By Kari Lucin, staff writer

At the Freeborn County Fair, you might not be able to buy everything on a stick, but you can get mashed potatoes on a stick, meatballs on a stick, and the Turkish favorite, shish kebab.

The fair holds dozens of other dining options, such as funnel cakes, shaved ice or deep-fried macaroni and cheese. For those that like more standard fare, Blondie’s Baskets serves french fries and Blondie burgers, and Godfather’s Pizza trailer sells pizza by the slice.

At the Freeborn County American Dairy Association stand, customers can purchase ice cream cones in chocolate and vanilla as well as many other flavors like Bear Creek Caramel &045; vanilla ice cream with chocolate chips and caramel swirls. The stand sells about the same amount of chocolate and vanilla ice cream.

Though Courtney Stewart of Albert Lea snacked on a strawberry ice cream cone from the Dairy Association stand, she said she likes the smell of the corn dogs the best. Her friend Aschlyn Freitag preferred the fair’s kettlecorn.

Plenty of other local groups sell food at the fair, too. At the 4-H Livestock Producer’s stand Tuesday, chocolate, vanilla, strawberry and orange malts were a big hit with fairgoers.

&8220;This stand has a lot of 4-H livestock people that come here,&8221; said worker Diane Westland. &82204;-H volunteers help here, and proceeds go back to livestock.&8221;

The Livestock Producer’s stand also sells breakfast plates, which can be a little tough to find at the fair, and a cottage cheese plate that Westland said gets more popular at the end of the fair when people are tired of fried food.

Oscar Delossantos and friend Dimitri Clark, both 11, ate pizza Tuesday afternoon.

&8220;It’s pretty much the cheapest thing,&8221; Clark said.

Anyone looking for a more exotic &045; and lasting &045; food experience could head to Waseca SnowBiz for a blue raspberry shaved ice or a nonalcoholic margarita slush. Blue raspberry is the most popular flavor of shaved ice at SnowBiz, and has the side effect of turning the tongue blue for at least a couple of hours.