The Minnesota State Fair

A little over a month ago Amy, Micah and I attended the Minnesota state fair. It was huge. We were there for the whole day and there were still parts we didn't see. For my followers from Tassie, it was like a combination of Agfest, the Hobart Show and the Deloraine Craft Fair, except there were no show bags; that was probably a good thing though. We started our day viewing the old tractors (right).

Then we moved onto the Little Farm Hands Exhibit: an excellent exhibit designed to teach children about farming and where food comes from. After Micah had collected, among other things, a fake egg from the chicken coop, wool from the wooden sheep, a plastic apple from the wooden apple trees, and an empty milk carton from the cow, he took their 'produce' to 'market' and got 'paid' '$1' which he could then spend at the 'grocery store' on ice-cream, fruit juice, or a real apple. Micah chose the apple; although perhaps this was because the other items were too high up for him to see.









However, what the State Fair is really famous for, is its food. Most of it deep fried and on a stick. We tried deep fried cheese curds (see right), Big Fat Bacon (see below left), cannoli, snow cones, fudge, and a Hawiian Pretzel. We also took advantage of 'All the Milk You Can Drink for $1' (below right) and combined it with a cone of Sweet Martha's Cookies.

The most amusing thing we found was Australian Battered Potatoes. 'Authentically' served with sweet chilli and sour cream or ranch and cheese. Let it be known that I have never seen potato cakes served with ranch and cheese in Australia. Still, the proprietors had the Wiggles and Slim Dusty playing, which was authentic.

We also saw butter sculptures (left), a parade, complete with marching bands and giant cows (below), and Micah and I went up a tall tower and saw the fair from above.

Just before we left, we came across a stand called 'Walkabout Hats'. There was a sign encouraging people to drop in and say 'g'day'. So we did. We expected to find Americans selling hats made in China, so we were pleasantly surprised to find a South African man selling hats made in Australia and the US.