I’m a week behind on reporting what a great time I had as a judge at the Avery A & H Fair. However, subsequent – and hopefully unrelated events – put me down for a few days and now I’m playing catch up.

There were just too many fun facts to report from the fair that I couldn’t ignore my opportunity to share, even a little late and even if it means no recipes this week. Forgive me?

Columnist Sherrie Norris judges a pie, albeit by force, at the Avery A&H Fair. Photo submitted

Coincidentally, I’m sure, four days after I spent a day closely observing, taste-testing and learning a lot about what goes on behind the scenes of a county fair, I ended up in the hospital with some pretty serious allergic reactions to something yet to be determined.

A couple of ER visits and consequential admission to Watauga Medical Center, loaded down with prednisone (or should I say bloated up with it!) has placed me on the road to recovery or, hopefully, discovery from what I need to keep my distance.

Life is full of surprises with little stumbling blocks along the way that help us keep things in perspective.

A lovely, crisp Tuesday morning at the fairgrounds was a day to remember with folks like Debbie Smith, Tres Manger, Jerry Moody and others working hard to pull off another successful country fair. And that they did! Each of these fine folks and others working with them – too many to mention – deserve a firm pat on the back for a job well done.

Assigned to the food area (where else?), I found myself surrounded by gals who know their grub, i.e. Shawn Banks who has made a name for herself not only on the local scene, but as the one who takes the blue ribbons at the state fair every year – along with her daughter – for their incredible culinary creations; add to the mix Liz Buchanan Silvers and Regina McKinney Daniels and you’ve got quite the contingency of food connoisseurs – or at least a panel of hometown cooks who know what a dill pickle and spoonful of apple butter ought to taste like!
I had just started paying close attention again to my nutritional consumption when everybody’s Avery County friend, Tres Magner, contacted me several weeks earlier to be a judge. Forget those carbs and calories for just one day, I kept telling myself. No problem there! Until around noon on that Tuesday, when, as the accompanying photo reveals, I had to be nearly force-fed the last taste. Still to come even then, was lunch with all the other judges at Carolina Barbecue. (A blue-ribbon affair in itself – no better food, no finer folks around than the Calverts!)

Back to the fair: All things pickled and preserved – jellies, jams, sauces and spreads – wow! Those Avery County guys and dolls know how to do it up right.

Carolyn Burleson of Banner Elk took Best of Show with the best whole dill pickles in the world – firm and crisp with just the right amount of everything. I think it took four pickles for one of my fellow judges to decide no other came close!

And wouldn’t you know it – a guy, Kyle Kitchin, was the blue ribbon winner in the baking contest with his festively decorated and quite scrumptious berry pie.

Nothing beats a hometown county fair and a new appreciation one gains from looking from behind-the-scenes.

Then, to join family and friends back at the fair as a spectator on Friday evening (9/11) was a highlight. It was a bittersweet event for us as it reminded us not only of a national tragedy, but also of the 20th anniversary of our mother’s death. It was not a coincidence that both my brother, Joe “PeeWee” Pritchard, and brother-in-law, Danny Polson, two very talented individuals, were both featured in separate musical concerts at the fair that night with their respective bands, Distant Gold and True Blue; nor that all members of my immediate family, minus a niece who lives in Florida, came together to honor our mother’s memory at our hometown fair.

Smiling, friendly faces of folks like our home church pastor and county sheriff, close friends and others we haven’t seen in a while just made the evening more special.

All’s fair at the fair – except of course, those carnival games that take a kid’s last dollar when she was so close to knocking over that dreaded bottle and winning the big bear. And, that winning ticket for the tractor that I finally threw away after not being called on Saturday to claim my prize!

Oh, well. We’ll try it again next year.