County Fair

One of the highlights of summer around these parts is the Northeast Washington Fair held in Colville at the end of each August.  This quaint fair focuses primarily on nurturing future farmers and ranchers, as is evident by the sight of countless small children leading their favorite animals around a show ring.  There are numerous barns at the fairgrounds (cow, sheep, pig, horse, and the ever popular dog and cat barn), as well as a robust youth hall containing exhibits of crafts, food and other projects made by children under 14.  There's the inevitably unhealthy (but sinfully delicious) fair food, and lots of local entertainment sporting varying degrees of talent.  We were especially delighted to cheer on several of our friend's children this year, and we are thinking that it might be time for Annabel to show some of our sheep next summer.  

 Lastly, there is a small building devoted to adults who want to showcase their country abilities as well.  After some nudging from Jordan's mom and a few others, I entered some of my canned goods into the fair.  I'm not a particularly fastidious canner, so I was fairly certain that I would have points deducted for errors in headspace, color, cleanliness, etc.  Imagine my surprise when I discovered a blue ribbon next to each of my entries:  strawberry vanilla jam, apricot sauce and cherry marmalade.

OK, OK.  Before you get too excited, I have to confess that almost every entry in the food preservation category boasted a blue ribbon, but we'll just keep that our little secret, shall we?