The Delaware County Farm Festival will feature two days of free, down-on-the-farm fun at the Delaware County Fairgrounds on March 18 and 19.
“The Delaware County Farm Festival has been providing over 40 years of farming education to the public,” says Joe Scott, Delaware County Farm Festival chairman. “Our farm festival is a free annual event held at the Delaware County Fairgrounds to teach school children and adults, who live in or who are visiting our state, about farming and agriculture, past and present, and the important role [farming] plays in today’s society.”
The farm festival yields more than 3,000 student attendees, pops more than 300 pounds of kettle corn and features more than 40 vendors, including Delaware County Soil & Water, Delaware County Master Gardeners and Delaware County 4-H.
The farm festival focuses on encouraging the general public to connect to local farmers, understand the needs of farmers, and boost children’s interest in future careers in agriculture. This year’s farm festival theme “Preserving the Farmer’s Harvest” hopes to spur local, urban vegetable gardeners.
The farm festival began in 1980. Scott’s father, Ted Scott, was one of the founders of the festival. His father would bring horse-drawn farming equipment to showcase at the original farm festival held at the Delaware County Courthouse.
“Thomas Jefferson stated agriculture is our wisest pursuit because it will, in the end, contribute most to real wealth, good morals and happiness, and I think that’s what this is all about,” says Ed Shirey of Shirey Farms, and farm festival committee member and auctioneer. “When you think of the important people in society, you think of lawyers, doctors, bankers, and you need them occasionally, but you need a farmer every day.”
According to the Indiana State Department of Agriculture, 94% of farms in Indiana are family owned or operated. The average age of one of the 94,000 farmers in Indiana is 56 years old. Indiana ranks number one in popcorn and gourd production in the nation. The top-five commodities produced in Indiana are corn, soybeans, hogs/pigs, poultry, and eggs and milk from cows.
“In Indiana you usually think of corn and beans, but there’s a wide variety of other crops that are produced,” says Scott. “There’s literally more than corn in Indiana.”
The farm festival is scheduled to coincide with National Agriculture Day on March 18.
Seven-year-old Wes-Del Elementary School student Cooper Holsinger has been attending the farm festival for the past six years. Cooper’s favorite farm festival activities include looking at the bugs, planting a plant, eating the kettle corn and participating in the pedal pull.
“I would like to have a farm behind my house, help my papaw farm and have a big pasture of goats behind it too,” says Holsinger.
Kids activities include a farm animals petting zoo with Delaware County farmers, an inflatable corn maze by A-1 for Fun, and a pedal pull.
The immersive exhibits allow children to take wool home from the sheep-shearing demonstration, milk the cows, pet the horses and sit on the saddles. Weather and emergency calls permitting, the IU Health Lifeline helicopter will land at the farm festival and offer rides.
Each year the farm festival provides local classrooms with educational materials focused on farming, supplied by the American Dairy Association of Indiana, Indiana Beef Cattle Association, Indiana Soybean Alliance and others.
“Unfortunately we’re three generations away from the farmers now,” says Cindy Jeffrey, farm festival committee member and MTJ Jersey Dairy farmer.
The Delaware County Farm Festival committee offers $500 annual scholarships to aid students pursuing an education in an agricultural-related field of study.
Exhibits include cow milking with MTJ Jersey Dairy, sheep shearing with Gary Willcox, kettle-corn making with Mike and Dee Chambers, blacksmithing with Phillip Hatton, and antique tractors from the White River Heritage Antique Association.
The Delaware County Extension Homemakers will host lunch and dinner on both festival dates in Heartland Hall. Tuesday’s lunch from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. features a baked steak lunch with mashed potatoes, green beans and coleslaw followed by a pork-chop dinner from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday’s lunch features chicken noodles. Wednesday’s dinner is a barbecue cook-off with musical entertainment by Common Ground.
The farm festival auction will be held on Tuesday, March 18 at 6 p.m. in Heartland Hall. Proceeds from the lunches, dinners and auction fund the annual farm festival.
104.1 FM WLBC, 104.9 WERK, and 96.7 FM BLAKE will broadcast live from the event. Event entry and parking is free.
The Delaware County Farm Festival will be held at the Delaware County Fairgrounds, located at 1210 Wheeling Avenue in Muncie. For more information, visit farmfestival.org or email delawarecountyfarmfestival@gmail.com.
