All’s fair: Competitors know what it takes to win at Puyallup Fair
DEBBY ABE; Staff writer
Slicing and mixing, boiling and baking for hours at a time doesn’t normally make the to-do list for a steamy summer day – unless you’re a perennial ribbon-winner at the Puyallup Fair.
If past experience holds true, the tension has been thick as brownie batter at Vicki Reninger’s Puyallup home in recent days as she prepares to enter some 40 food categories at the fair.
“My family knows two weeks before I enter my stuff in the fair — no one calls me unless it’s an emergency. No one comes over,” Reninger, 53, said. “This place is like chaos. There are canning jars all over the place, recipes flying around ...”
“Every year at this time, my husband wishes he was on the road working. I get a little short-tempered because I gotta get everything ready for the fair. It has to be just right.”
The attention to detail makes Reninger a formidable competitor. She’s been the Puyallup Fair’s Preserved Food Grand Champion nine times since 1999, and she has the ribbons to prove it.
The title goes to the contestant with the most first, second, third place and honorable mention ribbons in pickles, canned vegetables, dried foods, jams and other preserved foods during that year’s fair. There’s a separate grand champion for culinary arts, which encompasses cakes, candy, cookies and other baked goods.
Reninger is among the hundreds of contestants going for blue at the Puyallup Fair.
Entries in the fair’s Home Arts Division – the category that includes cooking, sewing, quilting, weaving and the like – have increased in recent years from 1,567 in 2007 to 1,844 last year. Sue Horton, the fair’s Home Arts contest coordinator, speculates that people have more time to spend on home activities in these harsh economic times. There’s no fee to enter food contests, and winners take home cash prizes ranging from $3 to $200 or coupons for food products.
As you drool at the display cases of winning food entries, watch for the names of these annual power contenders at the Puyallup Fair:
VICKI RENINGER, 53, Puyallup
Job: Pierce County Utilities employee locating sewer lines.
Years entering the fair: Close to 20.
Typical number of entries a year: About 40 in preserved-food categories.
Number of ribbons: Hundreds, including nine for Preserved Foods Grand Champion.
Some entries over the years: Spaghetti sauce, canned smoked salmon, barbecue sauce, canned pears, venison jerky, canned green beans, applesauce, apple butter, dill pickles, kosher pickles, apple juice, canned Yellow Finn potatoes, salmon jerky, dried watermelon.
Words to can by: “If you can grow it or kill it, I can can it.”
The beginning: “One time at the fair, I just happened to see the vinegar entries. I thought, shoot, I could do herb vinegar. The next year, I started out with one jar of herb vinegar, and my first ribbon was honorable mention. The next year, I got a blue ribbon and that pretty much sealed the deal.”
On canning: “When you can your own stuff, you know what goes in the jar. You don’t have to worry about bad produce, bad meat, insects, or salmonella and all those things that you hear on the news.”
On competition: “I’m competitive. That’s why I’m a perfectionist. If someone can do a better job than me and beat me, that’s cool, too. I’m willing to share the glory. I do enjoy winning.”
On ribbing a competitor who won the grand champion: “I said, ‘I did get more blue ribbons than you.’ I had to save face a little bit. She entered a lot of things. Her things looked very nice and she deserved to win.”
The challenge: Winning the sweepstakes for the most ribbons in jam and jelly categories. “I’ve only broken that barrier once.”
Sharing the fun: After entering the fair for years, Vicki got her mother, Barb Gates of Steilacoom, now 85, to start entering the “Best Jam and Jelly Contest” about 10 years ago.
Winning advice: “Look at that (judges’) score card. It tells you what’s good and what you need to work on. Pay attention to detail. Make sure your labels are nice and neat. Make sure you have proper headspace (in canning, the pocket of air between the contents and lid). Make sure your recipe is easy to read. Make sure you’re following the most up-to-date canning directions.”
