The Centennial Challenge:
Some fair organizers meet the challenge to entre crafts and foods in 14 categories
As you enter the Still Life exhibits barn at the Evergreen State Fair, the first thing you may notice is the stack of doll heads on a long table in the center of the room, where crafters are giving a doll-making demonstration. Behind that and all around it are exhibits that look like a cross between Laura Ingalls Wilder’s home and Martha Stewart’s studio. There are 14 categories in which homemade foods and crafts are shown, and each display area is governed by a superintendent. That person, an expert in his or her category, decorates the display area,
takes in the the entries, and
organizes the rules and the judging.
This year, the fair threw out a
challenge to the 14 superintendents;
enter an exhibit in each of the 14
categories. Five did it, including
Kathleen Wright, of Monroe,
superintendent of the open baking
class. At first, she was daunted by
the enormity of the challenge.
“We had a picnic on July 4, and I said
’t going to take the Superintendent’s
”she said, ensconced in her apron-
“But the competitive spirit kicked in
’ll try.”
Of the 14 categories, Wright was expert in several and competent in a few more. Some, she had to learn. “I learned how to felt for the handspinning and weaving class,” she said. “I learned how to make cordials for the homemade beverages.”
She created a felt purse, and invented a cordial, or homemade alcoholic beverage, called the 44 Cordial. “I took an orange and poked 44 holes in it and filled each one with a coffee bean,” she said. “I put it in white rum and let it soak for 44 days, and added 44 teaspoons of sugar.” The cordial took second place in beverages, in which Wright was beat by her own daughter, who won first prize with a raspberry cordial.
In canning, Wright took best of show with canned carrots with dill and red pepper.
In photography, she took a red ribbon (entries aren’t judged against each other but against a score sheet. Those that achieve 90% and up get blue, 80% and up, red, and 70% and up white) for a snow scene. She keeps bees, so the honey category was not a problem for her, but she gave beeswax to other superintendents who don’t keep bees so they could enter wax candles in the class.
Wright, a Midwest city girl who didn’t learn country skills till her marriage brought her to a Snohomish County farm, did an educational display on gluten-free baking, then beautifully wrapped a gift as an entry to the craft division.
For the food contest, she took first place with fried chicken. She prepared a recipe from America’s Test Kitchen, and prepared it wearing a poignant tribute to a lost friend. “I wore Dougie’s apron,” she said. Doug Moening, wife of devoted fair organizer Stephanie Moening, died this year of a heart attack, and his loss was felt by everyone in the fair community, said Wright.
In the baking division, she entered a brownie recipe. “It’s just a really good brownie,” she said. “It’s the kind you can layer in a mix in a jar and give as gifts.” She won a blue ribbon and a merit award for that.
In horticulture, she entered a table setting, and in knitting, lace and crochet, she entered a socks and “wristlettos,” or little lacy cuffs to wear on the wrists in cold weather.
In sewing, she created a fabric bowl suitable for fruit, and in needlework, she created a tea hat, complete with tea bags stitched to it, which won her recognition for creativity.
And in the heritage category, in which one displays a traditional skill, she made butter and molded it in an antique butter-pat maker, which looks like a wooden cup with a cookie cutter shape taken out of the bottom.
It took weeks to put the entries together, she said. And she learned a lot while doing it. “It really challenged us, forced us to stretch out,” she said. “And it’s scary to put yourself out there, but if keeps us in touch with what it feels like to enter, thinking ‘I wonder what I’ll get, I hope I do well.’”
As much work as Wright did, one other woman did even more. Shelley Mairs of Snohomish entered 96 entries, including 24 jams and jellies, 24 dried items, 24 flavored vinegars, 24 mixes, and a few other things.
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The contest tightened up an already tight-knit group of people, people that Wright calls a “fair family.”So just before the challenge went underway, Wright completed her last entry, a poem that she wrote for the fine arts division.
Called “The Centennial Challenge,” it is about the experience of the competition.
The Centennial Challenge
by Kathleen Wright
A wonderful, master contest was born;
A contest for people to toot their own horn.
Enter each department, no easy task;
But, should you win, in the limelight you’ll bask.
Start out small, do a little each day;
A game plan was hatched by some who would play.
While others overwhelmed, couldn’t set a course;
As due dates arrived they began working like a horse.
Some entries had beauty for the eye to behold;
While others were held together with glitter of gold.
Stretched beyond limits, the competitors they grew;
Deepening old friendships and starting some new.
In laughter and fun they all made a run;
The prize basket and ribbon that said you’ve won!