bumper crop of fun

The North Carolina State Fair, named the bumper crop of fun for 2012, was a delightful night out.

No, I'm not just saying that because I was a food judge, there was also the promise of a giant pumpkin!!!

And yes, this is an nc state fair app. boom diggity. 

So ashley, jonathan, and i went. 

We saw the animals, like this goat, which ashley wanted to adopt, and a family of pigs:

  

And others, like bunnies. All adorable. 

And then, we found ourselves, with the pumpkins:

Oh yes, they are giant, can you even handle it???

I was so excited, clearly: 

I just really appreciate a place that recognizes the full glory of the best gourd. They had a nice little bench so we could pose for a picture with the lovely pumpkins and banner. The very best.

Of course there were many more pumpkins as well, in various shapes, sizes, and colors:

look how cute:

There were other vegetables, and vegetable categories, like food baskets, market stands, and food art. All awesome. 

Below are some hot peppers, sweet potatoes (NC's #1 crop), watermelons and big gourds:

Yes, yes. We ate food too.  Not a lot though, it's a bit overwhelming in the midway with all the rides and lights.  But we did get some absolutely delicious nc state ice cream:

AND the item of the year: fried girl scout cookies, samoas to be exact. 

Yes, they looked delicious. But I'm not going to lie, we were pretty disappointed by them.  The dough to cookie ratio was off, way too doughy, the solution would have been to have two cookies battered and fried...just saying. 

We then found ourselves checking out our handy work in the food preservation category, and so proud to see three of our nominees for best in show won for their respective categories! Yeah, we are great judgers...

Then we broke away from the bright lights and found the gardening section, complete with a giant chair for photos:

and Master Gardner Gardens: 

Overall it was a lovely fair experience. And I'm already excited for what 2013 will bring.

xoxo

judged.

yes. it's true.  ashley and i were blessed with the opportunity to be two of the home preservation judges in the north carolina state fair. 

what does this entail? well it's pretty straightforward, just a few hours of tasting dozens of jams, jellies, syrups, juices, pickles. and of course, picking the winners. 

it was lovely. everything i've ever wanted. and of course, i was on a bit of a sugar high after...

Favorites include delicious garlic pickled asparagus, amazing pineapple jelly, and jalapeno raspberry jam with the perfect amount of bite. 

Oh, yes, that would be 21 bread and butter pickles to judge:

Really people, i've found my calling. 

Now, how do i go about becoming a professional food judge?

xoxo

where oh where...is the fair?

So, I am way behind in posting this post.  It's from my trip to Arkansassy.

it is about our trip to the State Fair. Yes state fairs are over by late-October...

In the past three years I have gone to three different state's fairs.  

It's always nice to do a bit of sampling and comparison of these things.

So what did Arkansas, my home away from home, have to offer?

Well clearly, what kind of fair would it be if there wasn't a plethora of fried food:

Unfortunately due to the excessive amounts of margaritas and mexican food, Jake and I were too full (shocking I know) to sample any. Weak sauce I know.

We did check out the animals:

Here are some cows... they are really big, like kind of scary large

Here are some pigs! I love pigs! 

This one was just chilling outside of his cage, you know, no reason to fence the piggy in...

Oh, and then we went inside to the craft building 

because I love crafts, but also because it was cold

Here were two prize winning cakes, look at that girl scout! Represent! 

And the burger, very impressive

And then there were the giant pumpkins! 

Though, even with my great love of this gourd, these ones weren't so pretty.

So many canned things. It basically looks like one of the closets at Mema's

Last but not least, Jake and I had to ride a ride, right?

So we chose the ferris wheel.  There were actually two, we obvi choose the bigger one.

Our view, so pretty!

Overall, it was a solid fair experience, even with the lack of fried food consumption, 

but my heart will thank me for that.

xoxo