Sunday, August 9, 2009

blue ribbon...and beer


A dispatch from Steve:

Those of you who’ve read the latest issue of Edible Blue Ridge know that while I’m growing several varieties of tomatoes in our family garden this year, I only drool over the candy-sweet, bite-size, neon-orange Sun Golds (“Vine-Ripened Memories,” page 10, EBR Summer 2009). Well, they’ve returned my affection. Believe it or not, my little Sun Golds earned a blue ribbon in the cherry tomato competition at the Albemarle County Fair! Okay, there wasn’t exactly a crush of entrants in that category, but there were enough that I feel dang proud to have brought home the blue. Official judging was based on uniformity in size, quality, freedom from injury, and attractive appearance—which means the judges didn’t even pop the warm Sun Golds into their mouths and discover their best trait. In accepting this award, I’d like to thank the sun, the rain, the dirt, and all the little bugs who left my ’maters alone. I plan to enter again next year—and so should you!

You’d think that would be the biggest thrill I could have at the fair. But I was also tapped to judge the homebrew beer competition. (It was a choice between that and insect collections, which really isn’t a choice at all.) Unlike with tomatoes, I pretty much like all beer—lagers, ales, pale, dark, bitter, nutty, hoppy, malty—so it was tough to choose. Luckily, my pal Matt selflessly volunteered to help out (by the way, he scored second place for his blackberry jam entry). So we sat in a tent one sweaty evening, munching pretzels and sipping the chilled efforts of local homebrewers. Not surprisingly, all the entrants were ales, since that style ferments at room temperature and doesn’t require a lot of extra equipment. The competition was close, forcing us to open a second bottle of a few beers…just to make sure we were being fair. In the end, the standouts were a perfectly hoppy IPA and a crisp winter lager, both of which earned blue ribbons. Cheers to you, local homebrewers, for making this year’s fair a thrill even before I strapped myself into the Tilt-A-Whirl.