The fairgrounds are bustling in the days before the Illinois State Fair opens, and no location is busier than the culinary division in the Hobby, Arts, and Crafts Building. On Friday is cleaning and set up. On Sunday and Monday, contestants’ entries are checked in. Tuesday and Wednesday the items are judged, then put on display for opening day. If that doesn’t seem like much, consider this: There are seven adult divisions for which the entries must be submitted and judged prior to fair opening; except for canned goods, the junior competition has parallel divisions. Largest is Division One, baked products, with nine sub-categories; only two sub-categories have a single contest.

Every entry must be tasted, and its attached recipe read; each sub-category is awarded a first, second and third prize.

The quick bread sub-category has nine contests: plain coffeecakes; coffeecakes with additions; nut, zucchini, banana, pumpkin, miscellaneous fruit, and miscellaneous other breads; bran, blueberry, and miscellaneous muffins; and biscuits. Each of those winners in those compete for the Best Quick Bread; that winner is pitted against the Best Yeast Bread for the Best Bread prize.

There are 23 different cookies contests, four cake sub-categories, and pastry. The other divisions are 2) Decorated Projects, 3) Candies, 4) Jellies, Preserves, Jams, Marmalade and [Fruit] Butters, 5) Canned Fruits and Vegetables, 6) Pickles, Sauces, and Relishes, and 7) Diabetic. Whew!

On Tuesday, three two-judge teams begin tasting their way through it all. “All my judges have to have been Family and Consumer Sciences teachers (a.k.a Home Economics) or have food-related backgrounds,” says Culinary Superintendant Billye Griswold of White Hall. Retired Calhoun County FCS teacher Susan Dierker-Becker is working her way through the Jr. division entries with her sister, Diane Onken, who makes wedding cakes. “Everybody gets a ribbon and positive comments in Juniors,” says Dierker-Becker.

Onken and Dierker-Becker are having fun, but also are serious about their task, as are all the judges. There are specific criteria and rules; judges frequently consult the standards book. Onken and Dierker-Becker are working through plates of cookies. Appearance is judged before tasting, and that becomes problematic. Cookies are supposed to be only 2 inches in diameter. While the pair aren’t using a ruler, substantially larger cookies are disqualified.

Kathy Lemme and Linda Schilling are judging quick breads. They chuckle when reading a recipe for the Clabber Girl Baking Powder contest; the recipe specifies a rival brand. No prize for that one! Carol Schlitt and Donna Falconnier from U of I Home Extension offices in, respective-