Shirley Gratton likes the sense of community found at the British Columbia Northern Exhibition.
Gratton is best known as a former city councillor and last year was honoured by becoming the 13th recipient of the Freeman of the City award for exceptional merit and contribution to the community.
The home arts and horticulture part of the fair, hosted by the Prince George Agricultural & Historical Association, has always been very important to Gratton and she entered several catagories, getting a blue ribbon for her heritage cake and let's just call her Lady Marmalade as she took not only took the blue ribbon but received top overall honours in the jams and jelly category for her jarred efforts.
"I don't know how they make marmalade commercially," said Gratton. "I took the peeler and peeled the lemons and grapefruit really thin and then I took that and cut it thinly and into strips. Then I got into peeling the white part (pith) off the lemon and grapefruit. Then I took each little section of the lemon and grapefruit and took off the membrane and that took me hours. So then I put it all together in a pot with the sugar and Pectin and whatever else and then I thought 'is this thing going to gel?' and then it did."
So after all that effort Gratton was very pleased she won.
"The fact is, I'm excited about it," said Gratton, who is a lifetime member of the Prince George Agricultural & Historical Association for all her contributions to the fair over the years.
Gratton's blue-ribbon recipe for the heritage fruitcake goes back to 1934 when there was a heavy frost in late July that killed most of the crops except for root vegetables like beets, carrots and potatoes. For Christmas dinner that year, the neighbours got together and everyone contributed something. Mrs. Campbell, Shirley's mother, was given all the ingredients for the cake she made using the Red Roses cookbook recipe. Gratton, also a member of the Prince George Weavers and Spinners Guild, used the same recipe in honour of that neighbourly collaboration.
The heritage cake will be donated to the silent auction for the Prince George Community Foundation during the Citizen of the Year banquet later in the fall.
Take a look at all the prize winning contributions to home arts and horticulture found in Kin 1 at the BCNE until Sunday.
