Yes, the Jackson County Fair’s over, but what’s your favoite food at the fair?

For years, my have-to-have food at the county fair has been the porkburger from the Jackson County Pork Producers and Cattlemen’s Association. They’re tasty, meaty and filling.

I’ve also been a fan of the lemon shakeups that the Young Farmers sell in the Show Arena, although for some reason they didn’t taste quite the same to me this summer. Maybe the weather wasn’t hot enough.

Last week, though, I expanded my culinary horizons, although some might argue I didn’t move too terribly far, since I mostly stayed within the pork group.

Taking the advice of our 4-H diarist, Luke Schnitker, I tried a breaded tenderloin from the Immanuel Lutheran Church food stand. The breading was light and seasoned just right, and the piece of meat was thick and juicy.

Generally, I prefer breaded tenderloins pounded to the thickness of an anorexic amoeba. Such a pounding provides much more surface area upon which to affix the breading and soak up the fat.

But the thick cutlet of pork at the Immanuel stand was quite good and satisfying.

I also tried out the Nutty Bars at the Psi Iota Beta stand. It was a fairly cool day, at least for the fair, so the nut-covered chocolate coating hung on to the ice cream, which in turn hung onto the stick. No mess and it was tasty.

Hannah, our older daughter, was satisfied again this year as every year with the chicken strips at Immanuel’s stand. How they’re any different from the chicken strips she’s constantly consuming out of our freezer or a fast food joint, I don’t know, but she craves the Immanuel chicken strips at the fair.

Our younger daughter, Sarah, did try something new, however. She hounded us for days to try the cotton candy.

“You won’t like it,” I said. “It’s a pretty yucky.”

But she persisted, and we relented on Thursday night.

What resulted were one taste, one awful look and three words: “Daddy was right.”

Yes, I was right about that, but she still pretty well ignores my advice on what would taste good. Like watermelon. And cantaloupe. And porkburgers. And corn on the cob slathered with butter. And bisquits and gravy (in my family, we thought gravy was a beverage.)

But given my girth, maybe it’s a good thing the girls don’t follow their pop’s taste buds,

Jackson County Fairgrounds was a beehive of activity this morning when the family and I took Hannah’s 4-H cat poster to the Show Arena.

From exhibitors bringing in their projects to vendors setting up their booths to 4-H’ers showing their cats and preening their cattle, folks were scurrying around. The fair’s not started yet — buildings open at 1 p.m. Sunday — but you could already feel the excitement. The nice weather this morning was a great addition.

We had breakfast at the St. Ambrose-Our Lady of Providence food stand. We’ll have to wait until Sunday for a lemon shakeup from the Show Arena and a porkburger from the Jackson County Pork Producers and Cattleman’s Association. They’re among my fair favorites, and I look forwward to them every summer.

Hope to see you at the fair this week. Be sure to stop by The Tribune’s booth and sign up for prizes. We also have gifts for readers renewing subscriptions or starting new ones. Tom Kesterson, Nancy Combs, Chrissey Whitson and Dennia Loudin of the circulation department have things in goods hands, and other associates from other departments will be helping, too.

Thanks for reading Dan’s blog, and thanks for logging onto TribTown.com.

We’ll be heading to the Jackson County Fairgrounds later today. Our older daughter needs to deliver some of her projects to the 4-H building for display and judging. That process started Wednesday for her and many other children across the county.

I’ve admitted this in print before, that when I first came to Jackson County, I really didn’t “get” the fair. I found it perplexing that people arranged with vacations around the fair. That people went there every day. That people amassed in the lawn chair zone. That people were just so, well, crazy about the Jackson County Fair.

Not that I’m big on musicals (I’ve always had a problem with seeing thugs dancing in the alleys on New York City’s west side, for example, and the “Sound of Music” just wears me out), but for a while I used to smugly sing “our county fair if the best county fair,” ala Rodgers & Hammerstein’s 1966 Braodway musical, “State Fair.” I just didn’t understand the big deal.

But you know what? It didn’t take too many years around here, especially since having children, before I came to really enjoy the fair. And it is a good fair. No, it’s a great fair. You can find great food, like porkburgers; great drinks, like lemon shakeups in the Show Arena; and great treats, like the ice cream at the Farm Bureau Building.

And don’t forget all the people you run into, people who you may not see the rest of the year. It really is like a homecoming for many folks.

Yeah, our county fair really is the best county fair.