THUNDER BAY – Residents were invited out to Slate River Valley this weekend to learn a little about the farming industry.
Rural Heritage Days originally started as a plowing match in 1927 that was held at various local farms until the early 2000s when it was moved to Slate River Valley.
Since then, the event has grown into an Ontario Agricultural Fair according to Leo Blekkenhorst, president of the Rural Heritage Agricultural Society, who said that they’ve added many more events.
“Tractor rodeo and equipment displays, we've got food vendors, a lot of machinery displays that are done using period equipment from the early 20s and up,” he said.
“We do thresh demonstrations, binding, grinding the grain so we take it from the field, and we process the grain all the way until its almost flour.”
The event was originally run by the farmers competing in the plowing match but is now dependant on volunteers due to the growth it's seen.
“It's just an ongoing volunteer group that's, you know, fathers, kids, grand-kids. And that's just carried on from one year to the next,” said Blekkenhorst.
“It's an event that's held all over Ontario. And so, there is actually an Ontario plowing association and we are one of these sorts of branches from that, so it's actually quite a big operation, Ontario wide.”
Rural Heritage days has become a great opportunity for residents to learn about the farming industry and its history in the area according to Blekkenhorst.
“You can see how the grain is processed and whatnot, how the fields are plowed and so on. There's old equipment, plowing fields and newer equipment,” he said.
“So, you have a chance to see how it's done and how the grain and whatnot was processed 100 years ago.”
