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Exploring the State and County Fairs in Kentucky
61 Plays2 months ago
In this episode, we delve into the vibrant world of Kentucky's state and county fairs. We explore the bustling fairgrounds, where the scent of fresh hay blends with the sweet aroma of blooming flowers. Our journey takes us through exhibits showcasing the finest in local gardening, from prize-winning roses to best in class veggies. Join us as we celebrate the green-thumbed enthusiasts and the agricultural heritage that make Kentucky's fairs a must-visit destination for horticulture lovers. Tune in to discover the beauty and excitement of these beloved community events.
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Transcript
Introduction and Lighthearted Banter
00:00:16
Alexis
We're back baby and better than ever.
00:00:19
Brett
Oh, I'm
00:00:20
Alexis
That's what I think.
00:00:20
atack2010
Better than ever.
00:00:21
Alexis
I think all of you are better than you've ever been.
00:00:24
Jessica
Oh, thank you.
00:00:24
atack2010
But we're not as good as we once were. Isn't that a country song?
00:00:27
Jessica
yeah I think you're right, yeah.
00:00:27
atack2010
I think it is.
00:00:27
Alexis
I ain't as good as that one was.
00:00:27
atack2010
That is a country song. Yeah.
00:00:30
Jessica
Good that I once was.
00:00:32
atack2010
Yes, yes.
00:00:32
Alexis
Yeah.
00:00:32
Jessica
Right?
00:00:33
Alexis
I'm sorry. I can't sing anymore or I will be in trouble.
00:00:33
Brett
my best friend. I known him since we you were kids at school.
00:00:36
Jessica
Who sings that song?
00:00:39
Brett
Yeah.
00:00:40
Alexis
Anyways.
00:00:41
Jessica
Oh, Toby Keith.
00:00:41
Brett
Toby. Yes.
00:00:42
Alexis
Yeah. Yeah.
00:00:42
Jessica
Okay, Toby Keith.
00:00:43
atack2010
Toby Key, thank you. i was i i I was like, it's not John Anderson. It's Toby Key. Thank you.
00:00:47
Alexis
Well, uh, and we are all along with Toby welcoming you to another episode today.
00:00:47
Brett
Toby Keith with a very outside the box front first name to first name name, Toby Keith.
00:00:47
atack2010
Thank you.
00:00:47
Jessica
Oh, John Anderson, man.
00:00:54
Brett
Okay.
00:00:54
atack2010
Very legit, very legit.
00:00:59
Alexis
Um, and we are first and foremost going to talk about rodent, not rodents, a marsupial because possums are not rodents.
00:01:06
Jessica
Yeah.
00:01:08
Alexis
And if you didn't know that now you do. So Jessica, tell
Cloverville and the Possum Story
00:01:11
Alexis
us about the marsupial.
00:01:12
atack2010
And this does lead into the topic today, we promise.
00:01:13
Jessica
Well, yes, this is this is on topic because we're going to talk about ah the state fair and the county fair process with like veggies and flowers and stuff today.
00:01:17
atack2010
It is.
00:01:23
Jessica
But Ray and I just got back from working at the state fair and helping in the section called Cloverville, where all the little foragers enter all their vegetable items. And there is a giant fake tree.
00:01:35
Jessica
that is in k Cloverville. And they put it in storage every year and it comes out. And this year there was a really cute stuffed animal possum on the top of it. And we're like, oh, look at that possum. How cute. Maybe they're going to do a nature display and children will learn about wildlife of Kentucky. Well, another 4-H agent decided to share with us. The reason there is a possum up there is because the year before at state fair, a possum had made the fake tree his home. But nobody knew that.
00:02:03
atack2010
A real possum.
00:02:03
Jessica
So a real possum and he came to the state fair.
00:02:04
atack2010
Yeah.
00:02:07
Jessica
Nobody knew who's in there. And then in the next morning, people would come out and they would find vegetable displays that would have a bite out of them.
00:02:14
Brett
Man, that's such a long game.
00:02:14
Jessica
They would find other things on the floor. Yeah, they would find like cakes and stuff.
00:02:19
atack2010
And you know, they went on a hunt for the the the kids that were taking bites.
00:02:23
Jessica
Oh, they thought they thought it was some like little punk messing with them and like throwing things on the floor every night.
00:02:23
atack2010
You know, did they, did they in fact do that? Okay. Okay.
00:02:31
atack2010
I'm child.
00:02:33
Jessica
until somebody finally saw the possum and then chased it out. And now he
00:02:38
Alexis
Honestly,
Pet Preferences: Possums vs. Raccoons
00:02:39
Alexis
dream come true. Like if I was at possum, that's where you want to be is at the state fair because I mean, deep fried Oreos.
00:02:39
Jessica
lives at the fairgrounds.
00:02:44
atack2010
So the I mean, possums and deep fried Oreos, we've just written a country song and it's going to be beautiful.
00:02:46
Alexis
Hello.
00:02:51
atack2010
um But you should go to the State Fair if you've never been. I had this conversation with folks just last week and we've just given you the ultimate scavenger hunt. You go to a place at State Fair called Cloverville, which is all the 4-H exhibits.
00:03:06
atack2010
vegetables and you know culinary del delights and photography and all the other classes we're going to talk about today but you need to go there in a scavenger hunt and find the possum but Jessica does that possum have a name I didn't hear one that week I just looked up and saw there was a stuff not it's it's a it's a actual not it's not a real possum folks that's in the living in the tree now it's a stuffed animal yes
00:03:17
Jessica
I don't think so.
00:03:25
Alexis
Not a taxidermy problem.
00:03:25
Jessica
it's is' very It's a very cute stuffed animal.
00:03:27
Brett
It's an homage. It's an homage to a real possum.
00:03:30
atack2010
Yes, but it it's a throwback and I did not realize, I did not know that story until you told me that.
00:03:31
Jessica
yes yeah
00:03:36
atack2010
So it all makes sense. I just randomly looked up and thought there'd always been a possum there. I just never noticed it. So that's good to know.
00:03:41
Jessica
Yeah, well the real possum was like above our heads the entire time, the year before, without us knowing.
00:03:46
atack2010
Oh, yes.
00:03:47
Jessica
So, just up in that tree!
00:03:47
atack2010
We could have had a bite taken out of us.
00:03:48
Alexis
Yeah.
00:03:50
atack2010
Yeah. So at the Kentucky State Fair, I think they are interesting.
00:03:51
Brett
So you are you all possum fans? Are you all you all like the possums?
00:03:57
atack2010
There are more soup eels.
00:03:57
Alexis
Baby possums are really cute.
00:03:57
Brett
I love possums, so just in case anyone is thinking about throwing any shade.
00:03:59
atack2010
Okay.
00:03:59
Jessica
i
00:04:00
atack2010
Okay. i I'm no shade to the possums.
00:04:02
Jessica
I'm fine with them, like they haven't done anything to me.
00:04:07
Alexis
Yeah.
00:04:07
Jessica
Besides surprise me at times with their smile and rat tail.
00:04:10
atack2010
They're winning personalities.
00:04:10
Brett
ha
00:04:11
Alexis
Yeah. Yeah.
00:04:13
atack2010
Yeah.
00:04:13
Alexis
we've We've talked about possums on here before um and how many I find in my barn.
00:04:14
atack2010
Yeah.
00:04:17
Alexis
But the
00:04:19
Jessica
Yeah, I get like one once a year in my garage once a year possum tries to move in.
00:04:24
Alexis
little ones are so cute.
00:04:24
Brett
I feel, I feel like of all the, of all the native wild animals around here, a possum would be the one I would most likely have as a pet.
00:04:32
Jessica
Mm.
00:04:32
atack2010
Hmm, nice.
00:04:33
Alexis
I could i can see that. I could see that.
00:04:35
atack2010
I think I would i have a raccoon. I don't know why I prefer that over a possum. I don't raccoon seems to be more me. So.
00:04:41
Jessica
That's my toxic crate.
00:04:41
Brett
Yeah.
00:04:42
Jessica
I would have a raccoon and it would drive my husband insane.
00:04:43
Alexis
i want
00:04:46
Alexis
I want wild animals as pets.
00:04:46
atack2010
I would totally have a pet raccoon.
00:04:46
Brett
Oh.
00:04:48
Alexis
That's, that's my beige flag. Okay. Like I want any wild animal as a pet.
00:04:50
Brett
You do want them that?
00:04:53
Brett
Yeah, I just imagined you with like the beast master like like calling in the Yeah, trending toward red Yeah, if you're not if you're not chill if you're not chilled and that might be a red flag for you But if you are then yeah, I love possums.
00:04:54
Alexis
That's my problem.
00:04:54
atack2010
I think that's. ah
00:04:58
atack2010
I think that's a pink flag going to red it personally, Lexus, but that's just me.
00:05:00
Alexis
No, listen, listen, you it's only read if you want it to be it's beige for most people.
