Butcher Kettles Make Tasty Pop Corn

Butcher Kettles Make Tasty Pop Corn 33-1-6 "We wanted something unusual to bring to our annual church festival. It's a real eye catcher," says Kevin Kuhn, Oconee, Ill. about his home-built, gas-fired "butcher kettle" corn popper. The huge corn popper is built around a pair of 2-ft. dia. cast iron hog butchering kettles. One kettle is enclosed inside a 3-ft. sq. metal box with a spring-assisted hinged lid. Heat is supplied by a gas burner - salvaged from a water heater - located under the kettle. Once corn is popped, the spring-assisted lid is raised and the popped corn dumped into the second kettle, which sets on a three-legged base next to the box. The corn is then bagged for sale. "It's an eye-catching process. Visitors like to watch the corn as it's being popped so it draws in customers," says Kuhn. "We put a little sugar on the popped corn, but it doesn't have the color of caramel corn. "We now operate the popper four weekends every fall and run 750 to 800 lbs. of popcorn through it per season. All people have to do is smell the popcorn and they'll stop to buy some." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Kevin Kuhn, Rt. 1, Box 118, Oconee, Ill. 62253 (ph 217 539-4527 or cell ph 217 825-5469; kkuhnz@yahoo.com).

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