Oh the Shame

It's taken me weeks to write about it, but with my held once again held high, I'll let you know my Arkansas State Fair results. As you may remember, I won a big momma prize at the county fair and at the district fair. So of course the next natural step is the Arkansas State Fair. I wasn't expecting to win, but once you've won 2 big momma ribbons in one fair season you kinda get the feeling it's not impossible. At the state fair the items that won Best of Show or Grand Champion at county or district fair get a special upgrade points wise. If you have no clue what I'm talking about the shortest way to explain it is that everything gets points and the points add up to the ribbons and money you win. So your big momma ribbon winners get extra points at state fair, which automatically sets all those winners above all the other stuff that is entered. So all my stuff that didn't win any big momma ribbons automatically lost to my stuff that had won them the minute I walked through the door.

It's now been several weeks since I got the results from the state fair, and no I'm not crushed, but I didn't win the big momma ribbon. I am so proud of my peaches and dried strawberries!

My peaches won 2nd place in the canned peaches class! I'm supper excited about this because I usually have canned peach issues, but this year I cut the into slices instead of halves, which worked a lot better for me. I tended to have a lot of floating to the top and touching the lid when I did halves. This year I also used a different recipe, not that it matters to the fair since it didn't look any different. But I used honey and water this year instead of sugar and water.

And my dried strawberries that won the Grand Champion ribbon at the county fair won 1st place in the dried foods class!

One problem did happen though. One of my entries was either broken when there was a mass avalanche of jars the day before the fair opened, or someone took it as their own (I'm going to assume on accident). So I didn't come home with my hot pickled vegetables. Could have been worse though, could have broken them all.

So now that 2009 fair season is over I've started planning for 2010 already of course! I already have one thing I plan on canning that I randomly did one morning. I realize I'm not the first to add sugar to chopped up peaches, but hey, next time I plan on adding maybe some cinnamon or a tiny bit of vanilla; maybe even nutmeg. Maybe I'll say it's a peach chutney. I'm not sure yet, but it was damn good on whole wheat waffles instead of syrup.

District Fair!

After the county fair I took my things to the district fair. I entered the exact things I entered in the county fair...have to go by the rules ya know!

I got 3 red ribbons and 9 blue ribbons! And holy cow again, another dehydrated entry won! My dried strawberries won Best of Show!

Now all of my entries are at the state fair with the exception of the hot pickled mixed vegetables. Nothing was wrong with that entry, but at the state fair you are only allowed 1 entry per class. This is usually fine, but I tend to make unique things that don't have their own class, such as the canned peaches class, so it gets complicated when I have multiple items that only fit into wildcard classes. The pickled mushrooms and the hot pickled mixed vegetables both only fit in the wildcard pickled class...which means I had to kick one out. I had gotten a comment on the back of my tag at district that the veggies were a little too full, so I let that be the deciding factor. Also, the pickled mushrooms tend to get some attention because they are so different and are packed in oil. My mother says they look like alien brains.

I'll be picking up my items at the state fair at the end of October, so I'll update you then. Honestly, I'd love to get the trifecta!

County Fair!

The next few posts will be catch up posts. I don't have pictures of the exact jars I entered into the fair this year because they are currently at the state fair...but they'll eventually be back at the end of October and I'll get some pictures up then.

This year I entered some selections from this years canning into the county fair as I have done for the past 3 years now. I entered 13 things, which freaked me out at first because of the number 13, but I got over it. For the first time ever I entered 3 things into the dried food categories:

Dried Basil
Dried Onions
Dried Strawberries

I entered 10 things into the other canning categories:

Pomegranate Jelly
Hot Pickled Mixed Vegetables
Pickled Jalapenos
Pickled Beets
Pickled Okra
Pickled Mushrooms
Bread and Butter Pickles
Chow Chow
Canned Cherries
Canned Peaches

I don't enter fairs to win necessarily, though it's always nice to have your skills validated.

