SKOWHEGAN — Right up there with the New Jersey diner that hosted Tony Soprano’s feared last supper, Elvis Presley’s birthplace and the iconic “Rocky” statue published on CNN’s list of the top 15 quirky U.S. spots to visit in 2015, is Skowhegan, Maine, and its annual bread conference.

No kidding.

Michael Jubinsky explains the process of making bread in a wood-fired oven during a workshop that was part of the Kneading Conference and Artisan Bread Fair in Skowhegan.

Skowhegan Area Middle School students Katelin Warren, center, and Shaneka Sapienza roll out fresh dough to make braided bread under the guidance of Amy Driscoll, of the King Arthur Flour Co., during a workshop at the school.

A variety of breads are part of the annual Artisan Bread Fair at the Skowhegan State Fairgrounds.

Celebrating the love of bread

The Kneading Conference began in 2007, and the bread fair was added two years later.

Goals include recognizing the place of wheat in the local food movement.

It is held at the Skowhegan Fairgrounds.

Activities include the two-day Kneading Conference, including expert lectures and workshops.

The Artisan Bread Fair brings in dozens of vendors who make, sell and teach about bread.

CNN Quirky 15

CNN lists 15 quirky spots in the U.S. to visit this year:

A cold war Minuteman missile site in North Dakota

Chicken manure bingo in Texas

A Basque festival in Idaho

Salt manufacturing in West Virginia

World’s biggest truck stop in Iowa

Woodie Guthrie Center in Oklahoma

Home of Tabasco Sauce in Louisiana

Bull organ festival in Montana

Tony Soprano’s diner table in New Jersey

Elvis Presley’s birthplace in Mississippi

Motorcycle week in Sturgis, S.D.

World Duck Calling championship in Arkansas

Unique motel getaway in the Catskills

Skowhegan’s celebration of bread

SkowVegas is on the map.

“If you love good bread — the hand-baked variety, not the store-bought stuff — you’ll flip for the three-day Kneading Conference and Artisan Bread Fair in the picturesque town of Skowhegan on the Kennebec River,” CNN staffers write in the network’s look ahead for cool places to go in the coming year.

Also on the list is a spot in Austin, Texas, where you can play bingo with a chicken on a piece of plywood with numbered boxes. Buy a number and hope that the chicken poops on your square, according to the list, published online Saturday.

There also is the world’s largest truck stop in Walcott, Iowa, and a tour of the Tabasco hot sauce factory’s original site on Avery Island, La., where it has been run by the same family since 1868. The annual bull Testicle Festival in Clinton, a mountain town near Missoula, Mont., is on the list along with the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota, which is marking its 75th year in 2015.

Kneading Conference founder Amber Lambke, owner of the Somerset Grist Mill in the converted 1895 county jail, said CNN staffers began contacting her for photos last week. She said she suspects the Maine Office of Tourism may have had a hand in getting the news network’s attention, too.

Carolann Ouellette, director of the Maine Office of Tourism, did not immediately respond for comment Monday. Katia Hetter, a writer and producer for CNN Digital, who was Lambke’s contact at the network, referred all inquiries to Emily Kuhn in the network’s public relations department, who did not immediately reply.

“I was really pleased with the CNN piece,” Lambke said Monday. “It highlights the uniqueness of our event in that there are not other bread fairs around the country. I think it’s fun.”

The CNN list touts such “bread-geek topics” at the annual event as one of the country’s quirkier, off-the-beaten-tourist-trail attractions.

“They told me what their intentions were, and they thought this was really a unique event and they wanted to highlight it as one of the things that should be on people’s radar in 2015,” Lambke said.

The Kneading Conference, held at the Skowhegan State Fairgrounds, was launched in 2007, a collaboration of Lambke, area bakers, chefs, community volunteers and Maine Wood Heat of Skowhegan, makers of wood-fired ovens.

“We became aware that as they were building bake ovens for bakers, there was increasing interest in locally grown grains and bread baking with local grains,” said Lambke, who also is chairman of the Maine Grain Alliance. “The goal of the first Kneading Conference was to explore whether Maine could revive its dormant grain economy. It grew in popularity and became an annual event.”

The conference is sponsored by the Maine Grain Alliance and includes kitchen workshops, guest speakers on grain farming and oven building, baking demonstrations and panel discussions that focus on handcrafted bread, wood-fired oven cooking, types of flour and grains and the role of grain in the Maine economy.

Lambke said a few years into the conference local people began inquiring about the activities and wanted to taste for themselves what was going on. That was the beginning of the Artisan Bread Fair, held on the Saturday of the three-day event. Last year the bread fair drew about 3,000 people to sample bread and pastries, as well as pizza baked in a wood-fired oven. Books and equipment for baking at home also are available, and professional bakers are on hand to answer questions. The fair also features live music, exhibits of antique baking tools and kitchen linens, demonstrations and Maine-made food.

The first bread fair was in 2010, a year after Lambke and her business partner purchased the former county jail.

“It’s an all day celebration of bread and local food with live music, bread to buy and baking wares, and highlights what’s happening in the region,” Lambke said.

Doug Harlow — 612-2367

dharlow@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @Doug_Harlow

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