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Sunday, August 12, 2012

Meet me at the Fair

For the first time in my life, I entered the competition at two of the three local county fairs.  I had food preservation items, flowers and land products, and I was excited to see how well I could stand up to the competition.

First was the Deschutes County Fair in nearby Redmond.  There were exactly 777 entries in the food preservation competition, and probably about 300 or so were in my division.  While I didn't score any first place ribbons (no doubt because I put down the wrong processing time on every. single. jar.), I got a couple of seconds and a couple of thirds.







My flowers, on the other hand, kicked butt.  First place for the sunflower, woo hoo!




I had a petunia in too, but failed to snap a photo.  Oh well.  Here's my ribbon haul from Deschutes County and my payday (good thing I have other means of income):





Directly afterward was the Crook County Fair, and since it is the county where I actually live, I took the time to correct the processing times to what I had truly done, and was able to put in a salpiglossis flower, which had only bloomed a few days before the due date.  I was rewarded thusly:







That's right - a judge's award for the salpiglossis!



Once again, I forgot the petunia.  Oh, well.

Here's the Crook County haul:





When I was a little girl, and my family lived in Michigan, we'd go to the UP State Fair every summer.  I remember it as a magical time - pies, pigs, cows, chickens, and carnival rides!  After leaving Michigan, and I guess after growing up, I never experienced that magic again - until now.  For example, at the Deschutes County Fair, the blue ribbon for beer went to a senior citizens' home where beer making is an activity (as opposed to, say, shuffleboard):

Here is the activities director after learning of their blue ribbon!

The first place beer

Love the name!

And while the Crook County Fair was much smaller and poorer (as befits the poorest county in Oregon, in which I think I live a pretty high life), there was this just outside the food preservation building:


Life really is good.


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You're an inspiration! I actually looked up the rules for the LA county fair. Once I decipher them, I'll think about entering my quince preserves!