The Third Annual Butter Churnin’ Syrup Soppin’ Saturday is set for Saturday, May 8 at the Pioneer Museum of Alabama.

The gates will open at 9 a.m. with a “come one, come all” ticket price of $5.

“The price is the same for everybody, except children ages five and under who are admitted free. The ticket includes admission to the museum and grounds and a sample breakfast plate of syrup, biscuits and smokehouse sausage.

“We’ll be busy churning butter and making biscuits so breakfast won’t be ready until around 11 o’clock and we’ll serve until 2 o’clock,” said Jerry Peak, museum director. “We’ll have smokehouse sausage for sale and, if there’s any fresh butter left, it will be for sale, too.”

Before breakfast is served, there will be storytellings at the Reunion Cabin to prepare visitors to better enjoy what they are about to eat.

“At 10 o’clock, Agnes Johnson will tell how the white population in the early part of the century made breakfast,” Peak said. “She’ll tell about what they ate and why and how they prepared it for the table.”

Sweetie Mae Siler will then take center stage and talk about how the black people of those days fixed breakfast.

“Each one will have something different to tell but I think some people will be surprised at how little difference there was in what was eaten and how it was prepared,” Peak said.

Peak will also tell a few stories about hog killings. How they were carried out, who did they carrying and the tasty results of their hard days work.

That will lead folks right to the breakfast table where people, young and old, will see if they listened closely enough to remember how to make a pokey biscuit. If not, Johnson and Siler will be around to demonstrate.

Although it will take several days of churnin’ ahead to supply the needs of the day, there will still be plenty of butter to churn on Saturday.

“Oh, we’re not going to get enough butter churned up to make it through the day so we’ll have churns on the porches of the Reunion Cabin and the Demonstration Cabin,” Peak said. “Those who want to try their hands at churning will have plenty of opportunities.”

There will also be horse-drawn wagon rides, train rides and old-fashioned children’s games to enjoy.

“We’ll be giving museum tours. A quilting bee will be going on and we’ll have demonstrations of cotton spinning and weaving on our loom that is more than 100 years old,” Peak said.

Everyone is invited to visit the museum on Saturday, churn a little butter, sop some syrup and have a whole lotta fun.

Butter Churnin’ Syrup Soppin’ Saturday 2010 is funded in part by the Alabama State Council on the Arts.