Pickles brought me to the DC State Fair this year. But the food made me stay. After a friend had a family emergency, I was thrilled to step in as one of the judges for the pickle making competition. Other than competitions up the wazoo (cupcakes, pies, funny looking vegetables), there was a pretty impressive spread of food-related booths at the state fair this year…not to mention llamas. While the home cook categories were being savored, tasted and judged, another section of the fair saw the 9th Annual Military Culinary Competition kicking into gear. And the Asian vegetable booth boasted some loofahs of the non-back-scrubbing variety. Click here for some great shots and an overview of the ingredients you missed if you weren’t able to make it. Be glad you missed my epically uncool babbling when I spotted a fab food editor among the other judges. Ever encounter someone you really admire and lose all capacity for speech? Yeah, that was me. Verbal misfires aside, there were some fabulous bread and butter pickles, crunchy pickled beets and spicy peach chutney among the entries for the pickle competitions. Now I feel the need to pickle something, stat.
UPDATE: Click here to see a full list of the winners.
Great photos! You even got one of my #1 pie!
Thanks, Emily! It looked delicious.
Thank you so much for coming out to judge! It was great meeting you!
It was my pleasure!