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.

Fruit Loopy

Earlier this week, two of my newest friends and I made the trip to Hood River to tour the farms and orchards known as the Fruit Loop.  The three of us are recent graduates of the master food preserver program, so the plan was to get some fresh produce to bring home and can.

It was a beautiful drive (as usual), and we had some spectacular views.  Once there, the fruit was amazing.  Who knew there were so many different kinds of red cherries?

We stopped at The Gorge White House, and while we passed on the wine-tasting (I know, I know - who are you and what have you done with Carolyn?), their U-Pick flower area was amazing.

Hood River itself was a charming place, and I'd like to go again someday  - but this trip was all about the fruit.  Oh, and the lavender farm....

Mt. Hood

It's also possible to see Mt. Adams, for which our street is named, from the Fruit Loop, which was kind of cool.

The various fruit stands were wonderful, and the people friendly and helpful (except the cherry man, who shall remain nameless because I can't remember his name, but who had the best price on cherries in the valley) which made the trip even more worthwhile.

Grandma Mary's Fruit and Produce Stand historical pic.  Grandma wasn't at the stand that day, alas.

We found some wonderful peaches here.

Draper Girls garden area

I wish I had taken pictures of the fruit before I started processing it.  Suffice to say I turned ten pounds of blueberries into this:

...and then some.

and this:

Three overflowing pints of marionberries into several of these:

as well as some sugar-free puree, and five pounds of cherries into even more like this:

And check out this incredible cherry pitter!

My grandkid is going to have fun with this some day

and apple peeler/corer:

Regrettably, this did not work for picking cucumbers.  Poop.

So I'm worn out from canning (not even thinking about the peaches yet), but I believe standing up for six and seven hours at a time burns more calories, right?  Many thanks to my newest buddies - I hope we do make it a monthly event during growing season.

These ladies rock.

And here I am rocking week 5 day one of the Couch to 5K program:

Ten pounds from goal.

I do have to say, though - the next time I want to buy ten pounds of blueberries - somebody please stop me!