00:05:02
atack2010
Wolf pups, wolf pups. It's official wildlife get involved.
00:05:12
Alexis
Yeah.
00:05:12
atack2010
Yeah. But Lexus too.
00:05:16
Brett
I think that they're I think that they're awesome.
00:05:16
atack2010
Okay.
00:05:17
Brett
I think that they're
00:05:18
atack2010
Awesome possum.
00:05:20
Brett
they're I think that they feel like much a much chiller alternative to a raccoon.
00:05:25
Alexis
Yeah.
00:05:25
Brett
um I think a raccoon's just gonna be like, it's almost like a, I feel like the possum would be like more like a dog and a raccoon would be more like a cat.
00:05:28
Alexis
Terror.
00:05:33
Jessica
There you go.
00:05:33
Brett
im I'm just not overly a cat person, you know?
00:05:36
atack2010
I feel like a
Kentucky State Fair Highlights
00:05:37
atack2010
raccoon could probably, I mean, it's good with its little hands and I feel like it could wield a Yeah.
00:05:40
Brett
Little thumbs.
00:05:43
atack2010
It could wield a knife if it had to.
00:05:43
Brett
Yeah, it could probably like open like open drinks for you and stuff and like help you in the kitchen.
00:05:43
Alexis
Yeah.
00:05:45
atack2010
Yes. True. True. I mean, you're just making the case for me, Brett.
00:05:49
Alexis
I just eat all of the grapes, just like putting all the grapes in its mouth.
00:05:49
Jessica
And wash the vegetables for you.
00:05:50
atack2010
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
00:05:53
Brett
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Just fill them up with grapes before you start cooking and then they can't, they aren't going to be snacking at all.
00:05:58
atack2010
Yeah, that's fine. We're going to be taking a nap. But at the state fair, yeah, that was something new.
00:06:01
Brett
Well, that's really fun. I, I wish that I had seen the real, the real possum when it, I wonder what the, like, what was it doing the whole, cause I, I assumed it was there for a little while, you know?
00:06:06
Jessica
I do you too.
00:06:14
Jessica
It was there at least a week before somebody found it.
00:06:15
Brett
Yeah,
00:06:16
Jessica
So it was enjoying itself.
00:06:16
Brett
yeah that's pretty cool.
00:06:19
Jessica
It was eating the children's displays of produce and cakes.
00:06:22
atack2010
It had plenty of food, yeah
00:06:22
Brett
Yeah. um butt I bet it was even found some bugs and stuff before then, you know, in the dusty corners of the Kentucky fair and exposition center.
00:06:30
Jessica
Yeah.
00:06:30
Alexis
just
00:06:31
Brett
Man, what a life.
00:06:32
Jessica
Mm-hmm.
00:06:32
atack2010
yeah.
00:06:33
Alexis
I will say as someone who does not have children, I do still find Cloverville really fun to walk around because first of all, sometimes you see stuff and you're like, what a kid did this. And sometimes it's, you know, a little more obvious. And sometimes you're very surprised and shocked at their talent. But it is a really fun thing. I used to set up Cloverville and ah I always like to walk around and see like the insect collections and the photography. So ah highly recommend.
00:07:00
atack2010
Yeah, I was walking around, I mean, they were doing pre setup when we were there, you know, we were specifically working in the horticulture section of Cloverville, of the horticulture agents that Jess mentioned. ah But I usually take a little bit of time just that day, even though there's not a lot going on, just counties are starting to set up. There's like a a walk of counties, all the counties are showcased kind of in the state and lots of other food vendors setting up, and lots of like state police setting up, you know, Corps of Engineers, yeah know different things. And it always amazes me all the things that go on.
00:07:33
atack2010
at the Kentucky State Fair and that was a conversation I was having with someone last week and they said oh well we're not really you know that we're we're not ag producers so there's really probably not much for us at the state fair and I was like oh but wait you can get deep fried everything and go see stuffed possums but there is a lot at the state fair yes lots of agrarian things and home economic things and youth project things
00:07:46
Brett
Au contraire!
00:07:47
Alexis
There's more.
00:07:58
atack2010
ah But there's, there's so much, there's so much going on there.
00:07:59
Jessica
But there's
00:08:01
Alexis
There's wine.
00:08:01
atack2010
It's almost like a giant community of event. Yeah.
00:08:04
Jessica
so much, right? Like as a kid growing up, like we always just saw the Ag stuff and it wasn't until I was a teenager and I went with a friend, they were like, Hey, do you want to go do the rides?
00:08:15
Jessica
And I was like, rides? What do you mean there are rides?
00:08:17
atack2010
Yeah, yeah.
00:08:18
Jessica
And like there's a whole other side, so you don't even have to come there just to see Ag things. But I'm going to encourage you to do that, because there's a lot of cool Ag stuff that is going on.
00:08:29
Alexis
at least you see the honey and the wine like those are the two two deliciously cool things good point that's a good point
00:08:31
Jessica
Yeah.
00:08:35
Jessica
And just you know if you've never seen a cow before, or a pig, or sheep, or here, that is your opportunity to see a really clean one.
00:08:40
atack2010
Mm-hmm.
00:08:43
atack2010
Yes.
00:08:43
Jessica
Right?
00:08:44
atack2010
Yes.
00:08:44
Brett
yeah
00:08:46
atack2010
I started digging into, yeah, go ahead, Brad.
00:08:46
Brett
but So i had ah i had a different I had a different experience as a child, so I'm going to out myself as not having come from any sort of agricultural background.
00:08:48
atack2010
Yeah.
00:08:56
Brett
I grew up in the the ah first wave suburbs of ah of Louisville, Kentucky,
Community and Educational Role of Fairs
00:09:03
Brett
so not in what passes for Louisville now, which is like out in the middle of Oldham County, but Inside Jefferson County but suburban and Louisville and we would go to the state fair every single year and my my ah mom and my aunts would enter culinary things like cookies and canned goods and also textiles like crocheted and knitted items.
00:09:29
Brett
We also, my my uncle and ah was owned a, one of the the last independent pet stores in Louisville, Kentucky and specialized in both reptiles, but also aquariums, fish, aquaria, I guess, fish. And so there's a whole aquarium set up with competitions, you know, people entering tropical and saltwater fish.
00:09:53
Brett
And so a couple of years actually we set up for his business and then my ah my cousin and I set up you know did that individually entered in that and that was all well before i got ah indoctrinated into the cult of agriculture putting the cult in agriculture.
00:10:06
Alexis
The cult and hort culture.
00:10:07
Brett
um Yeah, exactly. and And I, you know, we would still go and see the cows and walk through the the different parts of the different wings of the fair. You walk through the east wing where you could like buy some on the DL like switch blades and stuff back in those days.
00:10:22
Brett
It was pretty cool.
00:10:23
atack2010
All the things.
00:10:24
Brett
Yeah. um They're like, technically, it's not a switchblade, but it is ah that kind of thing, you know, and like ah any like cheap ah Power Rangers masks or something.
00:10:29
Alexis
It actually is.
00:10:30
atack2010
It's really a comb.
00:10:35
Brett
I don't know what else we were were're into back in those days.
00:10:37
Jessica
as seen on TV section.
00:10:37
Alexis
like
00:10:38
atack2010
Yes.
00:10:39
Jessica
Weird joke, yeah.
00:10:39
Brett
but But even the connection to to agriculture was, you know, I didn't realize that that was kind of the main original reason for a lot of the fair stuff until I was older and more more initiated.
00:10:51
atack2010
Or tenured.
00:10:51
Brett
So just to that point of yeah the the other thing we would do is we would go and get book covers for our textbooks from the like different armed forces displays.
00:11:03
atack2010
Oh.
00:11:03
Brett
They would have like, Things with like jets, fighter jets and like tanks on them.
00:11:07
atack2010
They're still there, still there.
00:11:08
Alexis
And those things were expensive.
00:11:09
Brett
And I would get the, yeah.
00:11:09
Alexis
So if you got them for free, that was a win.
00:11:11
atack2010
Yes.
00:11:11
Brett
They gave me that, they gave me that and I'd say, thank you. Thank you for that.
00:11:15
Alexis
Thank you for your service.
00:11:16
Brett
Army of one or be all that you can be. I think I was back then.
00:11:19
Jessica
Yeah, there you go.
00:11:20
atack2010
Yeah, that was one of the booths I walked by, and they had the helicopter body out there. They had this really elaborate display, and I was like, man. I mean, they ah some of these booths at the state fair, whether it's a county booth, I saw, I think I walked by Harrison County Kentucky's, or no, Cynthia in Kentucky's booth. And it's just, ah these booths can get very elaborate. So not only is it agrarian based, but it's like a lot of county fairs, even in that, you know, it's a showcase of local communities and in Kentucky. and And I did some digging before the show today just real quick as a scan. I was interested because I didn't grow up with the Kentucky State Fair. I grew up in the Eastern foothills and never attended. I hate to admit it, but we were involved in you know production agriculture, but never attended the state fair until much later in the gosh, late 90s.
