Wednesday, Jul. 23, 2008

Golden Year for Turlock woman

Cotton candy, funnel cakes and corn dogs are what come to mind when most people think of the fair.

For home cooks like Zella Linn, fair food means cookies, cakes and pies. The Turlock woman is among a select group, young and old, that enters the Stanislaus County Fair's competitive exhibits for bragging rights and blue ribbons. But this home cook is in a league all her own. This marks the 50th year Linn has been entering contests in the fair's nearly 100-year run. Her creations will be on display in the Homemade and Homegrown Exhibits Building.

The year was 1958 when Linn first entered a pie and canned fruit and vegetables. Eisenhower was president. "Leave it to Beaver" was in its second season. Boris Pasternak's "Doctor Zhivago" was on most people's nightstands. And Mrs. Buttersworth was one of the big winners at the Stanislaus County Fair.

"She kind of inspired me," said Linn, then the mother of a son and daughter with a third child on the way. "I remember she had a little saying in the paper when she had won. It said something like, 'Eat what you can and can what you want.' "

Things have certainly changed. Scratch baking went out of favor with the introduction of General Mills' boxed cake mixes in 1947 and Pillsbury refrigerated cookie dough 10 years later. If that wasn't enough, the feminist movement put a stake in being a homemaker. And Linn? The stay-at-home mom changed with the times. In 1969, she became a surgery attendant at Turlock's Emanuel Hospital, where she worked for 20 years.

But the tide is turning again. Home canning is enjoying a renaissance on a small-batch scale, cooking shows are booming -- heck, there's even a Food Network -- and a new generation is discovering that cakes and cookies made from scratch have a flavor unmatched by their mass-produced counterparts. And Linn, who volunteers at Emanuel with husband George, is preparing for her final year of competition.

So it is with mixed emotions that Linn has readied this year's entries: rocky road bars, walnut squares, apple pie, unbaked white chocolate cookies, sweet potato custard pie, mango surprise salsa, olé squares and strawberry ice cream.

"I imagine this will be my last year," she said. "I feel kind of sad. When the time comes, I'll probably want to ... maybe I'll enter a couple of things."

Linn, who turns 84 on Monday, will return in a supporting role; she'll help her grandchildren with their exhibits.

"I just love the atmosphere at the fair," she said. "Everyone is friendly."

She has one parting wish: "I hope that the younger people will catch on and contribute to the fair this way."

Bee staff writer Sharon K. Ghag can be reached at sghag@modbee.com or 578-2340.