Tag: Indiana State Fair

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Table Talk: The Year of Popcorn

In 1981, my family moved to Indiana. On the day my parents showed us the house that was to become our home, we made popcorn. My dad had been to the local popcorn festival and had purchased a brand new hot air popper. What I remember is that my parents didn’t know that hot air poppers didn’t come with a bowl, so we caught the popcorn in paper lunch bags. Well, we caught some of the popcorn. The rest was scattered around the kitchen.

Little did I know, popping popcorn was the perfect introduction to living in Indiana-Indiana is the nation’s second largest popcorn producer. Suddenly mottos like “There’s more than corn in Indiana”, make sense, right?

photo (45)The  Indiana State Fair is paying tribute to popcorn this year, and has declared it “The Year of Popcorn”. The word’s largest popcorn ball is on display. How big is the world’s largest popcorn ball? Well it’s 5,000 pounds and 9 feet tall, thank you for asking.

The Indiana State Fair run through August 18th, and there is so much to see and do, I’d plan for at least two days to see it all. In addition to the World’s Largest Popcorn ball, there is the brand new Glass Barn, which is an interactive experience bringing Indiana’s farms to the fair.

The DuPont Food Pavilion features many items produced by Indiana Family of Farmers farms, and there are food activities and presentations happening every day of the fair.

In addition, there’s the Indiana Family of Farmer’s Recipe Trail, which will take you through many of the Fair’s buildings and expo halls. For every person who completes the Recipe Trail, a pound of food will be donated to area food banks.

Happy State Fair Season!

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I wrote this post as an Indiana Family of Farmers Table Talk Contributor. As always, opinions here are 100% my own. I love Indiana popcorn, I won’t lie. 

IFOF Table Talk

Connect with Indiana Family of Farmers all over the Internet: www.indianafamilyoffarmers.com     @FamilyofFarmers    On Facebook

 

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Indiana State Fair: The Year of the Dairy Cows {a Giveaway}(closed)

Edited 7/25: This giveaway is now closed. I am contacting the winner via email tonight! Thanks for playing! The only thing I don’t like about the Indiana State Fair is that it signals the end of summer. Other than that, it’s the icing on my proverbial summer cake. It’s everything that is special about Indiana, all rolled into a two week blitz on the corner of E. 38th Street.

One of the highlights from the 2011 Fair

There is  food.

There are animals.

There is a Midway full of entertainment.

There are displays and sideshows and cheese sculpture.

There are things that you just have to see to believe (have you seen the world’s largest boar? It’s kind of a State Fair “thing”).

There is also something that just says “Hoosier” to me. For the second year, Indiana Family of Farmers is partnering with Feeding Indiana’s Hungry (FIsH) to donate one pound of food for every State Fair visitor who completes the Recipe Trail.

The Recipe Trail, you ask?

The Recipe Trail consists of 8 locations around the Fairgrounds, plus one more stop at the Indiana Family of Farmer’s booth in the DuPont Food Pavilion for the 9th and final card. Upon finishing the trail, participants will receive a prize, plus an entry for a Frigidaire chest freezer. More details and the official rules can be found on IFOF’s website.

This year the Indiana State Fair is honoring the Dairy Cow (somewhat related: Indiana is #2 in the nation for ice cream and frozen yogurt production). Be on the look out for Indiana’s Dairy mascot, Buttercup. Rumor has it she’s going to be celebrating the duration of the fair!

As part of that celebration, Indiana Family of Farmer’s provided a fun giveaway- this year, in addition to TWO tickets for admission to the Indiana State Fair, the lucky winner will also receive a set of Dairy coupons (2 Milkshakes, 2 Grilled Cheeses, 2 Kids Meals)!

To win, leave a comment telling me your favorite thing about the Indiana State Fair, or if you’ve never been, tell me why you’d like to go.

Additional ways to enter (for each thing you do, leave an additional comment telling me what you did)

1)Tweet about this giveaway by using this tweet:  I entered to win @IndyStateFair tix from @FamilyofFarmers & @gotchababy. You can enter too! http://gotchababy.com/?p=2819

2) Post something to the above effect on your Facebook page, making sure you link back to this giveaway.

