Photograph by Lea Tauriello
Nancy Cline and daughter Rebecca have entered several homemade preserves in contests at the fair.
By ANNE GELHAUS
As a girl growing up in Minnesota, Nancy Cline learned the art of making preserves from her mother. Continuing the family tradition after she moved to Sunnyvale, Cline taught her daughter Rebecca how to make jams and jellies, and both generations have entered their creations in this year's Santa Clara County Fair.
Both mother and daughter have several varieties of preserves awaiting judgment at the fair, which runs through Aug. 4. This is the fourth year that Nancy Cline has competed in the fair and the second year that Rebecca, 13, has entered items in the junior division.
"It's fairly inexpensive and lots of fun," Nancy Cline says. "Last year, everything I entered placed, and I expect I'll do well this year because I only enter things I know are good."
Rebecca says she enjoys checking out the competition.
"I like going into the California Living building and looking at the stuff people do," she adds. "I like looking at the jelly and seeing how clear some of it is."
If she should have a daughter, Rebecca says she'll teach her how to make preserves.
"It's something I enjoy doing with my mom," she adds. "It's just us. My little brother stays out of the kitchen."
Rebecca's favorite part of the process is "mushing up the fruit."
"If it's a cold day, I like cooking it, too," she says.
According to Nancy, the hardest part of making preserves is sometimes just finding good fruit, especially since the orchards that used to flourish in Sunnyvale have all but disappeared.
"We go to Watsonville to get strawberries," Nancy says. "Sometimes Price Club has good stuff; sometimes they don't. You never know what you're going to get. It was probably easier when there were more orchards around."
Nancy has managed to avail herself to neighbors who have fruit trees in their yards; she taught a friend how to take all the apricots that were littering her back yard and make apricot jam.
Rebecca, however, has not managed to generate similar interest among her peers.
"I've found a bunch of friends who like eating my jelly, but I don't know anyone else my age who makes it," she says.
With its "Squiggles and Giggles" theme, this year's county fair is centered around family activities, including: the Imagination Gallery, an interactive science exhibit; "Cowboy Daze," a professional rodeo set for Aug. 2-3; the Center for Agricultural Science and Technology, run by Pioneer High School students; and the usual assortment of midway games and musical entertainment.
Nancy Cline says she likes the fair's old-fashioned ambiance.
"It takes me back to my childhood, when my family always went to the county fair," she adds. "You can't enter a competition for jams and jellies anywhere else."
The Santa Clara County Fair is open Mon.-Thu., noon-11 p.m., Fri., noon-midnight and Sat.-Sun., 10 a.m.-midnight through Aug. 4. The fairgrounds are located at
344 Tully Road, San Jose. Tickets are $4-$7.
This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, July 31, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.