00:12:08
atack2010
um So I didn't grow up with it. So I did a little bit of looking into it. And I didn't realize that the Kentucky State Fair is one of the oldest state fairs in the country. And it started, it said in 1816 with a guy, you might know the name of Colonel Lewis Sanders, helped organize the first state fair in Fayette County, Kentucky. And I thought that was ah interesting. And it wasn't a single place. It used to move around and it didn't kind of start to stay put in Louisville until later on.
00:12:38
atack2010
um It became actually the state fair, I think, in 1902. I was reading the history of the state fair.
00:12:42
Alexis
Hm.
00:12:43
atack2010
So it kind of floated around between 1860 and 1902, moved around different locations, and became the official state fair through the General Assembly's Act in 1902. But it's an old state fair, and it's got a really interesting um ah kind of background to it.
00:12:59
atack2010
And I would not have thought that about the Kentucky State Fair, because I know there's much larger fairs as you go west and even north, and Ohio and upper
00:13:03
Jessica
Thank you.
00:13:08
atack2010
Midwestern states, they have these huge state fairs. That's not to say that Kentucky has a small state fair, but it's not one of the absolutely biggest ones. But it's ah interesting that we're one of the absolute oldest ah in the US. It's kind of a neat history.
00:13:23
Jessica
I think what also makes ours unique is that I'm finding out now because like, you know, growing up and always going up there the same location, most of it's indoors, right?
00:13:32
Alexis
Mm.
00:13:32
atack2010
Yes.
00:13:32
Jessica
Or almost all of it.
00:13:33
atack2010
e Very unique.
00:13:34
Jessica
And not until, yeah, a couple years ago, I really realized from like meeting so many people who've moved to Kentucky, you know, now and they're going to it, they're like shocked that it's all indoors.
00:13:47
Jessica
And I guess that's, you know, unique and also kind of nice for us.
00:13:51
Alexis
Air conditioning!
00:13:53
Jessica
yeah Somebody texted me today and said, I'm freezing.
00:13:53
Alexis
um
00:13:55
Jessica
Make sure that you you know bring a jacket while you're up there walking around. but
00:14:01
atack2010
Yeah and I was ah what a couple years ago we have a national association of agents and went out to the Iowa State Fair and I've always wanted to go out there and it made me appreciate the Kentucky State Fair because Iowa has a huge state fair very well organized very nice fair but it was almost all outside. There were some air-conditioned halls individual halls there but for the most part what is on the inside for Kentucky is on the outside for them and it was a big difference. I enjoyed that fair very much but it was not nearly as comfortable as far as walking around because it was very hot that day, that afternoon I went. And um even though I enjoyed it, I was not as comfortable as I was in the nice buildings here in Kentucky. So there you go.
00:14:43
Alexis
I just feel like you can't eat, I was just thinking, you can't eat your burger that has donuts for buns in the heat.
00:14:43
Brett
I used to ah go.
00:14:50
Alexis
It's not the same when you can eat it in the air conditioning.
00:14:53
Alexis
It's so much more enjoyable.
00:14:53
atack2010
You're going to sweat either way, though.
00:14:54
atack2010
You're going to sweat either way.
00:14:55
Brett
It's more of an ah immersive experience, you know, in the outside.
00:14:58
Alexis
You don't, you don't, yeah, outside it's gonna melt all over you, but inside, same temperature.
00:15:02
Brett
You sit in the sun until you, the burger and everything becomes the same temperature.
00:15:05
atack2010
become one.
00:15:06
Jessica
Just all, all of him went there.
00:15:08
atack2010
It's sort of an alchemy.
00:15:09
Brett
Yeah.
00:15:10
atack2010
You're just going to all fuse together into this one alloy.
00:15:13
Alexis
she says
00:15:14
atack2010
Yes, you become one with a burger.
00:15:14
Alexis
and That's the goal.
00:15:16
atack2010
Yes, that is the goal.
00:15:16
Brett
So, so, so here in August, we were during the, we're doing the state fair, but it's not the only fair in town across towns, across, uh, the state of Kentucky and other States that, and I know one of the things that's really fun that, um, I get, well, it's fun for me because I don't have to do as much, but like.
00:15:39
Brett
extension extension and extension agents and and others are really heavily involved in these fairs both the state fair and also at your own county level. um does Is there even anything smaller than the county fair sometimes or does it make it mainly is that the kind of initial
00:15:56
atack2010
There's different sizes of county fairs, ah but I think there, even in counties when I was in the Far Eastern part of the state, I guess that's a great question. I never thought of it that way, Brett, but when I was on the in the Far Eastern part of the state, we didn't have county fairs per se.
00:16:11
atack2010
in In a lot of counties, we had fall festivals, but they would have judging events because county fairs feed into the, it's good to understand that county fairs, ah in a lot of cases, feed into the state fair.
00:16:13
Brett
Yeah.
00:16:24
Jessica
Mm hmm.
00:16:24
atack2010
And even those counties that did not have a county fair, they had judging events to judge, in our case and are within our organization, 4-H and youth development projects and home economic projects and I guess open adult projects, so on and so forth. Even if you didn't have a county fair, you had a way to get those judged.
00:16:43
atack2010
and the winners would be transferred on up at a later date to the Kentucky State Fair. So I guess that would, to answer your question, Brett, I guess that would be the situation where you can have something smaller than a county fair that feeds into the state fair, and that's no fair at all, but you have judging events, judging events that feed into it.
00:16:59
Brett
ah
00:16:59
Jessica
not haha well
00:17:03
atack2010
I never thought about that, Brett, but yeah, yeah, that's it.
00:17:05
Brett
Yeah, well, so there's just sort of this network of things. But I think the counting here is probably the typical, typical mechanism for a lot of counties.
00:17:08
atack2010
Yes. Yes. and that's that That's the that's a normal organizational unit.
00:17:12
Brett
And when, uh, when are your olds?
00:17:13
atack2010
Yes.
00:17:14
Alexis
Jessica's County Fair is famous.
00:17:17
Jessica
I was gonna say I was like one I'm just gonna own it I guess I'm like crazy for an agent wise because I actually really enjoy County Fair
00:17:17
Brett
Oh.
00:17:27
Brett
Hmm.
00:17:27
Jessica
It's like basically my entire month of July, but it's very rewarding for me to see how happy everyone is um most of the time.
00:17:34
Brett
Hmm.
00:17:37
Jessica
But um yeah, our fair is the longest running, longest continuously running fair in North America in Mercer County.
00:17:46
Brett
Whoa.
00:17:46
atack2010
Oh, wow.
00:17:47
Jessica
So we had a fair even during COVID, basically extension. put it on. We had floral haul still, which floral haul, when we say that, everyone, sometimes people are like, oh, that's just flowers and maybe produce, but that's quilts and art and home crafts and furnishings and culinary, honey, all sorts of things. But in 2020, we still had our floral haul and a few livestock shows. So we wouldn't give up that record that we have of being the continuously
00:18:19
Jessica
oldest running bear however I said that weird but it's going on a while.
00:18:23
Brett
So when, uh, how long, uh, when, when is the, the county fair in, in Mercer County?
00:18:31
Jessica
Ours is always the last full week of July so we start prepping really in May and then I mean the whole month of July is to get dedicated to
00:18:34
Brett
Okay. Hmm.
00:18:43
Jessica
to doing that, to getting everything set up. And then that full last week, is there something every single day? um But we're unique. I mean, a lot of players offer premiums. So we do like our open floral haul.
00:18:56
Jessica
There's a premium with every ribbon color you
Preparation and Judging at Fairs
00:18:59
Jessica
get.
00:18:59
Brett
like That's like the the money that you get if you win.
00:19:01
Jessica
Yep. Yep. um And then they get best in show ribbons. And so that's like out of all the blue winners, who's the best out of a certain class, right? I say of all the vegetables, of all the blue ribbons,
00:19:13
Jessica
Which one's going to be the best one?
00:19:14
atack2010
Chesky, is that for both a youth and like open adult? Is that the case for everybody?
00:19:18
Jessica
Well, yeah. So 4-H is a little different.
00:19:20
atack2010
Yeah.
00:19:24
Jessica
That's a lot of things, as we as we know.
00:19:26
atack2010
Sure.
00:19:27
Jessica
um But Open, they judge you know you have a blue, red, white.
00:19:27
atack2010
Yeah, sure.
00:19:33
Jessica
right And not everyone has to get a ribbon. In 4-H, on that side of things, um they can have multiple blues. that So they could have like four plates of squash.
00:19:44
Jessica
They all look fantastic. They can give every kid a blue because they judge them against themselves. They do the Danish judging system. So you basically score it against what you would imagine like would be the perfect squash.
00:19:56
Jessica
right um But then only in 4-H, the best in shows,
00:19:57
Alexis
Uh-huh.
