The Junior Fair Board accepts a check from the Lima/Allen County Chamber of Commerce and from Nutrien for $1,000.00.
Dean Brown | The Lima News
ALLEN COUNTY — Because the Real American Sunrise was held at the fairgrounds, there was an emphasis on agriculture. Various speakers who represented different forms of agriculture presented to those in attendance.
Although the fair still has one day remaining, Troy Elwer, promotions and operation manager, relayed a favorable week of activities. “Honestly things have been going really well besides some minor hiccups here and there. I’ve been telling people that you know if there was a perfect day at the fair I probably wasn’t doing my job to the fullest ability because I was probably uninformed about something that did go wrong. The people involved here at the fair are putting in a lot of hard work and that’s why it’s as successful every year in terms of attendance.
“We’ve had a couple of days at the beginning of the week that were a little lower than normal just because of the weather. Mother Nature wasn’t helping us out very much. Then these last couple of days attendance has actually been significantly up from last year and the midway has been packed.”
Staying with the agriculture theme, Gary Burns, director of pellet operations at Rudolph Foods, shared some of the business history. Rudolph Foods is based in Lima, Ohio but has six facilities throughout the United States and three international ventures with plants in Mexico, Brazil and Denmark.
Rudolph Foods was founded in 1955, and in 1957 Mary Rudolph spent three months in the plant refining a recipe that is still used to this day. The Rudolph family sold the business in 1966, but had bought the business back by the mid 70’s. Expansions in the 90’s saw plants in California, Texas, Georgia, and Mississippi join the Rudolph family business.
Now the business has expanded into “the better for you” market. Because pork rinds are low in carbohydrates, high in protein and some are made with lower levels of sodium, they have become a healthy snack item. Burns said, “So this is new exciting stuff for us. It’s better for you; it’s heart healthy. We’re actually frying in sunflower seed oil which is a new thing for us.”
Rudolph foods is growing at a rate of about 8% year to year. A good amount of the work is exported.
Finally a check was presented to the Junior Fair Board. Nutrien underwrote the expenses of the Ag Honor dinner so that all the ticket proceeds could be given to the Junior Fair. Russ Decker from Nutrien and Jed Metzger from the Lima/Allen County Chamber of Commerce presented a check for the amount of $1,000.00 to the Junior Fair royalty.
Reach Dean Brown at 567-242-0409
