Reading Jessie's blog on the mushroom festival I thought I would share about a festival we have in a small town near us named Askov that was settled by a lot of people from Denmark. We make sure we get there each year to eat the abelskivers which are little ball pancakes made in a cast iron ablelskiver pan with depressions to put the pancake dough in. The ladies have large pans that make 25 at a time and it keeps them busy as they have to turn them with knitting needles at just the right time so that they stay the shape of a ball. I have tried to make them but mine turn out flat on one side. They are served with several kinds of homemade syrups. My favorite is the wild chokecherry. Also since they used to have a large business in their area that grew and shipped rutabagas (kind of like a yellow turnip), they have rutabaga sausage that they  put on the plate.

We also have the Minnesota State Fair each year and a tiny elderly lady( not much more than 4 feet tall) named Marjorie Johnson has won so many of the baking contests that she has been barred from entering the fair as a contestant. She does do demonstrations and has been on the Rosie O'Donnall Show and others. My daughter gave me her new blueberry cookbook.

I was reminded of that when I looked at the garden and baking displays at the rutabaga festival. One of our friends entered 39 categories and won ribbons on 33 and Best of Show! They even have a section for children to enter the produce from their gardens. The children really can garden!

This is the only town still having those displays in our area. It used to be that each town had them at their festivals.

I sure hope they can keep it up.