If you've been in the Village of Yesteryear you know that the craftspeople who have booths there dress in period clothing and give demonstrations of traditional arts and crafts. Watching the woodworking, basket weaving, or gun-smithing makes you feel like you're in another world. Which is why it's so jarring when one of them takes out an iPad!

Cameron Jorgenson of Fuquay Varina took home the blue ribbon at the 2012 North Carolina State Fair for his Chai Latte Pie, a twist on traditional fall flavors with the added richness of a caramel-creamy whipped topping.

The State Fair collected enough food Thursday for an estimated 180,000 meals.

It's orange.

Pumpkin funnel cakes are really, really orange. Road cone orange. Safety vest orange. There's some sweet topping on top and that's white, but mostly it's orange. Unfortunately, that's the most pumpkin-y thing about it.

On the main drag of the Fair, across from restaurant row and next to Connie's Corn, you'll find a booth selling funnel cakes. There are actually several different kinds of funnel cakes for sale here, including an intriguing-looking peanut butter funnel cake, but my Fair buddy wanted to try the pumpkin kind and that what we ordered.

We ordered it fairly early in the morning (funnel cake for breakfast!) and it was fresh and warm (and orange.) As my Fair buddy noted, it was fitting that we were having it for breakfast, as it had a very faint taste of pumpkin, a little like a vaguely pumpkin pancake. It was good as a funnel cake, but for lots of pumpkin flavor the deep-fried pumpkin pie beat it all to pieces.

I don't think I'll be having...