Photo by Graham Cullen Dougherty's Country Kitchen is located near the beef barns at The Great Frederick Fair.

All those animals need care 24 hours a day so often families live at the fair with the livestock; and same for the carnival workers who make the fairgrounds home during fair week.

So, if you find yourself waking up on the fairgrounds ( I won’t ask why), and in need of a hearty breakfast, there are a few places to tuck in for early-morning fare.

The New Market Grange #362, in their 80th year at the fair, is located near the dairy barns. They open early, selling egg sandwiches for $1, charging a little more for the addition of bacon, cheese and/or ham. The Vigilant Hose Co. from Emmitsburg food stand, near the main gate, also sells a ham, egg and cheese sandwich ($4) and Trinity U.M. Church, a little further down towards the midway, is open 24 hours, serving up breakfast as well.

My personal favorite is Dougherty’s Country Kitchen, located on the back side of the grounds by Highland Street, and just around the corner from Hemp’s.

They open for breakfast at 6 a.m. during the fair and they mean it. In their 40th year traveling over here to Frederick County from Taneytown, the folks at Dougherty’s are some serious cooks and they know country cooking.

One of the most popular offerings is the Farmers Special — two eggs, two pancakes, home fries, a choice of ham, bacon or sausage for $7. And then there’s the all you can eat pancakes for $5. The pancakes are filling and the eggs fresh and cooked to order. Fairgoers also can chow down on large plates of chipped beef gravy on toast or pancakes or home fries. Breakfast sandwiches are also popular for the grab-and-go crowd, but you can sit down and enjoy your meal at the large wooden picnic tables that front the stand.

I know these folks know their way around a pig because the menu offers pudding & hominy ($5). No, that does not come in chocolate or vanilla.

Often referred to as puddin, this dish is composed of pork parts from butchering, usually you do not want to know more than that. I’ve heard rumors that is often head meat and maybe a few other things thrown in there. All these “parts” are cooked together and ground somewhat fine into a sort of meat puree that is a little thick. Because it is pork there is some grease involved and it is often served alongside a large scoop of hominy ( lye-soaked dry corn kernels that are reconstituted by soaking) and eaten together. And it tastes good!

I grew up eating it, along with fried scrapple, although I refused to taste the pan souse (gelatinous squares of hog head meat and maybe the ears) and huge boiled cow tongue that would sometimes invade our family’s refrigerator.

People just don’t eat that way today and those foods probably stem from Frederick ’s German heritage as well as its rural roots. I remember a Thanksgiving or two spent at my aunt’s farm in Graceham where the men of the family were all called to butcher the hogs for winter. This was probably 40 years ago. But I digress.

During fair week, there is a chance to return to your country roots and enjoy fried eggs, bacon, sausage, lots of country ham, and even pudding and hominy.

Dougherty’s serves breakfast all day, but I have to say, don’t let the fair close without enjoying their chicken pot pie, even if you pass on the pudding and hominy.