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CJ EXTRA WEDNESDAY, JULY 22, 2015 | The Topeka Capital-Journal
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I like to give strengths and weaknesses, and I like to encourage them to keep going. To me that is very, very important. I just don’t want to discourage, I want to encourage.” BETTY KANDT
A well-developed taste for judging Kandt wants exhibitors to learn from experience By Emily DeShazer
emily.deshazer@cjonline.com
Falling cakes and dense bread are familiar woes for 4-H Club members during the annual Shawnee County Fair food show, which begins this week at the Kansas Expocentre. But this year those problems might be even more prevalent due to the lingering high humidity, one area fair judge says. Betty Kandt, of Manhattan, who has been a food judge for many years for four or five county fairs in the area, says kids might have to whip their egg whites a little longer and hope the heavy, humid air doesn’t weigh on their loaves of breads too much as they prepare to challenge for white, red, blue and purple ribbons. The ribbons — purple is the best — are given out based on what a judge thinks of the exhibitor’s product using four criteria: appearance, texture, smell and taste. Kandt says besides critiquing a product, she also wants to help the 4-H’er in his or her learning experience, which is one of the reasons the former 4-H’er and consumer science teacher enjoys her role at the fair
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Watch Betty Kandt, food judge at the Shawnee County Fair, critique a loaf of bread she baked. CJOnline.com
EMILY DESHAZER/THE CAPITAL-JOURNAL
Betty Kandt, of Manhattan, who serves as a food judge at the Shawnee County Fair, says she judges items on their appearance, texture, smell and taste. The two most important categories, in her opinion, are appearance and texture, but all four are used to decide whether an exhibitor receives a white, red, blue or purple ribbon.