Delaware County Fairgrounds

Went to the annual Ohio Gourd Show and had so much fun! It's a completely free event and everyone was so friendly. We had a homeschool event hosted by someone from the Ohio Gourd Society where we learned all about the different varieties of gourds, ways they can be used, the history, and got to do a free painted gourd craft. I'm not ashamed to say gourds may be my new favorite art medium! Affordable, natural, and incredibly versatile. It's on every year the first full weekend (Fri/Sat/Sun) in October. Saturday is the most popular day, with music and more vendors. There is a huge display of gourd crafts up for judging in a couple dozen categories. People are so clever and talented!The fairgrounds is a great location - lots of free parking, easy to get to, classroom and learning spaces, restrooms, etc. I wish there were more food vendors but this is a very small, free event so manage your expectations!FYI: The Ohio Gourd Society really wants more people to come and get interested! If you're an artist or crafter, I highly recommend you consider it. They're a good group of people!

This fair is only fun if you have kids.Cost - $6/adult, $0/kids under 8. The cost includes parking which is very nice.There is not much to do at this fair. However if you have little ones then its rather fun and exciting. My little one loves seeing the farm animals. There were several buildings which house different kinds of animals. The animals that we saw included Llama, Alpacas, Goats, Horses, and Cows. There was larger buildings with stadium seating that had showings, but they were so packed that you couldn't even get in the door. I believe I saw bunnies in one and pigs in the other.There are some rides, and food trucks but nothing special. I always enjoy going to the Sheriffs table, and the Delaware parks table. They always have fun coloring books and some sort of craft that is perfect for the little ones.Food -I was not too impressed with the selection of food trucks, but I was impressed with one of the buildings, #14 Buckeye Valley.Great prices and for a good cause!----[per the website]Delaware County Fair Buckeye Valley Food BoothA Delaware County Fair tradition, the Buckeye Valley Booster food booth is a joint effort between the Athletic Boosters and Music Boosters. Student athletes, parents, coaches, alumni and administrators staff thefull-service, sit-down restaurant. A wide variety of home-cooked menu items are fair staples for fair goers. The food booth is open from 6 am - midnight throughout the duration of the fair (mid-September). Volunteers sign-up for shifts and provide manpower for all aspects of this eight day restaurant event. The food booth is the largest fundraiser for both the Athletic and Music Boosters and requires hundreds ofadult and student volunteers. ----

Although we were in Newark, Ohio for a doctor's appointment, we saw a brochure in his waiting room for the Delaware County Fairgrounds Gourd Show.Never having been to a Gourd Show before, it sounded like it might be fun. Finding the parking entrance from Rte. 23 in Delaware was a little tricky, even with a GPS, but we got there and parked adjacent to the show itself. The entrance fee was only $5 each and parking was free.The usual food trucks that are typical of fair venders; elephant ears, fries, soda, kettle corn, etc. were strategically parked so that all passersby would be tempted to buy.Gourds of every shape, size and color covered the grass lots on either side of the gravel walkways. We looked at the unusual shaped gourds first and even saw one that the natural outside covering resembled a Jack Fruit. We were told that the larger indoor buildings housed a greater variety of gourds on display. Upon walking in the first building we were amazed to see the number of vendors with enormous arrays of decorative gourds that had been shaped, cut, sanded, and painted. The artisans displaying their work; birdhouses, Christmas ornaments, lamps, and elegant shadow boxes, just a few of the decorative and functional pieces on hand. Vendors were eager to talk to visitors about their crafts. It was exciting to listen and learn about the growing, harvesting, and decorating these vegetables from the vendors as they demonstrated such pride and accomplishment in their finished objet d'art.As you will see in the pictures, Bob and his wife love sharing their craft with the public, namely my wife and me. Bob showed me how he takes "egg" (shaped) gourds, drills a hole through them, pushes a heavy wire into and through the gourd and paints them using a very unique process of "alcohol ink, dips them in paint again and brings them to a high gloss finish. His wife takes the painted, polished egg gourd and threads decorative beads from each end. Once everything is dry and beaded, the finished product is transformed into a beautiful Christmas ornament, ready for the tree or for sale. A special area is provided where anyone is permitted to choose a gourd from a select box and paint it with provided water color paints and markers for free and take it home.Bob graciously provided me a large gourd and several colors of his "alcohol ink." To paint my gourd. I must admit that I had more fun painting this gourd than I've had in a long time. It didn't matter what I did or how I used the paints, the purpose was to let the ink run down the sides of the gourd and have fun, I could just do whatever I wanted. Most all of the vendors come to the Show each year and over time have developed a community amongst themselves. Tim, another one of the vendors I talked to comes from Kentucky each year. He displays a large numbers of different kinds of gourds that are shaped as their name suggests; egg gourds, apple and peach gourds, s-n-a-k-e, octopus, mushroom, birdhouse and cannonball gourds and more, all of which were for exhibit or sale.Then, we met Miriam and Linda. Miriam creates beautiful, intricate, Shadow Boxes within her gourds. Most of these feature elegant displays of animals and birds of one kind or another. She was so kind to tell us the story of her art and allow me to take a couple of pictures of her with some of her finished work. Miriam's projects are classy examples of concept art - perfect to proudly display on any wall. We were absolutely amazed how fascinating these ornamental, decorations were and the wealth of knowledge that the vendors and craftsmen and women eagerly shared with people who were curious and wanted to know more about these strange vegetables. I had no idea that there was a hidden danger involved from Mold spores in the gourd dust.You can develop "Gourd Flu," a serious respiratory ailment, lasting from three or four days to as long as four months. Although these on display were safe to handle. The gourds we were seeing exhibited today, were actually harvested last Spring. Spring is the normal harvest time. Gourds are ripe enough to pick only when the vines dry up and break away.We bought a variety of different gourds to go home with us and some of the Alcohol Inks to decorate them. The Gourd Show event at the Delaware County Fairgrounds is held each year on the first full weekend of October. We look forward to going back again next year to see the displays, the friends we met this year and perhaps we'll even have a chance to see what they have in the other buildings. We had a great time and hope to see you there.

Home of the world famous LITTLE BROWN JUG And every year they have a "horse only" parade right before the LITTLE BROWN JUG happens (usually a week or two before). Check out my picks and see the world famous "scoopers" that clean up the parade route !**also check out the pictures of the chairs chained to the fence around the track that people use to "mark their spots" for the JUG WEEK (it's hilarious"!