Chord Rustlers get ready for “Tater Pigs” at Sweet Pea

If you ask a regular attendee about the Sweet Pea Festival, they usually will remember four things—the music, crafts, Shakespeare shows, and Tater Pigs. The Chord Rustlers Barbershop Chorus started selling Tater Pigs at Sweet Pea nearly 20 years ago. Since then, their booth has become the place to go for an unusual and tasty treat while attending the Festival. The recipe has always been the same: take a first class Gallatin Valley potato, core the middle, insert a juicy breakfast sausage, bake tenderly until done, and then serve with sour cream, butter chives, bacon bits, and a song. The cores become Tater Holes and are served with a sausage as well. “Of course, we sometimes get requests for a Tater Pig…‘hold the squeal’ (no sausage), but most of our customers like them loaded,” says longtime Chord Rustler Wyman Schmidt. “And you can’t eat just one.” In fact, the booth sees a lot of the same customers all three days of the Festival. “It’s no easy task getting ready for Sweet Pea,” says Chord Rustler President Dan Hopper. “All of our members, their wives, kids, grandkids, and friends volunteer to help set up the booth, core potatoes, or wait on customers.” Proceeds from the sales of Tater Pigs go to help support the chorus activities. More importantly, they are used to help find music education in the Bozeman area. Over the past 10 years, the Chord Rustlers are sponsors of Hawks Night Live and contribute scholarships to the Big Sky Youth Harmony Rendezvous held each year at Luccock Park, south of Livingston. See you at Sweet Pea! What is a chord Rustler? He’s a fellow who: loves to sing…enjoys guys he wouldn’t know from a bale of hay…likes four-part harmony sung a cappella…is somewhere between 14 and 94…and doesn’t care about social status. Join the Chord Rustlers in singing four-part harmony on Tuesday evenings at 7pm downstairs at the Bozeman Catholic Community Center, located at 210 S. Grand Ave. in Bozeman. The Bozeman Chord Rustlers are an extraordinary group of men of many different ages who gather together in celebration of the truly American art form of barbershop music. Learn more at chordrustlers.org/. •