3) Go like Family Fun in the City on Facebook.

Entries will be accepted through Wednesday, July 25th at about 9pm. Be sure to use your best email when commenting, so that I can reach you if you win! The winner will have 24 hours to respond, if they are unreachable, a new winner will be chosen.

Do you really want to win these tickets? Check out all of the other giveaways being offered by other Indianapolis bloggers (check back throughout the week, we’re all doing our own thing):

Evoked by Light- Katie’s giveaway will run until 7/25

Indianapolis With Kids- Katy’s giveaway will run until 7/30

Redefining Perfect- Sarah’s giveaway will run until 7/25

Just Like the Number- Angie’s will be up soon!

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Disclosure: I am an IFOF Ambassador, and as such, this is a sponsored post. It’s true, I blog for milkshakes.  I received a set of tickets for admission and the Dairy bar for my personal use, just like the ones I am giving away. The opinions expressed in this post and the love I have for the Indiana State Fair are all my own.

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Indiana State Fair: A Good Way to Wrap Up Summer {and a Giveaway}

Edited: This giveaway is now closed. Congrats to comment #19, by Nathan Miller- it was picked by random.org! Thanks to everyone who entered, it’s gotten me really excited to go to the Indiana State Fair! 

 

In addition to MaM turning six this week, we also finished the last week of our summer routine. She loved every minute of daycamp, and the Fox thoroughly enjoyed his “new school” (we are seriously so happy at his new Montessori school I will be gushing about this at another time). In exactly two weeks, she’ll be on the bus to first grade (gasp!) and Summer 2011 will be officially over.

There is one shred of summer to hold onto, and it’s something that I’ve grown to love about living in Indianapolis. It’s the Indiana State Fair. Much like racing, I once poo-poo’d it. I have to say though, I look forward to it every year. (I do NOT look forward to the historic train that runs every 45 minutes all hours of the day and night for the duration of the fair, but that’s another blog post)

We eat at the Dairy Bar.

We see all kinds of animals, including the world’s largest boar (who, in turn has the world’s largest, well, you know….).

We get a deep fried something.

We enjoy the little mini-farm they have each year for the kiddos.

We climb all over the farm equipment Reynolds has on display.

The kids ride ponies.

We walk all over the grounds, seeing what there is to see, and there’s always something to see.

I scanned my archives, and I can’t believe I’ve never done a post about the fun we have at the fair, because it’s always a great day when we go.

We’re going on Monday to see some behind the scenes things, with Indiana Family of Farmers. I’m excited for the kids to learn more about the agricultural parts of the fair, and hello, Indiana Beef, Indiana Pork and the Dairy Bar are feeding us. YUMMO. It’s the Year of the Soybean, and there’s supposed to be some taste testing involved as well. And seeing baby animals. And milking cows and what not.

{The Giveaway}
Want to win two tickets to the Indiana State Fair yourself?

There are two ways to enter, and you may do so each one time:

1) Simply enter below with the ONE THING you have to see/eat/do at the fair every year, or the ONE THING you’d like to check out if you’ve never been.

2) Tweet the following, “Raise your hand if you love @indystatefair! Enter to win tix from @familyoffarmers & @gotchababy http://wp.me/pVbJS-Dp” and leave a comment here to tell me that that you’ve done so. 

(Comment moderation will be on, but I promise I will approve them with lightening fast speed. Be sure to enter your email on the comment form.)

Comments will be open until Friday, August 5th at 9pm. I’ll pick a random winner that evening! (The winning tickets will be mailed, so my guess is that you should have them by 8/10 or so)

Disclosure: Thanks to Indiana Family of Farmers for providing my family with a fun day at the fair. This giveaway was optional, but I wanted to share the love and pass on some tickets! Check out their blog and Facebook page  for great State Fair info, memories, and promotions, and follow them on Twitter!