FRYEBURG – With a clipboard in one hand and a knife in the other, Betty Weston cut a delicate slice from the cake.

She tasted, then got eyeball-to-frosting with the entry.

She looked inside and out, noting the texture.

She stepped back and looked at the overall appearance.

And then checked the ingredients, written out in front of it.

After all, the 92-year-old Weston has been judging baked goods at the Fryeburg Fair for 35 to 40 years.

She knows what to look for.

“Good appearance, ease of preparation are important,” Weston said. “Then of course the ingredients, flavor and how it’s baked all count.

“You can’t always go by the recipe,” she said. “When you think something is done, it doesn’t hurt to leave it in the oven a while longer.”

She said she is partial to apple pies, actually critical of apple pies, saying they are one of the items that quite often are not baked long enough.

She said she has noticed a difference in the evolution of baking apple pies. She remembers how lard used to be the staple of a good pie crust and how now it has been replaced with other ingredients.

“Hard lard makes a wonderful crust,” she said.

Weston said she is not a Maine native, having lived here for only 70 years. Her home is at the River Croft Farm, where she stays with her son George.

“The farm has existed since 1799,” Weston said. “My husband John’s ancestors were one of the original settlers here.”

Her husband died 32 years ago.

She is very proud of the farm that sells produce and the family maple syrup.

Judges Weston and John Eastman, Albany Township, said they did not know what the winning entry was of the 17 items entered in the contest.

They score the grading sheet for each item and the office tallies the numbers.

The winning entry on Sunday was the glazed apple pie cake, created by Jennifer Weed, 16, of Parsonsfield.

“It was good,” Weston said.

jsmedley@sunjournal.com

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