Tribute to a rural identity
Thousands of people celebrated the beginning of the fall season by attending the 51st annual Wainfleet Fall Fair.
The three day event at the Wainfleet village fairgrounds, which started Thursday, focused on the township’s agricultural and rural identity.
Fall fair board member Nor ma Bird said the event offers an opportunity for youth to learn more about their agricultural roots. Friday schools from Wainfleet visited the fair free of charge to learn more about farming. Bird said youth who visit each year get to see where their food comes from, and that it’s not “just from the grocery store.”
For Bird, hosting the annual fair is a great way to get people interested in agriculture. She said a great deal of youths in rural communities leave to pursue careers or various opportunities in more urban areas.
She said there needs to be an emphasis on keeping youths interested in agriculture because we need farming and farmers to survive.
Some agricultural activities people enjoyed during the educational and fun fair were tractor pulls, farm animals, an Iron Farmer competition and a poultry barn. Various farm animals people could observe and pet included sheep, pigs and goats.
Marie Vis of Wainfleet competed in the Angora rabbit competition, with three of her rabbits winning top prizes. She said she attends the fair every year because her husband, Tony, is the director of the fair’s board. Vis said it takes a lot of hard work to pull off the event. It takes about six hours to set up the cages in the poultry barn.
“It’s like a full-time job organizing and running this. It’s been great … we try to make it educational,” she said.
She said she receives a great deal of questions about farming from children who visit. A popular question she gets is whether brown and white chicken eggs taste different — she has never noticed a difference. Marie also lets inquisitive people know there are also green chicken eggs — different coloured eggs come from different breeds of chicken.
The fair wasn’t all about agriculture though. Eventgoers got to enjoy an ATV expo and mud bog, a scarecrow contest, a climbing wall and a variety of live entertainment.