5 Blue-Ribbon Recipes from New England Ag Fairs

It’s ag fair time in New England—that end-of-season moment when farmers gather to commune and compete in all things agricultural while the rest of us stuff ourselves silly with corn dogs and cotton candy.

These fairs are a New England invention, the brainchild of a Massachusetts farmer and merchant named Elkanah Watson, who organized the first cattle show and an impressive oxen-drawn plough procession in Pittsfield in 1811. Understanding that farming was solitary and often isolating work, Watson promoted his agricultural society model up and down the East Coast, giving farmers an opportunity to trade wisdom and earn bragging rights.

Today, the ag fair’s many treasures are found in the livestock pavilions, 4-H halls, and craft centers at the heart of the fairgrounds. Pumpkins the size of ponies, hand-grown floral displays, blue-ribbon pies—it’s an amazing concentration of home- and farm-based talent enjoying its moment in the sun.

In that spirit, I reached out to five of New England’s premier agricultural fairs to gather prize-winning recipes from their talented home cooks, the analog influencers who pass their baking and canning expertise along to the next generation through these events. And as I quickly learned, every fair has endless recipes to offer, and every cook has a story.

5 Blue-Ribbon Recipes

Blue Ribbon Apple Pie

Cook: Jannine Fisk, Malden, MA
Fair: Topsfield Fair, MA (Oct. 2–12, 2026)

Cranberry-Orange Muffins with Streusel Topping

Cook: Alexia Lemon, Concord, NH
Fair: Deerfield Fair, NH (Oct. 1–4, 2026)

Maine Raspberry Crumble Bars

Cook: The late Norma C. King, Lovell, ME
Fair: Fryeburg Fair, ME (Oct. 4–11, 2026)

Triple Cherry Lattice Pie

Cook: Reena Kapoor, Branford, CT
Fair: Durham Fair, CT (Sep. 24–27, 2026)

Bread and Butter Pickles

Cook: Lydia Larocque, Tunbridge, VT
Fair: Tunbridge World’s Fair, VT (Sep. 17–20, 2026)

This feature was originally published as “Blue-Ribbon Buffet” in the September/October 2026 issue of Yankee.

Amy Traverso

Amy Traverso is the senior food editor at Yankee and cohost of the public television series Weekends with Yankee, a coproduction with GBH. Previously, she was food editor at Boston magazine and an associate food editor at Sunset magazine. Her work has also been published in The Boston Globe, Saveur, and Travel & Leisure, and she has appeared on Hallmark Home & Family, The Martha Stewart Show, Throwdown with Bobby Flay, and Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares. Amy is the author of The Apple Lover’s Cookbook, which was a finalist for the Julia Child Award for best first-time author and won an IACP Cookbook Award in the “American” category.

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