00:20:01
Jessica
are the ones that go to the state fair and open you can win best in show and you can or you could you could get a white ribbon or not a ribbon at all and you could still enter in the state fair. You just have to pay their registration fees and you can enter as well.
00:20:19
Jessica
And then they think they do, like, sometimes some county fairs are after the state fair deadline, and they'll make exceptions if somebody, like, sends a note in, most likely from your extension office saying, hey, my state fair, my county fair happened after the deadline.
00:20:32
Jessica
And then they let people um still enter items in, like, you know, last minute. So.
00:20:40
Brett
Yeah, see, we never we never competed in a county fair. We just submitted directly to the state fair.
00:20:45
Jessica
Well, I was going to ask you that. is That is what I've heard before, is that Jefferson County's, like, they consider that their county fair. The state fair is their county fair, right?
00:20:53
atack2010
Oh, I never thought about that.
00:20:54
Brett
Straight to the big time, baby.
00:20:56
atack2010
Cool.
00:20:56
Jessica
Right?
00:20:57
atack2010
The big show.
00:20:57
Alexis
Right to the top.
00:20:57
atack2010
That's ah that's the interest that's neat. That's interesting.
00:21:00
Jessica
I entered baked goods once, and I met a lot of people from Jefferson County entering, and that's what they were kind of telling me.
00:21:07
Brett
Oh yeah.
00:21:07
Jessica
And it is wild taking stuff up there.
00:21:10
Brett
Yeah, it's a, it's a whole thing. Cause you have like these long lines and people are, are mad. And, you know, if it's hot, they sometimes the lines end up going outside a little bit, even though you're in, so your cake is melting as you're holding it or something, you know, it's a, it's a, it's a high drama.
00:21:26
atack2010
Is that a euphemism?
00:21:28
Brett
ah him Well, it's a high drama situation.
00:21:28
atack2010
Your cake is melting.
00:21:33
Jessica
It was very intense.
00:21:33
Brett
Uh,
00:21:34
Jessica
I was not. It was it was very intense.
00:21:35
atack2010
It is, it is. You know, and until I started working with the Extension Service and going actually to State Fair, I had no idea that it took hundreds and hundreds of volunteers judging and set up, not only that, but tear down to make this whole huge process work. Now, that's not even counting the time of the full-time workers that are hired through you know the actually the Kentucky State Fair, not even counting their time, but it's just an incredible endeavor and undertaking of something of that magnitude. I mean, there's just hundreds of volunteers to try to make that all run smoothly every year. And it's and it is a sight to see, it really is. Didn't realize any of that until I started working in the State Fair many years ago in different judging areas. So it's um it's fascinating ah what all it takes and and goes into that.
00:22:25
atack2010
So that's pretty cool.
00:22:25
Brett
So i'll I'll ask a pointed question that's not meant to be pointed, but I just can't help myself. What do you all see? What's the point of these fairs?
00:22:34
atack2010
Are we talking county, county fairs or well, I guess the state fair too.
00:22:34
Brett
What's the point? why with ah let's We can start with the county.
00:22:39
atack2010
I know.
00:22:40
Brett
We've given the the state fair a lot of love so far.
00:22:41
atack2010
Well, you know, historically, uh, yeah.
00:22:43
Brett
And and Jessica said that there's enjoyment. and so but What's the point?
00:22:46
atack2010
Well, and that that's a big deal. I mean, the community, it's almost turned into originally just informal gathering of farmers, you know, both on a state and county level from what I could read.
00:22:48
Jessica
Thank you.
00:22:58
atack2010
you know, the transfer of knowledge, one person to the other, and then showcasing, you know, the best livestock or the best crops. So it had a very focused, functional background, and that's kind of the underpinnings of the fair, but now it's so much more than that on our county and state level. Now it's almost like a community come together and an economic generator, especially if you look at the economic impact, like at the state fair and in the state and all the jobs that it provides for that time period. and just the money that comes out of there.
00:23:27
atack2010
It's pretty incredible. But in the beginning, it was very much focused, I think, on agriculture and the transfer of knowledge. ah But it's become a lot more than that, ah really, since 1800s.
00:23:37
Jessica
Yeah, I think like definitely a community event. There are people that I see pretty much sometimes once a year at the county fair, right? And not only the community, but then we end up meeting a lot of new people who end up getting involved in other areas of extension or other parts of the community. And just people look forward to it all year, which is like hard to believe or say that, but like we have a group of niche who crochet one ladies that meet every Tuesday.
00:24:08
Jessica
And Miss Betty Parrott entered 68 items and took home over $200 and something dollars this past year. And so like everybody loves Betty, but then everybody's also out to get Betty.
00:24:20
Jessica
Like they're like, I'm going to do it this year. I'm going to beat Betty's like record, but nobody can beat Betty because she's already working on stuff for next year's fair, the week of the fair that's going on.
00:24:23
Alexis
I'm gonna be I think it's a
00:24:28
atack2010
Betty is unbeatable.
00:24:31
Jessica
Right. And she takes all of her winnings and she goes by more supplies. with her winnings to make stuff for the following year, and then returns all of her ribbons for us to reuse.
00:24:39
Brett
She, Betty reinvests in Betty, if you know what I'm saying.
00:24:40
atack2010
ah Yeah.
00:24:43
Jessica
Right, right.
00:24:44
atack2010
Best bet on Betty. Yeah.
00:24:45
Jessica
Yeah.
00:24:46
Brett
Yeah, Betty's betting on herself.
00:24:46
atack2010
I mean, that that's a point, that point of pride. Yeah. That, that pride that comes out of that.
00:24:48
Jessica
Yeah.
00:24:49
Brett
Betty, Betty betting on Betty.
00:24:51
Jessica
But I think, yeah, go ahead, Alexis.
00:24:53
Alexis
i say I think it's an opportunity like for both youth and adults to just sort of um showcase hard work they've done. so um As someone who like had who did like horse shows and stuff like that, the fair was an opportunity to kind of show off your hard work and compete against people and see you know how you stand up against them. and uh, you know, take some winning. Some of those kids use that for a college fund or something like that. So it's, um, it's just like a good, it's a nice opportunity to show off a little bit. And even if it's like, you know, if you've grown some nice corn, it doesn't necessarily have to be animals or, you know, like miss Betty and making some cool stuff. Um, I think there's something nice to be able to sort of show off a lot of that hard work, uh, because there's,
00:25:40
Alexis
not a lot of ways to have that sort of stuff appreciated. and As someone who started dating her now husband at the county fair, there's also that. There's also a love match to be made. so
00:25:50
Brett
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
00:25:52
atack2010
Love match at the county and state fair, what?
00:25:52
Brett
that's That's cute, but did you just out yourself as a horse girl?
00:25:54
atack2010
and Yeah, she did. I think she did.
00:25:58
Alexis
I'm honestly shocked you couldn't have guessed that.
00:26:01
Brett
I suspected, but I wanted to let let it play out.
00:26:02
atack2010
I think you had that. You were on the DL on that for many years, as far as I can tell.
00:26:07
Alexis
Yeah, yeah, it's ah it's it's a past, but it's a past.
00:26:12
atack2010
You need to own that.
00:26:12
Brett
Whoa.
00:26:13
atack2010
You need to own that.
00:26:14
Brett
but that i mean For some reason,
00:26:15
Alexis
No one is shocked by that information.
00:26:17
Brett
Earlier, we said Toby Keith, and then this made me think of the, uh, the barbecue stan in my white t-shirt.
00:26:23
Alexis
Yeah.
00:26:23
Brett
I was imagining, uh, Tyler, Tyler.
00:26:24
Jessica
Tim McGraw.
00:26:26
Alexis
Yeah.
00:26:26
Jessica
See, um I got it.
00:26:26
Brett
what Yeah. Tim McGraw with the barbecue stan.
00:26:27
Jessica
I got it.
00:26:28
Brett
Yeah.
00:26:29
atack2010
On top of it It's a whole vibe apparently apparently there's more to be learned at a county and state fair than just agricultural topics.
00:26:31
Alexis
Yeah, so some people just look forward to that.
00:26:31
Brett
Skipping rocks. Yeah.
00:26:32
Alexis
and
00:26:39
Brett
Yeah.
00:26:39
Jessica
it
00:26:39
Alexis
Yeah. There's also cooking at the state fair.
00:26:40
Jessica
yes
00:26:41
Brett
Lessons of love.
00:26:41
Alexis
We haven't talked about that. Like there's like whole cooking demonstrations. I think they're like every day and there's different, um, and they do, I know they did this year, like cut flower, like floral arranging demonstrations too.
00:26:45
atack2010
Oh Yeah, yeah
00:26:53
atack2010
Oh, yeah, a lot of educational stuff that they've gotten into over the years.
00:26:54
Alexis
So there's.
00:26:55
Jessica
Yeah, Katie Kentucky Department of Ag.
00:26:55
Alexis
Yeah.
