FARMINGTON — Hundreds of children converged Monday on the Farmington Fairgrounds to learn about animals, vegetables, poultry, water conservation, bees and more.
Most of the children arrived by buses from schools around the area, including Anson, Farmington and Rangeley, to check out Agriculture Education Day under a cloudy sky.
The children’s chatter intermingled with the voices of instructors and chaperons, as well as the moos of cattle and other animal noises.
If patience was a category by which livestock was judged, the animals would have scored high. They stayed calm in their stalls while children petted them.
As children walked the barns and grounds, judges were grading poultry.
Linda Blackman, a licensed American Bantam Association judge, held a Bantam chicken, examining its wing and other parts.
Birds are rated on a 100-point system that includes breed type, color and condition, she said.
“Wow,” said Caleb Sinkson-Brown, a student from the Cascade Brook School in Farmington, as he knelt down to look inside a cage that held a large Tom turkey. His friends, Sam Goodspeed and Thomas Cundick, came over to look.
Then they were off to the next exhibit with school Principal Nicole Goodspeed beside them.
Ian Smith and Mason Courtney of the Garret Schenck Elementary School in Anson watched as Heather Wheeler of the Happy H’s 4-H Club, turned the handle of an applesauce mill. She explained to the boys and chaperon Matt Fitton how applesauce is made. A big pan held the applesauce that had been squeezed out, and a bucket held the scraps for the pigs.
The boys picked up cups filled with applesauce and tasted them.
“It was good,” they said.
dperry@sunjournal.com
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- Heather Wheeler, left, shows Ian Smith and Mason Courtney from the Garret Schenck Elementary School in Anson, center, how to make applesauce Monday during Agriculture Education Day at the Farmington Fair in Farmington. Chaperon Matt Fitton, right, looks on.
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- Emma Turcotte, left, and Leah Dill of the Cape Cod Hill School in New Sharon visit one of the animals Monday during Agriculture Education Day at Farmington Fair in Farmington.
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- Linda Blackman, a licensed American Bantam Association judge, checks over a Bantam chicken Monday at the Farmington Fair in Farmington.
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- Ray Fleury, known as the historic farmer at the Washburn-Norlands Living History Center in Livermore, right, holds the reins to the center’s oxen, Fred, left, and Jake, both 7 years old, as children and chaperons pet them Monday during Agriculture Education Day at the Farmington Fair in Farmington.
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