At the second annual Camp Meade Winter S’morestice Celebration, organizers expect to break the Guinness World Record of 267 pounds for the world’s largest s’more.
This year’s annual winter celebration takes place on Saturday, December 28, from 4 to 8 p.m. in Middlesex and will feature the world’s largest s’more, music, bonfires and much more. Additionally, the turtle oven created for the Great Vermont Bread Festival and Red Hen’s 30th anniversary will be fired up and producing pizza along with hot soups. Foam Brewers are creating a specially labeled S’morestice beer.
All are invited to come help create the world’s largest s’more and celebrate the light and warmth of the historic fireplace built for Camp Meade, Middlesex, with the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s.
In addition to food, music and fire, the event will feature fire artists and dancers along with “burnaments,” which participants affix to a bonfire structure and send them off into the great beyond. There will be an evergreen maze as well as a bouncy house for kids.
The cracker portion of the s’more will be baked on site by the bakers at Red Hen. The organic marshmallows will be provided by Monarch and Milkweed from Burlington while Nutty Steph’s chocolatiers will provide the essential chocolate for the Middlesex world record s’more which will be approximately 4 by 8 feet.
“We invite people of all ages and stripes to come and help assemble the oversized s’mores, and then when assembled and all the ingredients melded together, we will cut it up and hand out s’mores to all attendees on a first-come first-served basis. All of this will be overseen by our official S’morester Shepherds appropriately attired for the gravity of the rituals,” said organizer Russ Bennett.
The fire-centric focus of the event goes beyond the giant bonfire. There will be warming barrels of fires for hanging around and a large urn of fire for warmth and conviviality.
The Middlesex Volunteer Fire Department will be on hand to hose things down as needed. People will also be able to learn about the importance of becoming a member of the fire department and volunteering to be part of the team that protects the community.
“We would like to have everyone decorate the large evergreen burning bush sculpture that will then warm us all. We encourage everyone to bring a note or message or memento that has some meaning to them, a memory of some kind. They could be about the past (last year’s resolutions perhaps) or the future (next year’s hope for the future) and attach them to what will become our bonfire once it is lit. These will be our burnaments and they can be hung on the structure from now until it goes up in smoke,” Bennett said.
