Tag: grandmother

South Carolina’s Best in Show

Patty Wentworth has won more than 300 ribbons from the South Carolina State Fair for her cooking and crafts.

Wentworth’s won 300-plus ribbons for cooking, crafts

Patty Wentworth is shown in her Columbia, S.C., home alongside her prized mixer and other cooking tools that have helped her win more than 300 blue and red ribbons from the South Carolina State Fair over the past 40 years. Photo by Travis Bell.

A self-described visual learner, Patty Wentworth often thinks of the others that came before her when she’s in her kitchen or at her crafts table.

She’d watch as her father, Robert, would craft his own fishing lures and replace a faulty carburetor. She’d mentally takes notes as her mother, Margaret Moon Wright, mended a ripped seam or stood at the stove, her biscuits baking.

“My mother made the very best candied yams. And she never used a recipe that I saw. She was just a wonderful cook who could make good food out of whatever,” Wentworth says. “I was fortunate to have those people around me to learn from and also learn that you can do a lot of things yourself.”

Wentworth is one of the top prize winners in South Carolina State Fair history as her handiwork — whether it be her biscuits or a miniature camping scene captured in an old pork and beans can — has captured more than 300 blue and red ribbons over the past 40 years.

Wentworth often starts with a recipe but isn’t afraid to go off-script. For example, a prize-winning candy entry started off as cake.

“It was a terrible mess,” she says. “The cake was just goo. I thought, ‘Oh my goodness, this is not good.’ So, I turned it into candy, rolling it into round balls and then pecans. And it ended up winning the Sweepstakes. That was just a stroke of luck.”

She likes working with miniatures, creating entire Christmas villages out of handmade items. She’s used clay to make Halloween figures, adding moss and sticks from her backyard. She’s painted gourds and rocks and won numerous ribbons for Christmas ornaments and door decorations.

“When you get lost in what you’re doing, it’s a wonderful thing,” Wentworth says.

She has three children, seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. In the past, her daughter won a blue ribbon for her biscuits and one granddaughter won a blue ribbon in photography at this year’s fair.

“A little bit of my creativity has been passed down and that’s a wonderful thing to see,” says Wentworth, who won seven ribbons at the 2022 State Fair. “It’s a great thing when your children have inherited your love of art.”

Getting to know Patty Wentworth

Claim to fame: Over the past 40 years, she’s won 300-plus ribbons at the South Carolina State Fair for her baking and crafts. The multitude of ribbons are kept in a drawer in her kitchen.

Day job: She works in the South Carolina Office of the Inspector General handling complaints via the hotline. The agency investigates fraud, waste, abuse, mismanagement and misconduct in the executive branch of state government.

Hometown: Columbia, S.C.

Kitchen essentials?: “Butter makes everything better,” says Wentworth, who swears by Crisco and buying quality, fresh ingredients. A good stand mixer also pays off as she’s had her Kitchen Aid mixer for 30 years.

Editor’s Note: A version of this SC Stories profile was featured in the May 2023 issue of South Carolina Living, a magazine that is distributed 11 times a year to more than 1 million South Carolinians by The Electric Cooperatives of South Carolina.