Pop, Pop, no not Sugarpop... More Serendipity

Sometimes locals are the best source of go to for tourist info so when our Book Group inquired at Spurgeon's Winery for places we shouldn't miss en route to our Mineral Point destination,  we were told to head to the Popcorn store. I wondered if this was going to be like the first winery, not quite worth our while but nothing ventured, nothing gained.

 Off we went with directions on a country road recently graveled due to the past week's heavy rain and washout. I was quite relieved when it became black top again and I could increase traveling speed a bit.  As I accelerated on an incline, a stop sign appeared out of nowhere necessitating a quick brake application before the T intersection. Gee, I hope I don't get sued for whiplash. ( It would be my luck to find another vehicle had I not stopped! )

As long as we were at a complete stop and uncertain whether to turn left/ right, we opted for the wrong direction for a couple of miles and  back tracked to the small town of Highland en route.  We were back on track heading south another 10 miles before our turn off to find Rural Route 1 Popcorn. It wasn't quite Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory, but a great stop.

The history of this gourmet popcorn was really interesting since in the 80's, farmers were compensated to let lands go fallow and with a decrease need for seed corn,  the owners opted to experiment with 25 acres of their seed corn land for gourmet corn since it used the same equipment. Hence a new cottage industry began and now several hundred of their 3000 acres are used for this purpose. Quality rather than quantity ( high yielding corn) is used. Besides yellow and white popping corn, various flavors are mixed up in nearby Montford.

One could sample / request other flavors

It was quite a sight to the see the popcorn bins besides the nice sized gift shop. It was time for testing a wide variety of flavors, cheddar cheese, sour cream... among others with our group's favorite being jalapeño.   Natureman lucked out that I picked out the SS Dunkle, 'out of this world' popcorn that is dipped in fudge and then sprinkled with sea salt.

SS Dunkle to die for...

OK it was worth the unplanned stop...Ah serendipity again.  I had found the perfect thing to take back home to End of the Rainbow Valley... 

And I know how to get more. Here's the link in case you are interested:http://www.ruralroute1.com