We do not belong to 4H, nor or we farmers in the sense that we rely on our bounty for profit.  However, we are a creative bunch that likes to get our hands dirty in the earth and create projects, and what better way to celebrate these than to participate in the county fair.

I know we all have memories from childhood, the midway rides the animals, and cotton candy on a stick.  I just love the fair, I am a cowgirl at  heart.  Every year we take the kids to look at the animals and get a milkshake from the diary trailer.

Now that the kids are a little older we have started a new tradition of entering projects garden grown goodies.

The 3 older kids entered their Lego projects and were given participation ribbons.

Santanna’s Project and her ribbon.

Raiven’s project and her ribbon.

The little girls also entered onions and kohlrabis:

Santanna’s first place kohlrabis.

Avalon’s 3rd place red onions.

Solomon entered red mulberry jam and won first place.  I am so proud of him, he spend at lest 4 hours harvesting the berries from a tree in my mom’s back yard, then he rinsed them, took the stems, off and followed a no cook freezer jam recipe.

I entered the growth chart into an adult woodworking hobby category, I was very pleased to receive a second place ribbon.

The kids take from this experience a pride in participation.  They were very gracious about each others winnings and were already buzzing about what to make next year, taking inspiration from so many wonderful other projects on display.

We did also earn $4.50 in prize money, just enough for one more milkshake…or Tom Thumb donuts….mmmmmm, fair food!

It is such fun participating in the fair and it always seem to come and go so quickly.  Can’t wait until next year!!