bunrab | The Howard County Fair (Reply)

This is a really long post about the Howard County fair, so best I put it behind a cut, though I'll leave a couple of pictures to entice you to read.

This is our home county, so it's the closest to us, but I have never actually seen it before. I've been to it, to perform - the Browningsville Cornet Band plays there every year. But all I do for that is park, haul a very heavy saxophone by the shortest route to the stage (or flag down a Gator), buy a bottle of water from a nearby vendor, play, and leave. I've never before actually looked at the rest of the fair. So this was as new to me as to Larry. We went on Sunday, first full day of the fair - the schedule looked good. Rabbit judging all morning, grand opening parade in the afternoon. And indeed, that turned out to be how it worked out: we arrived for some of the earlier rabbit judging, about 9:45, and left 5 hours later, after the parade was over. And at that, at 5 hours, we skipped a couple of the livestock barns - skipped horses, one cow barn, and the swine barn - and we didn't look at every single farm equipment vendor. Had it not been hot and our feet sore, we could easily have spent another hour, even without attending the carnival.

So, we parked in a handicapped spot near the gate. Senior admission is $2, and Larry asked for two seniors, although that's not technically correct, since I'm not 65 - but no one questioned it. We'll make it up to them somehow - when I go back Thursday to play, I'll get in free as a performer, but I'll buy a raffle ticket to something I don't need, so they get their money. We headed straight for the rabbit barn. At the main gate, first, there's a whole bunch of local produce vendors and cheese makers selling their wares; however, it makes a lot more sense to get that stuff on the way out than on the way in. The rabbit barn was full of rabbits, and so was half the poultry barn; at this fair, there were a lot more rabbits than poultry. We watched the Dutch rabbits being judged; we didn't stay to watch the Holland lops, because there were enough of them that it would have taken the rest of the morning. We walked around both buildings saying hi to every bunny. There were several French lops - the big ones, almost as big as Flemish Giants. Hadn't seen any of those at the previous fairs, or for that matter, at the MoCo or State fairs in previous years. I love the giant breeds - I used to have Checkered Giants when I lived in Boston. (You don't see many Checkered Giants south of New York or so - they're a cold-weather breed.) There were a few rexes and mini-rexes. But mostly Dutch and Holland Lops. The rabbit cages were well set up, well-lighted and well-ventilated; I was pleased with the set-up. Clearly, Howard county 4-H values rabbits more than many other areas do. Then we went into the other half of the poultry barn, the half that had poultry in it. Small poultry selection - mostly Cochins. Only a couple of the Golden Laced Wyandottes that I find so attractive, a couple of the silly Silkies, a bunch of Plymouths. And two pheasants - something we had not seen in a poultry barn previously. No turkeys, no ducks, but two pheasants. From there, we decided to walk all the way down to the Main Exhibition Hall, and then work our way back up. This hall turned out to be the commercial vendor exhibits and a beer garden. The beer garden wasn't open yet, not on a Sunday morning, but many of the vendor booths were staffed. A whole lot of replacement window companies and kitchen remodelers, but also a small candy maze, a Tupperware seller, an antiques shop (some nice but wildly impractical desks), the same mechanical bull ride that had been at Carroll County, a Bible study group... a fairly large hall, not at its busiest on a Sunday morning, but interesting. The main entertainment stage is attached to the Main Exhibit Hall, should you stay for evening entertainment. (There are three stages - a small one right near the front gate, another small one near the dining hall, which is where the Browningsville Cornet Band will play on Thursday, and the big stage at the Main hall.)

We skipped the horse area off in back of the Main hall, where there was also some more large farm equipment and the tail end of the food vendors from the midway, and walked back toward the smaller barns. Kids & Critters Barn - animals that can be petted, a small play area with a "sandbox" filled with dried corn and lots of John Deere toys to push around, and a bunch of tiny rocking horses. Some pigs and goats to pet. An emu, not to pet. (Emus are nasty-tempered as well as ugly.) In back of that barn, there were goat and cattle barns. We skipped most of the cattle. One thing that I find odd is the breed of cattle that's apparently /supposed/ to look like it's starving, with the ribs all showing and the hip bones jutting out. I just don't get that. Of course there were lots of goats - goats are the goat-to animal for 4-Hers. We skipped swine as well; worked our way back up some sheep and back to the midway, where across from the goat barns was Home Arts.

