Friday I went to the Anacortes Arts Festival on official business — as a food safety inspector for all the food booths. I'm happy to report that in general these vendors that work the festivals are very professional in their food handling. They get inspected at each festival (probably nearly every weekend) by the jurisdictional public health department. They expect us to arrive out of uniform, treat us like customers until we identify ourselves then take the time to give us the full tour of their operation. It works well.
On Friday near my last inspection a festival attendee had been watching me. Finally he came up to me and said I should re-check some of the booths I had already inspected. Was there a specific complaint, I asked. No glove use, he said pointing to an Asian food booth. It's not always necessary, I replied, and went on to explain when gloves were necessary and when they were not. For instance, gloves might be required when handling hamburger or hotdog buns. But deli paper or tongs may be substituted. The important thing is that bare-hand (major germ vector) contact with foods about to be consumed must be avoided. If a vendor is dishing out hot foods with a ladle, gloves are not necessary because the food about to be served isn't touched with a bare hand. The gentleman didn't appear particularly satisfied with my explanation but I told him if he saw something specific he could find me at the festival.
Yesterday I went to the festival for fun and ate and shopped my way through the festival. First I bought a mug from Jill Neal that depicted a group of women having a great time around a campfire. Then I bought one birthday present and one Christmas present from other vendors. I can't say too much here in case the readers are the recipients.
Then food! Jalapeno fudge from Sound Ideas (Anacortes), toasted cinnamon nuts, a Redhook brat, chocolate covered strawberries, and finally a piece of coconut cake from the Scone Lady (Anacortes). Whew. I still have some fudge.
Here are a few of my favorite artists:
Stephen Bruce, who does beautiful (expensive)copper pieces.
Anne Schreivogl, who is a local artist in Anacortes. My fave is that top piece, the trombone player.
Susan M Allen, who is also a Skagit Valley artist. My fave pieces are "Bronte" and "Canon".
Here are a few pictures:
Looking south toward Mt. Erie.
This is the floor of the art gallery (port building). Between the planks you can see the beach below. I've been to the port building many times for various events and had never notices the gaps between the floor boards. I thought it was cool.