Stella's Social Club

[ChickensAreSweet]

I made this Mixed Berry Rhubarb Crumble on Monday.

OK this looks perfect. You should open a bakery!!!

 

[The Sheriff]

Mary great photo and so VERTICAL you have learned much little grasshopper

Haha! I am actually starting another class with the same instructor. He offered me to take the 2 week class for free because of the problems with the last class. I start June 7th. I have my camera tightened on the tripod in vertical position. Hopefully it is too tight for me to turn it until the class is over.

 

[cbnovick]

I've been doing fair for about twenty years. I normally have around 100 entries in canned goods (200 jars to haul in, 2 each), but I had no kitchen during most of canning season this year because of the remodel. So I only have around 20 entries there.

I always enter most of the baked goods classes, around 50. There's a few I rarely bother with. I figure it's more fun to watch a class judged if you're entered and I'm going to be there all day anyway. I got a very slow start this year (because of the chickens and my hatching addiction

) so I really only started baking a few days ago. I usually have all my cookie doughs and quick breads made a couple of months in advance and my yeast breads done about two weeks in advance. It's taken a lot of experimentation to find out what is unaffected by the freezing process before judging. Candy is usually made 1-2 weeks in advance and will just sit for some stuff, like brittles.

But there are LOTS of things that have to be done at the last minute, they just aren't good unless made last minute, like pies. I have ten pies entered this year. The cream pies can be made on Sunday, fruit pies have to be Monday. Baking powder biscuits I'm usually taking out of the oven as I'm loading everything into the car. It gets turned in on a Monday night and judged on Tuesday.

One year I was unhappy with a candy entry and at the last minute I decided to make a redo with some homemade marshmallows. I threw them together while I was plating and loading everything into the car. I let them set up while I jumped into the shower (to wash off two days of dirt, sweat and flour, LOL). Cut them up, stuck them on a plate and headed for the fairgrounds. The next day they went Best in Show, LOL You just never know what is going to impress a judge.

I usually have a photograph or two or ten entered. And I've dabbled with lots of other things, sewing, tatting, ceramics, horticulture, etc. I grabbed a little plant off my window sill one year and entered it, got BIS succulent. Turned out it was a very rare plant, I had no idea, a friend (plant collector) had given me a start a couple of years earlier. They told me what it was, but I had no idea it was so special, LOL

I just love fairs, my friend that is in charge of livestock at the State fair says it just means we all have some carny worker blood in our veins. I used to do lots of work (and entries) at State fair, but I cut back. I've kept my hand in by doing some of the showmanship judging. This year I'm going back to run the youth poultry show and oversee the hatching nursery. So if you go to the Fur/Feathers building, the chicks/eggs will all be mine this year. I'm also supplying birds to run around the farm display. I have to find birds that will stand up to being chased around by kids.

Some will be penned, but they like to have a few running around with the public.

That is so wonderful....I have always loved real county/state fairs...only entered livestock thus far...i adore baking and canning but just have not entered ever...maybe this year i will try it...our fairs in Oklahoma (born and raised there) were so much better than here in AZ ...IMO...but this is where we live, so i will adjust

Would love to see pics of some of your entries...let us know how you 'fare' pun intended!!! GOOD LUCK

 

[drumstick diva]

Deb I am flabbergasted by all you manage to get done for the fair, and how you have the triage system- which gets made, when etc. etc. All that organization is beyond me. I think I need my fainting sofa - I'm getting a case of the vapors.

PS If you ever want to show a different plant, I can send you some show quality streptocarpus- I hybridize them. I've got some beauties in my "grow out" pen.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Deb - Thanks for the recipe! I love to bake, but geez, you are a machine!

I'll just have to dream about it for now, can't bake anything yummy right now - I'm on a healthy lifestyle eating program and flour is not an option right now. I have sourdough starter in the fridge too, have to keep it going until I can use it.

Mary great photo and so VERTICAL you have learned much little grasshopper

I agree, your pictures are quite wonderful. I'm still wondering how you cut a crumble so evenly.




I'd just cut those ceramic eggs outta that snake - but snakes don't bother me. Now spiders are another story. I don't know why but we get TONS of HUGE black widows. They creep me out. I went out to close up last week and I happened to look down and one was scampering across the ground. I squished it with my shoe.

 

[Happy Chooks]

PS If you ever want to show a different plant, I can send you some show quality streptocarpus- I hybridize them. I've got some beauties in my "grow out" pen.

Pretty. I had to google them. A type of violet huh?

 

[debs_flock]

Would love to see pics of some of your entries...let us know how you 'fare' pun intended!!! GOOD LUCK

I'll take a picture when I have everything staged and ready to load in the car. That's when it cracks me up, 50ish entries plated and ready to go. It literally covers my entire dining room table and kitchen counter. Plating is very specific for competition. One year in the yeast roll class (the entry requires six rolls), I got to the fair the morning of judging and there were only five rolls on my plate. A building worker helped themselves to eat one sometime after I had dropped them off.

That kind of thing can get you DQ'd.

PS If you ever want to show a different plant, I can send you some show quality streptocarpus- I hybridize them. I've got some beauties in my "grow out" pen.

I LOVE them. I have one growing in one of my dart frog vivariums. It absolutely thrives in the warm, humid spot. It's in blood all the time. When I was actively landscaping vivariums, I constantly was pouring through the lists at Tropiflora to look for appropriate miniature plants.

I have a tiny corpse flower growing on my hall bath windowsill. Another "frog friend" gave to me. There are a lot of plant collectors amongst frog keepers. Very naturalist kinds of people and lots of scientists.

Deb - Thanks for the recipe! I love to bake, but geez, you are a machine!

I'll just have to dream about it for now, can't bake anything yummy right now - I'm on a healthy lifestyle eating program and flour is not an option right now. I have sourdough starter in the fridge too, have to keep it going until I can use it.

My fair is trying to join the trends. This year they added a "gluten free" and "low sugar" class to each division (yeast bread, cookies, quick breads, pies, candy, etc). I didn't enter any of those classes because I hadn't yet tested any recipes. Maybe next year.

My goal one year was to enter EVERY class in canned goods. I didn't quite make it, but I had 104 entries that year in canned goods alone. The bad thing to consider, the day of judging you come home with one opened jar for EVERY class. I would stop and every family member's house and say....................take what you want, but I want the jar back, LOL

ETA - when you have 30-40 jars of jam, jelly, marmalade, preserves, etc all open at the same time..................it's got to go somewhere. And they are all in pint & half-pint jars. Fortunately DH always says that toast is merely a vehicle to transport jam to your mouth. He puts a quarter of a cup on each slice.

And we are eating off a lot of odds and ends at fair, extra loaf of this, half loaf of that. And when it comes time to plate, I have to remove the end slice of each thing so there is a fresh cut.

 

[The Sheriff]

I agree, your pictures are quite wonderful. I'm still wondering how you cut a crumble so evenly.

Medium and small biscuit cutters!

 

[The Sheriff]

Well I can't top Deb and I won't even try but...Concord Foods saw my crumble recipe and muffin mix review and they added my blog to their "Blogs We Like" list and have asked me to write more reviews and recipes using their products! They have also offered products for giveaways. In the food blogging world it is small potatoes, but to me, it is huge!

 

[debs_flock]

Well I can't top Deb and I won't even try but...Concord Foods saw my crumble recipe and muffin mix review and they added my blog to their "Blogs We Like" list and have asked me to write more reviews and recipes using their products! They have also offered products for giveaways. In the food blogging world it is small potatoes, but to me, it is huge!

Congratulations, that is huge!