Ringing in the rind in Harrod

HARROD — It's a one-of-kind treat taking center stage this weekend in Harrod when the annual Pork Rind Heritage Festival gets underway.“This is unique. We're drawing on pork rinds, which are made here by Rudolph Foods. It's a festival that catches people's eyes, and it draws them to come see what we have going on,” said long-time festival chairman Bill Gossard.For Rudolph Foods, the festival gives them an opportunity to celebrate the pork rinds and the sense of community at the festival. “This is a family friendly event, and we love that sort of thing,” said Amanda Helmstetter, director of marketing for Rudolph Foods.“But it's the pork rinds that people love. There's nothing like a fresh pork rind. We have found that a lot of women are undercover pork rind lovers,” she said, chuckling. “They say they don't like them, but they do. And, the rinds are healthy in a lot of ways. They have 0 carbs and over half of the fat is good fat. We have supermodels who are fans of our pork rinds,” Helmstetter said.But this festival is more than pork rinds. There's a car show that continues to grow in popularity. There's a new motorcycle show. There's face painting. There's Civil War cannon demonstrations. There's entertainment by the Sunset Junkies, Josh Hawkins and Kelly Connor Spallinger. And, there's a Vacation Bible School graduation.And for the first time in the history of the festival, there's beer served. “We're having Blake's Beer Garden on North Main Street. It will be a contained area, but we're trying a little something new with this,” Gossard said.