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Debra Martin Berkoski, right, won the whoopie pie baking contest at last week's Pennsylvania Farm Show with her pumpkin whoopie pies with cream cheese filling. With Berkoski is Pennsylvania Fair Queen Chloe Bomgardner. 5 Inch Android Agriculture Display
This is the winning pumpkin whoopie pie with which Debra Martin Berkoski of Conestoga won the Pennsylvania’s Greatest Whoopie Pie Contest at the Pennsylvania Farm Show.
Debra Martin Berkoski, right, won the whoopie pie baking contest at last week's Pennsylvania Farm Show with her pumpkin whoopie pies with cream cheese filling. With Berkoski is Pennsylvania Fair Queen Chloe Bomgardner.
Debra Martin Berkoski first participated in the Pennsylvania Farm Show when she was showing sheep at 10 years old. This year, on the same day she won the blue ribbon for her pumpkin whoopie pie, she turned 57.
“I was born Farm Show week,” said Martin Berkoski, “which seems appropriate.”
Martin Berkoski’s whoopie pie win was all the sweeter because it was the first big prize the Conestoga baker won since the death of her mother, Dorothy Martin, who was her baking partner for more than three decades. (Dorothy Martin died in 2022 on Thanksgiving Day, just days before turning 95.)
This year, during the 108th PA Farm Show, Martin Berkoski and her husband Steven Berkoski entered 100 competitions for their baked goods, homegrown vegetables and more.
The couple won a combined 89 ribbons.
“It’s crazy,” said Martin Berkoski, who works for the City of Lancaster as the maintenance supervisor of Long’s Park. “Generally, the rule for Farm Show has always been that you won about 50% up there. So we did very, very well.”
Debra Martin Berkoski and her husband Steven Berkoski began preparing for this year’s Farm Show around Thanksgiving and stored their baked goods in three large freezers. The couple drove more than 500 miles during their five trips from their farm in Conestoga to the Farm Show Complex and Expo Center in Harrisburg. Here are some of the amounts of ingredients they used to produce their entries.
360: Eggs. The couple bought 30 dozen eggs to produce their baked goods for the Farm Show.
8: Pounds of black walnuts and pecans produced in Pennsylvania.
1: Gallon of Pennsylvania-produced maple syrup.
Martin Berkoski said she and her husband don’t compete against each other, but with each other. He’s also more interested in baking bread than she is.
“He’s also big on taste testing the whoopie pie frosting,” said Martin Berkoski.
The couple live on an 8-acre farm in Conestoga, which has been in the Martin family for 200 years and can be traced back to William Penn’s sons.
This is the winning pumpkin whoopie pie with which Debra Martin Berkoski of Conestoga won the Pennsylvania’s Greatest Whoopie Pie Contest at the Pennsylvania Farm Show.
Here are five questions with Martin Berkoski about her experience competing in the 2024 PA Farm Show.
Find a recipe for Debra Martin Berkoski’s first prize-winning whoopie pies, as well as Steven Berkoski’s third-place oatmeal cookies and fourth-place maple syrup salad dressing, online at lanc.news/FarmShowRecipes2024.
What does it mean to you to participate in the PA Farm Show every year?
I'm a Christian and I appreciate Christmas and Thanksgiving, but to be honest, the week of the Farm Show is my holiday. As an agriculturist, a farmer and a competitive baker, that is the week that I look forward to. The highlight of the year is the week of the Pennsylvania Farm Show. We celebrate Pennsylvania’s number one industry. It's family-oriented, it's fun and a lot of us, who only get to see each other once a year other than social media, get together. We enjoy the festivities and fellowship of that week.
Do you use any of your mom’s original recipes?
Her sugar cookie recipe. It was her own original recipe. (Editor's note: Martin placed first in the "rolled, sugar, gluten-free" class of the baked products division.)
What did it mean to you to win first prize for your pumpkin whoopie pie this year?
Whenever (my mom and I) won one of the big contests, we would get in the truck or the car and, it sounds corny, but we’d put the ribbon on the dashboard and we’d talk about it and relive the whole moment on the way home. And so, I did that this year. (The whoopie pie prize) was the first big ribbon that I actually won since her death. So I just kind of had a discussion with her on the way home. And, I think because we competed together for so long, some people wondered who actually did the baking. So this cemented it, in case people wondered what would happen when she was no longer here. And last year (the competition) was really tough because she had just died. It was a struggle. And (my husband and I) didn’t do very well. And this year, we’ve done better than ever.
Are you planning on entering any new categories at next year’s Farm Show?
I don’t think so. I think we’ll kind of do what we did this year and work at getting some other “best of shows.” There’s “best of show” in open class baked goods and I haven’t won that in several years. They give that to an angel food cake usually, so I need to go back and work on my angel food cake. They also have “best in show” in honey and one in maple syrup, and so I have not earned the “best of show” in either one of those.
What draws you to participating in competitive cooking and baking challenges?
The adrenaline rush. Some people hike mountains or go fast in cars, but to me there is really no feeling like when they call your name and you stand up and you walk up there and get that ribbon.
Debra Martin Berkoski and her husband Steven Berkoski entered 100 competitions, and won a combined 89 ribbons, at the 108th Pennsylvania Farm Show. Here’s a list of their 22 first prize wins.
Debra Berkoski’s first prize wins:
Pennsylvania’s Greatest Whoopie Pie contest (specialty contest)
Yeast rolls (whole wheat and gluten-free)
Cake (yellow, yellow or brown with added vegetable, gluten-free)
Cake (“other” pound or Bundt)
Grand champion of the show for sweet cake made with nut flour
Sweet potatoes (largest by weight)
Mixed gourds (15 or more displayed in a box or basket)
Potted herbs (six or more arranged in basket)
Honey products (jams, jellies, spreads)
Steven’s first prize wins:
Yeast breads (white, whole wheat, rye and cinnamon)
Cake (“other,” chocolate pound or Bundt)
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