Publisher’s message: Not just any banana cake

(In my continuing quest to make you smile with a little humor, please enjoy this new installment. This time involving the Chelsea Community Fair.)

Have you noticed a food theme in my various attempts to provide you, the readers, with a little humor during these virus-y times?

Is it any wonder? If I’m not working, I’m either sleeping or foraging for food. Rinse, Repeat.

So, imagine my surprise while pawing through the freezer while rearranging it for the umpteenth time, when I unearthed a piece of banana cake. It was hidden way in a back corner that hadn’t been unearthed in, well, many months.

I’m finding all kinds of surprise gems as I arrange and rearrange the freezers to accommodate new food items.

But this find wasn’t just any find, it was a piece of Chelsea Community Fair kitchen banana cake.

So, I guess this is the time I should let you in on a secret; one only very close friends know.

I know people.

Important people.

At the Chelsea Community Fair.

In addition to the all-volunteer Fair Board members, who are wonderful and helpful and make my ability to cover fair oh so much easier – I know even more important people.

The awesome folks who run the fair kitchen.

Two of them are Shelley Wheaton and her mom, Ginny, and their terrific volunteers, who keep the kitchen humming every August during fair week.

They, dear readers, are my fair heroes.

They know my affinity for banana cake and make sure they indulge me. As everyone knows, a lot of hard work goes into this August event. In addition to sporadic stories throughout the year, my main fair coverage begins on Aug. 1,  reaches its peak during fair week, and wraps up the following week.

For those readers who are new and who haven’t been to the Chelsea Community Fair, there’s a lot going on during this fabulous, much loved community event.

One of those hubs is the Service Building where the fair kitchen staff and volunteers see me coming and take care of me throughout that week – providing me with daily all-important pieces of banana cake.

I put in my order early in the week and each day I stop by for a meal and a piece of cake, which are saved in a special place and emerge with my name written on them along with my meal choice.

And, as the headline implies, these they aren’t any old pieces of banana cake, these are my special Chelsea Community Fair slices of moist and super yummy banana cake.

Since I spend countless hours at fair — my personal favorite place on earth — the fair kitchen folks do their part to make sure the third full week of August is even sweeter for me.

And by mid-week, I sometimes bring a piece of cake home and freeze it. Because, well, maybe sometimes I might buy two in a day … if there are extras out on the counter for sale.

Yes, I’m a fair kitchen regular. I eat daily meals there … not breakfast, because I’m not a breakfast person … but lunch and many dinners. And, I’ve even brought some of those meals home with me, too, because they are such a great value for the price.

But I’ll admit, I’ve never frozen those leftovers. They are eaten in the wee hours of the morning as I finish up editing all my photos from the day’s events and put the finishing touches on the last stories.

So, finding that piece of Chelsea Community Fair cake was a reminder of happy times and gave me hope that there will be pieces of banana cake in the future.   

I love the Chelsea Community Fair and am so honored to be able to provide readers with extensive coverage from the largest event to happen in Chelsea each year. 

And that banana taste tasted just a good as I remembered.