00:26:56
atack2010
Yeah.
00:26:58
Jessica
I was just going to be like, KDA, Kentucky Department of Ag has a massive display and they do like all the different associations right or there.
00:27:04
Alexis
Yeah.
00:27:08
Alexis
yeah
00:27:08
Jessica
so like
00:27:08
atack2010
Yeah.
00:27:09
Jessica
The corn growers, the soybean, there's like horticulture, there's the Kentucky State beekeepers, there's all of those different groups.
00:27:15
Alexis
the Kentucky Aquaculture Association, and because we have one of those.
00:27:17
Jessica
Yeah!
00:27:20
Jessica
They're all up there with activities.
00:27:20
atack2010
And I'm. I was just telling my office I'm so guilty that once we're done working the fair that usually for us it's not so bad. It's two long days. us You know if you're the super the event.
00:27:30
Jessica
Yeah, we're lucky.
00:27:31
Alexis
just
00:27:31
atack2010
Yeah I mean some of some folks are there's others in my office that are there all week this week.
00:27:35
atack2010
ah Monday through Friday but.
00:27:37
Alexis
but
00:27:38
atack2010
I am guilty of when I'm done working there. I just bugger on off back to my county office. I need to go there just to look at everything. It's been a few years since I've done that. And when I do that, I'm always freshly blown away by all the stuff that you guys are talking about that's going on. And it seems like they add stuff every year, but I don't go just for fun much anymore. Or, you know, to see you like I need to go and see local folks that are participating for my county. and you know, showmanship events and things.
00:28:07
atack2010
But I don't do that as much as I should, because when you work it, it takes on a different kind of thing.
00:28:09
Alexis
Uh huh.
00:28:13
atack2010
But I need to do that. I said I would try, but it seems like I always have some reason or another that I don't make it up there. I need to go.
00:28:19
Alexis
If you enter something, don't you get tickets, like two tickets for free?
00:28:24
atack2010
I don't know.
00:28:25
Jessica
No.
00:28:25
Brett
you have the You have the opportunity to purchase tickets at a reduced rate, but you don't get free tickets.
00:28:25
atack2010
I don't think so.
00:28:26
Alexis
No?
00:28:28
Alexis
Okay, okay, okay.
00:28:29
Jessica
No.
00:28:31
Alexis
oh Well, all I know is our office always had tickets sent and we were like, we need tickets.
00:28:37
Jessica
Yes.
00:28:37
atack2010
That's probably through 4-H, yeah, through some of those events.
00:28:38
Alexis
Yeah, okay, well then have your kid enter.
00:28:39
Jessica
Yeah.
00:28:40
atack2010
Yeah.
00:28:40
Brett
Yet another perk of the county offices.
00:28:43
Jessica
Yeah. They send a bunch for 4-H for all like the ham kids and stuff. who Oh, that's something we didn't talk about.
00:28:48
atack2010
I was hoping, I would hope somebody would talk about the ham and how much that brings every year in Kentucky.
00:28:49
Jessica
Country ham.
00:28:50
Brett
but The Ham children.
00:28:53
Jessica
Yeah. There is like, well, I don't know how they haven't had that yet, right? But it's like millions.
00:28:58
atack2010
No, no.
00:29:00
Jessica
Am I wrong when I say that, that the country ham?
00:29:00
atack2010
Yeah. It's a lot of money.
00:29:03
Brett
Yeah. So they declared the winner and now they're going to turn around and sell it, I guess tomorrow morning.
00:29:03
atack2010
It's a lot of money.
00:29:08
Brett
I don't know. One of these mornings.
00:29:09
Jessica
Yeah, for the big country ham breakfast.
00:29:10
Brett
I saw, I saw a post from a post from the, uh, the KDA that they had declared the winner, but they had, like you said, they haven't, haven't sold it yet.
00:29:10
atack2010
auctioned off.
00:29:15
atack2010
Oh, awesome. That's always a big part kind of the lore and tradition of the state fair that I really don't know that much about but the the country ham auction and the whole process that goes into that and there's lots of money involved in the auctioning of that thing off typically with lots of corporate sponsors and things.
00:29:33
atack2010
So that's another cool thing.
00:29:33
Brett
Yeah. And I think on that on that along that same note, you know as far as we the deep fried Oreos and pineapple whip and corn dogs get a lot of publicity, but there are actually you know food trucks and other, you know I don't know what you would call them, carts and stuff where you can get yeah where you can get you know things from the Kentucky corn growers, Kentucky pork growers, Kentucky chicken growers.
00:29:34
Jessica
and and Yeah.
00:29:47
Alexis
Kentucky proud as a cookout tent. Yeah.
00:29:54
atack2010
That's part of the experience, people.
00:29:56
Brett
it's there is There's sort of like a local food with with more of an agricultural connection than some of the other, you know, local food things that we sometimes see, you know, in bigger cities or something like that. But yeah.
00:30:08
Alexis
Should we, um, mention how big this year's largest pumpkin and watermelon are? Because I'm
The Fascination with Giant Produce
00:30:14
atack2010
Shout out to Floyd County.
00:30:14
Alexis
blown away.
00:30:14
Brett
I'm going with pretty big.
00:30:15
Alexis
All right.
00:30:15
atack2010
Woo woo.
00:30:17
Alexis
So Floyd County Dwight Sloan, shout out to you, uh, had the largest pumpkin this year in 2024.
00:30:21
Brett
D white.
00:30:24
Alexis
And it was one.
00:30:24
atack2010
He's a multi-year winner. Yeah.
00:30:26
Alexis
Yeah, it's a 1,133 pounds.
00:30:30
atack2010
It's awesome.
00:30:30
Jessica
crazy
00:30:30
Alexis
It's a day gone pumpkin.
00:30:32
atack2010
Awesome.
00:30:33
Alexis
I was over a thousand pounds and then a watt.
00:30:34
Brett
We should see if we can get DY'd on here.
00:30:35
atack2010
Where he grows those. I mean, I worked with him for many years and that's its own like that could be it's it's that ah he's Dwight needs to be on.
00:30:37
Alexis
yeah
00:30:40
Jessica
Oh, see, we have a connection. Get on here, right?
00:30:42
Brett
Ray?
00:30:45
atack2010
He's an interesting guy. I remember driving up there many days to that little hollow where he grows these on the side of you. And the first time I drove up there, I was like, why does this guy have fans on this pumpkin? Like he would have multiple pumpkin vines and he had the shade cloth and fans.
00:30:58
atack2010
The giant pumpkin is fascinating to me because the people put so much work into that and so much care getting that thing to the state fair. But that's a great idea. Somebody needs to jot that down.
00:31:08
Brett
Wait, what county is he in?
00:31:08
atack2010
We, Floyd. and Yeah.
00:31:10
Alexis
Floyd.
00:31:11
Brett
He's in Floyd County. so So maybe we'll see, maybe we can, we can hook him up with a, get a mic out to the extension office and we'll give give him a little space to to operate.
00:31:12
atack2010
Yeah.
00:31:17
atack2010
Yeah.
00:31:21
Brett
And he can, he can walk us through.
00:31:21
Jessica
intelligent secrets.
00:31:23
Brett
Well, cause I saw he had a shirt in the picture. He had a shirt on that said like the Kentucky giant pumpkin squad or team or whatever.
00:31:32
atack2010
They are their own unit. Yeah.
00:31:34
Brett
Yeah.
00:31:34
atack2010
It's ah fascinating.
00:31:35
Brett
What is that? What it's called? I don't think it's called the squad.
00:31:37
atack2010
No, I forget the, it's, it's a group of growers and they trade seeds and information and secret trade secret.
00:31:37
Brett
I think.
00:31:42
Alexis
you
00:31:42
Brett
Yeah, so he can hype them get some maybe get some new.
00:31:43
atack2010
I don't know. Yeah. Oh yeah.
00:31:45
Brett
um Because it's, it's an insane amount of space that you take up to grow like this one pumpkin as far as I remember looking into it a couple years ago.
00:31:46
atack2010
But really interesting guy. A great guy.
00:31:53
Jessica
um
00:31:55
Brett
And it's like, don't quote me on this. But it's almost it might be like a quarter acre for like a one pumpkin and you're like tending the vines and moving stuff out and taking anything off.
00:31:58
atack2010
Huge.
00:32:04
atack2010
Yeah.
00:32:06
Brett
It's not your your king pumpkin.
00:32:09
Jessica
Yep, my husband's tried to do it a couple years and it's not not worked out so great.
00:32:10
Alexis
Well, I mean,
00:32:13
atack2010
You have to babysit the thing every day for an hour or two.
00:32:15
Alexis
Yeah.
00:32:16
atack2010
You're babysitting the vines every day.
00:32:16
Brett
Yeah, he yeah you he had fans on it.
00:32:19
Jessica
Did not have fans on it.
00:32:19
atack2010
Oh yeah, I mean, uh, there's a.
