Friday’s 11th annual Swiss Roll Eating Contest once again turned the lawn behind the Brandon Inn into the site of one of Brandon’s silliest — and most beloved — Independence Day traditions, with cheering, crumbs, and cream-filled competition all packed into a fast-paced Fourth of July spectacle.Before the first package of Swiss Rolls was opened, contest founder and commissioner Jim Leary, who is retiring after launching and emceeing the event for more than a decade, inducted the first two members into the International Swiss Roll Hall of Fame.
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Brandon held its own bake-off this July 3, when eight local cooks joined the town’s first-ever Independence Day apple pie contest. Judging the entries with utmost seriousness were famed pie-lover George Washington, the discerning seamstress Betsy Ross, and local philanthropist Shirley Farr (Scott Scribner, Nancy Leary, and Laura Peterson).
Competitors braved kitchen temperatures upward of 90 degrees on the morning of the contest to deliver their creations in time for the afternoon event behind the Brandon Inn. As the judges deliberated, volunteers handed out samples of each pie to the appreciative audience.
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Photos taken by Neshobe Current guest contributor L. Bunker.
Brandon, 7/4/1976 - submitted by Ken Russell, taken by Virginia de Ganahl Russell.
The Great Brandon Duck Race!
Check out all of the photos from staff and reader submissions from the celebrations here:
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Jim Peck Presents “Brandon’s 4th of July - A History Talks”
Historian Jim Peck closed out Brandon’s celebration of the country’s 250th anniversary — or semiquincentennial, for wordsmiths — of the signing of the Declaration of Independence with two scheduled talks on Brandon’s history of July 4 celebrations.
His presentations, titled “Brandon’s 4th of July: A History of the Nation’s 250th Birthday,” were held in the basement of Town Hall on July 3 and July 5. Both were hosted by the Brandon Museum.
Peck wove a historical tapestry that started in 1761, when Brandon was chartered as Neshobe, through the town’s official organization in 1784, Vermont’s admission to the Union in 1791, and beyond.
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