LISBON – What do you get when you cross a 120-pound pig, 10 dozen ears of corn, 80-plus family members, an old bike, an even older washer bin and that one corny relative decked out in a homemade corn costume handing out corn-shaped cookies?

Welcome to the 40th annual Bouchard-Charest Corn Roast hosted by Norman and Alta (Charest) Bouchard!

“When we first got married, I started this garden,” said Norman Bouchard of how the family tradition got started. “I planted some corn, and we started inviting family from both sides for a corn-roasting party.”

And what started that first year with a few relatives gathered together for a fun time in the backyard the Sunday before Labor Day grew into a tradition spanning four generations. Today, family members travel from as close as next door and as far away as Alaska for the family’s corn roast, although nowadays the picnic menu features more than just corn.

Bouchard and his brother-in-law, Conrad Charest of Lewiston, would make even MacGyver proud with their ingenious, homespun cooking contraptions. While 120 ears of corn cooked in a homemade roaster which creatively combined an old stainless steel washer tank and propane burner, this year’s hog roasted nearby on a spit run on an upside-down bicycle.

“This has been going on since I was three years old,” said Dinah Ducharme of Auburn. “We could all fit on the front porch when it started. Now, we could never fit on the front porch.”

Ducharme and her first cousin, Venise Cyr, laughed about how years ago older relatives would give the kids wheelbarrow rides around the yard while harvesting corn from the garden for the annual corn roast. Cyr, who is Norman and Alta Bouchard’s daughter, said she and her husband just built a home next door to her parents and hope to keep the family tradition going for the next 40 years.

Alta Bouchard said the family looks forward to the annual party and even start planning months in advance. And while the meat on the menu may change from year to year – some years it’s chickens and turkeys on the spit, some years it’s a side of beef, some years it’s a pig — the main staple is always corn.

“It just makes us happy,” Alta said as she looked out lovingly at her extra large extended family scattered throughout her backyard. “They all enjoy coming and we have fun doing it.”