FarmFest draws crowds to Grange Fairgrounds

CENTRE HALL — The fifth annual Pennsylvania Organic FarmFest was held on the Grange Fairgrounds in Centre Hall on July 29 and 30. This event is sponsored annually by Pennsylvania Certified Organics, based in Spring Mills, which certifies organic farms. The festival celebrates organic farming and sustainable agriculture.

FarmFest featured indoor displays by numerous organizations and vendors oriented toward organic farming, organic foods and sustainable agriculture. It also featured a variety of activities, including live music, a petting zoo, seminars and guest speakers, headlined by Pennsylvania Secretary of Agriculture Russell Redding.

FarmFest attendance has grown steadily since its inception and, this year, a crowd estimated to be around 5,000 people came to the event.

A popular feature during FarmFest was the wool village, organized by Kim Bierly, who operates Main Street Yarn in Rebersburg. The village, located in one of the Grange exhibit buildings, showcased 14 vendors, conducted fiber demonstrations and had space for fiber enthusiasts to sit and work on their current projects.

Jeri Robinson-Lawrence and her daughter Irina came up from Landisville representing Flying Fibers, a shop which features a variety of yarns from several breeds of sheep, including some rare breed Wensleydale sheep and Leicester Longwool sheep that they raise on their farm. They also sell raw wool for those who prefer to spin their own yarns.

Ann Taylor, from the Bald Eagle Valley Alpaca Ranch in Julian, displayed alpaca yarn, as well as a line of soaps, teddy bears and knitted socks from Peru.

Mary Lou Andrews, of Spring Mills, demonstrated hand-cranked circular knitting machines, made in New Zealand, which use a circular array of more than 80 needles to knit a seamless tube to form socks. She showed how raising half the needles for several turns will bend the tube 90 degrees to form the sock’s heel.

Bierly was pleased with the many participants in the wool village, as well as its popularity with visitors. “It’s grown a little bit every year,” she said.

Outside the buildings were several vendors, including Heidi K. Owens Hart from the Wild Mountain Thyme Company in Wellsboro, which makes Pure Hart Soaps. Hart was attending FarmFest for the first time. She bills herself as a “soap maker and goat herder,” since she uses goat milk in her soap formulas. She also markets a line of hand and body lotions.

Sophie Curley represented the CR Mountain Ranch in Tyrone, which specializes in free-range chicken eggs. She said her chickens roam freely on the entire property, and find most of their own food, especially insects. This diet produces eggs with more protein than those fed with grain-based commercial food. She said she sells the eggs at co-ops and a shopping center in Altoona.