A good size selection in Home Arts. The previous 3 fairs had been pretty strictly 4-H and FFA, but the Howard County Fair is one of the ones that allows outside entries, from adults as well as kids, for the Home Arts stuff. They had a building-wide theme of owls this year, with special awards for things that were on-theme. So there were owl quilts, and crocheted owls, and fancy owl table settings and owl paintings. A lot of fun for me, since owls are an animal I find beautiful. I didn't photograph most of the owl stuff - too much of it - but I did photograph a knitted bat; you'll see that attached below. Also below, a case of owl-themed cakes. I like a good cake exhibit.

After that, the Home & Garden building, and there's where my favorite Fair things in the whole world are: the giant pumpkins, and the mutant vegetables - here called "Freak Vegetables" as a category. Some fairs call this category "Vegetable Oddities" or other names; in any event, it's the misshapen and the Siamese-twinned and the just flat-out weird, and photos of some of them are below as well. There were many very large zucchini, and a nice large sunflower head, as regular produce/garden goes. And there's all the canning - the jams, jellies, veggies. Again, this is an open show, so it's not just 4-Hers. In addition to Howard County, there are a few entries from southern Carroll County. That's not uncommon for the larger, open, fairs - to let people from the adjacent counties compete, particularly if the adjacent county doesn't have an open fair. Since Carroll County's fair is strictly a 4-H and FFA, not an open competition to adults, that means that Carroll County adults who want to show off their quilts or their chickens have to try for some other fair, and generally southern Carroll County goes to Howard, and northern Carroll County goes to Frederick, though that's not a hard-and-fast rule.

There is a 4-H specific building, for all the kids' sewing and canning and baking, and the things that are usually only done by 4-Hers, not by random people: the tie-dye t-shirt projects and the stepping stones and the dioramas, the beginners' crochet that couldn't possibly compete with adults, stuff like that.

One of the Home Arts is furniture: making it, or restoring or refinishing it. That category had one piece we really liked, a rocking motorcycle. That is, think of a rocking horse, then imagine that's a motorcycle instead, made all out of wood and child-sized and on rockers. Very nicely done, with layers of wood laminated to produce some contrasting colors.

Although there were many food vendors along the midway, we got our lunch in the dining hall. Howard County fairgrounds dining hall is slightly smaller inside than Carroll County's, and it's run by a commercial caterer rather than by the 4-H or the fair association, so the proceeds don't go directly into supporting the fair the way they do at Carroll. For all that, it's still a convivial place to eat, with long tables in rows, so that you meet new people sitting family-style. Cafeteria line, and Larry chose the roast beef platter, while I chose the fried chicken platter. Good prices, adequate amount of food. The fried chicken coating was crunchy, the way I like it, but quite bland, and the chicken itself was bland and dry - over all, nowhere near as good as the fried chicken in the Carroll dining hall. Oh well. Good enough iced tea, sweetened and unsweetened, and no fruit flavors snuck in without warning. The dining hall is air conditioned, which makes it a respite from the outside, another reason you might want to patronize it rather than the midway vendors. And, this being a smallish county and our condo complex being a biggish condo complex, we did run into some neighbors at the fair, including one sitting in the dining hall, so we chatted a bit. (The other was staffing one of the kitchen remodeling company's booths at the Main Exhibition Hall. Treover residents are everywhere.)

