It was a busy day Saturday heading over to the Goodhue County Fair to broadcast from the Goodhue County Pork Producers food building and the annual Goodhue County 4-H Livestock Auction. Then mid-afternoon I went to the Dakota County Fair as Olive Huff asked me to be the "Official" Barbecue Judge at the Dakota County Fair. I have been asked for a number of years and consider it a compliment to be asked back again!

There were four classes this year, beef, ribs, poultry and mixed. Barbecue contestants must prepare their entries outside the open class food building at the Dakota County Fair. You can see from the pictures there were a number of entries that looked delicious. By the way, they all were very good! When I was considering each entry I thought about a number of factors, appearance, how moist and tender it was, flavor and then a special category for the barbecue sauce that was used.

After the winners are announced, I bring the contestants on stage to explain how they prepared their meat and any special secrets they would share. It was neat that a number were kind of a "secret" family recipe. When we are finished than everyone that was watching can get samples of all the entries and decide if they agreed with my winners.

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