Special Column for the Salisbury Post

Darrell Blackwelder

September 10, 2001

As you enter the educational buildings and livestock barns on the fairgrounds, your attention is soon focused toward a wave of colorful ribbons that mark exhibits or even a cattle stall. Each ribbon represents an achievement of the owners for others to marvel-from the calf that was raised to a productive milk cow to the plate of okra that was nurtured through the summer drought.Many different and unusual wares will be on display for competition at the Rowan County Fair. Each entry brought to the fair for competition will be carefully scrutinized and judged before ribbons and prizes are awarded.

On Tuesday morning of the fair an army of judges convene to look at every single entry brought into the fair. It is the responsibility of Cooperative Extension and the department directors to procure qualified judges for the fair.Judges are usually Cooperative Extension agents or experienced producers are experts with proven experience. Most of the judgesare chosen out of county to control any bias in the judging process.

Every entry in the 12 departments, from granny's handmade quilts to a young daughter's first batch of chocolate chip cookies, is judged in competition. Determining the placement of the entries can be a grueling task and often quite subjective. Judging begins at 9:00 a.m. on Tuesday morning and often goes into the afternoon in some divisions.Lambs, beef and dairy animals are judged later during the week in the evening.

In certain instances, horticultural displays offer a unique challenge for the judge. The judge must often place fruit or vegetables entered that is often harvested from the same vine or plant.Judging ten plates of peppers or green beans that appear to be almost identical in size, shape and color can be tax the most persnickety judge.

The over-riding criteria that remains consistant is to determine that the entries are in fact true to type. In other words, a tomato entry should look like a typical tomato of that particular variety.For example, a 2pound `Better Boy' tomato is certainly worthy as an entry, but it is not representative of this tomato variety. Entries that are not uniform, unusually large, or riddled with insects or diseases are eliminated first.Entries with plates of 3 or 5 should be almost identical in size and shape.

At times it's a toss up as to how to place certain entries. The most difficult category I have ever judged was pecans at a nearby county fair.I had to judge 10 entries of unshelled pecans in clear jars. Each entry was perfect and appeared to be the same size, color and shape.

It would seem that the judges for the baked goods would have the best job as a judge. After all, each entry must be tasted for flavor and texture. One soon looses their enthusiasm after the first 10 or 15 chocolate chip cookies or an entry that looks good but flavor is the work of a novice baker.