From Beer to Bedspreads, Judges Choose Best for Fair Opening

Holding part of a home-baked roll in her fingers, Judy Eldeb slowly chewed another morsel, her eyes squinting in concentration.

“So often they look beautiful and they don’t taste as good as they look,” Eldeb said, surveying the plates of cakes, breads, muffins and scones spread out before her.

As a judge in the Ventura County Fair’s baked-goods competition Tuesday, Eldeb had to look beyond mere flavor to consider texture, color, moisture and other qualities.

In the end, however, “it comes down to the taste,” Eldeb said. “It’s the deciding factor.”

Although the fair opens today, one of its most important activities has taken place quietly in the last 10 days, as judges like Eldeb scrutinized and scored hundreds of entries in exhibits from photography to floriculture.

Somis resident Vicki Hutter learned last week that her handmade quilt was judged Best of Show out of more than 100 spreads.

“It didn’t hit me till the next morning,” Hutter said. “I’ve had things in before. But I’ve never won.”

On Tuesday, Hutter took her first look at the long aqua-blue ribbon pinned to the bottom of her quilt. A fair worker standing nearby advised the quilter not to treat her handiwork as any old bedspread.

“I wouldn’t put that on my bed,” Pat Beachy told Hutter.

Hutter agreed, saying her husband might lie on it if she did.

Despite a shoulder injury that prevented Hutter from sewing more than an hour at a time, she said she spent roughly 425 hours during the past 3 1/2 years stitching together the flowery white, blue, green and pink spread.

Although fair workers called Hutter about her triumph, they don’t have time to call every person whose rock display, bottle of home-brewed beer or other entry is now adorned with a prize ribbon.

“They have to come to the fair and see it,” fair volunteer Patricia Wikkoff said.

And fair organizers are confident they will come.

Thousand Oaks resident Connie Steidl saw ribbons pinned next to at least four of the 15 photos she entered in this year’s photography exhibit.

Even though she knows her entries won, Steidl plans to come back to the photography display to admire the work of other county residents.

“It’s incredible,” Steidl said as she wandered through aisle after aisle, viewing the walls of photos. “There’s so many. I’ll probably spend a whole day in here.”

This year’s exhibit includes 3,421 amateur photos, from artsy shots of clouds to snapshots of children and pets.

Judges said the large volume of good entries makes decisions difficult.

“Sometimes it really gets down to the nitty-gritty,” Eldeb said. Eldeb is a former blue-ribbon winner who was recruited by fair managers to help with judging.

Fair-goers will have their own chance to pick the winner in a popularity contest that matches the highest vote-getter with a 400-pound pig.

In an annual contest that runs throughout the fair, visitors can vote for one of five county celebrities or public officials--including Assemblyman Jack O’Connell (D-Carpinteria) and Supervisor Susan K. Lacey. The winner has to kiss the pig.

Organizers of the contest, which raises money for the CASA program of children’s advocates, held a preview Tuesday at the County Government Center when one of the celebrities locked lips with a Vietnamese pot-bellied pig.

Not all exhibits at the fair have been judged. Many departments, such as floriculture and home arts, will continue to accept and judge entries for various exhibits. For more information, call the fairgrounds at 648-3376 or 656-1260.

Times correspondent Jeff McDonald contributed to this story.