Update (04/18/2012): Dolly Womack — co-owner of Hughes Delaware Maid Scrapple — left some good news in the comments of this post:
May looks good for us opening. We are down to the small stuff now and equipment is ordered and coming in.
All of you who have been obstaining from scrapple because it's Hughes or it's nothing, will hopefully be able to get your scrapple on within the month!
Update (03/11/2012): Delware Online has a super-detailed article on Hughes' successes and struggles since Dirty Jobs, the fire, and beyond.
Some excerpts:
On production and why they didn't start making it at another plant:
Normal production from the staff of seven is 8,000 pounds a week. Abruptly, it was down to zero. The workers -- all family members, many of them with homes adjacent to the plant -- had to go on unemployment. Briefly, Quillen considered having his scrapple made at another manufacturer's plant -- before he realized that would mean sharing the recipe. "I ain't giving my trade secrets away," he said.
The mounting expenses of getting back in business:
Yet getting back on track hasn't been simple, or cheap. An $18,000 hood fan. $6,500 meat grinders. A $27,000 panner for pouring the mix out so it can be cut into blocks. "That's just three items," Womack said. "Then we have everything else that has to be brought in here."
Dolly on when they'll be producing scrapple again:
"Every time we say, something happens," she said. "I'm hoping by the end of April. At first I was hoping everybody would have it on their table for Easter breakfast, but I don't see that happening."
Check out the full story here. Lots and lots of great stuff on Hughes Delware Maid Scrapple. I highly recommend reading it if you're a fan.
Original Post (03/01/2012):
Back in August 2011, the Hughes Delaware Maid Scrapple building caught on fire and was destroyed (which makes me feel guilty for thinking about how mouth watering all that scrapple cooking up at once would be). The Hughes family quickly put a plan into place to rebuild and get back to scrapple-making.