What would the end of summer... Labor Day Weekend... be without attending the state fair? It's the season's right of passage into autumn, afterall. So, early yesterday morning, Dick and I headed to the Minnesota State Fairgrounds in St. Paul. One of our final buildings to tour last evening was the one where the Princess Kay of the Milky Way contestants' heads are carved out of butter. Since it was the topic of one of my earlier posts, I thought I'd take a photo of this year's event. A sculpture is created each day of the fair but, sadly, the sculptor had finished her carving for the day, so I wasn't able to get a shot of her in action. According to the poster hanging on the wall, each sculpture is carved from a 90 lb block of butter inside a booth chilled to a temperature of 40 degrees. Each sculpture takes about 6-8 hours to complete. After the fair, each Princess Kay Finalist takes her sculpture home.
After staying overnight in Minneapolis, we headed over to the Minneapolis Farmers Market on Lyndale Avenue.
There aren't as many vendors during the week as on the weekend but, besides heirloom tomatoes, we came away with a huge potted chrysanthemum as well as a delicious breakfast of a pint of raspberries and a bag of cheese curds. Next stop was the Wedge Food Co-op just down the road for a gigantic carrot muffin and equally large oatmeal blueberry scone to add to our breakfast fare. I love the photos and bios of the local farmers hanging above the veggie bins in the produce section. I feel an instant connection and gratitude for their hard work and committment to sustainable organic farming choices. I bought two large freshly-picked bunches of parsley to make a beverage that has cukes, celery, parsley, apples, and water whirred together in a blender. I have made this several times but never shared the recipe, so look for it in an upcoming post... so very nutritious and an excellent way to use up cucumbers that seem to multiply as quickly in the garden as zucchini.
The coupons in my "living green" focused Blue Sky Guide, that I got because I was one of the first hundred people in line waiting for the doors to open at the Living Green Expo this past May, expire at the end of November. I was able to use many of the coupons for the items that I purchased at the The Wedge Co-Op. The majority of the coupons are for businesses in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, but there are many grocery coupons that can be used at any stores that carry those particular products. The coupon book, that sells for $20.00, was quite a nice gift.