Can’t get enough corn at the Minnesota State Fair? How about some in your ice cream?

“This year, we thought, ‘What speaks to the Fair? Corn. And ice cream,’ ” said Mike Olson, co-owner of the Blue Moon Dine-In Theater.

So there you go. Roughly two cobs – fresh, not canned – go into each quart of vanilla-base ice cream, said Olson, who also used the words “concoction” and “mad scientist lab” while describing his mixing process.

“The corn doesn’t freeze,” he noted, “It’s a taste of summer.”

For those who like summer even tastier, Olson will offer caramel-bacon and wild-blueberry toppings.

But other Fair food creators are shying away from “sweet and breezy” and going with more of a “kick in the mouth” approach.

Jan and John Stinchfield have dedicated their lives to quenching thirst, and now they’ve turned to the dark side. What better way to drum up business for their watermelon stand, Andrew’s Watermelon, than to put a jalapeno pepper on a stick and disguise it with chocolate?

The recipe came from their son, who was born in Bogota, Colombia.

“He really likes the spicy food. He dips everything in chocolate. The guys think he’s crazy,” John Stinchfield said. “But I’ve had good comments about it.”

“You gotta be a jalapeno person,” said Jan Stinchfield, noting they’ll sell two kinds of pepper pops: Macho Man and Senor Timido. One guess which one contains the hot pica pepper.

Jan went with the timido for the requisite taste test – “a little bite, because my husband kept pestering me. I don’t want hair on my chest.” After a couple seconds, “I had to put something cold in there, forget about rinsing it out.”

For a couple that’s been selling watermelon for 22 years, the new food choice is probably more practical than sadistic.

“Maybe I’ll sell some beverages with it. They’ll have to have something to drink,” John Stinchfield said.

El Sol Mexican food might also have an answer, with its new horchata beverage: a drink of rice, almonds, cinnamon, vanilla and sugar.

But for the kids who don’t know exactly what they want, Eddie Porcelli of Spaghetti Eddie’s has a simple suggestion. How about some dirt dessert?

“It’s a healthy thing,” Eddie insists. “We got a little cottage cheese in there for health purposes.”

Eddie’s healthy creation starts with a fiber “flowerpot” that he lines with Oreo cookie crumbs to look like dirt. Then there’s the pudding section, with a curd or two of cottage cheese thrown in, then more cookie crumbs. He tops it with three gummi worms, to aerate the whole morass.

No actual dirt, though. Break it to the kids early.

On the deep-fried front, those wanting to get the most out of the most important meal of the day can try a breakfast lollipop. That’s a sausage patty, deep-fried of course, with a side of maple syrup, available at Axel’s.

Other new creations include crab fritters (crab meat, vegetables and Caribbean spices frittered and deep-fried), at Ollie’s Crab Fritters; deep-fried cookie dough at Sonny’s Spiral Chips and Tornado Potato; and the grilled Yankee apple pie and chocolate sandwich (brioche bread with apples, covered in chocolate, grilled and then covered in powdered sugar).

The Minnesota State Fair begins Aug. 25 and runs through Labor Day, Sept. 5, at the State Fairgrounds in Falcon Heights.

Tad Vezner can be reached at 651-228-5461.