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Ewe Gotta See this Farm Show Favorite

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Farm Show crowds watched in amazement as teams of six sheared a sheep, spun its fleece into yarn and wove that yarn into a 78-inch shawl.  It all happens under a two and a half hour time limit.  “It’s the main stressor, especially when things start going wrong,” Jamie Rode of the Fort Freeland Flickers says of the time crunch. 

While teams are awarded bonus points based on speed, Abby Schrack of the Dream Weavers says time isn’t everything.  “You can come in last place even if you are the first one done,” she says. 

A team of judges is scrutinizing the teams on everything from the evenness of the shearing, to the uniformity of the yarn, to the complexity of the shawl design.  “I am astonished at the level of competition,” says second year judge Cynthia Baker of Lancaster County.  “I think almost every team was really beautiful.” 

Since sheep are normally shorn in the spring, Farm Show activities like this may put them outside of their comfort zone.  “Ours is going to be wearing a coat… until it grows back enough wool to cover its body,” Schrack says of her team’s Shetland sheep “Constance.” 

A mere three hours after the Small Arena crowd counted down start of the 33rd Sheep to Shawl Competition, Montour County-based Time Warp was named the 1st place team.  Friends Thru Fiber of Franklin and Adams counties earned second place honors. 

Farm Show, Sheep

Before

 

Farm Show, Sheep

After

Inside the Farm Show’s Sale of Champions

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The Grand Champion Junior Beef Steer fetched $10,500 at the Farm Show’s annual Sale of Champions.  Lindsay Upperman of Franklin County raised the two year old steer since birth.  She first noticed something special in ‘Stetson’ when he was just six months old.  “I just saw that he might actually have a little bit more, and just a little bit something different than what some of the other steers had.”  The winning bid on ‘Stetson’ came from Hoss’s Steak and Sea House, a long time supporter of the Farm Show’s Junior Livestock Sale. 

Lindsay Upperman will doubly benefit from this auction because she’s also a 2012 Farm Show Scholarship winner, and some of the auction proceeds are used to help fund the scholarship program.  Lindsay will be attending college in Kansas next year, and has her sights set on an advanced degree in genetics. 

26 Farm Show scholarships were awarded this year.  To date the Farm Show Scholarship Foundation has awarded $977,000 dollars in scholarships, and it’s expected to break the million dollar mark next year.  “All of these applicants are excellent scholars, are involved in their communities and are involved here participating in the Farm Show on an annual basis,” says Lori Connelly, a member of the Farm Show Scholarship Foundation selection committee. 

Another student on the receiving end of a $3,500 scholarship was Jacob Diamond of Fayette County.   “I’ve come to the Farm Show my whole live, ever since I was a baby,” Diamond tells us.  He’s currently attending Penn State Fayette and hopes to become a large animal veterinarian.  Diamond also showed the Farm Show’s Grand Champion Junior Market Goat, which went for $2,400 at Tuesday’s Sale of Champions.   

Agriculture Secretary George Greig tells us he’s impressed with both the quality of the youth coming out of the state’s FFA and 4-H programs.  “Without the youth, and the next generation coming on, agriculture would be out of business pretty quick.”

Apiary Products Create Farm Show Buzz

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Producing honey is hard work for both the people and the bees, according to Charlie Vorisek of Crawford County, Vice President of the Pennsylvania State Beekeepers Association.  “One pound of honey is representative of about two million flowers,” Vorisek says.  Beekeepers use a special machine to extract the honey from the wooden frames where bees build their hives.  “I describe it like a washing machine spin cycle… we spin it and the honey will fling out just like the water in your clothes.” 

PA Beekeepers are conducting honey extraction demonstrations all week long at the 96th Pennsylvania Farm Show.  A variety of displays in the Main Hall help people to understand the importance of pollination, and the Pennsylvania State Beekeepers Association booth is always buzzing with activity in the Farm Show’s PA Marketplace. 

That’s where consumers go to buy pure, raw, natural honey, according to beekeeper David Anderson of Lebanon County.  “Depending on the flower that the nectar came from to make the honey you can get clover honey, alfalfa honey, buckwheat honey, wildflower honey – and there are all different flavors”    

Farm Show, Bees, Honey

In this display, the queen is marked with a green dot.

Each hive is home to just one queen.  Her job is solely to lay eggs, as presenters told one demonstration crowd that the queen must lay 2,000 or more eggs a day for a hive to be productive. 

Farm Show judges awarded prizes in more than 40 categories of apiary products – everything from three pound chunks of comb honey, to honey quick breads and candies.  Pennsylvania is home to 2,500 registered beekeepers.  Many are commercial enterprises, but officials say most are hobby beekeepers.

