Fair’s open for food, fun, frolic

In just a few quick hours, Helen Samsel consumes enough sugar, shortening and butter to last her a month.

Cookies, pies, candy, breads, cakes – she’s tasted them all over the years, before handing down her judgment.

“This is a good molasses cookie” or “It’s dry. You want to choke on it?”

Friday marked the opening day of the 103rd annual Spokane County Interstate Fair, which runs through Sept. 19. Fair officials were expecting as many as 30,000 visitors for opening day. Last year, more than 200,000 people attended the fair during its 10-day run.

And, as usual, Samsel arrived by 7:30 a.m. ready to judge the baking competition like she has every year since 1953.

Samsel, a nutritionist, judged three contests Friday morning: the Ghirardelli chocolate, Gold Medal Flour and Fleischmann’s Yeast.

In all three categories, entrants must use the specified product in the baked good. Prize money was awarded to the top winners.

So, for more than four hours, the quick-witted veteran judge sliced, smelled, touched, crumbled, tasted and mmm-ed her way through about 85 entries.

“You have to be very, very careful to not let your preferences get in the way,” she said.

Besides the taste, she looks for good presentation, texture, coloration and other nuances of a quality baked good. Samsel always writes an encouraging comment on the back of each entry tag before giving some suggestions for improvement.

Through all the years, she’s only gotten sick once – when she ate rancid peanuts while judging peanut brittle a few years back.

But the delectable treats also stand out, like the delicious apple pie an elderly gentleman entered one year that the judges and clerks kept tasting.

“It was laced with bourbon, and man, was it good!” she said.

She also recalls a time before the current buildings stood on the fairgrounds, a time when the cakes slid off their plates because the frosting had melted in the steaming room.

“We have frozen to death, we have baked,” she said. “Now we have our very own restrooms!”

It’s that colorful sense of humor and good-natured personality that bring Marla Bohne and Mary Dorosh to always want to help Samsel in the judging.

“She’s the one we always want to work with because she’s fun, she’s interesting, she really knows her job,” said Bohne, who helped with pinning ribbons on the entries Samsel judged. “She’s really fair.”

Call her Dr. Samsel for her ability to diagnose with one bite exactly what’s wrong with some of the entries – “This is tough. He probably played with the dough” or “There’s too much flour.”

It’s an expertise that comes only after dozens of years of experience. Born in Missoula and raised on a ranch in Alberton, Mont., she earned her degree in home economics from the University of Montana in 1947. She learned to judge baking in 4-H throughout middle school and high school. Since 1953, she’s judged at the Interstate Fair, the North Idaho Fair and various others throughout the region.

This Interstate Fair, though, was a bit different for Samsel. Her husband, Lightle Samsel, who had accompanied her to the fair every year since they married in 1971, stayed home to recuperate from surgery for a broken hip.

“Next year, he’ll be there with bells on,” she said.

And it’s not just Lightle Samsel who plans to return in the coming years.

“I plan to come back the next 20 years,” Helen Samsel said. “I’ll still be here when I’m 100.”