On a rainy morning in August, Deborah Harbison awoke at 6 and began baking bread.

Rushing around a small kitchen with a gas-powered oven that runs about 25 degrees off, Harbison made 14 loaves of bread to submit for judging at the Iowa State Fair. Feeling frustrated and nervous, Harbison only stopped to take quick breaks, for resting on a little stool in the kitchen and for meals.

“Bread rising everywhere,” Harbison said, describing her kitchen. “It was just chaos.”

With her kitchen in disarray, Harbison finally laid the last loaf of bread to cool on a shelf at 2 a.m.

Her efforts were not in vain. Five of her 14 creations earned first place in the King Arthur bread category at the fair, earning her the most first-place ribbons of any other contestant in that category.

Over the course of 10 days, Harbison earned top prizes in seven events, ranging from breads to cookie bars and all-natural sausages. She also claimed second and third prizes in 18 other events, earning her a total of $452 in prize money.

But it is not about winning cash prizes, although Harbison said winning cash is a “bonus.” As a self-described “shy, introverted person,” it is not about the recognition either.

What drives Harbison is simply the fun she has creating new recipes.

“Throughout the year, I look at recipes, because that’s something I enjoy,” she said. “I have probably 300 cookbooks.”

Harbison starts the process of looking for recipes to submit to the state fair about a year in advance. However, she said, she is not a regular in the kitchen.

“I just don’t have the time to bake all the time,” Harbison said. “People think ‘you’re in the fair, you must cook all the time,’ but we eat McDonald’s just as much as everyone else.”

Her close friend Christy Mayberry would disagree.

“She’s always cooking stuff,” Mayberry said. “But around the time of the state fair, she’s cooking so much she feels like she’s not doing as much. To her, baking cookies is nothing.”

But when it comes time to prepare for the state fair, Harbison is a relentless chef.

“The two weeks of the state fair, we weren’t seeing her because she was baking for hours and hours,” Mayberry said.

Harbison began cooking after graduating from high school.

“Most of the women in my family, on both sides, were really good cooks, so it was just kind of a natural thing,” Harbison said.

She first started entering her recipes in 2005, after she figured “life is too short.” At first, she found the idea of submitting food to the state fair daunting.

Ever since then, she has found the experience to be “addictive.”

“It gives you a good feeling,” Harbison said. “Knowing that these people who know so much about food think something you’ve made in your kitchen is worthy of beating out other submissions.”

She said the process of taking raw ingredients and turning them into something edible is what she enjoys most.

Next year, Harbison plans to branch out even more and try her hand at canning fruits and vegetables. She said she searches every year for recipes that are new and different to submit.