This evening the Missouri Department of Agriculture hosted its annual legislative reception. Normally this consists of booths by commodity groups who serve food from their commodity. I know other states do this.

One of the winners of the competition was the Missouri Soybean Association for their soy-based Pony Express green beer. Another winner was the Missouri Wine Industry which created a great Irish Stew and served red and white wines made here in MO. I sampled the Norton varieties from the 4 different vineyards presented.

The whole idea of the night was to bring in the law makers. The Missouri State Fair had Elvis there as evidenced by this picture: