It’s time for the Montana State Fair and for vegetable fairs across the country.

We enjoy it probably more than many others because we participate in the culinary and gardening shows (one of these years we’ll toss our hat into the floriculture ring, but there’s only so much I can handle with harvesting, prepping and wrangling the boys at once).

Oh sure, it’s fun to go to the fair, but imagine what it’s like to go with the anticipation that you might have a blue ribbon hanging from your entry! It is Christmas in July.

Pest Control is the Key to Award-Winning Flowers and Vegetables

Controlling pests, or at least working around them, is a big part of entering flowers and vegetables in the fair. If you submit something riddled with holes, you’re not going to do very well.

I fully expected to be overrun with grasshoppers this year after the warm, dry spring and summer we experienced, but they haven’t been awful. I did apply the Semaspore again in the early summer (as soon as I saw the ½ inch instars) so maybe that helped keep the numbers down.

One problem we had on the potatoes this year was damage from flea beetle larvae. I dug them at Bob’s because that’s where the bulk of mine are located, and most of them were bumpy and had the tunnels in them. I told Bob next year we’ll have to put them in a different part of the garden. We received a second place on them.

We also received a second on the onions, although that was my fault. I didn’t trim the roots as short as I should have. You have to pay attention to these little details to do your best. And we got a third on our tiny carrots. I planted them late, so I wasn’t surprised. Yet, even though I didn’t expect to do great on them, I still felt it was important to enter them because the more entries there are, the more interesting the show. You don’t have to be a perfectionist to have fun.

Sam won a first place on the orach as a biggest vegetable since it was nearly 6 feet tall. For those who aren’t familiar with it, orach (also called miner’s lettuce) is a fabulous, hardy green that grows about anywhere. And the great news is we won grand champion on the garlic! I think this is the 3^rd year in a row for it, which makes a lot of sense because it’s one vegetable with very few pests.

Be Sure to Plan Ahead for Vegetable Fairs

This is the evening before the big Garden Show 2, where the tomatoes, peppers, herbs, and many of the more heat loving vegetables take center stage. And I’m really bummed out. Something has eaten a fair amount of what I planned to enter. His name is Bob. He and I share our vegetables at my community garden plot because he can’t do it himself anymore. I plant potatoes, tomatoes, corn, summer and winter squash, as well as onions, chard, carrots, and beets for both of us. He eats it during the summer, and I store the rest for the winter.

Normally it works out just fine. Tonight we stopped by to see what will be ready tomorrow for the garden show, and he told me he ate the ripe tomatoes, zucchini, and one of the yellow peppers (there are very few that are ripe) tonight for dinner.

Oh boy.

I really doubt he ate all of the zucchini because I regularly find the torpedoes that were obviously missed. And I truly hope I can find four ripe tomatoes. I have the ‘Stupice’ and ‘Early Red’ tomatoes there specifically to grow for the fair. I don’t have much hope for the ‘Medium Hot Hungarian Block’ peppers, though. You need four that are uniform in size and shape, and I just don’t think I have them out there.

Obviously, Bob isn’t like the deer that hit peoples’ gardens. There’s really not much I can do about it. He felt badly, too. I’ve never met a deer or a bunny that had a bit of remorse over what they ate.

If you have never entered the fair, I strongly recommend you give it a try. Check for the fair book at the fair office or on-line, and don’t hesitate to call the superintendent of the department to give you a hand. (Or, you can always send me a note… I’m happy to be a cheerleader and helper for anyone who wants to enter the fair.) Trust me, you’ll be hooked!