GREEN COVE SPRINGS – Bring your appetite, a fat wallet and an adventurous imagination when the Clay County Agricultural Fair is in town.

After all, who doesn’t have a hankering for dill pickle cotton candy and a souvenir cup of Jalapeno Dr. Pepper?

Yum.

The fair still has its customary carnival fare menu. If it can be deep fried, stuck on a stick or smoked, it can be found on Main Street, Food Corral or throughout the Midway. You’ll find typical fair food like corn and hot dogs, turkey legs, pizza, barbecue, fries, nachos, popcorn, soft drinks and slushies, taffy, funnel cakes, deep-fried everything and snow cones.

But if you look deeper into some of the menus, you’ll find unique fair cuisine, like dill-pickled pizza and dill-picked pork rinds. You’ll also find dill-pickled lemonade and dill-pickled cheese curds. Apparently, dill pickles are the flavor of the year.

Among the favorite food trailers are Gertrude’s Pretzels, Peachey’s Baking Company and Cedar River Seafood stand.

Gertrude is off Main Street on the grandstand side of Cattlemen’s Arena. It offers an assortment of pretzel-stuffed hot dogs, but its mainstay is large soft pretzels with various dipping sauces.

Gertrude’s will submit its Watermelon Mint Whipped Lemonade to the Clay County Fair food competition this year. “It’s a unique cream-based blend of lemonade with a minty, fruity twist,” said owner Lora Schaller.

Peachey’s does one thing – and they do it well: doughnuts. The fair opened on Thursday, April 3, at 2 p.m. By 2:01, nine people were lined up to scarf bags of the 5-inch-wide orbs of sweetness.

“We’ll make several thousand a day,” said owner Sam Peachey. “This is a good little fair. Starting at about 5 or 6 (p.m.) we’ll have a (long) line. I have nothing but good things to say about this fair. It’s one of our favorites. It’s impressive for a rural county, but it has so much community support. We love the community support.”

Peachey said they went through nearly two tons of dough a year ago in 11 days.

Cedar River is a local seafood company. In 2024, the final two days were a washout with heavy rain, but her stand did more business in the first nine days than in any other year.

She expects to sell more than 500 pounds of shrimp this year.

The Jalapeno Dr. Pepper and dill-pickled cotton candy were actual items.

“If you like Dr. Pepper and jalapenos, you’ll like it,” said Kaye Fairlie at the K.B. Foods trailer. “It’s Dr. Pepper with a little kick. It really spices it up. People seem to like it.”

Nothing enhances the fair experience like cheese. One booth at the end of Main Street advertises that it will add cheese to anything for $2.

So, if you want to add a twist to your dill-pickled cotton candy…