A pair of new cooking events on the first day of the Logan County Fair may not have drawn huge participation numbers, but organizers of the Home Products open class group are hoping they continue to grow.
Iona Lockwood and Christine Hines, judge, wait Sunday at the open class wine making competition for a taste of wine made by Keri Thomas, right. (EXAMINER PHOTO | REUBEN MEES)
Overseen by fair board members Nick McGuire and Iona Lockwood, members of the group said their goal is to have a contest every day of fair week to draw interest.
The addition of Sunday to this year’s schedule seemed like the perfect opportunity to roll out two new contests, including the barbecue cookoff and a new wine-making challenge.
While the barbecue challenge generated a last-minute flurry of activity that proved to entice early fairgoers to the infield, the winemaking event was a little more difficult to get into with short notice, the lone participant said.
“I didn’t know they were doing this until a few weeks ago and thought I would get into it,” Keri Thomas of West Liberty said.
She didn’t have a lot of options to choose from, but selected a couple of bottles, which she had made previously.
“I couldn’t enter a grape because we had already shared all those with friends,” the winemaker said. Her two entries were an orange and Concord grape wine, which she submitted in the grape and other fruit category, and a tomato wine as a non-grape entry.
With only two wines to taste, judge Christine Hines, owner of K Family Concessions and Catering, declared the tomato wine best of show.
“I liked them both; they are completely different flavors, but that tomato wine is really good,” the judge said.
Read complete story and more 2018 Logan County Fair coverage in Monday’s Examiner.
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