Document text
It's ready, but will they come? Photo by Jim Craven Stacey Beskow, 17, left, of Medford, along with Tina Filice of Mountain View, Calif. and her friends Samantha McCoy and Samantha's mother, Linda McCoy, of Medford, were among those lining up Saturday morning for entry judging for the 1999 Jackson County Fair. Fair's still exhibits are serious business Adults and kids vie for ribbons, cash BY DANI DODGE To bake the best bread possible for her fair entry Saturday morning, Stacey Beskow, 17, got up at 6 to grind her own wheat. It seemed to do the trick. "Your bread is well done," said Doreen Bradshaw, a judge in the 4-H portion of the this year's Jackson County fair entries. "Good flavor, texture and uniform color. "You've done a nice job." The 1999 "Fair to Remember" begins Tuesday. Fair officials expect more than 150,000 people to attend the six-day event. Saturday, people began lining up at 10 a.m. to enter their cakes, photos and quilts into this year's competitions. Fair officials estimate more than 1,400 people will enter the 4-H and home economics contests in this year's fair. They vie for ribbons, prizes and money. More are entering their chickens, cows and pigs into the livestock categories. "We are up dramatically, both in still exhibits and the livestock exhibits," said fair manager Chris Borovansky. Saturday brought all sorts of people with all sorts of things: a frosted cake shaped like a ladybug with one licorice leg already falling off, photographs of lakes, embroidered baby bibs. Some people gingerly carried in their creations as if it were fine china (and some were), while others just piled their entries into battered laundry baskets. For many, trooping down to the fairground is a family tradition. Ten-year-old Nadine Arkens of Central Point had both her mother and grandmother in tow when she took her chocolate chip tea cookies and a watercolor painting in for judging. Her mother had entered a painting in the fair at about the same age, and Grandma had entered sewn clothing for the fair in her youth. "There's so much commercialism at the fair, but this is what it's really about," said Nadine's mom, Kimberly Arkens. Nadine's grandmother, Linda Harris, felt entering the fair helps build self-esteem and confidence in children. "They will take their places in society someday and this is a stepping stone into that," she said. Nadine just thought it was fun -- especially eating the batter while she made the cookies Saturday morning. But fair entries weren't just kid stuff. Lois Voss, 62, of Medford, said she's entered baked goods and quilts into the fair nearly every year. "It's part of an American tradition," said the retired secretary. Saturday she was loaded down with a quilt and four baked entries: pumpkin bread, applesauce raisin-batter bread, oatmeal cake and banana bar cookies. She started baking the night before. "It wasn't really no trouble until my oven got overflowed, and then it got to smoking, and oh no," Voss said. Beskow entered a red plaid wool jacket she had sewn along with some candy and her bread. As the judge poked and prodded and sniffed the bread, she asked nutritional questions, such as where does the bread fit on the food pyramid, and how many servings of fruits and vegetables are recommended each day. Beskow, in her eighth year of competition, answered these with poise and ease. Then, Beskow queried the judge on how to make her bread better in the future. She was eager to use the new techniques the judge suggested. "If it wasn't for the fair, I might not be cooking and sewing," she surmised. "This makes me work all year learning and trying to do my best." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA