As I wandered through the glass cases of the Hamilton County Fair’s Arts and Crafts building in a heat-induced stupor, my eyes glassy and perhaps a bit crazed (like the prize-winning cows located several hundred feet to my left), all I could see amongst the displays of vegetables, embroideries and canned preserves were the silky reds and blues of the prize ribbons.—-
It was my first time in 17 years of living in Hamilton County that I attended the fair that so-lovingly honors the 413 square miles I call home. And I couldn’t stop thinking about how much this trip reminded me of my childhood hero, Laura Ingalls Wilder, and the time she went to the fair with her Pa. My inner 9-year-old, who read the entire Little House on the Prairie series at least four times, was squealing with joy at the prospect of entering something into a contest the next year.
And now, here I am at 18, realizing my nine-year-old dream of becoming a pie-baking, braid-wearing, log cabin-living (maybe not yet…) prairie girl.
My goal is to have two good pies to enter into both the Apple and Fruit Pie contests this Saturday. While all other contest entries were due prior to the start of the fair, the pie contest does not occur until the last day. Pies are due between 11 a.m. and noon and are judged soon after.
Of course, I’ve had a couple obstacles to overcome. First, I had never made a pie entirely from scratch before I took on this endeavor three weeks ago, so it seemed like I would need a bit of practice. Second, I recently spent an entire week suffering from the effects of a nasty summer cold. Both factors have amounted to a limited time frame to get these pies into prize-winning shape.
Because of these setbacks, I have essentially had only three days to make as much pie as possible. This may sound impossible, but hey, I’m a college student and it’s summer, what else am I supposed to do with my time?
Stay tuned as I blog my progress of my full transformation into Laura Ingalls Wilder. Does anyone have an extra bonnet they can lend me?
Because my $10 exhibitor’s ticket got me up to 25 item entries I decided to enter a few other random items:
A photo I took on a summer visit to The Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden
Cream puffs — the only other food item I can make with any skill. (Thank you seventh grade Creative Cooking class.)
And a banana bread — it just sounded good. I would have entered more things, but unfortunately my cattle were just not up to snuff this year…
CityBeat intern Michela Tindera will document her preparation for the Hamilton County Fair’s pie contest throughout the week. The contest takes place Saturday. She’s probably going to win it.
This article appears in Aug 10-16, 2011.