nashville – will garden for cake

Entering a competition at the State Fair is as American as an apple pie, much like the one in the photo above. And while I realize that the 2017 Tennessee Fair is old news, I really wanted to share these photos. Actually, I have been missing in action (blame it on the job) and thought I should get my act together and start posting some of the photos that I have taken.

Dusk is the best time to visit the fair. It is not as busy and the lighting is perfect, even when you are taking photos of lights.

As members of the Master Gardeners, we always find ourselves at the fair and working in the MG booth but we make time to walk around and see as much as we can. This year, we did not work the booth but we spent some time there with friends who were visiting from Germany.

As adventurous as I am, and I am-I love a good roller coaster, this ride terrifies me. The thought of dropping like a rock, straight down to the ground…If you need me, I will be out here with a camera, watching you drop like a rock.

This type of ride doesn’t thrill me either-too intense and too much round and round and round…

Ferris wheels can be fun, guarantees a great view of the fair.

This one made me dizzy just watching it.

And then there is the real reason I was at the fair. On a whim, I decided to enter several competitions. This was the first time I entered a canning competition and I entered a jar of my homegrown pickle relish. When I learned the results, I was stunned!

Another competition I entered was the chess pie contest, this one, a honey chess pie, came in at a respectable third place. If you were paying attention, the very first photo of this post was of a pie, specifically, an apple pie that I entered into the big money competition.

Here are the judges tasting my apple pie. Long story short, I didn’t win, place or show. At the end of the day, I have a pretty good idea of what is expected and I will be better prepared for next year.

the nashville farmer’s market has been trying to increase the number of visitors to the market. they have come up with an idea that should work; open the farmers market at night. the plan includes food trucks, live music and even an adult beverage vendor. the market also has a food court consisting of permanent vendors which is also open for the evening. for someone like me who has to work on saturday mornings, this could work. yes there is a but, and that but is only if all the vendors who show up on a saturday morning also show up to sell that evening. since they schedule these nights throughout the season, the night gets rotated. the most recent night market took place on a saturday evening and while many of the vendors were there, not all of the saturday morning vendors were there and open for business. still, we enjoyed the trip downtown. here are a few of the highlights of our trip.

the attraction of shopping at the farmers market, purchasing locally grown produce direct from the growers.

johnny howell has been growing tomatoes in west nashville for a very long time. over the years we have lived here, we have visited their stands many times. they used to have one off franklin road that we would visit regularly. they are known for their tomatoes and they also can all of the juice and tomatoes in these jars.

normally, cucumbers are something i cannot pass up. however, i have some vines in my garden that are producing them in quantities that i cannot eat fast enough.

the peach truck has had some of the best peaches all summer. this was their last visit to the market since the season is over for them.

one of the local vendors

did you see these in the photo above? cushaw squashes are huge.

it took me a minute to realize that this was a sign for peruvian potatoes-i honestly thought it was some new variety…

magic happening here.

kettle corn-food of the gods if you ask me!

it would not be summer without watermelon, these have orange flesh

and this is how you know you are in the south, muscadine grapes

yellow tomatoes and freshly picked beans

black eye peas by the scoop

and to finish off the trip, we had dinner in the market house at swagruha indian restaurant.

my dinner was chicken tikka masala with dal and rice.

darry opted for something he would not have at home, probably ever, curried goat. and if you look at the photo, you can see that he was all business about eating-he wouldn’t even give me a chance to take the photo!

the next night market is on september 21rst, we will make the trip downtown for a little shopping and dining. my only question, why do they call it a night market if it only goes from 5pm to 8pm?