A Little Bit Like Home

Something for Everyone

The best thing about the Missouri State Fair is that it is almost impossible to see all of it. That may sound like a complaint, but it is not. It is part of the charm.

There are livestock shows, 4-H and FFA exhibits, grandstand concerts, equipment displays, tractor pulls, food stands, political gatherings, carnival rides, and enough people-watching to wear out even the most dedicated observer.

Some people go for the cattle. Some go for the corn dogs. Some go for the concerts. Some go because someone in the family has an animal, project, pie, photograph, quilt, or vegetable that deserves to be admired by strangers. That is the beauty of the State Fair. There is something for everyone.

For several years, I experienced the fair from behind a microphone.

I first started providing fair coverage while working at KMA Radio in Shenandoah, Iowa. I would drive to Sedalia, gather interviews, and bring back enough sound to share. But full-service fair coverage really began after I moved to KFEQ Radio in St. Joseph. We originated our morning and midday farm reports live from the fairgrounds in addition to providing up to a dozen reports each day.

I interviewed livestock exhibitors, building superintendents, entertainers, fair officials, and elected officials, especially on the day of the Governor’s Ham Breakfast. I talked with people who had spent all year getting ready for 11 days in Sedalia.

One of my favorite stops each day was the Agriculture Building and the AgriMissouri Marketplace. Today, people know the program as Missouri Grown, but then it was AgriMissouri, a showcase for Missouri-made and Missouri-grown products.

There were sauces, candles, crafts, snacks, jams, and more ideas than I can remember now — shelves full of Missouri imagination and entrepreneurship. But one product stayed with me: pickled black walnuts.

The man behind the table was Tony Barnicle of Barnicle Farms in Mary’s Home, Missouri. He had one of the most interesting products I ever found in the AgriMissouri Marketplace, and I am sure I told him so when I turned on the recorder.

Tony explained that he and his wife had not invented pickled walnuts. They had discovered them years earlier on a trip to London. Someone there learned they had a farm with walnut trees back home in Missouri and acted as if pickled walnuts were the most natural thing in the world. They encouraged Tony to try pickling some himself.

So Tony found an old recipe, one that reached back centuries. The walnuts had to be picked while still green and soft, before the nut inside had fully formed. He said the recipe called for walnuts about the size of a pigeon egg. They were placed in a pickle, turned black over time, and matured for several months.

That may not sound like something a person would rush across the fairgrounds to sample, but I tried them, and they were excellent. They were soft enough to spread on a Club cracker, which is how he served them that day. The flavor was rich, unusual, and memorable.

That was the gift of the AgriMissouri Marketplace. It gave people like Tony a place to stand beside something they had grown, made, tested, bottled, labeled, and believed in. He talked about those walnuts with affection and the quiet pride of someone who had found a use for something that had been there all along. The trees were not new. The walnuts were not new. But the way he saw them had changed.

That is what the State Fair does at its best. It helps us see familiar things again.

The Missouri State Fair is underway again, and thousands of people are walking through livestock barns, exhibit halls, food stands, and marketplaces. Some will go for the rides. Some will go for the concerts. Some will go for the cattle, the tractors, the projects, or the fried green tomatoes they have been thinking about since last year.

And some may stumble across something they never expected to find. For several years, I had a microphone in my hand when that happened. It gave me a front-row seat to Missouri.

And along the way, Missouri answered with pickled walnuts.

Tom Brand is a St. Joseph, Missouri, writer whose latest book, “You Have To Leave If You Want To Come Back,” is available at RichardsonPress.com. He sampled dozens of barbecue sauces, jellies, jams, and other creations, but 21 years later, he is still thinking about those pickled black walnuts.