TOPSHAM FAIR tasting judge Dick Brown is seen tasting blueberry pie at the blueberry pie contest hosted Tuesday.
Dick Brown has been a tasting judge at the Topsham Fair for eight years. He judges cookies, whoopie pies — which are his favorite, baked beans, biscuits and rolls. He judges each day with a different panel of two other judges.
“ I used to weigh 350 pounds,” Brown said, adding that the food tasting contests are the only time during the year he has any dessert.
“And as you can see I only take a piece as big as my thumb nail,” he said. “I can tell if it’s sweet, if it has good texture, if it’s juicy and got the right crust. That way you don’t get full.”
When it comes down to judging the blueberry pie morsels there is a scoring sheet with four categories: Overall appearance, crust, filling and ease of preparation. The scores from each of the three judges are averaged together and the grand total winner is the first place, winning $50 and the second and third win $25 and $10, respectively.
“The ones I like are the ones the mothers hate, because it’s the one that burns over in the oven,” said Brown. “But you know, I want a nice pie . … I want to see a blueberry pie with some juice. I like my crust flakey, I don’t like it Criscotasting. Surprisingly, very seldom does the best-looking pie win.”
Food tasting may not sound all that hard as a job but “when the contestants come up and talk to you afterwords, how are you gonna say nicely that your pie sucked?” said Brown.
Brown grew up judging cattle and resides in Richmond. Outside of tasting treats he announces for the derbies at the Topsham Fair, specifically Demolition Derby and Redneck Truck Pull. The truck pull which he designed himself.
He is also a farmer and an auctioneer. He was instrumental in helping build the fairground new barns with the assistance of inmates.
Brown is specifically excited this week about a brand new opportunity on Saturday night.
“ It’s gonna be a great week to have a fair, we have something new this year,” Brown said. “You can take a chance on shooting the first fireworks on Saturday night. First time ever at Topsham fair! Buy a ticket for $1 and if you are drawn I will call you and you must be here to shoot it, we’re going to draw at 7 p.m. on Saturday. You’re going to come right into the derby track and press the button and bang!”
Over almost a decade he has experienced a lot, his favorite moment being when a twenty six year old man won the apple pie contest and jumped two feet in the air and yelled “I told you sons of guns I’d win this.”
Brown can be seen tasting different foods over this week, tomorrow it will be cobbler in the Exhibition Hall at the Topsham Fair.
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