By MELANIE BRUBAKER MAZUR
TIMES EDITOR
The La Plata County Fair offers grand opportunities for one of my favorite things ever - eating really decadent food.
Priding myself on being both a farm girl and a county resident, I try to support the local food stands first. I usually start on Friday at the Grange concession stand in the exhibit hall. After years of experience, I can highly recommend the Frito pie, hamburgers, sloppy joes...oh heck, it's made by Grange kids and moms and dads, so it's all good.
For dessert, I wander around and check out all of the baked goods that have been entered in the fair. Unfotunately, you can't eat them, but they do look tasty. Every year I threaten to bake a pie to enter in the fair on Wednesday, and every year I get home at 8 or so Tuesday night having hauled my kids to various sports practices, and every year I say, "oh well, there's next year."
But one of these years, I'll actually do it.
As for my actual dessert, I can go back to the Grange stand, which usually has yummy homemade cinnamon rolls or cookies, or there are delectable fried goods outside available from the vendors.
For dinner that night, I usually get barbecue.
One year when I was covering the Alaska State Fair, the kids were out showing their prize hogs and steers, and the announcer was going on about how if you wanted to buy one of these prize animals, Bob's Slaughtering would haul it away for you and you could pick up your nice bacon or steaks all wrapped up in white paper bundles in a week or two.
I might have been going through my first pregnancy at the time, but for some reason I burst into tears and thought that was just the saddest thing and I was never going to eat meat again.
About 15 minutes later, the smell of barbecue came wafting over and I thought, "Mmm, that smells good," and a short time later, I was eating some.
My career as a vegetarian was pretty brief.
On Saturday at the fair, I usually pull out all the stops and eat all things fried - corn dogs, french fries, candy bars - you name it.
By Sunday, I've sworn off fried foods and come home that night and eat a salad. At least it's August, and we still have nice fresh garden produce available.
So let's enjoy those Palisade peaches and Olathe corn and New Mexico and Alamosa chiles while we can, and while w're at it, let's support those local kids as they show their animals on Saturday. If you can't afford to buy a whole animal, the add-on program is a great way to give an FFA or 4H kid $20 or $50 and help support their agricultural efforts.
See you at the fair this weekend, and thanks for reading.
