I did a thing. I exhibited at my local fair for the first time.
I’ve been filling my pantry shelves with preserved food in jars, baking sourdough every week, and testing and writing these recipes. What I had never done was hand any of it to strangers with clipboards to see what they thought.
So this year I did. I loaded up my jars, baked goods, and a few other things from my farm kitchen, and drove them to the Chelsea Community Fair here in southeast Michigan.
Why I Decided to Exhibit
I know my way around a slow cooker and a pressure canner. I had no idea how a fair worked.
That’s a real distinction, and it’s most of why I hesitated. Baking and canning I understand. Every jar I entered was put up with a tested USDA, National Center for Home Food Preservation, or Ball Blue Book method, processed for the full time, at the right headspace, in the right style of jar. That part I could stand behind.
The fair was the unknown. I showed horses in 4-H as a kid at the Ionia Free Fair with my aunt, but I had never entered anything like this as an adult, and I didn’t know the first thing about entry tags, drop-off windows, or what a judge actually looks for in a jar of green beans. I tried Googling it, but didn’t get very far.
My goal, though, was to earn one ribbon. First, second, third, or fourth place, it didn’t matter.
But why? Well, it’s one thing to put my recipes here, but another to share them in real-time and in person. I wanted to see if I could do it. I thought it would be fun to hang a ribbon up to remind myself that I can do things outside my comfort zone, even when I’m unsure and a little scared.
This idea was, of course, risky, because I could fail. That’s partly why I entered more than my preserves. I figured if I gave myself enough chances, perhaps I could get lucky with something.
What I Exhibited (All 52 of Them)
I started with the canning, since that was the whole reason I signed up. Then I decided that if I was going to exhibit, I might as well enter a few other things too. So I picked wildflowers, vegetables, and herbs from the garden, printed out photos from the Maker Farm kitchen, baked bread and doughnuts, and even took along my favorite kitchen antiques.
Baking: 4 entries
- Sourdough bread – 1st
- Pumpkin spice doughnuts – 1st
- Mini pumpkin Bundt cakes with maple glaze – 2nd
- Oatmeal raisin cookies – 2nd
Canning: 16 entries
- Cherry jam – 1st
- Blueberry jam – 1st
- Chicken soup – 1st
- Apple butter – 2nd
- Sweet pickle relish – 2nd
- Spaghetti sauce with meat
- Golden pepper jelly
- Canned chicken – 2nd
- Whole blueberries – 2nd
- Carrots – 2nd
- Bread-and-butter pickles
- Dried basil
- Green string beans – 4th
- Whole sweet cherries – 2nd
- Chicken broth – 3rd
- Basil herbal vinegar – 2nd
Agriculture: 12 entries
- Maple syrup – 1st
- Grape tomatoes – 1st
- Red tomatoes under 4 inches – 1st
- Yellow tomatoes – 3rd
- Pole beans – 4th
- Yellow beans – 1st
- Sweet green peppers – 2nd
- Sweet red peppers – 3rd
- Hot green peppers
- Mini pumpkins
- Spearmint
- Lavender – 2nd
Antiques: 11 entries
- 1920 water bath canner with its rack intact – 1st
- Fannie Farmer 1912 cookbook
- Blue Wire-bail Ball “Ideal” jar – 3rd
- Hoosier cabinet jar carrier – 1st
- Coca-Cola Ann Arbor crate – 1st
- Granger’s “Big 3” coffee jar
- Hand-sewn strawberry apron made by Greg’s great-grandmother – 2nd
- Sewing rocking chair with needlepoint seat made by my great-grandmother (this will appear in a future video on JenniferMaker!) – 1st
- Underwood No. 5 typewriter – 2nd
- Wright’s bias trim in red check – 2nd
- Ciné-Kodak movie camera – 2nd
Photography: 8 entries
- Cucumber blossom and bee
- Sourdough bread still life – 1st
- Cupola at dawn
- Sunflower field and rainbow
- Aurora, computer enhanced – 1st
- Goldfinch in icy frost
- Harvesting cucumbers
- Red barn in autumn
Floriculture: 1 entry
- Wildflower arrangement from the cottage garden and meadows on the farm – 1st
What Drop-Off Day Was Actually Like
When I arrived at the fair, I was amazed and happy to see so many people. The community had really shown up, and it seemed like everyone was entering something. People were carting in tall sunflowers and huge corn stalks, beautiful needlework and sewing, yummy baked goods, and rows and rows of canned goods.
It was really something to see everyone bringing in their work, eager to show it and proud of what they’d made.
If you’re picturing a competitive room full of people sizing each other up, that’s not what it is at all. It felt more like a potluck where everybody brought the thing they’re best at.
How Fair Judging Actually Works
This part surprised me, so I want to explain it in case you’re thinking about exhibiting.
Your entry is judged inside its own class, not against everything else in the building. So my sourdough bread wasn’t competing with my pumpkin doughnuts, and neither one was up against somebody’s quilt. Each class hands out its own first, second, third, and fourth place. This helps because it means a crowded category and a less popular one both give you a real shot, and you’re only ever compared to the other people who brought the same thing you did.
