Logically, Martha Rossini Olson knew in April that it was unlikely the Minnesota State Fair could begin in August as planned.
But the head and the heart aren’t always on the same page.
“In my heart, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, we’ve got to have the Fair,’” Olson said.
After all, Olson, who runs Sweet Martha’s Cookie Jar with her husband, Gary Olson, and longtime partners Neil and Brenda O’Leary, has been selling the cookies for 12 days a summer at the Minnesota State Fair every year since 1979.
“To be honest, I was really surprised at my emotion when it actually did happen because I knew in my head all this was going to happen anyways and I thought I was prepared but I wasn’t,” Olson said this week. “It was pretty emotional but … then the outpouring that we received from so many people was just so comforting.”
The Great Minnesota Get-Together, which typically draws more than 100,000 people per day, was officially canceled last week, after leaders decided it would be unsafe to bring that many people together in close proximity during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. And for many Minnesotans, with that announcement came great disappointment they wouldn’t have a chance to take home a bucket overflowing with Sweet Martha’s chocolate chip cookies.
The cookies — chewy on the inside, crispy on the outside — have made Sweet Martha’s the most popular stand at the Fair. With multiple big, yellow stands on the Fairgrounds, the company bakes millions of cookies each day, serving them to customers fresh out of the oven.
While loyal customers won’t have a chance to gobble down cookies at the Fair, Sweet Martha’s frozen cookie dough is available at grocery stores throughout the state in five different flavors — original chocolate chip, gourmet chocolate chunk, oatmeal chocolate chunk, macadamia nut white chocolate chunk and double peanut butter chocolate chunk.
Olson said they would start thinking about other ways to sell their cookies, after they finish up some tasks they had been preparing for the 2020 fair. While there’s no concrete plans yet, plenty of creative ideas have been floating around and Olson said it was “fun to think about seeing if any will come to fruition.”
But whether or not Sweet Martha’s cookies pop up in a food truck or in any other form this summer, rest assured, the cookies will be there next year when the State Fair returns. And Olson is already looking ahead to that day.
“It’s going to be the most awesome Fair that we’ve ever had because people will just be so excited that we’ll be back,” Olson said. “It’s going to be one heck of a Fair and like I’ve said before, absence makes the heart grow fonder and boy will we be ready.”
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May 29, 2020 at 05:22PM
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Sweet Martha’s Cookie Jar looking ahead to next State Fair: ‘Boy will we be ready’ - TwinCities.com-Pioneer Press
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