Labor Day Weekend (it deserves to be in capitals) was so BEAUTIFUL, weather-wise. The kind of weather you dream of, in January. What you imagine an idyllic summer day to be.
I have so much to catch up on!
This year I was fortunate enough to attend our State Fair, not once, but twice. While I am still waiting for my sis to share her fab pictures of our day (send them along, Heather!) I do have a few pics Mike took with his Iphone to celebrate our State Fair Date (since Charlie refuses to join us any longer-you can read all about my dismay over this, from last year, here: http://ohfercute.blogspot.com/2010/09/great-minnesota-get-together.html)
At the Minnesota State Fair, you can be the king of Spam. (I don't know about you, but I am not a fan of Spam, if you are, you can order deep fried Spam curds....)
This year, I finally found the butter sculptor. Hard to believe I have been going to the fair this long and had not found her. The slabs are 90 lbs of butter, and she sculpts all of the dairy princesses, in a slowly rotating glass display, I think the temp is 40 degrees. She is AMAZING! The princesses get to keep their sculptures after the fair. I have heard that one of them in the past used the butter for a community corn feed! What would YOU do with that much butter?
I always check out the Fine Art building, there are some amazingly talented people in our state. Mike and I both marveled over this sculpture, created from a single piece of wood. I wish you could see the incredible detail of this piece, it was overwhelming (and full size, though you can't see it in this photo):
The crowd favorite was this sculpture, made completely from return address labels! I think the reason it created such a stir, is that it was made from something so mundane, that many of us just toss in the recycling bin. It was made by an aunt of my good friend, Mike Lane. Far less than six degrees of separation here.....
As we wandered through the grounds, we came across the ARMCA trailer. As we walked in, we saw something familiar. They were showing Mike's latest enduro movie "Endless Sunday"! How cool is THAT? Mike has officially been featured at the Minnesota State Fair.
The Horticulture building is one of my favorites (not just because I can sit for a really long time and enjoy Minnesota wine), it has beehives, and honey ice cream, crop art (this picture is made of SEEDS-yes, it completely deserved the Reserve Champion prize, incredible!)
wonderful scarecrows (this one was my favorite-the head is a gourd with amaranth as the hair!),
Christmas trees, fresh apples
(the frozen apple cider is a MUST on a hot fair day), and flour sacks.
I learned a lot about flour sacks. Turns out, if you take your time, and stop to talk to the people who are staffing the fair, you can learn so much.
Back in the day, ages ago, each company had their own logo for their flour and seed sacks. But, knowing that industrious housewives were re-using the sacks to make aprons, and curtains, and clothing, the ink that was used on the sacks was water soluble. So the first time the sack went into that week's washing, the advertising went away and it became quite usable fabric.
Which leads to the fact that today, there are very few flour and seed sacks remaining with the actual company logo on them, and are quite collectible. Who knew? I tell you, every year the state fair teaches me something new. You may go for the food, but if you are watchful, you can learn something too!
And unfortunately, I don't have a photo, but this year my favorite NEW fair food was the caprese on a stick, at Giggles. It was served on fresh greens and with an amazing wild rice cranberry salad. We had it with some walleye fingers, and I have every intention of trying to recreate that salad on my own. YUM!
Hoping you are compiling your own summer memories....
The lady's expression on the wooden sculpture is so detailed. I love it.
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