New foods at the 2013 Minnesota State Fair: Eat and become a science experiment

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The popular Sweet Corn Ice Cream at Minnesota State Fair’s Blue Moon Drive-in Theatre has a new rival this year: Comet Corn. “Comet Corn is like a science experiment. Carmel and cheese corn flash-frozen with liquid nitrogen. So it’s really fresh. Almost like dippin’ dots [ice cream],” said Brienna Schuette, the State Fair’s Marketing and Communications manager. After fair-goers eat the Comet Corn, they exhale liquid nitrogen in the form of smoke. Continue Reading

Minnesota State Fair: My most memorable 2012 stories

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Covering the Minnesota State Fair is a hidden gem for journalists. There are countless stories to discover and 2012 was memorable because of the new food choices and the return of the sideshow.Lamb FriesThe 2012 State Fair press release included the premier of “Lamb Fries.” I naively thought the fries were made from lamb meat—until I did a web search and Chevy Chase in the movie Funny Farm was the first to pop up. If Chevy Chase is involved with lamb fries, it must be good. Little did I know, as Chase learns after eating 31 of the nuggets, that the fries come from a lamb’s “undercarriage.”Walleye: great vegetarian choice—maybeSince I have family members and friends who are vegetarians and vegans, I always try to point out those choices when I write about State Fair food. A few of my vegetarian acquaintances eat fish, so I included the new food item Classic Walleye Roll as a “great vegetarian choice.” Readers quickly pointed out my error, and I admit I should have gone farther than my inner circle for vegetarian research. Continue Reading

Why we need a Minnesota Museum of Contemporary Folk Art

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Despite its highfalutin name, the Fine Arts Building at the Minnesota State Fair tends to reward craft over art—and that’s the way people like it. There’s a distinctly populist slant to the art on display: from a figure covered in piano hammers (I checked and sure enough, the piece’s title was Piano Man, by House of Balls proprietor Allen Christian) to a portrait carved in a giant magnifying glass (Nicholas Legeros’s Look Closer) to a photo of a nude pregnant woman (Denise Mack’s Pregnancy Glow), the pieces selected for inclusion evoke less a sense of wonder or mystery than a sense of here’s-what-I-wanted-to-do-and-look!-I-done-went-and-did-it. Continue Reading

Minnesota State Fair: craft beer exhibit, think while you drink

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I expected a giant bar-like atmosphere at the Minnesota Craft Brewers Guild Exhibit, perfectly placed in the Agriculture Horticulture Building. After all, the flyer described it as the “Land of 10,000 beers” exhibit. I soon discovered a learning and museum environment: the exhibit detailed the brewing process all the way from the farm to the pint glass. Being a novice in the home brewery industry, I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of information available at the State Fair exhibit to learn how this well-liked industry has grown and thrived all over Minnesota. The Minnesota Craft Brewers Guild is a non-profit organization that represents 35 breweries and brew pubs and 16 trade affiliates (such as liquor stores, ingredient providers and ancillary suppliers working in the brewery business). Continue Reading

2011 State Fair announces free entertainment line-up

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It may be spring, but the Minnesota State Fair has announced 100 free acts fairgoers can see with their price of admission. The State Fair’s media department promises a diverse lineup of free entertainment at this year’s fair, scheduled August 25 through September 5. Highlighting the Leinie Lodge Bandshell Tonight! is the Minneapolis indie rock band Tapes n’ Tapes, performing on two evenings: Sept. 4-5. Continue Reading

FREE SPEECH ZONE | 2010 Gubernatorial Candidates Discuss Minnesota’s Environmental Future

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This Sunday marked the first Governor’s Candidate Forum on Clean Energy, Clean Water and Minnesota’s Future at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds in St. Paul, as part of the annual Living Green Expo.  Among those invited were major party candidates who had polled at five percent or higher in straw or statewide polls. Forum participants included: Margaret Anderson Kelliher (DFL), Mark Dayton (DFL), Matt Entenza (DFL), Rob Hahn (I), and Tom Horner (I). Tom Emmer (R), who received his party’s endorsement last Friday, had been invited to the event, but did not attend. Kelliher left midway through the event due to a prior commitment to participate in the Mayday Parade, which commenced at 1PM. Continue Reading