On-a-Stick Spiciness for Brave Fair-Goers

Try some chocolate covered jalapenos on a stick. John and Jan Stinchfield triple dog dare you. 

The Stinchfields have run Andre’s Watermelon at the Minnesota State Fair for more than 20 years, each year introducing something new. This year it’s chocolate covered jalapenos, served on a stick, as Fair-goers would expect such an offering no other way. They’re as hot as they sound—whole jalapenos, seeds and all, dipped in melted chocolate and served to the Fair’s more adventurous foodies. 

If you’re brave enough to try this spicy offering, you may want to order one of the Stinchfields’ yellow watermelons—a smaller, sweeter sister to the standard watermelon—as well, to calm your screaming taste buds.

Jan Stinchfield said she herself isn’t a fan of the new item—she prefers fruit—but her husband, who loves hot foods, thinks it’s great.   

Hailing from Edina (“We’re not just watermelon eaters; we’re cake eaters too,” John Stinchfield joked), the couple named their State Fair stand for the son they adopted from Bogota, Columbia at age two. Andre’s Watermelon was opened 22 years ago to fill a gap in the Fair’s food offerings.

“I love fruit, and before we had this I’d come to the fair two or three times [a season], and I remember walking around saying we should have watermelon here,” Jan Stinchfield said. 

That simple observation was the start of a long tradition of offering healthier options at the Minnesota State Fair, a place that will deep fry almost anything. Over the years, though, a selection of Andre’s Watermelon’s offerings have ended up on a stick and dipped in chocolate—perhaps the natural result of more than two decades at the fair. 

While the Stinchfields’ business proposal was accepted the first year they applied, Jan Stinchfield said it wasn’t easy.

“They thought it would be too messy,” she said. “My husband said corn on the cob is messy, and they said okay.”

Where before there were no watermelons, thanks to the Stinchfields there are many. The stand slices and serves some 3,000 watermelons each State Fair (that’s a semi and a half full, John Stinchfield tells us), and the Stinchfields get their watermelons locally whenever possible. This year they come from Riverside Farms in Elk River.

The Stinchfields have had three Andre’s Watermelon set-ups and locations over the years, the first being a wooden stand they built in their backyard. For the past 15 years, they’ve been working from their current and permanent stand, which sits at the intersection of Underwood Street and Carnes Avenue and features a walk-in cooler and kitchen. This year they’ve also added outdoor seating on either side of the red and white checkered stand. 

The stand’s namesake is now grown and living in San Francisco, but Andre is at least partially responsible for this year’s new offering, giving his father, with whom he shares a love of hot foods, the idea of using jalapenos. 

That they would be served on a stick and slathered in chocolate can be credited to the quirky food festival that is the Minnesota State Fair.