The Minnesota State Fair

Credit: MN State Fair Gallery
This year's fair: August 23-September 3, 2012

Boy, are our feet tired! We spent Sunday afternoon walking the 320 acres of the State Fair, along with a million other people.

The original purpose of the MN State Fair was to encourage farming. I'm sure it still does that, but today it allows city slickers to see a snippet of what the farmers do every day.

It is heartening to see the farm organizations like 4H and FFA (Future Farmers of America) working with their livestock.

The animals are groomed to perfection, then judged, and some are sold to the market. We saw a goat that was sold to Walmart. I assume the goat will be their new CEO.

This is Buzz greeting a goat. It's my impression that goats aren't the smartest animals in the barn. Feel free to disagree with me, but when you look closely at one, you see there is really no place to put a brain. But they're really cute, and can be delicious served on injera when you're visiting Ethiopia and you're REALLY hungry.
We had a great time walking among the cows, goats, sheep, and my favorite--the pigs. The pig below is named Reggie. He's Minnesota's largest boar (male pig). He is 5 years old and weighs 1,450 pounds. That's Buzz standing next to the guy who's checking out a choice shoulder roast. It's my understanding that they use every part of the pig--except the oink.

The first MN State Fair took place in 1859, a year after Minnesota became a state. I started going to the Fair about a century later. I used to go for the cotton candy, but now I prefer the Pronto Pups, mini donuts, Machinery Hill, and people-watching. The Fair is famous for putting almost any kind of food on a stick. They even sell hotdish on a stick. (The word "hotdish" will not make sense to you unless you are from the Midwest. I will make a blog entry about hotdish soon.) How they get it to stay on a stick, I can't explain.