00:32:21
Jessica
That's a new one. But see now we need to have this guy on here so we can learn these secrets.
00:32:21
Brett
I haven't heard that.
00:32:24
Brett
So is that is that and I'm like, is that like pushing air across the bottom of the leaves to like pull more nutrient up into the plants?
00:32:25
atack2010
Yeah.
00:32:31
Brett
Is it is it trying to get disease pressure down?
00:32:34
atack2010
For that, it was disease pressure and relative humidity, which is real important for those giant vines.
00:32:34
Brett
Is it?
00:32:38
atack2010
But there's a lot of other, I won't go much further, but injections and things, it goes pretty deep into the world of giant pumpkins.
00:32:40
Brett
Oh.
00:32:44
Brett
The juice in it, you're juicing.
00:32:45
atack2010
oh Yeah, no, the pumpkin's not injected, but the vines, the growing, they have a lot of lot of little secret things they do that is part of the fun and the lore of the giant pumpkin growers.
00:32:46
Alexis
yeah
00:32:55
Alexis
Yeah.
00:32:55
atack2010
I mean, ah but that that's that's crazy.
00:32:56
Brett
Wow.
00:32:58
atack2010
I mean, that was a big one this year. I saw the picture, and it looked good. It looked kind of like a pumpkin lopsided like the giant ones do, and and that's pretty cool.
00:33:01
Alexis
ah I was
00:33:05
atack2010
But he definitely needs to tell us his, not all of his secrets, but some of his secrets on here.
00:33:08
Jessica
What do they do?
00:33:09
Alexis
gonna say, he's an
00:33:09
Jessica
What do they do with that one afterwards, right? Because you see like online sometimes where they're like, oh, we made both out of them or we did, you know, what do they do with that giant pumpkin?
00:33:14
atack2010
Sometimes it goes to other fairs.
00:33:19
atack2010
I know Dwight has entered in other fairs too, so I don't know if that's the same pumpkin, how that works.
00:33:23
Brett
Like he takes making the circuit with it.
00:33:25
atack2010
Other state fairs, yeah, but I don't know how that all that works.
00:33:27
Alexis
I had a, I have a friend whose dad would carve the giant pumpkins.
00:33:28
Brett
What not what a guy.
00:33:31
Alexis
I don't know if it was like the winner or not, but I think he got some of the giant pumpkins from the state fair and would carve them.
00:33:31
atack2010
Oh wow. Yeah.
00:33:38
Alexis
So they're these huge big faces and stuff like that.
00:33:41
Jessica
That's cool.
00:33:41
atack2010
And some of those end up in like Dollywood or like the
00:33:42
Brett
Is this Anna's dad?
00:33:42
Alexis
Um, again yeah.
00:33:44
Brett
Yeah.
00:33:45
atack2010
The pumpkin spectacular in Louisville, they end up at these prominent places on display later on, like our Kings Island that do these big displays.
00:33:46
Alexis
Yeah.
00:33:52
Jessica
And they they get paid by the weight, right?
00:33:57
Brett
They do.
00:33:57
Jessica
Isn't that right?
00:33:57
atack2010
Do they?
00:33:58
Brett
Yeah. I saw, I saw the check was $1,133 or whatever it was.
00:33:58
atack2010
I didn't know.
00:33:58
Jessica
Right.
00:34:01
Jessica
Yeah.
00:34:01
atack2010
Wow.
00:34:02
Brett
Yeah.
00:34:03
atack2010
So cool. So cool.
00:34:04
Alexis
and
00:34:04
atack2010
Just another fun thing about the State Fair, folks.
00:34:05
Jessica
Oh, what? Yeah, the watermelon, Alexis, what is?
00:34:07
Alexis
ah And the largest watermelon came from Meade County, Frank Mudd, and it was 233.2 pounds.
00:34:12
Brett
oh Oh my gosh.
00:34:16
Jessica
Wow.
00:34:17
Alexis
233-pound watermelon. And it's not even as big as last year's. Apparently last year's was 43 pounds heavier, so it was 276 pounds.
00:34:28
Jessica
Holy cow.
00:34:28
Alexis
Like, I don't...
00:34:28
Brett
Oh my. That's a beefy pumpkin.
00:34:30
Alexis
Let's...
00:34:31
Brett
I mean, a beefy ah watermelon.
00:34:33
Alexis
Water? I know. Let's just imagine.
00:34:36
Brett
Yeah.
00:34:36
Alexis
Just a good time.
00:34:36
Brett
yeah well we We talked about cucurbits a couple of episodes ago, and these are some cucurbits to remember.
00:34:41
Alexis
These are grime stickers.
00:34:41
atack2010
And how they can be challenging to grow. And here's people growing these tremendously huge versions of, yeah, it's amazing.
00:34:44
Brett
Yeah.
00:34:46
Alexis
250 pound watermelon.
00:34:49
Brett
Well, civil so I think you know maybe that's a good a good way to talk a little more nuts and bolts about entries and you know misconceptions and all that kind of stuff, because yes, there certainly is a spectacle to the largest pumpkin, the largest watermelon. But if you're entering into, for instance, the general category for zucchini,
00:35:12
Brett
There is not a premium placed on or a high value placed on the giantest zucchini. In fact, there's a specific range that you're looking for
Humorous Tales from Fair Entries
00:35:20
Brett
in this much, much smaller, you know, four to six inches long kind of range. And there's all kinds of standards. It's really interesting um component of of a lot of these fairs, and as we were talking earlier about, you know and I asked what was the point of these fairs, I think that that it has... I've actually been reading reading stuff about not not so much just county fairs, but this general concept of like ah agricultural judging and standards and things like that, and the way that that interfaces with
00:35:52
Brett
land grants over time and and the role of, you know, cattle judging and stuff like that. But I think in the past, it was it was a way, the the county fairs were a way for these agriculturalists who spend a lot of their time isolated and alone out on the farm to come together and share ideas and and promote ways of doing things better and to maybe have some standards of judging. And then over time, the fair has become more about as fewer and fewer people are are in agriculture, it's important to communicate to those not in agriculture, what exactly is going on out here.
00:36:29
Brett
and And these events kind of are a way to, in part, in addition to all the other things we talked about, ways to communicate about what agriculture is and what good agriculture means. But there still are, and you all, do you all act as, have you all acted as judges in the fairs before?
00:36:44
atack2010
Sure.
00:36:44
Jessica
Yes.
00:36:44
atack2010
That's pretty common. Yeah.
00:36:46
Alexis
Yeah.
00:36:46
Jessica
Yeah.
00:36:46
Brett
What's the deal with that? I mean, yeah there's there's standards for some things. In other cases, like it's like, oh, does this cookie taste good? It's like, yeah, it's pretty good.
00:36:53
atack2010
Yeah. I can't speak even.
00:36:54
Jessica
We've done that before, right, Alexis?
00:36:56
atack2010
I have not done that. Kudos to you guys. Do you get you guys actually, when you judge like food products, do you taste them? I don't want to get us too far off Brett's topic, but do you taste them?
00:37:05
Jessica
um We did, but I don't think we knew any better, right?
00:37:06
atack2010
Do you?
00:37:09
atack2010
Oh my goodness.
00:37:09
Alexis
Yeah, yeah it's um i I've kind of blocked that from my memory.
00:37:11
atack2010
Yeah. I do not know as much about them.
00:37:12
Jessica
wait
00:37:12
Alexis
I wouldn't have even remembered.
00:37:13
Jessica
but We were um kind of a last-second judge because the judge didn't show. And of course, what did Alexis and I do? And I said, hey, do you want to judge these cookies and fudge?
00:37:24
Jessica
Well, sure.
00:37:24
Alexis
Yes, the answer is yes.
00:37:25
Jessica
Yes, yes.
00:37:25
atack2010
There's 32 fudge entries and you're like, uh, I
00:37:26
Jessica
And then I think afterwards we were like the little kid pointing to their stomachs being like, oh, like, we shouldn't do that anymore.
00:37:26
Brett
Yes.
00:37:31
Alexis
We shouldn't do that anymore. We should have taken smaller bites.
00:37:35
atack2010
know, uh, on the vegetable side, you know, when we're speaking to new judges or maybe younger agents that haven't judged, uh, started out judging is, um, yeah, the it is interesting.
00:37:45
atack2010
Kind of the quality that you judge on. um yeah Basically it's not the biggest zucchini. It would be like, what would you purchase basically when you go to the store? What's the ah marketable representation of prime eating quality or something like that? And it's the, you know, you also look for diseases and defects. And there's all of these rules in fair books that if you're making an entry as a youth or an adult, please, please, please. One thing I could say is start early. You can't start really late.
00:38:15
atack2010
and enter something if you've not grown it, if it's something like a crop, like zucchini, tomatoes, green beans, things like that. It's stuff that you've grown. And once you do grow them up, pay attention.
