Kansans

Exhibitor of the Year

13 Comments on Exhibitor of the Year

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Just a few of Tracey Graham’s ribbons from the Lyon County Fair. Tracey was Lyon County’s Exhibitor of the Year. She entered 78 items and took home 72 ribbons!

She had the best jam of all the jams at the fair. Her whole wheat bread won a sweepstakes award from the Kansas Wheat Commission.

Those entries and ribbons mean cash. And she’s going to donate it. “The Farmers Market gets a third and the Extension Office Building Fund gets a third and Shepherd’s Valley gets a third,” she said.

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Tracey baked and canned and sewed (the apron she’s wearing) and knitted and crocheted and grew flowers (she’s a Kansas State Master Gardener.) She entered items in numerous fair divisions: toys, hats, jewelry, dried flowers, and I can’t tell you what else.

Many of the jellies that she canned were made from fruit she had purchased at the Farmers Market.

She’s the Farmers Market’s best friend. No one is more enthusiastic than Tracey. And that’s one of the reasons she works for The Learning Connection, which is responsible for the market.

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This morning, Tracey sold her famous breakfast burritos. I had two burritos of the pork variety (one there, one later for lunch). Mmm.

Only Kansas ingredients go in her burritos. The cheese is from the Alma Creamery in Alma and the whole wheat tortillas are from a company in Moundridge. Everything else was either made or grown in Lyon or Chase County or sold at the Emporia Farmers Market. The bacon is Emporia’s Fanestil bacon that she bought at Reebles, the pork was purchased from Jim Wallace at the Farmers Market, and so on.

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Tracey is one impressive woman – and one of the nicest people you could ever meet.

13 Comments

  2. Whoa!! I DID see Tracey several times on entering day! 78 entries! Congratulations, Tracey!
    –that makes my one little entry seem pretty paltry……but I did get a blue ribbon. (and, Tracey, no creative crafts???)–(maybe next year?)

  3. We visited with Tracey this morning too. She is a very enthusiastic person with a lot of talent and we enjoyed her so-o-o much. Is she on FOP?

    The produce, baked goods, canned items, flowers and plants were especially beautiful today. Did I leave out anything?

  7. She’s Dr. Tracy then, how cool! Tracy, congratulations for all the ribbons and good going on all your good work. Tracy is one of those just really great people.

    She’s on FOP, but doesn’t post often. Haven’t seen her in a while. Her user handle is Volcanohead.

    Janet

  9. Gosh, I am so blushing…

    I have to make a correction: I didn’t get an award for “best canned item”, but I did get one for best JAM. I’m particularly thrilled about that one, because that jam got a blue ribbon for being the best _berry_ jam, and that’s a surprise in two senses: 1) it’s GOOSEberry, and was up against more “normal” berries; and 2) it’s low sugar! Then it got the purple ribbon for best jam, which means it beat out all the other blue ribbon jams. Woo hoo!!! And I did get the gooseberries at the FM, from Jeanette Hurshman. On Saturday I gave her half of my $10 sweepstakes prize, she tried to say no no no, but I insisted, then she turned around and bought one of my last remaining burritos… No wonder I love the market!

    Second Correction – I misspoke when chatting with Cheryl on Saturday. The eggs and veggies from Shepherd’s Valley are not actually from Lyon County; they’re from Chase. SV Farm is on the west side of Road A. I forgot that I drive right on the county line to get there, and cross the border when I go up their driveway! They have an Americus address, but their farm is in Chase County.

    Hi Eleanor! – I did have a couple of CC entries. One was a vase {no ribbon, boo hoo, poor me 😉 }, and the other was a jewelry set: red white and blue bangle bracelet, necklace and earrings (red ribbon).
    I’m with Onnalee… Congrats on the blue! What did you enter? I guess I missed it! There were so many beautiful things at the fair this year! So many creative people in the area!!!

    Thanks everyone for your congrats. It really feels good! I love the fair!

  11. OH YES!! I did see your patriotic jewelry–I thought it was amazing and looked like a lot of work!!
    My one lonely entry was a counted cross stitch, a school sampler. I’ve been working on another sampler for about 3 or 4 years now…..I’ve got to stop playing bookworm!!!

  12. OK you heard it here first on FOP. The State Fair ribbon count:

    4 white
    3 red
    2 blue
    1 purple (my first KS purple!!!)

    23 items submitted.

    Woohoo!!!!

    And today was a beautiful day for the fair. Nice and cool, not very crowded.

    Got my deep-fried ceese curds. I’m a happy girl!

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