> through out that region of Northern Indiana.
>
> (The story behind the name Wakarusa is that years ago when
> the are area was still undeveloped. a surveyor along his
> Indiana guide were marking off the area. The guide was to
> walk out the surveyors stick whilst the surveyor made his
> measurements. One day in the late fall, while walking the
> stick out, the Indian guide dropped through the crust of
> ice and called out, WAKARUSA!. This was the word for "knee
> deep" in his language and it was then the surveyor decided
> to name the area for the guides exclamation, WAKARUSA!!!!)
>
> Well one day one of the Nelson brothers (a family of
> farmers), who happened to make the family's favorite Amish
> style marinated and grilled chicken, couldn't keep up with
> demand for his chicken. (Amish grilled chicken is chicken
> marinated in something like a water, vinegar, pepper, salt,
> butter, etc. concoction. A salty/ peppery taste)
>
> So thinking about how he could make a grill that would
> handle large, large volumes of grill chicken. (As the story
> goes) His inspiration occurred as he was out in the field
> scattering manure with the farm manure spreader.
>
> What he came up with was a huge rotisserie grill that could
> handles hundreds of pounds of chicken or whatever you
> wanted at one time using briquettes. Eventually he made
> many of the these cookers and started a fund raiser
> business where by he would cook the meat, and sell you the
> meat which was packed into ice chest hot for you to sell on
> the street corner for a markup. Or they would tow the
> cooker (which work like a trailer) to your corner where the
> aroma would draw the crowds in as it cooked.
>
> They even sold several units to one of the Saudi princes to
> back to Arabia. From there they opened a hall in their back
> yard serve a buffet to the locals and expanded to have a
> huge prep building to service the charity sells.
>
> Now talk about you bizarre ideas, coming up with a cooker
> designed off a manure spreader, to a very nice family
> business!
>
> Peace and Love,
> Piedmont
>
>

I used to work across the hall (in an old factory turned into a
small business incubator) from the guys who build these trailers
for Nelson's here in South Bend. When they rolled out a new
trailer, all bright and shiny stainless steel, it was a thing of
beauty.

The chicken ain't bad either.

--
George B. Ross is
remove the obvious bits for email
Why is it that being a good boy and being good at being
a boy don't require the same set of skills? - anonymous

"George B. Ross" > wrote in message
. ..
> Piedmont ) opined:
>
> > Kinda interesting story about cooking from my old home town
> > area for ya folks.
snip
> > Peace and Love,
> > Piedmont
> >
> >
>
> I used to work across the hall (in an old factory turned into a
> small business incubator) from the guys who build these trailers
> for Nelson's here in South Bend. When they rolled out a new
> trailer, all bright and shiny stainless steel, it was a thing of
> beauty.
>
> The chicken ain't bad either.
>
> --
> George B. Ross is

I used to organize the summer picnic at one of the companies that I used to
worked for. I always had Nelsons cater the food, and, I always had to order
more chicken than side dishes as most of the crew would eat nothing but the
chicken and swill beer. What a combo! (lol) As I was working the picnic. I
always had to pack away a bag of chicken for me, if I didn't, like the first
year, there wasn't any left for me when I finally could manage a quiet
moment.

How's the weather up there George, as I see by my Yahoo weather tracker I
see 50's for up north. We have a balmy 80 projected for this election day!
Piedmont

Piedmont ) opined:

> "George B. Ross" > wrote
> in message
> . ..
>> Piedmont ) opined:
>>
>> > Kinda interesting story about cooking from my old home
>> > town area for ya folks.
> snip
>> > Peace and Love,
>> > Piedmont
>> >
>> >
>>
>> I used to work across the hall (in an old factory turned
>> into a small business incubator) from the guys who build
>> these trailers for Nelson's here in South Bend. When they
>> rolled out a new trailer, all bright and shiny stainless
>> steel, it was a thing of beauty.
>>
>> The chicken ain't bad either.
>>
>> --
>> George B. Ross is
>
> I used to organize the summer picnic at one of the
> companies that I used to worked for. I always had Nelsons
> cater the food, and, I always had to order more chicken
> than side dishes as most of the crew would eat nothing but
> the chicken and swill beer. What a combo! (lol) As I was
> working the picnic. I always had to pack away a bag of
> chicken for me, if I didn't, like the first year, there
> wasn't any left for me when I finally could manage a quiet
> moment.

I went to a wedding reception at their dining hall once. I
don't remember what we ate beside chicken because several of us
stopped at a bar on the way from the church, knowing no beer
would be served at the reception! My pregnant (at the time)
wife got the driving duties, so maybe she would remember, but
our youngest is 10 years old...

> How's the weather up there George, as I see by my Yahoo
> weather tracker I see 50's for up north. We have a balmy 80
> projected for this election day! Piedmont
>
>

Cloudy and 47F. The rain has stopped for the time being...

--
George B. Ross is
remove the obvious bits for email
Why is it that being a good boy and being good at being
a boy don't require the same set of skills? - anonymous

Piedmont said on 11/1/2004 7:18 AM:
> Kinda interesting story about cooking from my old home town area for ya
> folks.
>
> In a tiny town called Wakarusa, IN there lived the Nelson family. Wakarusa
> is basically one huge corn field with travel trailer factories scattered
> about amidst the corn. There also is a large community of Amish that reside
> through out that region of Northern Indiana.
>
> Peace and Love,
> Piedmont
>

The Come & Dine makes some pretty good food too!! Spent a lot of time
in Indiana in Goshen and in Winamac. Actually spent 8 month in Goshen
and 4 months in Winamac on 3 different contracts.

"ToLo" > wrote in message
...
> Piedmont said on 11/1/2004 7:18 AM:
snip
> > Peace and Love,
> > Piedmont
> >
>
> The Come & Dine makes some pretty good food too!! Spent a lot of time
> in Indiana in Goshen and in Winamac. Actually spent 8 month in Goshen
> and 4 months in Winamac on 3 different contracts.

The Come & Dine, isn't that where they have the tiny railroad that child
could ride on in Wakarusa? If so the owner passed away just a few short
years ago, not sure in they reopened. I imagine they did as it was so
popular.
Piedmont