HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Kansas Wheat will once again host a special tribute to the wheat industry in the Pride of Kansas Building during the Kansas State Fair. This year, they will be celebrating the National Festival of Breads (NFOB), which is sponsored biennially by the Kansas Wheat Commission, King Arthur Flour and Red Star Yeast.

The Kansas Wheat booth will celebrate the success of the June 2019 event in Manhattan, which included a Kansas farm tour for the eight contest finalists from all around the nation, baking workshops and demonstrations, bread sculpture displays and much more. More than 3,500 people from at least 29 states and five countries attended the event that showcased Kansas wheat and the farmers that produced it.

The 2019 Kansas Wheat Recipe Book is also hot off the presses, making its debut at the state fair booth. The annual recipe book, a staple in kitchens statewide, features finalist recipes developed by bakers from across the country.

Kristin Hoffman, known by her blogger pseudonym Baker Bettie, was an NFOB finalist and is a Hutchinson native. She will be on hand to talk about all things bread at the Kansas Wheat booth on Saturday, Sept. 6, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Hoffman is a professional chef who operates BakerBettie.com — a food blog, cooking and baking resource, and online baking school.

Other exhibits around the fair include the market wheat show, 4-H Wheat Variety Plot Display Awards, Kansas wheat photography contest and Kansas Wheat Bread Sculpture Contest.

Kansas Wheat representatives will man the Agriland exhibit on Saturday, Sept. 14. Fairgoers will have the chance to ride in a virtual combine, sift grain between their fingers, milk Blossom — the mechanical dairy cow — learn about livestock feed rations and walk through the soil tunnel trailer for an under-the-scenes look at Kansas soils.