‘They’re not big and chewy’: Missouri village revives popular Testicle Festival
Every summer for more than 20 years, hordes of people flocked from nearby counties and crossed state lines to the tiny village of Olean, Missouri, where they waited in long lines to buy hot, crunchy, freshly fried nuts.
The testicle kind.
They’re called turkey fries but any similarity to french fries that accompany your burger is purely accidental. Deep-fried family jewels helped put Olean and its annual Testicle Festival on the tourism map until the organizers sort of, well, disappeared, leaving Olean nut-less for five years.
The festival roared back to life last summer thanks to local restaurant owner Ronna Kehr who picked up the reins and threw a new and improved festival that drew more than 4,000 testes tasters to a town of just 128 residents.
(Parking is said to be an adventure of its own. The village north of the Lake of the Ozarks is about a two-and-a-half hour drive from Kansas City.)
The Ronna’s Hut owner is gearing up for a much bigger crowd on June 7 because word of mouth for some reason is strong, with thousands of comments left on the festival’s social media.
Just last week 12 bikers from Wisconsin stopped at the restaurant looking for the festival. They bought festival T-shirts that show a cartoon of a turkey, pig and cow working out in a gym, their privates dangling outside their gym shorts.
This year’s theme: We got hot balls and cold beers.
“When my husband and I bought the restaurant, going on three years, we didn’t know how to do (the festival),” Kehr told The Star. “But everybody kept saying, ‘Oh, you need to open it back up.’ Then we just did it on our own.
“Just the name alone is what intrigues people — that we sell nuts.”
“It’s crazy,” her daughter-in-law and helper, Hailee Kehr, said of the crowds and the long lines people stand in. She said people get downright passionate about Rocky Mountain Oysters, the more elegant name for fried balls.
Some people call it cowboy caviar.
Some folks call it the original “sack lunch.”
What happens in Olean is not unique. Testicle festivals — aka “nut fries” — pop up at restaurants and town squares and American Legion halls from coast to coast.
Earlier this year at the American Legion in Deerfield, Michigan, for instance, the post hosted its 24th Testicle Festival serving up deep-fried bull testicles with chicken gizzards and other side dishes.
At the annual Testicle Festival in Watsonville, California, last year, visitors plowed through plates of bull testicles, played Cow Pie Bingo and voted on their favorite Rocky Mountain oyster accompaniment.
Near Kansas City, the town of Weston, Missouri, launched its own testicle festival in 2022, drawing 700 people in its first year who made short work of 400 pounds of deep-fried pig balls.
Rocky Mountain Oysters are a concession stand staple at the home of the Colorado Rockies — of course they are. Coors Field has been tagged as the best MLB stadium for unconventional food, according to foodie website Delish.
Last year Ronna offered bull and turkey testicles, but this year is going with turkey only. “The bull is more chewy,” she said. “Turkey tastes kind of like gizzard. They’re not big and chewy.”
People splash them with hot sauce or ketchup, or just shove them in their mouths plain. She hasn’t settled on this year’s price, though last year they sold for about $7 per serving.
It will take hours to cut the 1,300 pounds of flash-frozen nuts that right now are sitting inside the restaurant’s big walk-in freezer. “It’s a process,” she said of the prep work. “Your hands are frozen.”
They have to be unceremoniously slit open so they don’t explode when they hit the hot grease. Turkey testicles generally are about as big as ping pong balls, she said.
“It depends on how proud the turkey was,” she said. “We’ve come across some marble-sized ones.
“I didn’t realize turkey balls are that big because you don’t see them hanging down. They’re not swinging.”
The balls are coated in a flour-based mixture — she won’t share the recipe — before hitting the hot oil. For this year she bought a massive, custom fryer in Mississippi.
For less adventurous palates, there will be barbecue and funnel cake vendors among about 30. Kehr and her staff are still tinkering with the festival’s signature drink, a Blue Ball.
Not surprisingly, chicken seems to be the default comparison for many people trying to describe the taste of testicles. “They don’t taste real greasy to me,” said Ronna. “They taste like a real fried food.”
Her daughter-in-law had her first taste of testicles last year and admitted it required mind over matter to pop one in her mouth without thinking too hard about what she was eating. Her critique: “They’re not my favorite. They’re not bad. Don’t get me wrong. They’re just not my preference.”
Years ago a festival-goer in Wisconsin swore that “they’re not so different from regular meatballs, and after a few beers you can’t really tell the difference.”
“I was so scared to do it,” said Hailee. “But I’m telling you what, I don’t think people even care. They buy them, they eat them and they go on about their day.”
Doesn’t sound so offal.
This story was originally published May 27, 2025 at 5:30 AM.
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