'Just an art form': Harrison Township's Vickie Noble entering Ohio State Fair Hall of Fame

Vickie Noble spent the 1970s and 1980s earning top honors at the Ohio State Fair for her pies, candies, jams, cookies and so much more. Now she's added another prestigious honor to her resume.

For 47 years of dedication to the state fair, Noble will be inducted into the Ohio State Fair Hall of Fame on Thursday as part of a seven-member induction class approved by Gov. Mike DeWine.

Noble, a 29-year resident of Harrison Township, said she was surprised and honored when she opened the letter stating she would be inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Her daughter, Jennifer Noble, said competing at local fairs and the state fair has been a family tradition for four generations, and it means a great deal to the family that her mother is honored in this way.

"She's amazing at what she does, and she's an amazing competitor and has taught me so much of that and passed that family tradition down, and I just couldn't be more proud of her," said Jennifer Noble, who nominated her mother.

Vickie Noble, 69, was involved with 4-H and the Ross County Fair while growing up in Adelphi, Ohio. Her mother and grandmother were skilled bakers, cooks and sewers, and Noble took after them. But it wasn't until 1976 that a neighbor, with whom Noble baked and canned, suggested they enter the State Fair.

Noble came home with a fifth-place ribbon and was hooked. Over the next several years Noble earned more than 350 awards for entries in categories such as cake decorating, sewing, breads, cakes, pies, candies, jams, jellies, pickles, cookies and so many more.

Each year Noble would enter dozens — sometimes nearly 100 — items into state fair competitions. Noble stayed organized with detailed plans of all the items she planned to prepare and kept a calendar of when all her entries needed to arrive at the Columbus fairgrounds.

The Nobles summer always started with an early June vacation, but then the focus would shift to the state fair as soon as they arrived home, Jennifer Noble said. Her mother would often stay up late, or even all night, perfecting her dishes.

A couple of times Noble was baking so much that her oven went out in the middle of the state fair, Vickie Noble said.

She also won categories multiple times, including a now-discontinued category called Fair Manager's Candy Box, which included assorted candies such as molded chocolates, peppermint patties, chocolate-covered cherries and more. The first prize entry was then presented to the fair manager.

"We actually aren't even sure how many times she won it; she won it so many times," Jennifer Noble said.

Some desserts were family recipes that were passed down while others Noble created herself by adjusting a traditional recipe or combining two to invent something all her own, her daughter said.

"There's several cookbooks and recipe cards at our house, and all along the side of it, it'll have the year and the prize that she won," Jennifer Noble said. "I'm always like, OK, I need a cookie recipe. Let me go through the cookie recipes and find one that she's marked up, and I know that's a good one."

But years of competing also came with unexpected challenges. One year Noble set out to make raisin fudge squares, but the raisins were drier than she wanted. She opted to pour boiling water over them — a trick she used before — to plump the raisins up. The bars won first prize and best in show, along with the Archway Award, a now-discontinued award from Archway Cookies, for the best homestyle cookie.

Beyond her baking, Noble would also enter creations into sewing competitions. As those items didn't have an expiration date, she would work on those year-round, her daughter said.

"As soon as the fair wrapped, she would start planning for the next year," Jennifer Noble said.

Over the past 25 years, Vickie took a step back from competing herself and instead helped Jennifer, who mostly focuses on jams and jellies. Vickie travels around central Ohio in pursuit of the highest-quality produce and ingredients for her daughter's creations, Jennifer Noble said. And she still keeps detailed plans and schedules to manage when entries are due.

"She keeps me all organized. I'd probably never get it all done if she didn't keep me organized and tell me what I've done and what I haven't done," Jennifer Noble said.

Vickie, who serves as Harrison Township's zoning secretary, also is a vocal state fair supporter, promoting and encouraging others to compete and attend. She and Jennifer also participated in a 2014 Ohio State Fair TV commercial, sharing their family tradition of entering and her experience as a competitor.

For the first time in about three decades, Vickie Noble had her own entries in the state fair this year. She earned second place for a cranberry orange cookie — made from a recipe she created herself — and third place for a black raspberry jam.

While close family and friends understood the work her mother put in to competing, Jennifer Noble said that more broadly sometimes people don't understand the planning and attention to detail it takes to compete and win at such a high level.

"Her awards are many, many nights where she did not sleep, staying up all night. It is hours and hours of planning, of work, of trying recipes, having things fail, perfecting them to get to that point," Jennifer Noble said. "She makes it look so easy, and I know that it's not. There's so much behind it, and it is truly just an art form."

mdevito@gannett.com

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Twitter: @MariaDeVito13

This article originally appeared on Newark Advocate: Harrison Township's Vickie Noble entering Ohio State Fair Hall of Fame