00:38:27
atack2010
I mean, do you need three green beans on a plate? Do you need 10? Do you need seven? ah Pay attention to that. And then if you within the entry book, yes, yes, yes, exactly.
00:38:34
Brett
So within the entry book, it will say, green beans, tin of you know whatever size.
00:38:36
Alexis
Yeah, it's called the premium book.
00:38:37
Jessica
Mm.
00:38:39
atack2010
Yeah. Yeah.
00:38:41
Brett
Pay attention to the actual standards of what you're expected to enter.
00:38:41
atack2010
Yes. Yeah and a lot of times a lot of a lot of counties will have like clinics will do it from I've done it from time to time not every year but if somebody comes to me and say what are judges in general look for I am more than happy to say if it's a green bean we look for this or if it's a tomato we look for this and go over with people
Fairs: Building Community and Connections
00:39:02
atack2010
what makes a good entry and sometimes we have more formalized classes Jessica do you guys have anything like that at your fair like working with either kids or adults or We don't do it every year. It's every now and again we do that on based on demand.
00:39:14
Jessica
Yeah, we actually had talked about that we're going to do something like that before this next bear going over certain entries, like ones that we noticed where people continuously keep, you know, putting in the wrong, you know, something in the wrong class or whatever.
00:39:27
atack2010
Yes. Will you see problems as a judge? Yeah.
00:39:29
Jessica
Um, but we definitely have gone over that before as like 12 green beans per plate, right?
00:39:30
atack2010
yeah
00:39:36
Jessica
One, one zucchini per plate.
00:39:36
Alexis
Yeah.
00:39:39
Jessica
And, And you know we put make sure to put in our catalog like actual size, like inches that we're looking for, just because over the years, of the ex exact you know as Brett already mentioned, we've had a lot of people who've come in and they've brought gigantic zucchini.
00:39:46
atack2010
Oh, wow. Gotcha.
00:39:54
Jessica
And they're like, I'm going to win for sure. And then one, this little tiny one, you know like you said, or you find at the store, wins. And they're like, I don't understand.
00:40:02
atack2010
Perfect, yeah.
00:40:04
Jessica
Mine's quadruple the size, right?
00:40:04
Alexis
It wasn't large as zucchini, it was best zucchini.
00:40:07
Jessica
Yeah. um
00:40:08
atack2010
It's like a cucumber. The biggest is not the best in the garden. In fact, I've grown and I'm disappointed when I find that 14 inch cucumber in the garden, because it's not good for much.
00:40:12
Jessica
Yeah.
00:40:17
atack2010
um But we kind of judge based on that same theory of the biggest is not best, unless you have a biggest tomato contest. Some county fairs have specialty contests like that. And then you can enter your gigantic beefsteak tomato as long as, usually we'll always say as long as it's sound.
00:40:36
atack2010
But yeah, there's there's all of these rules in the fair books and a lot of fair books have gone online. ah Bourbon County has recently went all online. You can find all that information. uh, either in print or online.
00:40:48
atack2010
And it's more common nowadays to have to find that more and more, you know, just online only. So check it out. If you're going to enter in the county fair as either an adult or youth kind of pay attention to the
Looking Ahead: Preparing for Next Year's Fair
00:41:00
atack2010
details.
00:41:00
atack2010
We disqualify a lot. And that's kind of a shame that come in and they're just, it's not the right entry based on the details in the book. So yeah.
00:41:08
Alexis
So just just read. Reading's a big part of it.
00:41:11
Jessica
All, yeah, all the instructions are right there. Just, you know, everything you need to know, read the catalog.
00:41:16
atack2010
You know, and then some categories are a little bit different. I know like Jessica, I did not judge a section that clover real horticulture, but some sections are like we had some entries this year that that had to be disqualified, like in dish gardens that didn't meet all the criteria.
00:41:29
Jessica
Oh.
00:41:30
atack2010
ah you Some of these categories are really super specific. So you really have to dig down, especially on a state level to make sure that you're matching up all the requirements.
00:41:41
atack2010
And I know that's a big deal every single year and in events like photography. you know, what's a landscape versus a specimen. And some of these things can get kind of nit picky. And if you're hung up on the details and can't get any clarification, call your extension office and you will probably on some of these things talk first to the 4-H agent if they're available to get some clarification on a state and and county level.
00:42:03
atack2010
Some of these things are really easy to get disqualified in these events that you put a lot of work into like dish gardens or photography or events like that. So it's best to pay attention to those, the fine print the details.
00:42:14
Alexis
And don't bring rotten things um that should go without saying, but don't.
00:42:20
atack2010
Hey, that's a good, Alexis, that's a great point because, and we had this question I hadn't thought about a couple of years ago. They're like, well, and we have our fair, usually the last part last week of June, somewhere's in there and they're like, Oh my gosh, how am I going to preserve this tomato?
00:42:33
atack2010
So Jessica, you have any comments on that? As far as you don't necessarily, you're not bringing the thing that you showed in some cases.
00:42:39
Jessica
Yeah, especially yeah if your affair was really early in the season, you're going to try to like grow another tomato, basically, that you're going to bring in.
00:42:43
atack2010
Yeah, that's ours. Yeah.
00:42:50
Jessica
We had to, in Cloverville, remove the cabbage of class, because what people were doing was taking cabbages and freezing them.
00:42:55
Alexis
Mm.
00:42:55
atack2010
ah
00:43:00
Jessica
And then they would bring them up there to be judged, and we would watch them literally disintegrate in less than 24 hours like a melt.
00:43:03
Brett
Oh, no.
00:43:05
atack2010
Yeah.
00:43:06
Alexis
Mm. Mm.
00:43:08
Jessica
so That is no longer an option for people to submit cabbages anymore.
00:43:09
Brett
Oh, boy no!
00:43:13
atack2010
And rotten cabbage smells almost as bad as rotten potatoes.
00:43:13
Jessica
um Oh, it was it was bad.
00:43:13
Alexis
male
00:43:16
atack2010
I mean, yeah, it's right in the same glass.
00:43:17
Brett
and right
00:43:18
atack2010
Yeah, it's bad.
00:43:18
Brett
Especially frozen and thawed.
00:43:21
atack2010
Yeah.
00:43:21
Brett
It remind like it reminds me of the smell of like a cabbage fall cabbage field where you're unable to get everything out and you just leave it there to go back.
00:43:25
atack2010
Yes.
00:43:25
Alexis
yeah Oh It's a giant heart.
00:43:26
Jessica
Mm hmm.
00:43:27
atack2010
It smells up the whole community.
00:43:28
Brett
Or like people do like mustard mustard as a cover crop and then like, oh god, I feel like we're dying here.
00:43:31
Jessica
Yep.
00:43:35
Brett
Or like a daikon radish, it like a daikon radish cover crop and like, oh yeah, let it rot in the ground and create some pores and okay.
00:43:38
Alexis
yeah
00:43:45
Jessica
Yeah, so there are some things now that we have removed from the, you know, you can't you can't enter those any longer.
00:43:48
Brett
Oh, wow.
00:43:49
Alexis
Catalog.
00:43:53
Jessica
Same thing I think we did. They used to have it like they would say, enter cantaloupes, but like sliced open, right?
00:44:00
Brett
Oh.
00:44:01
Jessica
And so now we've just switched that to like you can enter them, but please don't slice them in half. Because that's not good.
00:44:08
Brett
Well, and there's there's and like, there's aspects too, because, you know, part of what we're talking about is the the idea of the lag. Like, it's not like you drop your thing off. Like in the case of the state fair, after you drop your thing off, it's sitting there for maybe a day or two before the judge gets to it.
00:44:25
Brett
And then the judge takes a look at it and then it's going to sit there for theoretically 12 more days.
00:44:29
Jessica
Mm hmm.
00:44:30
Alexis
Yeah.
00:44:30
Brett
And so that little blemish that maybe doesn't cause a problem when you pull it off the plant, bring it in your house for three days and then eat the thing.
00:44:38
Brett
By the time the judge gets to it, it's like it was fine when I left. you know sometimes Sometimes people aren't necessarily bringing a actively rotten thing, but within two days at room temperature, it becomes that.
00:44:48
atack2010
youre You're basically setting up an incubation chamber because it's pretty common to get things in Ziploc bags.
00:44:53
Alexis
Mm hmm.
00:44:54
Brett
Mm hmm.
00:44:55
atack2010
So warm, moist environment, and we see tomatoes right before our eyes develop disease, fungal and bacterial diseases, right on the tomato and get soft spots in the period of a day and a half.
00:45:01
Brett
Mm hmm.
00:45:06
atack2010
And yeah, but that's a great point, Brett.
00:45:07
Jessica
We've made the joke that sometimes when the sweet corn is entered that way.
00:45:08
atack2010
We see that a lot, yeah.
00:45:13
Jessica
And a lot of the times with Cloverville stuff, its kids are dropping them off at their county office. And then the agent is bringing is agents bringing them up.
00:45:19
atack2010
Yeah.
