Rob and I went this afternoon -- about 15-20 miles southeast of us in
Farmington. It was a fun outing for a couple old farts. When I pulled
up to the ticket seller she looked in and pronounced, "Two seniors and
one car, right?" Well, no, but to save $2 on admission, I let it go.
:-) We commenced to watching the pole racing -- kids and their horses
weaving in and out. I was touched when one girl was disqualified or
something and the announcer said, "Oh, sorry, JennaOrWhateverHerNameWas,
that's a No Time, but we sure do like your green outfit." Always
positive and encouraging. :-)
We worked our way to the other end of the grounds with a lengthy stop in
the Food Horticulture building where the canning and baking entries are
displayed. Well, dear friends, I was mortified. A fair amount of
baking entries and all of about 50 canning entries in all categories --
that's all. I expected at least twice that many, I guess. Sad.
Remember that godawful canning class I took? The presenter/instructor
of the class exhibits at my county fair. She had a few first place
ribbons and I saw one second place ribbon. The second place was for the
Pepper Jelly that she taught us how to make. What I noticed about the
first place ribbons was that hers were the only entry in the lot! Hers
were not the only ones in that situation. I didn't see any canned
veggies besides tomatoes; there were no canned fruits entered, just
jams, jellies, relishes, fruit butter. It was pretty pathetic.
Most disappointing was a jar of pickles bearing the label info that they
were open kettle canned, but brined for 15 minutes. And they let it in
-- it had a yellow ribbon attached to it. Jeez.
I'm tellin' ya, I've got half a notion to teach a class next spring and
make everyone enter something in the fair!
We came home, grilled tube steaks and ate corn on the cob. Onion relish
for the weenies and some o' them Bread & Butter Pickles for the heck of
it. Yowser, they're good!
--
-Barb, <www.jamlady.eboard.com> An update on 7/22/04.