For canning, the judges are looking at the things you’d expect if you’ve put up food before: a proper seal, correct headspace, clear liquid, uniform pack, good color, and no floating or siphoning. Nothing mysterious. It’s the same list you already check when you pull jars off the rack, just with someone else holding them up to the light. My fair also said they may open them, so I assumed they’d taste them as well.
The other surprise?
You aren’t notified if you win anything. You have to go back to the fair and find out for yourself, walking through looking for your own name on the entry tags. I didn’t mind at all.
The Day We Found My Ribbons
So when my husband Greg and I went to the fair’s livestock auction to bid on a market steer, we walked through the hobby barn where all the entries were displayed.
That’s when he spotted one of the antiques and said, “Hey, that’s just like ours.”
I then revealed what I’d done, because I had kept the whole thing to myself until that moment.
Of course Greg would have supported me 100 percent, but keeping it a secret took some of the pressure off and allowed me to be casual about it. I think I wanted to surprise him, too. I wanted to make him proud of the new things we’re doing here on the farm.
So together, we walked through the hobby barn searching for my entries.
We found them, little by little.
And I was overjoyed to discover that the work I felt proud of was considered pretty good by other people, too. Greg snapped this photo after I picked up all of my ribbons from the fair office.
My Final Results
By the time we had found everything, I had 36 ribbons. Here’s how they broke down.
| Place | Ribbons |
|---|---|
| First place | 13 |
| Second place | 16 |
| Third place | 5 |
| Fourth place | 2 |
| Total | 36 ribbons from 52 entries |
That’s a 69 percent placement rate, which I had to work out on paper twice because I didn’t believe it the first time. Sixteen entries came home with nothing at all, and I’m glad they did. A clean sweep would have made it too hard to believe.
They also gave me $112 in premiums, which I didn’t know they would do. I donated it back to the fair.
My sourdough bread took first place. And no, I wasn’t the only sourdough entrant. There were tons of baked goods.
A photograph of that same bread sitting on my Hoosier cabinet won first place in the still-life category, which felt like the bread winning twice. (I took this with my iPhone, as I take nearly all of my photos these days.)
My photo of the northern lights over the barn took first for computer enhanced (I boosted the vibrancy so we could see the aurora better), too.
And my delicious red tomatoes took first place, too.
What I’d Tell You If You’re Thinking About Exhibiting
Most of what tripped me up had nothing to do with the food. It was the paperwork and the timing.
Get the fair book early and read the class list. Every fair publishes one, and it tells you exactly what classes exist and what the rules are for each. I found classes I never would have thought to enter, like herbal vinegar and dried basil. This helps because the classes themselves give you ideas.
Read your fair’s canning rules rather than assuming. They vary more than you’d think from fair to fair, covering things like whether rings stay on, what jar sizes are accepted, how recent the batch has to be, and whether you need to submit the recipe. Be careful not to assume your fair matches the one you read about online, because that’s an easy disqualification on a jar you did everything else right.
Exhibit in more than one class. Not because you need a pile of ribbons, but because spreading entries around takes the sting out of any single one not placing. I entered 52 things and 16 of them came home empty. I honestly didn’t notice at the time because I was so surprised!
Note the drop-off window. It’s usually one specific day, and it’s earlier than you’d expect.
Don’t wait until you feel ready. I knew my canning was sound. It was the fair part that felt like something other people knew how to do.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do you have to be an experienced canner to exhibit?
No. The judges are looking at the jar in front of them, not your resume. That said, use a tested recipe and follow it exactly, because seal and headspace are the first things they check.
Can you enter more than one item in the same class?
Usually one per class, but classes are narrow, so there’s more room than you’d think. Green beans and yellow beans were separate classes for me.
How do you find out if you won?
You go back to the fair and look. Most fairs don’t notify exhibitors at all, so plan a trip back during fair week to walk the exhibit barn.
Is there any prize money?
Often, yes. They’re called premiums, and they’re small, usually a few dollars per placing. I earned $112 across all my entries and donated it back.
What happens to your entries afterward?
You pick them up at the end of the fair during a set release window. Your jars and things come home with you, ribbons and all. What didn’t come home were my baked goods, which is why you don’t see the others in my photo (but I baked mulitple loaves of bread and kept some at home, which is why it’s on my cabinet).
Would I Do It Again?
As happy as I was about all those ribbons, I think the best part was proving to myself that I could still do something new, uncertain, and a little scary.
I went into this hoping for one ribbon to hang near my desk as a reminder that I can still do things I’m proud of.
Now I have 36 of them. I’ve overjoyed!
But honestly, I think showing up with my tomatoes, jars, bread, flowers, and photographs was the real win. The ribbons were simply a wonderful reminder that sometimes you have to do the thing before you feel confident enough to do it.
The best part was proving to myself that I can do something uncertain and a little scary.
And you can, too.
I’m already thinking about what I might enter next year. My current idea is to share more canned food and more baked goods … and, of course, I’ll share the recipes here with you, too!
Have you ever entered a fair? What was it like? Let me know here in the comments!
Love,
Jennifer
Meet Jennifer
Jennifer cooks and experiments in the kitchen at Maker Farm, where she focuses on simple pantry cooking, homemade staples, and practical recipes that make everyday meals easier. Over the years she has tested many ways to make cooking simpler and more dependable, and shares the methods that work best in her own kitchen, occasionally showing them on her Heart to Home at Maker Farm vlog.
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