Judges look for blue ribbon winners

To the untrained eye, it's easy to assume that all strawberry jams are alike in color and consistency, if not taste, but Patti Jones knows better.

"I like a really bright color," she says as Dianne Rellergert and Carol Trankler unscrew rings and pry off lids from jars lined in a row inside the A.C. Brase Arena Building.

Jones dips a white plastic spoon into the jar to get a taste. She cleans the spoon and starts with the second entry.

She pauses, thinking about the taste and flavor of each separate jar before making a selection for the first-, second- and third-place winners.

Jones is a judge for the SEMO District Fair, specializing in the canned foods entries. She selects the top winners in categories from pickle relish to spaghetti sauce, including a variety of fruit jellies and preserves.

"This is gonna be good, you guys," she says as the lid is pried from the lone entry of blueberry jam. "I can tell even before I get my spoon in it."

The category of miscellaneous fruit jellies included entries for zucchini jelly, orange-mango and crabapple jellies.

She picks up a jar of apple jelly that is so clear you can see right through it.

After five jars of apple butter and two blackberry jams, Jones finds a grape jam that "melts in your mouth."

Baked goods

At the other end of the aisle, Judy Lueders, a nutrition expert for University Extension, sorts through the entries in baked goods -- breads, rolls, fruit quick breads, cookies and brownies.

After a sample of three different fruit-filled cookies, Lueders tries to uncover what fruit and nut combination is used in the kolaches she's just awarded first place. "It seems like it has some nuts," she said, "but they are ground really fine."

After the sample bite, she's almost certain the fruit is pineapple, with some apricots perhaps.

This is the stuff that intrigues the judges: flavor, consistency, appearance.

Lueders examines each bran and corn muffin as she tastes them. She's looking for evidence of tunnels, pockets of air that affect the texture of the food. A pinch of the biscuit shows whether or not its inner layers are flaky or crumbling.

But with baked goods, particularly cinnamon rolls and doughnuts, "you have to consider that some things keep better than others," Lueders said

"I don't like dried out breads," she added. But the entries had to arrive by Monday noon at the latest. "You take that into consideration."

A group of judges gather each Tuesday inside the Arena Building during the annual fair to select ribbon winners from the entries of baked goods, jams, jellies, canned vegetables and sewing and craftwork.

It isn't an easy task. Jones and Lueders can get really particular about what qualifies as a good entry.

"I look for uniformity of the fruit or vegetable, appearance and head space" in the jars, said Jones, who has been judging the canned food entries at the SEMO District Fair for about eight years. Head space is the amount of air that was pushed out of the jar during the canning process.

She holds a jar of peaches, admiring the color and uniform pieces. "It looks like they laid them in like a puzzle."

Beginning the process

She begins her judging by inspecting every jar, picking them up, turning them over in her hands. She starts with apples and ends the day with spaghetti sauce.

The salsa category had so many entries -- 17 to be exact -- that Jones had to taste each one twice before making her decisions.

The number of entries often fluctuates based on growing season and the abundance of garden crops. The numbers were down this year because of the weather, Rellegert said.

But the baked good entries usually draw good turnouts. The largest category this year was in chocolate chip cookies.

Lueders admits "everybody judges differently," but she looks for consistency, appearance and taste.

"Some things that look beautiful can taste pasty," she said.

ljohnston@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 126