As a judge, my job was to taste test about 50 different bakery items. Now, this probably sounds really awesome to some of you - but let me just say that 10 bites is nice, 20 starts to put you in food coma, and 50 is way too much!! I had a headache for most of the day. Plus, I am not the best at describing what about the taste I did, or did not, like. I also had to taste test the 9-12 year old category, so there were lots of muffins, cookies, hard candy and fudge. Here are some photos of the items I had to judge.
The main benefit of judging is that I received a free entry and parking pass to the fair for the entire 10 days. I called it my VIP pass. All I had to do was flash my pass, and I was waived right in. I took full advantage of this pass and enjoyed the Fair on 3 separate days.
The first weekend (October 17), I went with my coworker and we did a big loop around the fairgrounds, stopping in at the Grist Mill, Village of Yesteryear, seeing the poultry exhibit, and hanging out at the waterfall to enjoy "Elephant Ears" - which are just like Portuguese doughboys and much better than Funnel Cake!!
In the middle of the week, I went with other coworkers during our lunch break. My office is a 10 minute walk to the fair - so I never even needed the parking pass! My coworkers wanted to get lunch at the fair and were offered some pretty outrageous options!!
Fair food is a Dietitian's nightmare! I guess it keeps me in business!! My coworkers did not get lured in by the deep fried candy bars. Instead, they went for the sausage sandwich, boiled peanuts and cooked corn (dipped in butter). I tasted the boiled peanuts, which reminded me of salted potatoes.
I saved my eating for my evening at the fair last week. On Wednesday, October 20, I went to the Fair after work to check out some of the exhibits I had not really gotten a chance to look at. I saw all the bakery items that were judged by 20 of us, and the countless jams and jellies that were judged by my other colleagues. In addition, there were beautiful displays of everything from handmade dresses, to embroidered artwork, to 4-H photography. My favorite were the decorated cakes.
It was pretty amazing to see the time and effort put into some of these projects. And many amazing things done by 4-H youth!
Once my roommate got to the fair, we explored the animal exhibits and I actually milked a cow!!
My roommate grew up on a diary farm in Jersey, so she thought it was hilarious that I was excited about milking a cow!
We joined up with about 6-10 of her friends and walked around the fairgrounds. This time I did sample a lot of the unhealthy food. Since there were so many of us, we each got something different and shared, so none of us had too much of any one thing. The list of foods I tried are: Wisconsin cheese mozzarella sticks, cheddar nuggets, and jalapeno sticks; Funnel cake; Deep fried Oreos, Milky Way, and Reese's cups; buttered corn; lemonade; and cheese fries. All I can say is that it was a good thing I waited over a week after judging bakery items to eat at the Fair!!
We ended the night with a perfectly timed ride on the Ferris Wheel - just in time to see the fireworks from 50 feet in the air!!
It was a great evening at the Fair with less crowds because it was cool and had rained earlier in the day.
I went back to the Fair once more on Thursday night to volunteer at the Vermicomposting station at the "NC Green" Exhibit. I spent almost 5 hours encouraging people to try worm composting. I did get out for a brief break to grab a highly recommended dinner at the Pork producers tent. It was the first time I had a good meal at the Fair (if you discount the hushpuppies that came with the pork). Since Thursday was "get in free with 4 canned food items" the Fair was REALLY busy. I'm glad I wasn't walking around that day.
My first "real" fair was impressive. The weather was amazing most of the week, keeping in the mid 70's and sunny almost every day. I think the great weather led to the record crowd of over 1 million people who came in those 10 days.