After lunch, we went over to the Agricultural Education Pavillion - a large tent - for one of the Beekeeping demonstrations. A suited-up beekeeper was inside a small mesh tent, and he took apart a hive for us, and all the bees were loose, but since he was in a tent, they couldn't get out, and he invited all the kids to crowd up close, and see what the eggs look like, and larva, and the difference in size between drones and workers, and all that other close-up stuff. It was very popular. We appreciated that the bleachers where the audience started out were sheltered by a shade tent, too. After that, we wandered the midway a bit, getting a funnel cake for me and ice cream for Larry. Although we didn't go on any rides, there was a nice-sized carnival, with rides for all ages (the carnival at the Cecil fair had been mostly kiddie-level rides). The only disconcerting thing about the carnival might be that the back fence is /right at/ Interstate 70- no trees, no nothing; there's people going by in cars staring at you while you're on the Ferris wheel. The highway also adds to the noise level. Don't try and hold a conversation at the carnival.

By the time we finished our funnel cake and ice cream, it was only 15 minutes or so until the parade. Right, a parade - both for the fair and for the West Friendship Volunteer Fire Department. As with VFDs around the area, that meant they also had fire trucks and related equipment from nearby towns, including neighboring counties. So the sheriff led up the parade up the midway, after a delay of a good 15 minutes of repeating announcements to CLEAR THE MIDWAY PLEASE - you'd be amazed at the number of people who don't think this means them, and who continue strolling down the middle of the aisle, pushing a baby and talking on their cell phones. Anyway, then a color guard, and everyone stopped, and the winner of some contest or another for the kids sang the national anthem over the PA, and then the parade resumed, with an announcer introducing the fair committee, and the Howard County Board of Education, and our various state delegates, and some other politicians, and the Sierra club, and describing all the fire trucks and where they're from and how old they are, and then the antique cars. No bands or floats in this parade; there's a separate parade at the end of the week for floats. So, nice parade, complete with the requisite throwing of candy to the children. Sort of messy - makes more sense when kids are sitting on a curb on a local street, than when people are standing in front of livestock barns.

Some overall features we really liked at this fair: the sinks in front of almost all the barns. These were real sinks, with water - step on a pedal, to run the water, and there were soap dispensers and paper towels. Blue plastic portable units - I guess the water is from tanks inside them. Anyway, nice alternative to little bottle-of-hand-sanitizer stations, and much appreciated when one is going from petting goats to eating funnel cake to petting more goats. The printed matter for the fair - at the gate, folded flyers with the complete schedule and a map, which was pretty accurate; inside, Fair Books for the whole fair, and a smaller booklet specifically for the Home Arts. Fair Books are a necessity when you're having an open show; when it's all 4-H, 4-H takes care of informing everyone of the rules, but when it's open, you need some way to let everyone know how to enter and how the judging will be done, for each and every contest there is, from dairy cattle to cross-stitch, miscellaneous. The fair book prints all the rules for the Pie-Eating Contest and the Miss Howard County Farm Bureau contest (she was in the parade, along with several other contest winners), and the complete Purebred Dairy Cattle Association rules, and on and one - it's a trade paperback about 5/8" thick.

By the time the parade ended, we had been there 5 hours and we had been standing out in the sun for the last 45 minutes of that, so we were ready for home. We escaped without buying any cheese or produce, though it was a near thing; if our refrigerator weren't already rather crowded with leftovers, the cheese would definitely have tractor-beamed me into its event horizon. Verdict? This fair goes into permanent rotation, along with Montgomery and Frederick; it's a very good fair, almost up to their weight, even more surprising given the smaller size of the county. And it's only 20 minutes from home, and it's only $2 for seniors. If you're in an adjacent county, particularly one that's got a really small fair, then you should definitely give this one a shot - it's worth your while. Entertainment every night, too!

One last note about the HoCo fair: in previous entries, I have mentioned the overwhelming pasty-whiteness of fair exhibitors and fair attendees. HoCo's fair reflects a good amount more diversity in both. There were Indian couples in Indian dress, and women in hijabs, and enough Asians to remind one that HoCo has a high percentage Asian population, and ditto for African-Americans. (A few Africans, too.) It also seemed to be the unofficial Orthodox Jewish Day while we were there; kids in yarmulkes were a big chunk of the audience for the beehive demonstration. I'm guessing that some of the food somewhere on the grounds must be kosher and/or halal, though I don't know that for sure.