County fair open class awaiting entries

The Jamestown Sun

At the first Stutsman County Fair 111 years ago, city and county residents brought their homemade and homegrown items hoping to win a blue ribbon. And this year, as it has every year since then, it will happen again.

Although it's been called by different names through the years, Home and Hobby -- the open class exhibit -- remains a major piece of the county fair. At the 2006 fair, close to 1,200 items were judged and exhibited. Despite getting close to capacity in the building, Home and Hobby superintendents like Ann Kern encourage young and old residents to participate.

That means getting a flier and filling out the entry form at the back. Then bring the entry form and examples of food, flowers, needlework, craft, crops or art to the Russ Melland building Tuesday between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.

"We have fliers all over town with sponsors, and at the county extension office and both city and county libraries," Kern said. "There's still time to enter."

Sponsors include Country Gardens, Fabric Warehouse and Don's House of Flowers locally, Valley Meat Supply in Valley City and Edgeley Meats in Edgeley. Many sponsors provide a special award for winners in various categories.

Kern, who has been a superintendent for more years than she cares to remember, still gets excited about what's going to be entered each year and how many entries they will have.

"We never have a clue if we're going to get a lot or a little," she said. "But we usually get more than we anticipate."

Last year, flowers and fresh fruit entries were much more numerous than expected. The weather was hot and dry, but apparently the flowers and fruit didn't suffer. This year the heavy rains could have been a problem, especially for crops, another category in the open class exhibit.

"I understand the crops look really, really good this year, so we're hoping they'll bring them in," Kern said. "Last year crops were down because it was so dry."

After the fair each year, the categories and the number of entries are evaluated. Kern said they try to weed out categories that no longer have any entries, or decide what, if anything to do with them. Most of the time they opt to keep them.

"Some things were really popular when I started, then they died off and now are coming back," she said. "And it doesn't cost anything to keep a category."

At the same time new interests create a demand for their own categories. The superintendents will create a new one if there are enough like entries in the catch-all category "any other." That's how the new homemade jerky category came to be. It's a subgroup under the dried meats category.

"We'll see how it goes. There are quite a few making jerky now, so we thought we'd try it," she said. "Anyone who enters jerky needs to have two pieces -- one for the judge to sample and one to show."

A suggestion for a sourdough bread category doesn't yet merit a category of its own, but Kern said the breads category does have a category called "any other." As with jerky, jewelry entries grew to such an extent in the "any other" grouping, a new jewelry category was created. That has turned out to be very popular, she said.

Quilting appears to have taken on new life, especially in the junior class of those age 16 and under. A new category was added in junior quilting to accommodate the growing interest.

"Quilting seems to be a real big thing now," Kern said.

Making sure the categories reflect area interests ends up being quite a task.

"It keeps you on your toes to stay up on what people are doing," she said.

The cooking with honey category is in its second year at the open class exhibit. Kern said the category had a good showing in its debut year, with quite a bit of competition.

The adult and junior art categories now include a subgroup of mixed media. It was especially needed for the juniors, Kern said, who often mix pencil and crayons or markers, for example, in their artwork.

The wildflower category has been changed to the native prairie flowers category. Kern said seed companies sell a wildflower mix, but that's not what the category was meant to be.

Other than a reminder to have the entry form filled out before heading to the fairgrounds Tuesday, there are no other dos and don'ts this year.

"It goes so much faster and easier if the form is filled out," she said. "And everyone needs to remember take out for entries is Sunday from 8 a.m. to noon."