Region 17 Table Setting Contest: Region 17 Table Setting Contest was held Thursday, August 1 at 4:00pm the Council Bluffs Public Library in Council Bluffs, Iowa.  The Region 17 Table Setting Contest is an event bringing the best of the best from each county in Region 17 together to compete for the top table setting in each category and age division.  Counties in Region 17 include Fremont, Harrison, Mills, Montgomery, Page, East Pottawattamie and West Pottawattamie.

During each county fair, each county holds a Table Setting Contest where youth choose a theme for either a formal or casual table setting.  They plan a menu of what would be served, arrange a full single table setting with flatware, stemware, and dinnerware as needed to serve the planned meal at their dinner or party.  They create a centerpiece to fit the theme.  Finally, they set up the table setting, menu and centerpiece on a card table, or for informal table settings such as a picnic, arrange everything on a blanket on the floor.  They youth wear clothing that goes along with the theme to strengthen the presentation.  A judge then talks to the participant and judges them on their planning skills, ability to set a proper table, manners, ability to develop a theme, the menu, centerpiece and clothing choices, hospitality skills and communication throughout the judging process.

Youth are divided into age groups of juniors (grades 4-6), intermediates (grades 7-8) and seniors (grades 9-12) and then are divided again into the categories of formal or casual.  At the end of each county fair, their top junior, intermediate and senior in both casual and formal are selected to participate in the Region 17 Showcase night.  Youth came together, set up their tables and were judged.  The top junior, intermediate and senior in both casual and formal were selected and received an award at the end of the showcase evening.

Region 17 Showcase Results:

Junior Casual Participants: Angelina Cain, Cadence Jahn, Ella Johnson, Summer Maher, London Schueman, Sophia Stroud

• Champion Junior Casual: Ella Johnson
• Reserve Champion Junior Casual: Cadence Jahn

Junior Formal Participants: Lexie Clark, Lilly Kurth, Ailey Marburger, Evelyn Stoakes

• Champion Junior Formal: Evelyn Stoakes
• Reserve Champion Junior Formal: Lilly Kurth

Intermediate Casual Participants: Cale Clark, Rebecca Cody, Paige Goodspeed, Lea Hendrickson, Jaiden Jahn

• Champion Intermediate Casual: Jaiden Jahn
• Reserve Champion Intermediate Casual: Rebecca Cody

Intermediate Formal Participants: Cora Killpack, Emily Newby, Allyee Pierson

• Champion Intermediate Formal: Cora Killpack
• Reserve Champion Intermediate Formal: Allyee Pierson

Senior Casual Participants: Mariah Cain, Kandalyn Davies, Camryn Pierson, Camryn Schafer

• Champion Senior Casual: Kandalyn Davies
• Reserve Champion Senior Casual: Mariah Cain

Senior Formal Participants: Bailey Maher, Anna Newby

• Champion Senior Formal: Anna Newby
• Reserve Champion Senior Formal: Bailey Maher

Healthy & Homemade: Healthy and Homemade is a series focused on strategies for using your time, money and skills wisely to save money and prepare nutritious and safe foods. Explore the benefits of using the slow cooker, food safety tips, and meal ideas. Discover how planning can reduce stress, save money, and provide your family nutritious home-cooked meals. Tour our virtual grocery store and learn how to identify and purchase the most nutritious food items. Healthy and Homemade will be held at the Guthrie County Extension Office from 6:00- 7:00 pm on November 7, 14 and 21, 2019. Register by November 4, 2019 at http://bit.ly/hh13242.

Silent Auction Donations: Guthrie County 4-H’ers are asking for your donation to the 4-H Silent Auction taking place during the 2019 Guthrie County Fair. Last year’s auction was a big success & we are hoping to raise even more funds this year to offset the rising cost of 4-H enrollment fees. If you would like to donate or have any questions, please contact the Extension Office at 641-747-2276.

Cy-Hawk Tailgate: Guthrie County Extension is partnering with Guthrie County Corn Growers Association to host the 8th Annual Cy-Hawk Tailgate Party on Friday, September 13th from 11:00 am- 1:00pm! Help us celebrate Iowa’s biggest game of the year and team rivalry! Whether you’re a Cyclone fan or Hawkeye fan, come and enjoy free grilled hot dogs, chips, cookies and bottled water. We have added tailgate games this year! Register for a chance to win an ISU tailgate package!

(Radio Iowa) — The iconic “butter cow” has been a part of the annual Iowa State Fair since 1911 and Sarah Pratt of West Des Moines sculpted this year’s dairy cow — as she’s done each of the past 18 years. “Really any kind of butter works, although if I have access to it, low moisture butter — so butter that’s been churned for a longer period of time — works better,” Pratt says. “I typically used recycled butter, so it in effect does the same thing. As I use it year-to-year-to-year, it reduces the moisture and becomes more like clay.”

Pratt carves a butter cow for the Illinois State Fair and does a butter sculpture for the Kansas State Fair as well. “Here at the Iowa State Fair we have a lovely, very long stretch of cooler, so I can put inside the cooler a cow and also a themed-sculpture,” Pratt says. Pratt marked the 100th anniversary of John Deere during the 2018 Iowa State Fair and sculpted — out of butter — a replica of the “Waterloo Boy” tractor. “It was extremely difficult in the sence of trying to get the scale just right and all the details,” Pratt says, “…all of the intricacies of doing it.”

This year, fair-goers who pass through the Agriculture Building may see the figures Pratt has made to celebrate a long-running children’s television program. “We are very excited to be honoring the 50th anniversary of ‘Sesame Street’ which I grew up watching and also the 50th anniversary of Iowa Public Television, which is the channel I watched ‘Sesame Street’ on, so they kind of go hand-in-hand,” Pratt says. “It’s really going to be a family-friendly sculpture this year.”

Pratt uses about 12-hundred POUNDS of butter for her Iowa State Fair carvings.