The Minnesota State Fair archives include the names of many Woodbury residents who have won competitions at the annual celebration over the years. 

While The Roundabout staff is delighted to share old stories of our past winners, we need you to share breaking news of your entries in this year’s State Fair, which opens on August 21. If you or someone you know has registered for competition at this year’s Fair please let us know by emailing us at [email protected] with the competitor’s name, phone number, contest, and a short description of the entry. Feel free to send a photo too if available.

Full disclosure, this writer will be entering the Vegan Main Dish competition for the third time. My hope is that this year’s entry, “Brisket” Beans — almost like Bubbe Made, with chick peas, carrots, mushrooms, onions, and a yummy sauce – will find favor with the judges. No ribbons are awarded, but I hope to finally win the coveted vegan cookbook this year. 

Woodbury was home to royalty in the 1950s when Sara Jane Brown (now Minehart) came home with a crown in the Princess Kay of the Milky Way contest.

More recently Michelle Seyward’s “MN Black Out Cake” won the prize in Kowalski’s “Great Chocolate Cake Contest”. When interviewed at the 2022 fair, Seyward revealed her winning secret-black cocoa.

“The Republican Eagle” newspaper reported that Gabrianna Bruestle, then of Woodbury, overcame a flub in the 2016 amateur talent contest. (She forgot the words at the beginning of the Italian version of “It’s Time to Say Goodbye”). She went on to win $2,500–not bad for a 12-year-old.

Orris Schilling was a legacy farmer in Woodbury with dairy cows and a thriving apple orchard, but in his retirement he grew pumpkins. His goal was to win the Giant Pumpkin contest at the State Fair. Grandpa Schilling fretted about the orange beauties all summer long, offering them shelter from harsh Spring weather and making sure that they didn’t grow too fast and split on hot summer days. He even created a drip irrigation system with manure-enriched water. Not long before his death in 1997, Schilling won the prize for the biggest pumpkin in the state and a chance to show it off to thousands every day in the Ag-Hort building.

So if you have prize-winning red onions like James Kroening, “Salted Caramel Nougat-Filled Peanut Butter Cookies” like Sheila Mullen, beautiful counted cross stitch like Linda Hartman, or a Favorite Perennial like Sam Hoff or a prize-worthy entry like so many other Woodbury winners, be sure and share your fair news!