There are hundreds of competitive categories that Iowans can enter each year at the Iowa State Fair in the hopes of taking home a blue ribbon. On Talk of Iowa, we spoke to three of the winning-est Iowans.
Deb Zeitler
Deb Zeitler had never considered taking up weaving until her husband signed the couple up for a class. He hated it and never wanted to weave again, but Deb fell in love with the process.
“I think it’s the texture and the colors, you can make something practical,” Deb said.
She enjoyed the math involved and the repetitive nature. She said even when a piece is a work in progress, it looks beautiful sitting on the loom.
A few years after she started, Deb discovered weaving was a category at the state fair. She and her husband had already been regular attendees, but discovered entering the contests was a new way to engage with the fair. Deb has won 19 sweepstakes ribbons since.
She also has two items on display at the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. The exhibit, "State Fairs: Growing American Craft", is on display through Sept. 7. Iowa has the most objects in the nationwide display. One of them is also from Deb's husband.
Rob Zeitler
After Deb started entering her weaving pieces at the Iowa State Fair, her husband Rob Zeitler said he wanted to get in on the rush of state fair contests too, though he didn’t want to compete in the same categories as his wife.
“She’s too good!” he said.
Rob decided on canning, but his attempt was a bit of a flop. He said he didn’t pay close enough attention to the rules, so most of the jars he brought weren’t judged, and he snuck out of the room.
“It encouraged me to get things right and try harder," Rob said. "And as time went on, they added more classes — made it harder for me to keep up, but I've done my best.”
Now he's become a master canner, with hundreds of ribbons to his name. And his jars are displayed in a pyramid of canned goods in the Smithsonian exhibit.
Over time Rob has started adding more plants to his garden that are difficult to find at farmers markets — like gooseberries or black raspberries — so he can can them. He tries to enter every category of canning, and this year there are 184 at the Iowa State Fair.
“They're all in boxes, all in order from the pickles to the last division, [which] is marmalades,” Rob told Charity Nebbe ahead of the fair.
Marcia Miller
Marcia Miller was obsessed with Betty Crocker cookbooks growing up, and now she dazzles judges with her cake and pie entries.
The first year she competed, she made 20 chocolate cake recipes in one weekend so she could compare and find the best one.
“The year 2000 was the first year I entered at the fair. I took 40 entries to the fair that year, and I only won seven ribbons. But two of my ribbons were first place, and one of them was with the chocolate cream pie," Miller said. "Once you win a ribbon at the fair, you're hooked.”
In the last few years, Miller has used her winning pies as a fundraising opportunity.
“In the past I've either brought the leftovers to work or I've given them to people ... But I also knew that these items had value, and so in 2023, I advertised the leftover cakes and pies.”
She posted the left-over slices for sale on her neighborhood Facebook page and pledged to give the money to the Animal Lifeline Shelter of Iowa.
"And everything sold like hotcakes,” she said.
This year, she's submitting 37 cakes and pies to the fair.
To hear this conversation, listen to Talk of Iowa, hosted by Charity Nebbe. Dani Gehr produced this episode.
