Chili challenge

Whether your favorite recipe is wild or mild, you can enter it into Dexter’s first Wild West Chili Cook-Off, sponsored by Dexter Internal Medicine. The public is invited to taste and judge the entries from 2 to 4:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 4, at the chili booth in front of Tilson’s True Value on Main Street. Winners will be announced at 5 p.m. Friday before the Wild West Costume Contest. There will be a $10 entry fee, and all entry forms must be completed by Thursday, Aug. 3, at Dexter Internal Medicine, 41 High St. The first-place winner will receive 50 percent of entry fee proceeds, with the remainder to be split between two runners-up. Prepared chili must be at the booth by 2 p.m. Friday, Aug. 4. For information, call 924-5226.

We all scream for ice cream

Congratulations to Aurora York of Hampden, whose essay won Edy’s Slow Churned Neighborhood Salute contest. She won all of the fixings for a neighborhood ice cream social, including a selection of Edy’s Slow Churned Light ice cream, scoops, tablecloths, nametags, napkins, disposable cameras. York, who held her party last Saturday, wrote of her neighborhood: “Generally we’re just a bunch of hard-working, mild-mannered quiet-spoken Mainers in our little town. Until summertime, that is. That’s when we get flooded by visitors from all 50 states and lots of foreign parts too! NOT that we don’t LIKE the visitors, but it does get to be hard to be quiet and respectful and charmingly quaint with what seems like a freeway full of cars running right through the middle of town.”

Say cheese

Cheese and yogurt makers from around the state will visit College of the Atlantic’s Beech Hill farm in Somesville for the second annual Making and Tasting Maine Cheeses event from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday. Several cheese makers from the region will offer aged and fresh cheeses made from cow and goat milk, and Painted Pepper Farm of Steuben, which makes goat’s milk yogurt, also will be on hand. Participants include Barbara Brooks of Seal Cove Farm in Lamoine; Anne Bossi and Bob Bowen of Sunset Acres in Brooskville; and Franklin Peluso of Mid-Coast Cheese Co. in Camden, which produces teleme cheese, a soft, creamy, white cheese that has a rice flour crust and a tangy, almost lemony flavor. The Beech Hill farmstand also will be open during the event, and live music is planned. To get to the farm, head south on Route 102 through Somesvile and turn onto the Pretty Marsh Road at the fire station. Take the first left onto Beech Hill Road. The farm is located about 1.5 miles down the road on the right. For information, call 288-5015, or call the farm on Sunday at 244-5204.

Tidbits is hungry for news about local food products and events. Send your Tidbits by mail to: Bangor Daily News, attn: Kristen Andresen, P.O. Box 1329, Bangor ME 04402-1329; by fax to 941-9476; or by e-mail to kandresen@bangordailynews.net.