This year I won 12 blue ribbons!

My canned cherries got a special certificate from Ball!

And holy cow! My dried onions won Grand Champion of the food preservation class! Of all things....this was by far the easiest thing I did this year.There are many ways to dry onions, but all I did to mine was slice them about 1/4 of an inch thick, pull the rings apart, and dehydrate them in my food dehydrator. I had the dehydrator on for about 8-12 hours. I never kept track of the time, I just monitored them for the color and texture I wanted. After I thought they were done I let them cool in the dehydrator for a day and then just put them in jars so they wouldn't get crushed.

The Well-Read Gardener is Back!

I've decided after a hiatus to bring back The Well-Read Gardener. I'll be going back to focusing on gardening, food preservation (mainly canning and dehydrating), some recipes here and there, and a few random product reviews. I can't promise a post every day or even every other day, but I'll do my best to post regularly.

A lot of good things have happened since my last post back in July. I'll catch everyone (who's still left) up to speed as soon as I get home from a work related convention.

Alienated in Arkansas

I've always been a yellow dog Democrat. I'm very liberal. Liberal to the point that most people around here would say I'm an "extremist." If wanting everyone to have a chance in life to be happy, be with whomever they want, and help to be available to those in need is extreme then I guess I'm on the 'fringe' and 'extreme.'

But I don't think I'm the only one in Arkansas who feels betrayed by the leadership we elected. The only backbone we've sent to Washington lately is Congressman Vic Snyder. Sadly, he does not represent me. Congressman John Boozman does. A Republican who hasn't gotten anything done for Northwest Arkansas...ever. Maybe I should be glad about that since he's a Republican. Then you have Congressmen Mike Ross and Marion Berry. I think a phrase I've been hearing a lot lately describes them perfectly; 'who needs Republicans when you've got Democrats like these.' Representing the poorest parts of the state, they've basically told them all to go to hell on health care reform. I have no doubt they'll all get re-elected. As long as you call yourself a Democrat, talk about your love of guns and your hate for gays, you're pretty much golden in most of the state...except maybe Benton County who wouldn't elect a Democrat if you said you were taking away Walmart. I've heard that I should just be glad we have Democrats up there and not all Republicans. What does it matter when they all vote Republican anyway?! Democrats misrepresenting their party and their state...just makes me sick.

Then you have Senators Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor. Mark Mark Mark...all I can say is, you are not your daddy. Not even 1/4 your daddy. Senator Lincoln has said she hasn't decided if she's support Sonia Sotomayor and Senator Pryor has said he probably will, but he's not completely sure yet. Seriously?! Consider any future contributions I would have made to your campaigns void. As for voting for you...I'll probably leave it blank. That makes me so sad.

I'm off my soapbox now.

Rose question

My grandma's rose garden is having some difficulties. Since I really know nothing about rose gardening I thought I'd ask everyone else thinking someone will know why this is happening and a possible solution.

What look like little Japanese beetles and tiny flies have been invading her roses. If there is a large bud that is about to the point of needing to be deadheaded the gather in the flower. I swatted at one I was about to deadhead anyway and they all attacked me!

Sometimes there are just a few and they are down in a rose that hasn't even blossomed yet.

But most of the time its many of them clumped together. It might be a little less weird if there were only 1 insect involved, but there are clearly flies here too.

This picture is not the worst of it. The worst one was yesterday. A bright pink rose that was so covered you couldn't tell what color it was. Most of the leaves are fine, but on some of the bushes the leaves have lots of tiny rusty holes.

If you have any idea what is going on here or any solution to the problem please let me know. My grandma's answer is Sevendust...but I say no thanks if I can help it.

Everything is starting to bloom and produce! The zucchini and yellow squash have blooms...

....and the soybeans are getting fuzzy!

I've picked a handful of green beans in the last day or so and my volunteer cucumber plant has given me 3 pickling cucumbers so far. They taste just as fabulous as they did last year when I planted them intentionally!