The Kern County Fair is around the corner and the deadline to enter its competitive exhibits is even sooner.
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00:00 Welcome back everyone. The current county fair is right around the corner and the deadline to enter its competitive exhibits is even sooner.
00:07 23 ABC's Ava Kirschner spoke to a long time competitor about what it takes to enter and how soon you need to do it.
00:14 From painted pieces and photography to cactus art and even hot wings, the current county fair has a wide variety of contests that you can enter to fit whatever you're good at.
00:24 In the past I have entered gems, jellies, salsas, biscuits, cornbread, cakes, cookies, pies, whatever there was to enter.
00:34 Meet Ruth Tisdale, a long time competitor at the current county fair since 1996. She excels in the culinary arts exhibits.
00:42 From the pre-made entries to the drop-in contests and says her favorite competition was her last one in 2022.
00:50 I lost my husband in July of last year and I came into the competitions telling my daughters, who they're all adult daughters, that this was going to be my last year I planned to enter.
01:00 And I wanted to go out with a bang and I did very well. I won the pulled apple pie, I won the chili contest, I won the pico de gallo, I won a variety of pie awards. It was just, it was fun.
01:13 Now Ruth is on the culinary arts committee, a group of people working to build back the number of those entering competitions after a loss was felt due to the pandemic.
01:22 Well, before we would have so many people that would enter. You know, you'd have 20, 25 people and they would enter and then we would be able to serve all these cakes. Everybody got to try them.
01:32 Now we, I think last year we had 12.
01:35 If cooking and baking isn't for you, the other nine categories just might be. You can enter for photography, needle art and sewing, ceramics and much more.
01:45 Many of the categories have novice, amateur and professional sections so you can choose your skill level.
01:50 This is for the amateurs. If you've got friends that say, oh, I absolutely love this dish of yours or I love how you make that, make it. Come on down here with it and enter it. You just might win.
02:00 You can enter all of the competitions online at kerncountyfair.com. As long as you make the deadline of September 8th, then you drop off your exhibit starting September 15th.
02:10 And don't forget about the cash prize.
02:12 I spent maybe $5 last year, $6 on making my pie. I won a hundred bucks. You can't beat that.
02:19 And if you want to show your stuff, it's relatively cheap to do so.
02:23 For example, I'm entering my painting into the novice art competition just for fun and it only cost me $3 to do so.
02:30 Reporting at the Kern County Fairgrounds, I'm Ava Kirshner, 23 ABC News, connecting you.