1st Annual Free Republic County Fair; Post Your Entries Here

9/19/04 | Hispanarepublicana

[hispanarepublicana]

Since most FReepers are personally responsible, hard-working, well-prepared, self-sufficient individuals, I thought it would be nice for us to get to brag about the fruits of our labor--whether it be traditional county-fair fare (canning, crochet, quilting, crops, cheeses) or FReeper-oriented fare (political slogans, FReep posters, FReep ideas, breaking news, opus posts, FR handles, FR profiles, posts-of-the-day, etc.) I'm not sure who the judges will be, but you all are welcome to post your entries here.

[hispanarepublicana]

As for Mr. HR and I, we have grown more than 50 pounds of tomatoes, 20 pounds of okra, 40 pounds of squash, 10 pounds of melons (experimental) and assorted peppers in our 20X50 ft garden. I have put up tomatoes (raw canned and sun-dried), pickled okra, put up freezer Bread-n-Butter Pickles and Bread-n-Butter Jalapenos, and baked many a squash-casserole. Photos will be forthcoming as soon as I get rested and sober-up this week.

[hispanarepublicana]

county fair ping

[little jeremiah]

How about 38 pints of wild blackberry jam and 8 pints of peach jam? (Actually there were a couple quarts of the blackberry, we ran out of pint jars.)

[hispanarepublicana]

wanna trade some okra?

[hispanarepublicana]

canning ping

[little jeremiah]

Mmmmm - I LOVE okra, it's one of my favorite vegetables. But I never had it canned.

Mrs. LJ did the jam boiling, I picked most of the berries.

[Libertina]

I go wading in the creek in our front yard, pick gallons of sun drenched blackberries wfrom the banks, which I make into pies, cobbler and freeze for the winter. (One of my favorite summer activites :)

[hispanarepublicana]

we PICKLE the okra.....try it some time.

[hispanarepublicana]

What time shall I be there for dessert (I'll bring the okra for the crudites), and when exactly can I come over next summer?

[little jeremiah]

Is it crunchy?

I usually slice it up and stir fry it. Good with rice that way.

[Squantos]

BTTT

Stay Safe.......Y

[hispanarepublicana]

It's whole, and if pickled correctly, it retains some crunch (like a good pickle).

[Libertina]

You just let me know whne you'll be in town and the the Puget Sound Chapter will do the rest. As The shrew can tell you, (and also DougfromUpland) we LOVE company :)

[hispanarepublicana]

[YankeeinOkieville]

In the "home landscape arts" category, here's my entry:

This part took a l-o-n-g time to design and paint:

The beauty is in the details:

I'm pretty proud of my efforts. And in other categories, I can't compete with the amounts of tomatoes grown by others, but if I could, I'd put up my Cherokee Purple & Homestead varieties against anyone's for taste! Oh, and in the 'novelty produce' category, I grew "zucchinetta" - very strange summer squash indeed! Also grew both birdhouse & basket gourds - now I just have to wait all winter for them to harden for next year's "home landscape arts" entry.

[hispanarepublicana]

That is BEAUTIFUL!!! It's like looking in a kaleidescope! What was the inspiration?

[hispanarepublicana]

Had to break my link to photo above because I forgot to resize before hitting "post", but here's some pics:

[trashcanbred]

Yowza that really is neat!

[YankeeinOkieville]

I'll volunteer to judge the jams!!! You'll both have to send some to me....

[Libertina]

OK! :) Beautiful gazebo, btw! What a lovely project to work on, you did a beautiful job.