We missed the Saanich Fair this year with just too much going on so we decided to go to the Cowichan Exhibition.
A little background info is that we are from PEI where community agricultural fairs are de rigueur and where “Old Home Week” is the PEI king of fairs http://www.oldhomeweekpei.com/. Growing up the only thing I was interested in was the midway, but my parents always went to the harness racing events of which the Gold Cup race is THE ONE and used to include a bevy of beauties that represented the horses in the Gold Cup and Saucer Parade which is another BIG DEAL. BTW, PEI doesn’t have the first Monday in August as its provincial day; it has Gold Cup Friday instead. Eventually my stomach grew out of the midway rides and I started to enjoy the animal competitions and the food and crafts exhibits in the Women’s Institute Building.
Other notable fairs that we’ve attended are the State Fair in Columbia, South Carolina and the Calgary Stampede http://calgarystampede.com/ which lives up to its billing as truly amazing. If you are Canadian and haven’t been to The Stampede you should be ashamed of yourself! I’m a little bit ashamed that we have not yet been to the PNE http://www.pne.ca/ in Vancouver. Maybe next year.
The Cowichan Exhibition http://www.cowex.ca/ (how perfect is that domain name!) isn’t quite up there in the big event category but it has the necessary elements to make it fun and worth a trip over the Malahat (local mountain road too often the scene of ugly accidents and stupid drivers). The real attraction for us was that our friends Kim & Miriam, former teachers and now farmers, had entries in the fair competitions! Theirs is another long story that I won’t get into right now but Miriam writes a lovely blog http://muckybootsfarm.blogspot.com/ about their activities (and does hard labour in the garden) and Kim raises enormous chickens. We arrived in time to see the end of the tractor pull, had the obligatory ice cream, looked at exhibits, laughed at the piglets, and avoided the midway.
Kim’s rooster, Hector, won the rooster category championship and her birds picked up 4 other prizes, and Miriam got ribbons for preserves even though she says she has no idea what she’s doing.
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| I swear Hector is 5 feet tall |
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| gooseberry and lavender jelly - sounds divine |
Mir says there is a category for everyone and anyone of any skill level, but there are standards. One year in an entry field of one, a woman got 2nd prize for her pie. When asked how that could happen one of the judges said it just wasn’t a first prize quality pie! So there.
Next time you have an opportunity to go to an agricultural fair of any size, do it. Chances are you’ll love it.
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| these are serious cake decorators! |
1 comment:
Hector says to tell you he's not REALLY 5 feet tall. It's just his natural dignity and fine character that make him seem so big.
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