WILLMAR -- Just yards from the 4-H barns where cows bellow and pigs squeal, Kay and Vaughn Ekbom serve up grilled burgers smothered in onions, foot-long hot dogs, brats and corn dogs at a pace that would put any fast-food restaurant to shame.
And they stand ready to offer cotton candy, snow cones, caramel corn, caramel apples, or fresh popcorn to accompany the feast.
"We try to have something for everybody,'' laughed Vaughn, as he explained how the family's menu for the Kandiyohi County Fair goers has remained largely unchanged for three decades.
This menu goes back to 1972, when Vaughn's parents -- Lowell and Eleanor -- opened a food stand in downtown Willmar. The family has operated a stand at the fair since 1980.
Kay and Vaughn continue the tradition even though they live in Roseville, where they settled when Vaughn (a 1964 graduate of Willmar High School) began a career as a math instructor at Johnson High School in St. Paul. He is currently a math instructor at Northwestern College.
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While their children were growing up, Kay and Vaughn took their food stand and popcorn wagon to many summer events. The earnings helped their three children pay their way through college. Their two daughters are now English teachers and their son is a medical doctor.
Absent the help of their children, the cooking duo has trimmed the number of events at which they set up their stand. "It's not like we have to keep the same pace,'' said Kay. Yet there is one they would never miss.
"These people treat us better than anybody in the state,'' said Vaughn of the Kandiyohi County Fair.
The Ekboms have watched the County Fair grow. Last year was their best in terms of the hamburgers and cheeseburgers they served.
They said their best customers come from the 4-H barns and suspect country kids appreciate honest-to-goodness, grilled hamburgers over the factory pressed patties from many fast-food restaurants.
Whether they come from farm or town, the Ekboms know that nearly everyone comes to the County Fair with an appetite. Vaughn remembers testing his own during his first Kandiyohi County Fair. He arrived with $1.50 and purchased 10 chocolate-covered bananas at 15 cents a pop. His experience at the fair is different these days. He and his wife work from 9 a.m. until midnight each day. They are assisted by as many as four to five teenage helpers at the food stand and another one or two in the popcorn stand. Kay runs the popcorn stand, while Vaughn oversees the cooking at the main stand.
"This is our summer vacation,'' Vaughn laughed.