00:45:22
Jessica
So they've already been at the county office for a day or two. And then it takes another day to get up here. But we joke that the sweet corn sometimes, it's like already fermenting into silage time we get like the bags open.
00:45:31
Alexis
Got a, got a snail.
00:45:34
atack2010
It is literally, there's a lot of heat in it and it's starting to sour, yeah.
00:45:35
Jessica
yeah
00:45:35
Brett
All the cows are kind of sniffing the air when they come in.
00:45:37
Jessica
now
00:45:40
Alexis
Wait, I'm mostly referring to the couple times I judged and we would have terrariums or dish gardens come in that were just like, basically aquariums.
00:45:40
Brett
so when you
00:45:50
Alexis
And it's just like, that's missing, right?
00:45:54
Jessica
we
00:45:54
Alexis
Who did this?
00:45:54
Brett
just
00:45:55
Jessica
We also encourage to enter live plants. We had a dish garden this year that came in and from a distance, you were like, wow, that's impressive.
00:45:58
Alexis
Yeah, not yet.
00:46:03
atack2010
It looked really nice.
00:46:05
Jessica
And then as we got closer, we were like, wow, that's, that's plastic?
00:46:05
atack2010
Perfect.
00:46:09
atack2010
There's no living plants in there.
00:46:10
Jessica
Is that fake? And then don't worry, Ray there was standing right next to me and he reached his hand down in that jar and he poked it and he said, nope, not pokey.
00:46:20
atack2010
Nope. Plastic. Yeah, I was like, this is too perfect.
00:46:22
Jessica
And it was plastic.
00:46:23
atack2010
It's too perfect. Yeah.
00:46:24
Jessica
All the plants were fake and the whole, whole thing.
00:46:26
atack2010
Yeah. So it's, I mean, it's easy.
00:46:27
Brett
Oh, wow.
00:46:27
Jessica
So it was beautiful.
00:46:28
atack2010
I mean, it was a beautiful display, but it doesn't adhere to all of the rules that were in the state fair handbook. So there you go. Uh, so yeah, once again, details, details, details.
00:46:38
Brett
so if
00:46:40
Brett
So let's just say, so right now we're at the point where everybody's thinking, oh, this, this fair thing is actually really cool. And I have a garden or I like to bake or I like to, you know, knit or crochet or something. And I, maybe next year I'll think about getting involved in this. So as far as at the county level.
00:47:00
Brett
What's the process for getting involved? When should people be thinking about it? When should we maybe send up a flare as Hort Culture ah podcast co-hosts to our audiences to say in 2025, be thinking about your fair entries.
00:47:14
atack2010
Sooner rather than later and if you're growing things probably around February so that you can start to pick cultivars for your garden and Start to think about that call the extension office I mean some of the stuff you don't have to go that far ahead on but it's better to go early than late because if you call in too late and it turns out you have to grow something and it be in the in the container bucket garden for a certain amount of time and I mean, there's nothing you can do if you don't get ahead of that time scale. So I would say, I don't know, I know our 4-H agent starts working with the kids and I've done specialty classes January and February, like how to put together a dish garden or how to do that months ahead of the ah county and state fair.
00:47:54
Jessica
I'd say call or your extension office now and just to say, hey, when is your fair so you can get it on your calendar?
00:47:57
atack2010
o
00:48:00
atack2010
Yeah, that's a good point.
00:48:01
Jessica
And then a lot of them can probably tell you, well, this is where our fair is. This is when our catalog is you know normally released if there's been any changes to it. But I agree with Ray.
00:48:11
Jessica
like If you're going to think you're going to do something or ask for the previous year's catalog and be like, can I have an old one just to get an idea of you know
00:48:18
Brett
And so the the catalog shows you like different types of bit broad categories and then the specific subcategories that are available to enter.
00:48:26
Jessica
Yeah. Yep.
00:48:27
Brett
Is that right? Yeah. And they have one of those for the state fair as well that you can kind of look through and it'll give you, you know, give, it doesn't necessarily, ah Jessica's might be different, but it doesn't necessarily tell you like what the standards are by which the thing will be judged, but that can be found elsewhere.
00:48:42
Brett
It's more like this type of being in this number on a plain white plate is like that.
00:48:43
atack2010
um Yes.
00:48:48
Brett
That's like the type of, you know, basic information it gives you.
00:48:51
atack2010
Yeah.
00:48:51
Brett
But, uh, so yeah, start thinking about it now. And then. Ballparking when, when is it usual that the The catalogs come out. Is it sometime in like the spring or.
00:49:02
atack2010
Uh, it's usually at least, uh, it's several weeks before Kano County fairs. Some, some counties get them out a little bit ahead of time. Hours is usually out three to four weeks beforehand.
00:49:13
Jessica
Ours our is now out by the 1st of May because we we have an online registration system and um that opens July 1st for like three weeks for people to register their items.
00:49:18
Brett
Oh, wow. Cool.
00:49:29
Jessica
So we get it out pretty early. We're actually next week have a county fair follow-up meeting for people who have any suggestions on changes or things that worked or things that didn't work um for next year's fair.
00:49:43
Brett
That's great. There's no banned Betty coalition forming. Is there?
00:49:46
Jessica
No, Betty's wonderful.
00:49:46
Brett
Okay. Okay. Well, that's good. I just didn't know if we needed to go out and, you know, I thought so.
00:49:50
Jessica
She's like 92 and she's just like killing it.
00:49:52
Alexis
Thank you, Betty.
00:49:52
Jessica
She's like rocking it out.
00:49:53
atack2010
The t-shirt say Betty is the best so yeah be like Betty bet on Betty It's a safe bet
00:49:54
Jessica
Great. Yeah.
00:49:57
Brett
Bet, bet on Betty.
00:49:58
Jessica
Bet on Betty.
00:49:59
Brett
Uh,
00:50:00
Alexis
It sounds like it's a good bet to make.
00:50:02
Brett
Yeah, yeah. Well, I like the idea of like, Oh, can I see the one from last year? And you can kind of get a sense of what it looks like. And I think overall, sometimes people get a little nervous about the process. It's overall pretty simple process to get him get, you know, get involved.
00:50:13
Alexis
um
00:50:14
Brett
And maybe the first year you figure out what it looks like, and you'll learn like, Oh, I really should have, you know, waited to pick, or I should have kept these in the fridge longer, or I should have done whatever, any number of things. But I've really, I really enjoyed the times that I um was involved with the fair.
00:50:29
Brett
And Um, I've loved to hear, like love to learn more about just how involved like the extension at the county level and state level, both are in this is really, uh, I dunno, it's a fun thing that feels connected back to this, like ah historical agricultural legacy in Kentucky. And it feels, it feels like small in a way, like it it feels like the small networked communities coming together to make something big is a really cool part of the part of it for me.
00:51:00
atack2010
good stuff. Even if you're not involved in agriculture, you can go and either learn about agriculture, eat a giant corn dog, or just ride a carnival ride or listen to some good music, depending on where you're at. so And that was a conversation I mentioned at the very beginning of the podcast episode here today. is um I was having a conversation with friends, and I told the person, if you've never been involved in agriculture, go anyways. It is a um both on a county and state level. It's a community event, and it's a good, especially on a state level,
00:51:29
atack2010
a good time to learn about other communities around the state as well as all the agriculture, animal and livestock, you know, exhibits and crop exhibits and things like that. So you don't have to be involved directly in agriculture or even have a entry that you've made to really have a good time at the fair.
00:51:47
Alexis
good old fashioned family fun, like really though.
00:51:51
atack2010
You are ready with that.
00:51:52
Jessica
Yeah, really, yeah.
00:51:52
atack2010
You are ready.
00:51:53
Alexis
Really though, really old fashioned family fun.
00:51:56
atack2010
Yeah.
00:51:56
Alexis
Awesome. Well, um, yes, we hope you go check out your fair wherever you are located and maybe check out your county fair. If you're in Kentucky or, you know, wherever you are, whatever style of fair that they do.
00:52:10
Alexis
But, uh, and if you want to get involved, the the easiest route to go as someone who from experience has had to ask, uh, contact your county agent and they will get you on the right track.
00:52:20
Alexis
It's usually something pretty easy for them to answer. and they would love to have you because the more entries in county fair, ah the more fun it usually is to see all the great things happening in the county. But ah if you have any questions about that, or maybe maybe you're like, why didn't my giant zucchini win? Or how do I grow better zucchini? You can always shoot us an email. ah That's hortculturepodcast.l.uky.edu. You can also find us on Instagram.
00:52:49
Alexis
at Hort Culture podcast. ah You can leave us a review and tell us that you won blue at the state fair or the county fair or maybe just that you entered or what your favorite thing you ate at the fair was. All of those would be wonderful. If you would like to to do that, we would appreciate it. It helps other people find us. and I think that's all we've got for you today. so We hope as we grow this podcast, you will grow with us and that you'll join us next time. Have a good one.