Linda Skeens, the ‘blue ribbon queen,’ now has a cookbook

More than a year after a Russell County cook took the internet by storm for sweeping dozens of her county fair competitions, 75-year-old Linda Skeens is reaching a new pinnacle of fame with her first-ever cookbook.

Skeens, who has been dubbed the “blue ribbon queen,” has penned “Blue Ribbon Kitchen: Recipes and Tips from America’s Favorite County Fair Champion,” a heartfelt cookbook that shares not only her award-winning recipes but stories about her life in Southwest Virginia.

In her new book, she shares more than 30 of her prize-winning recipes in addition to more than 70 other family-favorite dishes from canning and fudges to stews and casseroles. 

Her prize-winning recipes include peach-raspberry jam, bread-and-butter pickles, jalapeño salsa, buttermilk biscuits with pumpkin butter, pineapple zucchini bread, jam cake with caramel glaze, butterscotch no-bake cookies, peanut brittle and piña colada fudge.

The cookbook debuts just in time to answer the question that has occupied minds after the Appalachian grandmother achieved internet fame for winning dozens of ribbons at the Virginia Kentucky District Fair in Wise in the summer of 2022.

“Who is Linda Skeens?” became the talk on social media, while inquiring minds even printed the question on T-shirts and sang about it in original songs.

 The story that led up to the cookbook’s arrival is one for the memory books, for sure.

That spring day last year, Skeens was on top of her game, winning ribbons in every category at the county fair. She took home 25 ribbons that day — many of them blue — for her winning recipes including best spaghetti sauce, best applesauce, best sauerkraut, best jelly and best jam. She even placed in embroidery and wall decor categories. 

Her ribbon-sweeping day at the fair caught the attention of fans everywhere when fair organizers posted her massive wins on Facebook. Although the story went viral, Skeens’ identity remained a mystery because at the time the country cook did not have any social media, an email address or even a cellphone. 

Skeens didn’t know she’d gone viral until she picked up her goods on the last day of the fair.

“I really didn’t see what the big deal is,” said Skeens, the wife of a retired coal miner, who has cooked country-style meals for her family for more than 50 years, accumulating a lifetime of tried-and-true recipes along the way.

In fact, the cook who’s competitive by nature has won more than 1,500 ribbons in her lifetime. “People who know me, know that I enter to win,” she laughed.

In the meantime, the internet was going wild with followers asking how to find the mystery woman who had received so many top honors.

Mason Mousette, a radio show host in Dallas, got in on the hunt when she asked her TikTok followers to track down Skeens. Her efforts were successful when Skeens’ granddaughter happened to see the post and relayed the message.

With the help of her family, Skeens now has an active social media presence where her followers can keep up with her book tours and videos of cooking demonstrations.

“I thought it would blow over. After all, this is what I do every year. I enter the fairs. I win a few ribbons and I go home to start prepping for next year’s fairs,” wrote Skeens in her cookbook.

But things only got more interesting for the legendary cook.

A whirlwind of attention began following Skeens and her overnight rise to fame. She has appeared on the “Today” show, the “Kelly Clarkson Show,” “Huckabee’s Jukebox” and NewsNation, and more locally on WJHL-TV in Johnson City, Tennessee. The cooking queen has been interviewed by The Washington Post, Garden & Gun magazine, Southern Living and National Public Radio. She’s even developed a pen pal from a woman who read her story in Guideposts.

Skeens was excited to fly on her first plane to appear on the “Today” show in 2022, but little did she know one of the biggest highlights would come when Hoffman Media in Birmingham, Alabama, asked to publish her cookbook. During the process of signing her first cookbook contract, Skeens and executives from their book division, 83 Press, sat around her kitchen table during a visit to her rural home in Castlewood.

While the 256-page cookbook was being put together, Skeens was invited to Alabama to watch cooks at the Hoffman Media test kitchens prepare her recipes for photographs.

Skeens is taking her new-found fame with the same humility and kindness she’s always shown family and friends in her community of nearly 1,000.

“Some days, I still can’t believe the gift this journey has been,” she said.

* * *

During county fairs this summer, Skeens did it again.

In June, she won 33 ribbons — two of them best-in-show awards — at the Virginia Kentucky District Fair, and 42 ribbons, one of which is a purple best in show, at the Russell County Fair in September. She entered her culinary dishes in the Washington County Fair in September and won another 33 ribbons, including a best in show.

“I got 108 ribbons in three fairs,” said Skeens, who also was asked to do book signings at each of the fairs. 

She’s been busy promoting her cookbook at locations in her area, including the Appalachian College of Pharmacy in Oakwood, the June Tolliver House in Big Stone Gap and Camp Bethel, a Christian camp and retreat center in Wise, where she met more of her fans.

“I’ve not had any grass growing under my feet,” said Skeens, who’s also spent the fall moving from Castlewood into a new house in nearby St. Paul that will give her more kitchen room for creating her dishes.

Skeens, a devoted Christian, said she’s thankful for the opportunity to create a cookbook at this time in her life. In the book, she addresses her fight with leukemia, a diagnosis she was given in 2021.

“My whole life story is in this cookbook,” she said. “Everyone who has bought the book has told me they read the book from front to back before they even read the recipes. It’s just so much more than a cookbook.”

Many of her stories are shared as poems, which Skeens spends a lot of time writing when she’s not in the kitchen. One special poem, “In Loving Memory of Our Son,” memorializes their late son Frank Skeens Jr. who died in 2013.

She also had a brother who died of COVID and wrote a poem about him.

Skeens has added other personal touches to the cookbook, including a chapter on her pets and a section on homemade dog treats. She even included the recipe for applesauce cinnamon ornaments she makes with children at her church during Christmas.

“My daughter is 37 and we started making the ornaments when she was in kindergarten. I made them with my grandbabies yesterday,” Skeens said.

Many of the cookbook recipes are handed down from her family. “The chow chow recipe was my mother’s. It’s probably the oldest recipe in the book. My mom made that recipe when I was just a little girl.”

A good friend gave her a recipe for zucchini cornbread.

Her favorite recipes are Mexican cornbread and hash brown potato casserole.

“I think a lot of people like the cookbook because it’s simple, easy to read, and it’s good cooking. They say it reminds them of their mother and grandmother’s cooking,” said Skeens.

Skeens said she hopes her cookbook will generate new interest in preparing home-cooked meals, especially with the younger generation.

“I’ve told so many people that if you have an older member of your family, please take time to write down their recipes. You can learn a lot from them if you listen.”

Skeens has reserved signed copies of her cookbook for each of her nine grandchildren. “They’ll have a cookbook from me to keep and remember me by.”

People ask the old-fashioned cook why her food is so much better.

Skeens replied, “My family says it’s the love I put into it.”

“Blue Ribbon Kitchen: Recipes and Tips from America’s Favorite County Fair Champion” can be purchased from online book retailers or at www.lindaskeensblueribbon.com.

Follow Skeens on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.