The Battle for Bragging Rights at the Farm Show

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Farm Show week in Harrisburg is about more than world famous milk shakes and baked potatoes – it’s about blue ribbons.  Awards are earned for everything from hay to heifers. 

Kendra Brown of Lebanon County showed “Diamond,” the grand champion shorthorn female.  “What’s really cool about winning this is that her mom won too,” Brown says.  While some shorthorns are bred for beef, Brown says she likes to show, and “Diamond” will be on Breezy Acres Farm forever. 

Over in the small arena, David Christian of Iowa had the task of judging 153 swine entries.  “We’ll look at how they move, how they walk, body proportions and so on,” Christian tells Radio PA.  The Supreme Champion gilt, which hails from York County, wound up selling for $2,500 over the weekend.   

The delicious judging takes place in the Farm Show’s Main Hall, where David Hively was lucky enough to taste dozens of competing maple syrup products.  “You want the good, sweet flavor,” Hively says.  “It should not in any way have a bitter taste to it.”  Hively says it takes about 45-gallons of sap to make one gallon of maple syrup.

Farm Show, Maple Syrup

Laura Dengler of Crawford County won "premier exhibitor" for her maple syrup products.

The maple products, honey products, mushrooms, vegetables, apples and wine can all be found flanking the Farm Show butter sculpture.  Just a few feet away, in the Macalay Street Lobby, Larry Snyder of Mahantongo Valley Farms in Northumberland County walked away with three ribbons for his Christmas trees.  “You need real strong branching, symmetry in the tree, good leader growth and color,” Snyder explains.  “You want to pick the trees that have excellent color.” 

More judging will take place throughout the week at the 96th Pennsylvania Farm Show.  On deck Monday will be open beef cattle and junior market swine.

96th Pennsylvania Farm Show Opens Saturday

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Pennsylvania doesn’t have a state fair.  It doesn’t need one; it has the Farm Show.  The Pennsylvania Farm Show is an eight-day celebration of everything agriculture has to offer.  “We will have 6,000 animals here this week and a half, over 10,000 competitive exhibits.  400,000 people will come here to visit,” says state Agriculture Secretary George Greig.  All one-million square feet of the complex will be put to good use during the Farm Show. 

While this is George Greig’s first Farm Show as Ag. Secretary, the Crawford County dairy farmer is no Farm Show novice.  “We have world famous Farm Show milk shakes; we have deep fried mushrooms, deep fried cheese cubes and every type of roast beef.  Everything that you could ever want to eat,” Greig told us, as he vouched for the legendary Farm Show Food Court. 

Beyond the food and the fun, the goal of this year’s Farm Show is to bridge the gap between farm gate and dinner plate.  “It has a very strong consumer education aspect to it, where people can learn about where their food and fiber comes from,” says Farm Show Complex Executive Director Pat Kerwin. 

Kerwin says Farm Show planning is virtually year round.  Setup for the 2012 Farm Show began around Christmastime and has been non-stop ever since.  While the Farm Show is the number one event at the Farm Show Complex, Kerwin tells us they host roughly 85 major events and several hundred smaller events every year.

Admission to the Farm Show is free, but parking will cost you $10.  New, this year, are a variety of online tools to help you plan your Farm Show visit.  The Farm Show runs Saturday – Saturday (January 7th – 14th).

PA Wine Industry Grows in Size, Reputation

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The number of licensed Pennsylvania wineries has grown from just over 100 to more than 180 in the past five years.  “That is an enormous jump, especially when we think about ten years ago when we had about 65-wineries,” says Pennsylvania Winery Association Executive Director Jennifer Eckinger.  Pennsylvania wineries combine two of Pennsylvania’s biggest industries: agriculture and tourism.  Eckinger says they are proud to be a part of both. 

Quality is one key to the recent growth.  “We’re seeing that the overall quality of wine grape growth has spread throughout the state,” Eckinger says, while also pointing to an increased interest in both wines and buying local.

The most recent data pegs the Pennsylvania wine and wine grape industry’s economic impact at $2.35-billion dollars, but Eckinger points out those are 2007 numbers.  “I can only imagine that has increased over the last four years as well.”

An emphasis on research and marketing may truly make 2012 a vintage year for PA wine.  “The wineries have such an immense passion, the winemakers have immense passion and it’s great to try a product that was crafted locally.”

As the industry grows, so does its presence at the Farm Show.  Visitors to the 96th Pennsylvania Farm Show’s Main Hall will be able to check out the Pennsylvania Wine cork sculpture and sample from 20-wineries that will take turns manning “Winery Row.”