The countdown is officially on. In less than a week, the gates will open on the 2026 Minnesota State Fair, bringing 12 days of pronto pups, livestock barns, Grandstand shows, midway rides, new foods, old traditions—and, inevitably, an enormous bucket of warm chocolate chip cookies.
Courtesy of Sweet Martha's
In our July/August issue, Minnesota Monthly celebrated the remarkable longevity of the Great Minnesota Get-Together and some of the longtime vendors that have helped make the Fair what it is today. Few are more synonymous with those traditions than Sweet Martha’s Cookie Jar.
Since 1979, Martha Rossini and her team have gone from operating one little cookie stand to running one of the Fair’s most recognizable—and astonishingly busy—food operations. Today, Sweet Martha’s can bake up to 3 million cookies a day during the Fair.
And the whole thing started almost by accident. Before there was Sweet Martha’s, Rossini and her business partners operated a frozen yogurt shop in Minneapolis. They first applied for a State Fair spot in 1978 but were turned down because another yogurt vendor was already there.
They tried again the following year, this time applying to sell yogurt and cookies. “We got a call just three weeks before the Fair began saying we were in, but only for cookies!” Rossini recalls. “The only problem? We didn’t actually have a cookie recipe.”
So they improvised, combining recipes from their mothers to create one of their own. “That scramble to create a recipe is what led to the cookies you know and love today,” she says.
They certainly couldn’t have anticipated what would follow. “When we started in 1979, we could park right next to our booth on the fairgrounds,” Rossini says. “With current crowds, that would be impossible!”
Over the decades, she has watched the Fair transform around them. The Grandstand became a destination for major national acts. The Midway grew bigger and more thrilling. And perhaps most notably for Sweet Martha’s, food became an attraction unto itself.
“Our fair has become a food fair with so many fabulous options,” she says. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Millions of Cookies, 12 Days
While the recipe has remained refreshingly simple, producing cookies on a State Fair scale is anything but. Sweet Martha’s now employs more than 800 people across three locations, with 22 walk-in-sized ovens helping keep up with demand.
Then there are the ingredients. Over the course of the 12-day Fair, Rossini says the operation will go through approximately 197,000 pounds of sugar, 143,000 pounds of flour, 125,000 pounds of chocolate chips and 58,000 pounds of eggs.
Despite those staggering numbers, the philosophy behind the business has remained remarkably uncomplicated. “We’ve always been guided by the principle of ‘less is more,’” Rossini says.
Sweet Martha’s By the Numbers
3 million
Cookies baked on the busiest days800+
Team members across three State Fair locations22
Walk-in-sized ovens197,000 pounds
Sugar used during the 12-day Fair143,000 pounds
Flour125,000 pounds
Chocolate chips58,000 pounds
Eggs
Instead of continually expanding the Fair menu, Sweet Martha’s focused on perfecting one thing: an oven-hot chocolate chip cookie baked on the spot. Eventually, customer demand did lead the company beyond the Fairgrounds. Sweet Martha’s introduced frozen cookie dough in 1995, and today five varieties are available in stores across Minnesota.
Still the Great Minnesota Get-Together
Nearly five decades after Sweet Martha’s first fired up its ovens, Rossini says the Fair’s size may have changed dramatically, but its essential character hasn’t. “The most important things have remained constant,” she says. “The sense of history and community, the happy and excited customers: that’s the magic of the Fair.”
For Rossini, much of that magic comes from the hundreds of people who return to work alongside her each summer. “For those 12 days, it feels like a big reunion,” she says. “They are the heart and soul of Sweet Martha’s, and they create the happy, welcoming atmosphere our customers love.”
It’s a fitting explanation for the longevity of both Sweet Martha’s and the Fair itself. The cookies may bring people to the window, but tradition is what keeps generations coming back.
And beginning Aug. 27, they’ll do it all over again.
