People expect to see things they don’t see in their everyday lives when they come to the Iowa State Fair: the biggest boar, the butter cow, outhouse racing – you name it. Stop by Beattie’s Melon Patch stand and you can see a watermelon skillfully skinned, sliced and diced in a matter of one minute.

Gary and Sherry Beattie of Runnells were young newlyweds when they decided to try to make some extra money during the Iowa State Fair by opening up a food stand. Four kids and 26 years later, their stand, Beattie’s Melon Patch, has become a fair tradition, serving up fresh melon and mixed fruit cups and smoked meat sandwiches to a couple of generations of fair-goers.

“We put in long days, from 8 a.m. to at least 10 p.m.,” Sherry said. “Our kids grew up here, so they don’t know any different. When they get married or have significant others, they get to be a part of it, too.”

The Beatties could be called ambitious. Gary farms 600 acres and operates a produce business called Beattie’s Produce, which supplies watermelons and cantaloupes to Greater Des Moines supermarkets. He also caters events of various sizes, serving smoked meats he slow-cooks in his smoker. Sherry runs a photography business, Sherry Lynn Photography, out of a studio at the couple’s farm. To top it all off, for at least 12 days of the year, the Iowa State Fair becomes the focus of their lives.

“Gary wanted to do the fair as another way to sell his product, the produce,” Sherry said. “So he applied, we were accepted, and we had about two months to get ready for the whole thing.”

The Beatties are a permanent vendor at the fair, meaning that they had to build their area from the ground up. Their location next to the giant slide hasn’t changed, nor has their menu strayed far from the original, either. Fresh, cold cups of diced watermelon, cantaloupe and grapes for a warm-weather snack and hot, smoked meat sandwiches, fried tenderloins and fries for a meal or when cooler temperatures bring out appetites, Sherry said.

“We’ve expanded our stand several times,” she said. “We expanded it again this year to have more seating.”

In the beginning, Sherry said, she noticed older couples frequenting the family’s stand, along with couples who had older kids. Now, those kids are returning with their kids, she said.

“It’s grown in to such a family place now, with lots of seating and things that kids can eat,” she said. “It’s healthy food, but it’s good food, which parents like too.”

The Beatties’ stand is staffed by themselves, their children, a few close friends and a few teenagers with whom the family is acquainted. Everyone is paid for their work. Wages are determined by the day’s sales, after the State Fair takes its 17.5 percent portion of the proceeds.

But it’s really not just about the money, Sherry says. “You’re not going to get rich over 11 days, but it’s worth the time we put in,” she said. “It’s a fun time, and we look at it as a way for our family to be together. As the kids get older and have their own lives, this helps us keep connected. We don’t ask them to work. They just do it.”