OK….call it braggin if you must. But, I was extemely happy to learn that my Peach Preserves, which I already knew had won a First Place premium at the 2011 North Carolina State Fair, also turned out to have won “Best of Show,” in the Preserves Category.
As you may recall, I entered 6 items into the Lee Regional Fair this year for the very first time. I took home 5 ribbons in the Food Preservation category, winning 2 First Place, 2 Second Place and 1 Third Place ribbons for my canning experiences over the summer. I felt pretty good about winning 5 out of 6 ribbons at the fair and figured why not take them to the North Carolina State Fair.
A week before the fair was to open, I packed up 5 jars of my jams, preserves, relish and pickles and drove up to the State Fairgrounds in Raleigh. I had discovered on the way up that my pear preserves, from last year, had been made before last years fair, so they weren’t eligible to be entered. Everything else had been made this summer so they were all good to be entered into competition.
Judging for the Food Preservation category was held on Tuesday of last week and I’d been checking the NC State Fair website daily to see if they had posted any winners. It was late Friday night when I saw that I had won two ribbons in this years fair competition. I won a First Place ribbon for my peach preserves and picked up a third place ribbon for my School Girl Pickles. I was really in hopes of my pickles doing better since I had been using an old recipe that my mother had always used. Unfortunately, I picked up a third place ribbon at both the Lee Regional Fair and also at the NC State Fair. Still, I’m proud that they have won ribbons on both levels.
If you were tuned in to the Swap Shop on Monday morning, you may have heard me tell Margaret about winning the ribbons at the State Fair. I think I finally convinced her that by winning a first place ribbon, it had to mean my peach preserves were declared to be the best preserves in the state of North Carolina. Don’t you think so?
After the program ended, I headed back up to the fairgrounds to see if I could get a picture of my items on display. I wanted to get a couple of photos for my other website that I’m working on regarding Southern Cooking.
It was a beautiful day at the North Carolina State Fair. A bit warm, but it wasn’t crowded at all for about 2pm in the afternoon as I went in search of my exhibits. All the culinary exhibits were in the educational building at the fair. If you visit, please take time to go through the buildings to take in the handiwork of so many talented folks from across the state. It will be well worth your time.
I must commend the fair for how well they had everything displayed. All the breads, cakes, cookies, jams, preserves and others, were in lighted display cases with glass fronts. They’re also under lock and key. Double protected both in the display case…and also in their glass jar containers.
Having searched those display cases high and low, and twice around, I couldn’t find my First Place Peach Preserves anywhere. I couldn’t even find my pickles. Hmmmm. Where are they?
There were a couple of ladies seated at tables around the large exhibition hall so I ventured over and asked one if she might be able to assist me in finding my entries. She said that she could and asked me my name. Then, she proceded to look me up in the large book in front of her. I told her that I had seen on their website that I had won First Place for my peach preserves but that I’d looked everywhere and couldn’t find them.
“No wonder,” she said. “They’re down here on the end….you won BEST OF SHOW also.” I just looked at her with my mouth hanging open and said, “Are you serious?” “Absolutely,” she replied and proceeded to walk me down toward the end of the display cases. I hadn’t even noticed that they had anything on the end.
You just can’t imagine both my surprise and my delight upon seeing my name on that big sign in that display case. I know I was grinning from ear to ear. “Congratulations,” she said. “Thank You,” I replied. Then, I proceeded to tell her how this was the first time I’d ever entered anything into the State Fair. “You’ve got to take my picture,” I said. She agreed and with that, I stepped in front of the display case and proudly pointed to my little jar of preserves sitting on the top shelf. They looked so small out there in the middle all by themselves. The sign with my name was stretched across the front and right behind the jar of preserves, hung TWO ribbons. One was the blue First Place premium and the other was the red Best of Show premium.
The very kind and helpful lady told me they would give me the sign with my name along with the ribbons when I came back to pick up my items. I thanked her for her help, took a few more pictures and then stood across the way for a few minutes and watched as folks walked by and gazed into the display case. Yep, I felt very proud at that moment. Maybe that’s why this years theme is “Love-A-Fair.” They made my day.
So, pardon me while I bragg just a little on my canning adventures this summer. I took two classes over at the McSwain Extension Center with Susan Condlin and canned a variety of things. I put up several jars each of Strawberry Jam, Peach Jam, Peach Preserves, Squash Relish and my moms recipe of School Girl Pickles. I also took complete pictures of the entire process for all of them and hope to get it all up on my other website in the near future.
Congratulations also to the other two winners of ribbons from Lee County. One of our neighbors picked up two ribbons for fudge and chocolate chip cookies. One picked up a ribbon for BBQ Sauce.
I did learn that there were 16 total entries in the Peach Preserve section this year so maybe I did pretty good huh?
You can learn more about the North Carolina State Fair for 2011 by following this link. http://www.ncstatefair.org/2011/index.htm
OK…now you know my first name is Durwood. Wish it would have said Steve instead, but still, it looks pretty good up in lights to me.
Be Blessed!!!
Steve Gordon
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Way to go, Steve!