or check your university extension also. What state? Ive lived all over the country including Fairbanks Alaska. The university there (UAF) published all sorts of free gardening stuff including the fair criteria) You often need certain quantities, sizes etc... When I was in Madison WI the UW had similar stuff. Ive never really looked much into it because Ive been more about growing food rather than growing veggies for uniform sizes and beauty. Unlike animals Im not aware of any national rules and guidelines for veggies like there is with animal sanctioned events like the AKC for dogs or APA for poultry(which I was once a certified judge for in the waterfowl specialty) Veggies grow different in different areas thats a good reason why. An Orpington duck is an Orpington duck in New Mexico or Maine, A summer squash in New Mexico is not going to be the same summer squash growing in Maine

if want books on subject of growing for fair the following books will helpful

The Vegetable Garden Displayed joy larkcom

Blue ribbon vegetable gardening ow to grow the biggest and best prizewinning produce / by Jodi Torpey.

Thank you so much everybody. I'm in Delaware. I know we have a quantity that we need to enter but it doesn't say much about what they judge based off of. Sometimes what won the ribbon wasn't the entree that I would've picked and Im just trying to look into what they're looking for so I know what vegetables to pick off when it comes to entering.

You also might want to try to contact the state fair itself. Or perhaps your local 4H club.

From the Delaware extension service:

http://extension.udel.edu/4h/projects-activities-for-members/delaware-state-fair-4-h-involvement/

Note the menu on the right: videos and power point presentation as well as pdf docs on selecting, entering, and judging state fair vegetable entries.

As I indicated above your state and local county extension services are always the best place to start with just about any question related to home gardening.

Dave

Dave thank you!! Unfortunately all the links to the right come up as not found when I try to click in but it gives me a great place to start. I'll see what I can come up with from there. Thank you again. You're always quite helpful.

Here's a document that might help regarding vegetables from the 2015 Delaware state fair.

Nitsua- Thank you!! I have found that paper when I looked at the fairs website. It says "best..." but I just wish it told me what qualified something as "best". Thank you very much tho. I really appreciate you looking!

Sorry. I had checked the videos links and they all worked so I didn't check the rest. The site search there pulls them up however from where they were moved.

Dave

Selecting and Judging Vegetables from the Delaware Cooperative Extension

When I enter vegetables in fairs it is always judged by: 1. Does it look like say, a red tomato, is supposed to look like? (ie: no deformities, catfacing, etc) 2. It usually calls for multiples of each entry, and consistency among those is judged, so do your 3 red tomatoes you entered look somewhat alike? More points are awarded to more consistent entries.

Not that this will help but here in B.C. The B.C. Council of Gardening Clubs puts out a judging standards manual for non specialized shows. Has all the information on how to show and judge both flowers and vegetables. Do you have anything like it down your way? A most helpful type of manual if you plan on doing a lot of exhibiting

An example in our manual..... Beans other than Scarlet runners

Included in this category of Beans are - Pole or Climbing, Wax-pod bush, and Green-pod bush.

POINT SCORE (R.H.S.)

Condition 8 points

Size 3 points

Uniformity 4 points

Form 3 points

Pods should be straight, uniform in size and shape; color should be clean and bright; pods should be fresh and crisp (soft or limpness is a serious fault). The pods should be free from insect or spray damage, and not be "stringy" (the judge will break one or more pods to test crispness, to see if the seeds are over mature or if the pods are stringy). Consistent with other qualities the longest beans are to be preferred, the stems should be left intact on the pods.

One thing I always used to do is to take along a few extras just in case of a mishap, just remember if the plate calls for 12 raspberries make sure there are only 12 on the plate, count and count again. I have seen more entries NAS-ed because someone had forgot to take that extra one off.

Thank you both!!!!! Thats a lot of what I was looking to find.