Photos: Alaska-grown food at the fair

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Wasilla restaurant Red Beet features locally-grown ingredients in many of its Alaska State Fair offerings, including salmon, onions, cheese, grains and beets. August 28, 2014

Just a few of the nearly 70 food vendors at the fair this year build their menus around locally grown, fresh produce despite the Matanuska Valley's New Deal farm colony roots and a two-year Alaska Grown campaign to get more veggies from nearby fields and other local products into food booths.

But let's be honest here.

One of the reasons farm-fresh goodness doesn't dominate at the fair boils down to the deep-fried competition.

Read more: Alaska groan: Produce from Mat-Su farms is rare at state fair food stands