Pennsylvania State Farm Show

The first week of January a group of friends went on a quick weekend trip to Pennsylvania. Karin Meilstrup wanted to share with us a piece of popular Pennsylvania culture: the annual State Farm Show. There's a huge convention center that was built in Harrisburg specifically for hosting this event. It's been a state tradition for over 60 years. It's basically a giant state fair, but with no rides, and it's in the winter. It happens every January because that's when all the farmers have free time. The rest of the year they are of course very busy with their crops.There were lots of animals: pigs, cows, goats, sheep, chickens, horses, etc. And of course the food court held the typical fare for such an event, like funnel cakes, barbeque, fried foods, a traditional Pennsylvania Dutch soup, and of course, milkshakes. Everyone was raving about the shakes, and they were good, but not going to lie, they weren't anything that special. But hey, I'm not going to complain about having a shake!

1000 lb butter sculpture. After the farm show, this will be converted to energy to help power a local farm!

Our group kind of splintered as we got into the convention center, but there were all kinds of things to see. There were a couple of arenas with events going on. We missed the junior rodeo unfortunately. But we also got to see a lot of crafts and vendors, which was actually one of the best parts of the farm show. We made sure to see this years annual 1000 lb butter sculpture. We also browsed around the tractor display. It all made for a fun countrified day.

Me and my dear in front of the John Deere.

In addition to the farm show, Karin also gave us a tour of Hershey and we made a quick stop at Chocolate World, the Hershey's chocolate factory which resides in her hometown. Though some of our friends made the farm show just a day trip, five of us stayed Friday and Saturday nights at the Meilstrups. We got Curtis Seare to pull out his guitar and put on a great show for us. It was a great weekend trip with great friends.