By LINDA McGURK
Indiana Correspondent

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — Elephant ears, cotton candy, caramel apples and funnel cakes are familiar staples at any fair, but how about jalapeno-flavored corn dogs, corn fritters with spicy Cajun corn dip or peanut butter caramel corn drizzled with chocolate? In honor of this year’s theme – “Year of Corn” – visitors to the Indiana State Fair are able to try five new signature foods that all contain corn.

Considering that USDA just predicted that Hoosier farmers will harvest more corn this year than they ever have, organizers of the fair couldn’t have picked a better time to highlight this homegrown crop.

“We knew this would be a big year for corn, with the record demand,” said Andy Klotz, fair spokesman. “Corn is used for so much,” he said, and added, “We knew we could do some fun things with it.”

Besides promoting the new, corn-based foods, the fair is putting on a celebrity corn shucking contest and a corn-hole toss tournament. The fairgrounds’ gift shop has been decorated as a giant basket of corn and a local chalk artist will create a corn-related mural. And if you still managed to miss the fair’s corn theme, various types of corn have been planted throughout the fairgrounds as a visual reminder.

Other features of this year’s fair are returning favorites, like the antique tractor display in the Pioneer Village on the north side of the fairgrounds.

“I really like the old-time machinery,” said Richard Garrett of New Harmony, Ind., as he took a closer look at an antique John Deere tractor. “I enjoy the fair every year, even though it doesn’t change a whole lot.”

An avid collector of John Deere machinery and a fairgoer for the past 25 years, Garrett said the Pioneer Village is a must-stop at the fair. “I like the corn shellers and the corn planters. I like it all,” he said and laughed.

A boon to antique farming equipment enthusiasts, three unique tractors are on display in the Pioneer Village. The International Harvester tractors, dubbed the “Giants of the Prairie,” were built between 1908 and 1917, and are the only ones of their kind that have been fully restored.

Also in the Pioneer Village, Charlie Carson of Union Mills, Ind., is demonstrating the skills of his two Durham shorthorn oxen, Jake and Joey. Carson has been bringing the pair to the past three fairs and said people come back every year to see them mature.
“People are pretty amazed when they see how trained they are. They’ve all heard the saying ‘dumb as an ox’, but oxen are not dumb at all, they’re actually very intelligent animals.”

Carson started training his oxen with a stick and plenty of positive reinforcement when they were just calves. He said cattle have good memory and can easily learn things like moving and turning in different directions if repeated enough. “What a lot of people don’t know is that horses didn’t pull the wagons out West, oxen and mules did. Horses couldn’t survive on the prairie grass,” he said.

On the south side of the fairgrounds, in the swine barn, Dian Krumme of Dudleytown, Ind., supervised as a steady stream of curious visitors stopped to take a look at her crossbred boar, the largest one at the fair. At 993 pounds, he had still lost a little weight since Krumme showed him at the Jackson County Fair earlier this summer. “At the county fair he weighed in at 1,009 pounds, but we had a long drive here and it’s been hot, so he lost a few pounds,” she said. “I’m hoping by next year, he’ll gain another 200 pounds.”

As temperatures keep hovering in the 90s, animals and humans alike rely on strategically placed fans and water sources to keep as cool and hydrated as possible during the fair. Red Cross workers are also tending to visitors who are having trouble coping with the heat.

“I was surprised on opening day that we didn’t have more than a couple (heat-related) incidents,” said Klotz. “This is as bad of a heat wave we’ve seen in more than 10 years. The first couple of days it kept some people from coming out, but we’re still pleased with the crowds.”