More than 250 attend 2^nd annual Balderdash at Dill's Tavern

The second annual Balderdash festival brought more than 250 people to the 18^th Century Dill's Tavern, Baltimore Street, held September 18.

Sponsored by the Northern York County Historical and Preservation Society, NYCHPS, the event featured various historical crafting demonstrations. A home-brew beer festival, it also featured a beer-making demonstration and offered guests a chance to sample 30 different home-brewed beers made by local residents, said Sam McKinney, restoration director for Dill's Tavern.

“One particular beer-making method, out of ways to make beer from scratch, was demonstrated by a local man,” McKinney said. “We also had a husband and wife, who were born and raised in Cuba, make hand-rolled cigars. They made 100 cigars, which sold for $10 a piece. We sold them all.”

Cigars are composed of three parts, the wrapper, a binder and the filler. The wrappers, which are made from whole dried tobacco leaves, were grown on the 1.5-acre property of the tavern, McKinney said. The tobacco for the binder and filler was grown by Herbert Bomberger, a local farmer.

Normally, tobacco must be dried and cured for about two years, but in this case, the wrappers had dried for only one year, McKinney said. The cigar makers said that the leaves were sufficiently dried to make the wrappers. Some of the tobacco was dried at Bomberger's farm.

Binders hold together chopped bunches of tobacco leaves, acting like an interior wrapper. The wrapper is responsible for the majority of the taste of the cigar.

“We dried some of the plants for the wrappers in a firewood storage building,” McKinney said. “When we get the barn completed, we plan to hang and dry the tobacco on lathes, across the fore bay.”

Other demonstrations in 19^th Century crafts were a blacksmith, two craftsman who worked on barrels that are used as part of longrifles; and a furniture maker.

Money raised from the sale of cigars and other activities will benefit the tavern, he said.

For more information on Dill's Tavern visit www.dillstavern.org.