The Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex in Harrisburg will be strangely silent when the 105th Farm Show kicks off on Saturday, but that doesn’t mean that the event is no-show.
The eight-day annual indoor agricultural event typically draws a half million visitors. This year, organizers had to make the tough decision to take the show online because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Shannon Powers, press secretary for the state Department of Agriculture, said the focus this year is more on education than on competition. The theme is “Cultivating Tomorrow,” and the event runs through Jan. 16.
The shift to a virtual platform was decided back in the summer, mainly out of concern for the young people who buy and raise farm animals in order to compete, she said.
The purchase deadline for beef cattle had already passed when the decision was announced, so the Farm Show will still hold a beef auction. But those who raised cattle will simply drop them off at an auction center, and masked buyers will be the only people in the facility.
Judging for a few food commodities will be like how it was done in the previous years. For instance, the annual Pennsylvania wine competition was held before the pandemic’s second wave. So the wine winners will be announced during the Farm Show. But many of the other food contests such as the cake, pie and sticky bun ones, could not be held this year.
Here’s what people will be able to see on the Farm Show’s website, Instagram and Facebook pages and on the Pennsylvania Cable Network:
• Live duckling pond and beehive cams, operating 24/7.
• Cooking and beverage-pairing demonstrations.
• Exhibit booths featuring vendors, associations, educators and services.
• The Pennsylvania Farm Show Trail, an interactive map that displays commercial exhibitors and PA Preferred product vendors who typically attend the Farm Show.
• Penn State Extension webinars on farming topics, insects and solar energy.
• 4-H demonstrations of alpaca obstacle courses, fiber arts, livestock and horses.
• Tours of farms across Pennsylvania.
• Children’s cooking classes.
• Bedtime stories about agriculture topics.
Ms. Powers said that the Farm Show had already built up a “tremendous following” online, so she expects many people will tune in for the programming. Taking advantage of multiple platforms, she said, will help to draw in viewers, too. For instance, the Farm Show will host 20 Instagram takeovers that will take viewers behind the scenes on farms that raise goats, poultry, organic vegetables, bees, rabbits and more.
The annual Milkshake Competition will be held this year.
On a typical year, teams from TV and radio stations around the state would compete to create the most delicious milkshake as determined by a panel of taste-testers. This year, the teams will have to display and talk up their creations virtually, and viewers will get to vote for the ones that sound best to them. The competition will take place over Zoom on Jan. 13. The Zoom link and a voting link active through Jan. 15 will be posted on the American Dairy Association North East’s Facebook page.
Coffee fair
Farm to Table Western PA has come up with a new event that’s perfect for the cold winter — a Coffee Fair.
Program director Erin Hart said the organization had originally planned to hold the Coffee Fair in May, but the pandemic axed it. Now Farm to Table is offering a virtual version of the event from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday.
Ms. Hart had been considering a coffee event for some time to lure people to buy local. Not that coffee is grown locally, of course, but there are a number of local vendors who sell fair trade coffees. In fact, Coffee Fair is a play on fair trade.
Sunday’s event is free and will feature demos, coffeehouse-style music by Elias Khouri, and an online market for buying local coffees and food items that pair well with coffee.
Presenters will be from Adda Coffee House, Arriviste Coffee Bar, Bee You Cafe, Black Forge Coffee, Gryphon’s Tea, La Prima and Steel Cup Coffee Roasters.
Ms. Hart said her interest in working with coffee purveyors arose partly because coffeehouses offer community space that makes a good spot for consumers and food vendors to meet and network. Supporting fair trade practices impacts not only coffee but also olive oil and sugar.
The Coffee Fair also is an opportunity to highlight local dairy products, she said.
First Published: January 7, 2021, 12:30 p.m.