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Country Fair brings out young and old to compete for ribbons by Susan Mikula
Campbell Lewiston’s homey Country Fair & Flea Market is the type of family affair where a kindergartener and a 70-year-old can take home a blue ribbon and bragging rights. The ninth annual event was held last Saturday at the Lewiston Red Brick School. It’s sponsored by the Lewiston Recreation Department, assisted by the Lewiston Garden Club, and offers a variety of activities, including craft demonstrations, flea market bargains and music. Part of the fun is an old-fashioned competition for best crafts, photographs, food, flowers and vegetables, with a Best of Show awarded in each division, as well as competition in individual categories. Fifty participants showed up this year, bringing more than 200 entries of everything from soup to counted cross stitch needlework. Interestingly enough, they do it not for big prizes, but for a chance at a simple, but admittedly handsome, blue ribbon. “People know this is not the Pillsbury Bake-Off,” said Marianne Gittermann, village recreation director and fair organizer. “It’s just a way of saying, ‘I tried and I did well.’ ” Winners are very proud of their ribbons and often tell her they display them in their homes, she said. Gittermann is not one of the judges, but she always makes a point of tasting the Best of Show in the food division. “It was delicious,” she said of the Walnut Pear Sour Cream Cake made by Lewiston resident Dawn Siemucha. Siemucha, 38, also won best in show last year for her Carrot Cake and wanted to see if she could win again this year. The nurse at Mount St. Mary’s Hospital and Health Center calls baking her stress reliever. Be warned; she hopes to get her daughter, now 9 and also a baker, to enter next year. Young and Old Participate Youngsters are welcome to participate in the show right along with the adults. Among the ribbons collected by Shelby Krawczyk, 9, of DeVeaux, was a Best of Show for her spider plant. Shelby, 9, is a member of the Lewiston Junior Garden Club and for the past several years has helped her grandmother, Helen, garden a piece of land at Findley Dive and Lewiston Road in Niagara Falls as part of the Niagara Beautification Project. Youngest first place blue ribbon winner was kindergartener Kaye Terryberry of Lewiston, who entered the strawberry-rhubarb jam she’d made with her mother. She’s been helping her mom make things in the kitchen and eating the results since she was about 3. After her dad brought her back from the fair, “she ran in the house all excited, with the ribbon in her hands, saying ‘We won first prize, Momma!’ ” Christine Terryberry said. At the other end of the age spectrum was Marlene Craft, 70, who moved to Lewiston a year ago from Minnesota. Her Zucchini Bread was a first-place winner. “It’s a moist bread because there’s pineapple in it and I put in raisins and nuts,” she said, but dismissed her entry as nothing next to her son’s blue ribbon Butternut Squash Soup. “It had Italian sausage in it and it was so good, even the judges asked for the recipe.” Mark Sydor, 49, has lived in Lewiston for 10 years, but got involved for the first time this year after his mother, a member of the Garden Club, asked him to enter the soup. Men Get In On the Act “I saw it on television, on the Food Network, but I changed it. I do that a lot when I make a recipe. I keep tasting and adding things,” he said. Steve Guiliani, 41, of Ransomville, brought into the competition by a woman. His wife insisted he enter last year and now he loves the fair. He won several ribbons, including first place and Best of Show for the onions he and his wife grow in their garden. His secret to growing the softball-sized onions: composting. “I’m disabled and have problems with walking. This is something my wife and I can do together,” he said of the fair. “It’s a really nice chance for the two of us to just go and enjoy something that we both like.” Gittermann expects the annual contest to continue to grow. Sometimes people viewing the winners comment that they have grown a bigger tomato, made a prettier flower arrangement or have a better cake recipe. “I tell them if they think they can do better, come in next year.” See the Winners List Winning recipes: |
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