Special Events

Deschutes County Fair

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

A couple weekends ago we went to the Deschutes County Fair (Deschutes County Fair & Rodeo) and this is a belated post to share some photos from the Fair.

The Deschutes County Fair is allegedly (according to their website) Oregon’s largest county fair and rodeo. We have attended a couple of times, and honestly we are always a little underwhelmed.

This could because we used to live in Seattle, WA and each year would go to the more impressive Pullayup Fair (Washington State Fair) or because we used to live in Houston, TX and would attend the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.  So perhaps the bar was set a little high on what we expect from a Fair/Livestock Show/Rodeo.

Lured by the Promise of “Carnival Eats”

We would have passed on the Deschutes County Fair this year, but Terry the Quilting Husband (TTQH) got hooked on a show on the Cooking Channel called Carnival Eats.

Basically Carnival Eats is an extreme “food porn” show featuring the NAUGHTIEST fair/carnival food ever (we are talking bacon burgers stuffed with cheese set in a glazed Krispy Kreme donut bun) around the country. Some of the carnival food shown on the show makes you gasp and you imagine if you had one glorious bite you would just immediately drop dead of a heart attack from an extreme coronary blockage by fat. But you would die with a smile on your face!

TTQH and I in general eat fairly healthy but after binge watching a couple of the show with Terry, I thought it would be fun this year to go to the Deschutes County Fair and have one very naughty carnival food experience.

Alas, there was only the standard Fair/Carnival food at the Deschutes Country Fair (corn dogs, friend twinkies, elephant ears). Below is a photo of the most exciting offering they had, and we passed on it, It was just not naughty enough to spend the calories on:

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Wandering Around the Fair

Our coronary arteries probably thanked us, but we gave up on hopes of any naughty food experiences, grabbed a lemonade and wandered around the Fair. Here are some photos from the day.

The Livestock

The livestock was owned/managed by the adorable 4H and FFA (Future Farmers of America) kids. One kids asked me if I wanted to meet her goat,  how could I refuse?

The 4H or FFA kids had posted The Six Pillars of Character:

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The Quilts

What would a county fair be without the craft section? First here is a sampling of some the quilts:

And they had a room in which you could watch women hand quilt in various modified versions of quilting circles!

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The Fiber Arts

The also had knitting and weaving displays and juried winners:

The Rides (that there was no way in heck I was going on)

In case the signs were not enough to keep me away:

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Then the rides themselves accomplished that objective:

Yes, I am a wimp, and proud of it! (smile)

Leaving the Fair

Upon leaving the fair, I asked TTQH if he was less likely to eat meat after meeting all those farm animals. He replied: “That was very cute bacon and if I knew it’s name I would personally thank it while having breakfast”.

No vegetarianism in TTQH’s future!

Postscript

Returning to what originally drew us to the fair – the promise of naughty fair food, I looked around the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo’s website and discovered they had a list of their Fair Food – 2017 Carnival Food

Now, look at these delicacies we did not have access to at the Deschutes County Fair:

  • Flaming Hot Cheetos Roaster Corn & Flaming Hot Cheetos Corn in Cup
  • Nutella Funnel Cake & Oreo Churros with filling
  • Flaming Hot Cheetos Pizza
  • Deep Fried Tim Tams & Deep Fried Chocolate Covered Marshmallows
  • Bacon Nutella Pickle, Pickled Cheese-on-a-Stick, & Shrimp and Pickle Basket
  • Pork Chop-on-a-stick, Loaded Baked Potato Bites & Deep Fried Nachos

So right now your mouth is either watering or your stomach is turning!

We ended up having a nice late lunch after the fair at a local brewery.

Published by tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Quilter, crafter, obsessive tea drinker and lover of all furry creatures (especially dogs and cats) - join me on my tierneycreates blog as I share stories from "A Crafter's Life".

21 thoughts on “Deschutes County Fair”

  1. I remember riding that “canoe” that gets you almost vertical once, way back when. Not nearly so daring as I once was. I used to do roller coasters and love them. but they were tamer then too.

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  2. Thanks for sharing. I enjoyed the quilt/fiber show and the animals as I did when I was young person going to the fair.

    I would certainly look for the freshly made french fries and douse them with malt vinegar. That is probably not scandy enough for you guys! 🙂 Have you ever watched that British baking show? So dangerous!!

    TTQH cracks me up!

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    1. Okay then freshly made french fries and malt vinegar sounds yummy. They did have that at the fair! I am going to start watching the Great British Baking show soon as I think it is on Netflix and any of my friends who watch it rave about it! Thanks for your comments 🙂

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  3. You are VERY fortunate that there was none of that extreme fair food there! I’ll admit that all does not appeal to me a bit. Even the smell of the fried foods puts my stomach on edge a bit.

    You know, we have some festivals around here that are small potatoes. Sometimes we go and sometimes we don’t. We’re always glad that we did, if only on the premise that we helped support the festival and make it last one more year. 🙂

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    1. Thanks for your comments and you are so right. My tummy did much better with a nice burger at the brewery after the fair. That is a great perspective – even if the festival is small – it is what you have in the area and if you go then enjoy and appreciate it! It is an 6 – 8 hour drive to get the Washington State Fair and a very very very long drive to get to the Houston Rodeo, so I am just going to appreciate our little fair here 🙂

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  4. At my age, everything has become extreme food.
    I had to pass on a pulled pork and jalapeño Frito pie yesterday. It looked great, but I knew there would be a price to pay. As for the rides, I never really was a fan. I would extreme scream just looking at them. It sounds like you had a delightful day at the fair.

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  7. Kudos to you for giving the fair a chance. Going to fairs was something we always liked doing with our girls. The local fair had yummy burgers and delicious chocolate and vanilla twist ice cream. The state fair was truly the best one to go too. We were never known for riding the rides. Our mantra was to eat our way through the farm food booths. There were baked potatoes, cheese curds, Carmel apples, to name a few. Oh and above all the cream puffs! Who wouldn’t want a cream puff from the dairy state. Enjoy the Great British Baking Show. We’ve seen multiple seasons and lovef them all. We also like the British Baking Shiw Master Class.

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    1. I heard there was also “deep friend butter” at Fairs, I think that would be taking frying things to a very weird level! I do want to try a deep fried Twinkie someday just out of curiosity. Hope you find your bacon nutella pickles (and your tummy survives the ordeal – ha!) 🙂

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