enjoyed working with her, being with her and her helping me. I was always really impressed with her.”

In 2009, when Aunt Beace fell ill and was unable to submit entries for the annual competition, Kathryn’s journey began. She submitted a single jar of bread-and-butter pickles at the last minute, with much encouragement and support. Lo and behold, that single jar won fourth place. The family tradition had been successfully passed along to the next generation. The family was clearly doing something right with those famous bread-andbutter pickles. The Creative Arts Department of the State Fair of Texas annual competition judges jellies, jams, vegetables, fruits, butters, marmalades, relishes, pickles and preserves from all over the United States. Individuals are allowed to enter up to 10 different items, and eachIn fact, she keeps all of her ribbons stuffed in a sack in a drawer. The road to seasoned canner has not been struggle-free for Kathryn, however. She has learned the tricks of her trade through trial and error. Last year, she found herself in somewhat of a pickle — she needed cucumbers to make her award-winning bread-andbutter pickles, and fast. With limited options, she purchased cucumbers from someone new without tasting them first. After a few phone calls several months later about bad bread-and-butter pickles, she immediately learned never to use an unknown merchant again, and to always taste the produce before using it. Thinking about that learning experience, Kathryn said, “As soon as they started putting them in their mouths, they started spitting them out! I