Pies for the Fair: Part 2

Four pies all ready to go to the Clallam County Fair.

After a few hours of sleep (remember I was up until 3AM baking!), I could hear the kitchen calling to me to tidy up, both me and the counters!

The pie baking session had gone long and late pie the night before and I had a blast doing it. Kind of like revisiting what it was like pulling an all-nighter before a college final.

By 11AM I had the pies, safely tucked one to a basket, into to the back of Emily, my blue Prius.

Just as I was about to leave for the short journey to the fairgrounds, one of my neighbors drove by and wished me well which brought a smile to my face and gave me a boost of confidence.

Once I got there, there was the challenge of getting all four pies into the Home Arts building.  I must have looked a site walking in with pie baskets hung over each arm and one in each hand.

It wasn’t too far down the main path, and walking slowly and carefully, lest I trip and enter fruit crumbles instead of pies, I made it to the entry table.

There were entry papers to fill out for each pie. Nerves must have really been setting in since I seemed to no longer know how to spell.

I finally got the papers completed and turned them into the fair official, a very kind smiling woman who assured me that the pies would pie well taken care of. Even so, leaving them felt a lot like leaving my babies off for their first day of school.

Then the waiting.

The judging wasn’t until the next morning and results…well, I would know on the first day of the Fair. That day couldn’t come soon enough for me, but I had plenty to do until then and tried not to think too much about my pies.

Come Thursday, I was out at the Fairgrounds by 11:30AM and back in the Home Arts Building.

The baked goods were all together in the back RH corner of a long room that houses, in addition to baking, the sewing, quilting, jewelry making, and canning to name a few.

Not wanting to appear too anxious, I walked slowly around the three sided case full of pies and other baked goods. I saw one pie, the blueberry, with a blue ribbon tucked under the white paper plate that held the slice that had been cut for display . Looking further on, the rhubarb, with one too and next to it, the blackberry with another blue. Three blue ribbons!

But, I couldn’t find the pie that last pie…the sour cherry… that I baked when something inside me said “do just one more.”

I asked the fair official. She thought it had to be there somewhere. So, I went back and searched again.

How could I have missed it! There it was, that late night, sour cherry pie made with Roger’s Montmorency cherries; the first pie in the case, sitting on the top shelf with not only a blue ribbon but a big green and white one for Best in Show!

Wow!