The Fair and The Fowl

It’s the Fourth of July and the Marin County Fair is going full Tilt-a-Whirl. This is the first year I’ve entered my jams and jellies in the fair, and my babies did well. Later this week, I’ll do some strutting and clucking of my own — posting a bit about my experience and offering some thoughts about how to make the fair-entering process easier. (Hint: If you want to enter your local fair next year, it’s best — and most painless — to do a little planning this summer.)

Today, though, it’s all about the birds. It was hard to resist tucking a “heavy weight duck” under each arm and making a run for it. I just didn’t know what I’d do with the third duck and I couldn’t bear the thought of splitting them up.

I’m not sure, but I think this American breed was trying to sing Yankee Doodle.

This girl seemed flat-out peeved to be classified with the “other” chickens.

Have you ever tried to take a photo of a pure black chicken in a dark cage? It was totally beyond my skills as a photographer, so this is all you get to see of the Best in Show “large fowl.”

Wait. How’d this lemon get in here?

I would buy anything sold from a giant organic lemon.
I’m just sayin’.

Happy Fourth, folks!

Similar Posts

  • Wild Whiskey Blues

    There are some foodie words I can’t say with a straight face. “Foodie” is one of them. Terroir is another. Honestly, I can’t even pronounce it well. (Follow this link and mouse over the word to hear it.) Partly, I feel like a kid at the dinner table, trying out a grown-up word that I…

  • |

    Spruce Tip Jelly

    For in the true nature of things, if we rightly consider, every green tree is far more glorious than if it were made of gold and silver. ~Martin Luther Our cabin in Alaska sits at the base of a ridge overlooking a vast stretch of taiga. We always say that we are “going down to…

  • Supremed and Preserved Oranges

    This post could also be called “Experiments with Oranges,” because that’s what’s happening here. The jars above contain orange segments preserved two ways: half in light sugar syrup and half in a light syrup made with organic agave nectar. Trying agave is part of my new interest in preserving fruit without refined sugar. My plan…

  • Meet Your Rangpur Limes

    As every gardener knows, what you hope or intend for your little patch of earth isn’t always what you get. Like last spring when I accidentally planted hot peppers thinking they were sweet. Or when, many years ago, my mom mistakenly thought she had planted a Mexican lime tree in her backyard. Her “limes” turned…

  • Tayberry Jam

    Stewart said this jam is the best he’s ever had. He got so excited about it that he ran out the door to buy vanilla ice cream while the mixture was still cooking, so we wouldn’t waste even the foam I skimmed off the top. Myself, I’m a little bit partial to last year’s Blenheim…

3 Comments

  1. nice! and how great you entered your jam in a fair competition! i can't wait to hear details! happy 4th. :)

  2. Nice! I've always found it really hard to photograph the birds at the fair in their cages because of those dense grids of wires. You did a great job, though. I always like the fancy chickens the best.

  3. You've really captured the spirit of the fair. Love the chickens and the big lemon.

Comments are closed.