TIRO – A longtime cook will be “firing” up the kitchen stove again for this year’s Tiro Auburn Firefighters’ Festival.
Nancy Little will be busy filling the roasters with her homemade chicken noodle soup, always a favorite among festivalgoers. She’s been perfecting the recipe for 48 years now, ever since the village hosted its first festival back in 1973.
No wonder she’s known as “the Chicken Noodle Soup Lady.”
“I’ve been making the soup for as long as we’ve had the festival,” said the 80-year-old Tiro resident, who jokingly calls herself the “witch” of the kitchen. “Even when it’s hot, it goes. I’m just amazed. They all seem to like it, I guess.”
Nancy’s soup is just one of the festival’s draws. More than 1,000 pounds of pork and beef – cooked outdoors and shredded by the firefighters themselves – will also be served at the event, set for Friday, June 25, and Saturday, June 26, at the firehouse downtown.
As always, proceeds will benefit the Tiro-Auburn Volunteer Fire Department, which does not receive funding from a tax levy. “Everything we raise goes back to the fire department for the equipment they need,” said festival organizer Candice Hamman.
Hamman said there are no cornhole or children’s games for this year’s festival since plans were made long before COVID-19 restrictions were lifted statewide. But a beer garden, music, and the ever-popular mud volleyball tournament will definitely be back, she said.
The annual event wouldn’t be complete without another crowd-pleaser – the auxiliary’s homemade potato salad and coleslaw. The ladies will also be serving hotdogs, baked beans, and applesauce, Hamman said, along with a variety of fresh-baked pies from Katering Kountry Style in Bucyrus.
“There’s always lots of food, and believe it or not, we sell out of it,” said Hamman, who also serves as treasurer for the auxiliary. “Everybody loves our chicken noodle soup, even if it’s 90-degree out. It’s everybody’s favorite.”
Nancy remembers making her first two kettles of soup under a tent in the stones, even before the fire station was built. “When we first started, the recipe was written down, but as the years went by, I just added a little here and there, and people like it, I guess.”
Back in the day, even the noodles were made from scratch, Nancy said. “One year, we killed the chickens out on the farm. Plucked ‘em, gutted them, and froze them in a container for the soup.”
The mother of two, who also makes the brine for the pickle juice used in the potato salad, knows the soup routine. “I go up around 9:30 to make the first batch. By 4 o’clock, I have one on the table, one on the counter, and two ready to go on the stove. That’s how I work it.”
The festival wouldn’t be the same without Nancy – or her soup.
“I kind of run the kitchen, and I do dishes as I have free time, but at 80, I’m not as active as I used to be,” she said. “It’s just good old chicken noodle soup. Maybe it’s just the touch I give to it. I don’t know.”