PALMER — Eating can be a unique experience at the Alaska State Fair, but there’s at least one building where indulging that sweet tooth could get you yelled at.

Inside the Hoskins Exhibits building, tasty-looking cookies, cakes and other pastries sit with ribbons attached showing how they measured up to a panel of judges. There’s also bread, more pastries, sewing, canning, clay arts, home brew and wine-making contests inside the exhibit hall.

But it’s the sweet stuff — cookies, cakes and pies — that seem to attract roaming hands. At least that’s what Alisha Bachelder sees during a shift working the exhibit hall.

ROBERT DeBERRY/Frontiersman Carol Krieger takes a closer look at Robbie Johnson’s winning teriyaki beef jerky Monday in the Hoskins Exhibits building at the Alaska State Fair.

“We tell people not to touch things,” Bachelder said.

A 2007 graduate of Palmer High School, Bachelder was at work Monday waiting for fairgoers with questions about some of the homemade goods on display. Those roaming hands usually belong to kids, she said, most of whom seem to act from instinct when a cookie comes in sight.

But the displays in the hall are about more than tempting people. They’re serious business to many who pride themselves on what they can create. Ribbons rank entries based on look and taste, among other factors, Bachelder said.

With categories for kids ages 12 and younger and 13 to 17, and an adult category, the crafts and food come from people from all walks of life from the Mat-Su Valley and state. Some entrants are more hardcore than others, Bachelder said, with at least two contestants receiving more than 60 ribbons each for their entries of baked goods, sewing and home brew and more.

And while the exhibit of homemade goods might not be as fast-paced as many of the other attractions at the fair, there are times when a gaggle of fairgoers roam the hall.

“It’s better trafficked when it’s raining,” Bachelder said.

The state fair so far hasn’t been in short supply of foot traffic, said Dean Phipps, the fair’s marketing director.

“We had two good days on Saturday and Sunday,” Phipps said. “There certainly was a lot of people here.”

He added that a new traffic plan at the fairgrounds seems to be working, and moving cars in and out of parking has been a snap.

With elevated gas prices and a statewide economic crunch, just how many people would attend the fair this year was a question organizers were asking themselves in the weeks before it opened. But Phipps said a new summer philosophy adopted by many Americans, called a “staycation,” seems to be bolstering fairs nationwide.

The term “staycation” has garnered interest this summer as the cost of traveling skyrocketed past levels seen in the past. Many families that typically would have gone out-of-state for vacations are finding ways to spend their off time doing something interesting closer to home.

In Alaska, the state fair has become an outlet for staycationers looking to get out before winter sets in, Phipps said.

And the influx of people is keeping Bachelder busy making sure the hands-off policy at the Hoskins Exhibit is respected.

On Monday, artfully arranged piles of cookies and moist-looking chocolate cakes were enough to tempt more than one child to break the hands-off policy — but Bachelder was there to preserve the exhibits to tempt more.

Bachelder’s fellow worker, Courtney Dossett, gave a piece of advice when asked just how good the protected sweets are and if they’re worth risking an ill-advised bite.

“Well, they’ve been here for a week,” she said.

Contact Michael Rovito at michael.rovito@frontiersman.com or 352-2252.