jeff mason

Jeff Mason enters picante sauce and barbecue sauce in the fair’s creative arts competition every year.

But that’s no way to win a ribbon.

No. The easier path is to find a niche. Banana butter turned out to be that niche for Mason. And he is the reigning blue-ribbon holder, two years in a row.

But Mason, who is also a “real-beard Santa,” is not impressed. Even though he strategizes, identifying which categories garner the fewest entries and then enters those categories, he really wants a big one.

“I make about 40 quarts of salsa every year,” he says.

Friends request it for birthdays and Christmas. He says his nephews went ape over the stuff one Christmas, which gave him the boost to enter the fair for the first time.

“This year, I did a smoked version of the salsa,” he says. “It’s a two-day adventure when I’m making salsa.”

He also cans whole squash, okra, whole yellow tomatoes and pineapple. All of those are judged solely on appearance. The judges never taste them.

Mason won five blue ribbons last year.

PUPPY MILL OWNERS ARE DECEPTIVE.

They pose as caring breeders when you buy puppies online, at trade days, or in parking lots. They don’t want you to know the truth. They’ll never invite you cages, producing litter after litter until they die of neglect or disease. You’ll never see behind the scenes. But we have, and if you knew what we know, you’d never support this cruel industry. Don’t buy it.