Going Nuts at the Dundas Testicle Festival 2022

I learned about the Dundas Testicle Festival over a drink with my husband one Saturday afternoon, and by the next Saturday, we were in the car traversing rural Brown and Calumet counties in search of the little unincorporated town called Dundas. We are only just taking the opportunity to travel in Wisconsin in search of good food and good stories now that COVID issues are slowing down and my health is better. We’ve missed more than a few good opportunities in the last three years.

fried bull testicles at Dundas Testicle Festival 2022

We were not going to let that stop us from trying Rocky Mountain Oysters, or bull testicles. It’s an unusual delicacy in most of the US, much less Wisconsin. A festival that takes up an entire block in a little town surrounded by pasture and farms on all sides that celebrates exactly that is even more of an unusual experience. I didn’t know what to expect before setting off through the rural county roads.

The first sign that we arrived was the parking operation that extended out along the thin country roads surrounding the town. Cars lined one side of the road, and the closer you got, the empty field full of still more cars became visible. We parked among the field, and we set out on the short walk to the block party known as the Dundas Testicle Festival.

From the field, the event was plain. Rows of motorcycles at the head of the parking area were on full display. The entry point with merch for sale was just ahead of those. For ten dollars, we had an endless supply of the fried Rocky Mountain Oysters if we wanted it. Drinks from either bar and a tent were available for purchase, and even a few food trucks arrived to feed the people that had their fill of testicles.

The nature of the festival can make it difficult to find the exact spot that the fried testicles are being prepared. By the time we arrived, those that ran the festival were setting up signs to help guide new visitors down into the white tents to find the frying station run by a few members of the community. We found it by wandering the event to see just what was available.

BBQ food trucks, fair food, and our favorite– Bay Burger Food Truck– were on standby for after we had our fill of the fried testicles. That would have to wait until we got to meet the organizers of the event. My husband’s connections to news media have more than once earned me an up close look at the food in our region, and this was no exception.

sliced and breaded bull testicles

I was delighted to standby and listen to them tell the story of how they landed upon the fried testicles as the best gimmick in the world to get people into town for the event. They waxed poetic of beer trucks being completely drained, but they also repeated a familiar story in the food world: inflation had done its fair share of damage this year. Sourcing the amount of bull testicle needed took longer than normal– and cost more than normal.

Still, their passion was infectious, and it appeared to spread to most of the small community. We watched the preparation of the fried testicles in a two barrel deep fryer ran by a married couple from Dundas. We had our first sample before meeting the cooks, and I’ll be honest with you, I was apprehensive. Eating any sort of offcut or offal has long been out of American cuisine. Stigmatized as dirty, most of us don’t consider them an edible substance. But they are. The fried testicle is a perfect example of an ingredient that defies expectations.

volunteers preparing the all you can eat bull testicles for the event

The closest texture I can think of its a sea scallop with a fried coating. Dipping it in ranch makes it much easier to take your mind off the fact that you’re eating bull testicles. They form a tasty snack between drinks, and they get curious eaters into the door. It certainly got us to Dundas. We met great people, and we were invited back to visit their bars to taste some of their food when their full menus are available.

Two of a Kind Bar and Rocky & Tara’s Nut Haus put on a hell of a party, and passing up their invitations to return wouldn’t be right. We’ll be back, Dundas.