SIDNEY — Forty-five times auctioneer Dick Barhorst touted the qualities of a bake good during Sunday night’s bake good auction at the Shelby County Fair. And 45 times Barhorst made two groups of people happy: the buyer who purchased the goodies for their eating pleasure and the baker who reaped the monetary rewards of their baking skills.
Barhorst began the auction with “calorie free” peanut butter fudge prepared by Maggie Burch. She won the grand champion award in the candy category.
Attorney Trent Snavely and his wife, Dottie, purchased the treat for $200.
The grand champion plate of cookies — irresistible peanut butter cookies — sold for $200. The cookies, baked by Terri Esser, were sold to Sidney Body CARSTAR.
Trish Schulze’s upside down pecan roll was the grand champion in the yeast bread and rolls category. Detailed Machining purchased the rolls for $275.
The biscuit grand champion was entered by Jana Bolton. She created an almond glazed coffee cake. It was purchased by Sidney Body CARSTAR and Best One Tire for $425. This is the second time Bolton has shown a grand champion bake good item.
“I make this (coffee cake) for lots of people,” said Bolton. “My daughter works at Panache and I make it as bars for them. I decided to make it as a coffee cake for this contest.”
Bolton said she loves to bake and has always participated in the contest since she got out of 4-H.. She had two entries in this year’s bake goods contest.
“I was baking birthday cakes last night (Saturday),” she said. “Then I started working on my fair projects. My kitchen was really hot with all the baking.”
Bolton said she was surprised she won the category.
“When I went up and saw I was the grand champion, I cried,” she said. “They were happy tears.”
Laura Schulze was a double grand prize winner. She won the pie category with her apple pie, Her berry good white cake won the cake category.
A consortium of Plastipak of Jackson Center, and Commissioners Julie Ehemann, Tony Bornhorst and Bob Guillozet purchased the apple pie for $500. The cake was purchased by Barker Insurance for $425.
“The neat thing about the auction,” Barhorst told the crowd, “is you see elected officials come and support the fair … even if they’re not running for election.”
From chocolate cake to egg noodles and back to more peanut butter fudge, Barhorst kept the auction moving quickly and smoothly.
Toward the end of the auction, Barhorst called for a new assistant to help show the item up for bid. Nine-year-old Ruth Ann Carity had two entries auction off. Barhorst asked her to help him at the front of the stage.
Her butterscotch potato chip cookies sold for $70 to Sidney Body CARSTAR. Her ginger cookies sold for $80 and were purchased by Sidney Tire and Best One Tire.
Remember, this is going in her college fund,” said Barhorst in an attempt to get the bidders to increase their bids on the cookies.
Ruth Ann said she entered butterscotch cookies last year too and they were a winner.
“I was embarrassed a little bit,” said Ruth Ann when the auctioneer called her up to help.
She said she goes through cookbooks when trying to find a recipe to enter. After finding several recipes, she uses her family as taste testers until they find a recipe they can agree on.
Her dad, Brent, said he loves to try all of Ruth Ann’s baking experiments.
“The judging took a long time this year,” said her mom, Marie.
In addition to her entries in the bake goods show, RuthAnn is a first-year 4-H member. She will be showing pigs and also has projects in cooking and sewing.
The family resides in Minster — right on the border of Shelby County. Ruth Ann attends Minster Local Schools.
“I’d like to thank everybody who came this year. We had some new buyers and we had some older mature buyers.”
Fair board member Jim Bertsch was honored for his years of serving on the fair board and with the bake goods contest. He is retiring from the fair board.
“I’m sure I’ll be here next year,” said Bertsch of his plans to continue to buy bake good items. He purchased several items at Sunday night’s sale.
