The Warren County A&L Fair has come and gone for 2013 but for many Fairfield Village visitors, the tastes of the fair will linger on.
Fairfield Village Country Store is sponsored by Warren County Family Community and Education (FCE) Clubs. The store is reminiscent of the way any mercantile might have looked in generations past, complete with enough candy and goodies to make anyone’s mouth water.
Irene Fuston has been volunteering in the store for at least 20 years. “I love it. We sell a lot of baked goods and crafts. New items are brought in daily. Everything we sell must be handmade or homegrown. Everyone seems to enjoy it,” she said.
Fuston said the biggest sellers in the Country Store are fried pies, peanut butter balls and potato candy.
“We had two different ladies to bring in four huge tubs each of fried apple pies at 6:00 tonight and by 7:30 they were gone. People love them,” said Fuston.
Kayla Brown agrees the potato candy is delicious. She was in the store purchasing potato candy Thursday night. “I come here and get potato candy every year. It is very good,” said Brown.
A committee oversees the store and everyone working in the store are volunteers from the six FCE clubs in Warren County.
The store sells candy, baked goods, canned fruits and vegetables, jellies, as well as clothing items, hairbows, scarves, knitted hats, crocheted rugs, dolls, wreaths and lye soap.
Located adjacent to the General Store is the Fairfield Grist Mill. The mill grinds corn into white meal, yellow meal, white grits and yellow grits which are sold at the mill during the fair. Corn is also ground into chicken feed for chickens in the poultry barn during fair week.
Volunteer Shane Prater said, “Our corn is non (GMO) genetically modified organisms. We use open pollinated corn. We don’t have preservatives. We use corn that is good for you.”
Visitors to the mill were fascinated to see the vertical gear and axle running and grinding the corn.
Nick Slaton and Matt Stiles deemed the samples of corn cakes “delicious.” The cakes could be sampled with homemade sweet molasses which was available for purchase in the Country Store.
The sights, sounds and flavors of the Warren County A&L Fair will linger with many for weeks to come.