For 45 years, Joanne Berberich has been the Alaska State Fair cookie, cake and crumble queen

For 45 years, Joanne Berberich has watched generations of Alaskans drop off their pies, cookies and other baked treats to be judged at the Alaska State Fair.

The 82-year-old fair veteran is in charge of organizing judges and hundreds of entries, a process that takes months of work leading up to the fair. She's one of the longest-running contest superintendents, according to the fair's exhibits and vendor manager, Pam Meekin.

But she doesn't do it alone. Berberich gets help from her seven children, 22 grandchildren and 36 great-grandchildren — all but four of whom live within a 13-mile radius of downtown Palmer. On drop-off day, those relatives cycle in and out, helping to organize the baked entries on the first day of drop-off.

"It teaches them a sense of responsibility, that you have to work for what you want," Berberich said. "If you gotta get a worker, you might as well get your family."

"(The baking exhibit) is her baby," said Angelique Lawton, one of Berberich's daughters, who helps her mom almost every year. On Wednesday she was loading tables with everything from cornbread to cherry pies.

The judging is done by a group of avid home bakers, Berberich said. She used to employ home economics teachers, but as programs are eliminated from schools, those have become more scarce.

For judges, it's a long night of work – beginning at 9 p.m. the day before the fair begins and stretching late into the night, sometimes until 3 a.m.

Cookies are always a popular category, Berberich said, with 22 different classes from biscotti to snickerdoodle. Quick breads, like zucchini and pumpkin, are also at the fair in abundance. Scones, of all varieties, seem to be on the rise in recent years. Why, exactly? Berberich can't say.

"I think they're dry," Berberich said last week. "I don't like them but I don't have to judge them."

But what Berberich likes or doesn't like is irrelevant to the competition itself. She doesn't judge the competition and never enters anything herself. She sees that as a conflict of interest, even though the judging is done blind. (Berberich does occasionally enter the cross-stitch competition.)

Even though she doesn't participate, Berberich is the baking exhibit's biggest supporter. She encourages everyone, regardless of their baking abilities, to enter something. She'll go on local radio to remind people of the competition, and encourages her friends, colleagues and family to enter.

It's a chance to see how you stack up against the competition, she said, but also a chance to take home a ribbon and a $6 check if you win. She's not sure the money is much of an incentive, though — only about half of the winners ever cash the check.

Berberich said the number of entries has shrunk in recent years, with only about 700 to 800 baked items submitted. In the past there would have been thousands. One year they had more than 1,800 cookies submitted over a three-week period.

"That was a lot of cookies," she said.

Berberich attributes some of the decline to more people working and having less time to deliver items to the fair. Still, it's always a mix of old and new. Earlier this week she fielded about 10 phone calls from people wanting to know how to enter.

Coming back every year

On Wednesday afternoon, Berberich was stationed at the Hoskins Exhibit Hall, helping people submit their baked good entries. It was a little slow, but she expected many of the entrants would arrive after the workday, some lugging boxes full of baked goods. Entrants may only enter one item per category, but with more than 100 categories there's plenty to choose from. Occasionally, Berberich will even make a new category if enough of a particular item is submitted.

Dorothy Jacobson of Palmer came with a full box, including her specialty, "island cookies," which use coconut in three different ways — coconut oil, coconut flour and shredded coconut — along with macadamia nuts.

"I make what I like," she said as Berberich helped her fill out the scoring forms attached to each entry.

Eventually, the ribbons get awarded and people filter through to see the exhibits. Each day of the fair, Berberich and her daughter Shirley check on the displays. Gnats and fruit flies are a problem, especially if there are lots of fruit flies.

Still, many people often want their stuff back after it's been at the fair, much to Berberich's surprise.

"You would be amazed," she said.

After a week, Berberich gets to do it all over again.  On Wednesday, all the entries except the specialty cakes are thrown out and new ones are submitted, beginning the process all over again. Those who entered the first time are welcome — and encouraged — to enter again.

For Berberich, it's all done in love.

"This is part of what the fair is all about," she said.