The annual Bloomsburg Fair is from Friday Sept. 22 through Friday Sept. 30 and with this week’s forecast of clear skies and high temperatures, people all over town are excited to enjoy the outdoor festivities. Hundreds of vendors are spread out throughout the area where delicious foods like potato pancakes, chicken fingers, pizza, stromboli, ice cream and many more are sold. Although many love riding the Ferris wheel and playing games to win prizes, people come to try the different varieties of fried foods that the fair is famous for. Fried Oreo’s are usually the most popular but many vendors get creative with other ideas like fried cookie dough, fried chocolate bars, fried pickles, fried veggies, fried peanut butter & jelly sandwiches, fried sweet potatoes, fried ice cream and many more. One family from Benton, Pennsylvania that makes delicious fried Oreo’s along with other foods like barbecue chicken, hot dogs and chicken fingers are the Hartmans.
“This is our eighth year doing this at the fair,” said Joseph Hartman. “We only do the food business here and nowhere else but we enjoy doing it every year together.”
The Hartmans have a family business so they like to get their three kids involved at the fair also. “We have a six year old son who plays soccer and loves to help out along with our thirteen year old, but our oldest who is seventeen can only help out occasionally because he works,” said Hartman, “but we love it, it’s fun.”
Weeks leading up to the fair consists a lot of work for many including the Hartmans.
“Of course the week of the fair is a lot of work with cooking and the busyness but weeks leading up to it is the hardest part because all of the prepping we have to do, it’s not easy,” said Hartman.
The family owns all of the equipment needed for the fair but the food business is not the only business that they own.
“We own many businesses as a family besides this one,” said Hartman, “like a small car lot and more.”
The fair is filled with many other family-owned businesses like Veronica Reynder from West Chester, PA who created “Veronica’s Doggie Delights,” a business that she created in 2009 that makes homemade dog treats.
“Yes everything that we sell here was baked fresh at home with no added preservatives,” said Veronica Reynder, owner of the business, “I always had a love for baking and with trial and error, I started making healthy all-natural dog treats.”
Like the Hartmans, Veronica also tries to get her kids involved as well.
“I love doing this, I enjoy it and I also taught my son how to bake also,” said Reynder.
All of Reynder’s dog treats are created right here in the United States using only domestic ingredients like pastry flour, rolled oats, natural peanut butter, real bacon, vanilla and olive oil. Treats include gourmet bones, gluten free bones, peanut butter bag treats, pumpkin kale chips, grain free bones and many more.
“This is our eighth year as a group working at the fair and I love it. I am twenty-five and I am from Venezuela. I’ve had a passion for caricature all my life and I am so happy and blessed to do what I love as my full time job,” said Torrealba. The other caricaturas are from different parts in the U.S like Ohio and Minnesota but they all come together to enjoy what they do best at events like the Bloomsburg Fair. Another activity that people enjoy every year seeing are the animals. People can look at animals like monkeys, birds and farm animals.
“I love coming here to feed the farm animals, said Stephanie Ramos, Bloomsburg University student, “It’s fun because they are so cute and adorable to watch.”
The fair will continue for the rest of the week with more delicious foods, fun rides and many games to play.
Besides the food, the fair offers fun activities for both kids and adults to enjoy like the caricaturas where people can get their face drawn in funny ,exaggerated ways. Jorge Torrealba, one of the caricaturas, love his job and enjoys working at the fair to make people happy.
