Tag Archives: Americana

Bee not afraid

This is Arnold Crabtree, the “bee man,” wearing a beard of live honeybees at the Honey Festival in Lithopolis yesterday, an event swarming with beekeepers, Ohio honey products and a few men who wore mutton chop sideburns without one trace of irony. Most of the bees at the festival were kept inside of tents and behind glass, and the ones that were drawn to the honey tasting booths were treated with remarkable care. Beekeepers like Crabtree want you to know how gentle most honeybees are, and to draw attention to the working insects’ declining population.
I know, because my brother does some beekeping, that honey has potentially fantastic health benefits. For example, if you eat local honey that includes the pollens that afflict you regularly before allergy season, some say that it can help reduce your allergies.
I found out why Van Morrison sang about Tupelo honey, because I got to taste some on bread, and it was deliciously sweet. The Ohio State Beekepers Association had honeys from around the world for tasting, as did some of the local honey booths. We bought some local honey, extracted in spring, which has more of a kick than that of the summer. We also got some infused with peppermint, and a small bottle infused with lemon verbena. Yum.
Puns were plentiful and really kind of adorable. We missed the spelling bee and the honey cook-off, but it was a sweet afternoon in more ways than one.

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Spongebob Scarepants and friends

The theme for scarecrow competitors at the Ohio State Fair this year was Cartoon Characters:

(If you couldn’t tell, that’s Betty Boop below the Spongebob picture. The bottom pictures Mr. Scarepants, Shaggy & Scooby Doo, Jack Skellington and Woody from Toy Story. There was a Speed Racer there too.)

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Dear Ohio butter Mt. Rushmore,

You are so big and buttery, with your eight heads of Buckeye presidents.

You are like Mt. Rushmore, if it were in Ohio, except that Mt. Rushmore is in South Dakota, and none of the presidents that are carved into its rocky face are from South Dakota. You are simply the Mt. Rushmore of Ohio presidents, carved in dairy. You are about 2,000 pounds (one ton) and it took 370 hours to make you.

You are the best butter sculpture I have ever seen. The joys of butter John Glenn and butter Buster Douglas were easily surpassed in your presence.

I could just spread you on corn. Or eat you with steamed artichokes.

I love Americana.

(More Ohio State Fair pictures to come. Boy, I hit the wacky jackpot this year…)

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