I walked out of my house that Sunday last June carefully carrying my newest culinary creation—blackberry jam cake with caramel icing—to my daughter Cathy’s car for the drive to the Virginia/Kentucky District Fair, where I’ve been entering my food and crafts since the early 1980s. Cathy had the trunk of her Camry filled to the top with my canned corn, peaches, spaghetti sauce, sauerkraut, jellies and pickles. I put my quilt entry in a hard plastic tote. We found a spot for my three fudges and peach pie. Making sure everything fit securely was like a giant game of Jenga.
“We’re all set, Mama,” Cathy said as she shut the trunk.
