A SusanvilleStuff Feature
by Melissa Blosser, Assistant Editor
Becoming Homemaker of the year for the Lassen County Fair is quite the challenge. This year’s winner Linda Roberts entered several times making sure every jam was set to perfection, every flower was in place, and every sewn item had a tight stitch. Finally this year, she was awarded the “2012 Lassen County Fair Homemaker of the Year.”
In order to be chosen as Homemaker of the Year a person has to earn a blue ribbon in the floral, baking, preserved foods clothing and textile categories, and then it is a matter of who receives the most blue. Roberts took home many blue ribbons as well as a few red and white ones.
“I’ve been working a long time to get this,” said Roberts. “I was very excited,” she said.
The canned food items, Roberts entered into the fair are from vegetables from her garden where she continues to grow a variety of different vegetables
Items entered into the fair have to have been canned and prepared within the year. While getting items ready takes a lot of preparation, Roberts said canning is her favorite homemaking hobby and she finds it relaxing.
Roberts said she also enjoys sewing and making things for her grandchildren. A coat and hat she made for her granddaughter also took best of show.
She and her husband Galen Roberts have lived in Susanville all their life and she is 5th generation to Lassen County. They have a son Clinton, and a daughter Michelle. They also have two grandchildren, Elijah and Caitlyn.
Roberts said she has been canning and preserving since she was a child and learned everything she knows from her grandmother and mother.
Not only does Roberts spend time tending to her garden and preserving food, she is also a kindergarten teacher at McKinnly school and has been a teacher for 18 years.
Although still exhibits entries were down at the fair this year, it’s people like Roberts who continue to carry on the tradition who inspire others.
“It’s a lost art,” said Roberts. “ I want to keep it going, I think it’s important.”