MARLENE COX, 69, Spanaway
Years entering the fair: 15 to 20.
Typical entries: Yeast breads, quick breads, cookies, candies, cakes, occasionally pies.
Number of ribbons: No idea. Won Culinary Arts Grand Champion once and twice was runner-up for that title “I usually do fairly well. If I enter 10, I might win eight assorted ribbons, from honorable mention on up.”
The beginning: Her daughter, Donna Succo of Onalaska, competed in 4-H at the fair as a kid. When Donna grew up, she suggested that she and her mom enter the fair together.
Sharing the fun: “We enter a lot of the same categories and do different categories from each other,” Cox said. “We always end up competing head to head in a lot of them. ... I like to see her win.”
Prepping the entries: “It is a lot of work. The baking isn’t so much the work, it’s writing the recipes. You have to write a detailed recipe for everything you do, whether you’re baking or canning.”
Why she keeps entering: “It’s exciting to get to the fair and see how you did, especially if I have a friend or my daughter competing. It’s fun to talk about it ahead of time.”
On entering fresh-baked or frozen goods: “I do both. You have to bake ahead if you’re going to do many entries. You couldn’t possibly complete that many items in a day or two and do a good job. I freeze cookies and cakes. I’d bake a cake, wrap it well, freeze it, and take it out and frost it the day before or morning that I bring it in.”
The next generation: Has entered the parent (or grandparent) and child baking competitions with all but one of her 12 grandchildren. Last year, she and granddaughter Jacinta Cox, then 11, won second place for their peanut butter cookies. “It’s fun to do it with them, and let them use their imaginations a little bit.”
A memorable win: “When I won grand champion, I was totally shocked. I just went to the fair on opening day, and discovered it. They took all my entries and put them in one case. ... I had 16 to 20 entries; most won something. The (grand champion) ribbon was in the display case. It was exciting.
Winning advice: “You just do the best you can and hope for the best.”
CLAUDIA CYSENSKY, 57, University Place
Job: Sales clerk at J.C. Penney.
Years entering the fair: Close to 30.
Typical number of entries a year: About 35 in preserved foods; about 25 in baked goods and other culinary arts categories.
Some entries over the years: Pies, cakes, candies, quick breads, scones, Spam, tomato sauce, juices, dried herbs, dried fish and chicken, vinegars, applesauce, apple juice, pickled beans, salsa, canned turkey, yeast breads, 14-day sweet pickles, jams and jellies.
Number of ribbons: Hundreds, including at least five for Culinary Arts Grand Champion and at least two for Preserved Foods Grand Champion.
Secret to success: Lots of practice. She bakes year-round from scratch and constantly experiments. “Honey, there’s no mixes in this house. I haven’t bought a jar of jam in I don’t know how long.”
A memorable win: She and her son, Verne Cysensky III, then 11, won a blue ribbon in the parent-child cookie contest at the Puyallup Fair in 1991. Their recipe for Frosted Peanut Butter Peanut Brittle Cookie went on to win the National Crisco American Cookie Celebration. The recipe was printed in a nationally distributed cookbook with the cookie on the cover. Mom and son won a solid silver container and $5,000.
On entering fresh-baked or frozen goods: Freezes cookies, sometimes; candies and pies, definitely not. “It’s impossible to make all that stuff in one day.”
On keeping her sanity while preparing entries: “After all these years I have a system. ... This morning, I had a big box of apples and big box of tomatoes. I made tomato sauce, I did two batches. Then apple juice and applesauce. I had 90 percent of it done by noon. It used to take me all day.”
The attraction: “I keep saying I’m not gonna, then I do it. ... You know what I like? I know the ladies there. They say, ‘Claudia, how have you been?’ We talk. They’re just nice people.”
Winning advice: “Take a regular recipe, give it pizazz. Experiment and add unusual ingredients. Be adventuresome and be creative. ”
Debby Abe: 253-597-8694
debby.abe@thenewstribune.com
