The United States Department of Agriculture wants to connect communities to local farmers and their crops.
The USDA’s latest initiative, “Know your farmer, know your food,” comes to the area via the first Harvest Festival at the Delaware Agricultural Museum & Village Saturday, Aug. 21.
The event serves multiple purposes, said Maryann Reed, Farm Service Agency communications coordinator. It connects farmers with the community by offering shoppers local produce and prepared food. It also reminds the public and teaches kids from where their food originates.
“It’s just for people to understand the food system, for people to understand where their food comes from, that Walmart doesn’t grow corn,” Reed said.
It’s a day for the entire family, though, not just the grocery shoppers, so the Harvest Fest offers a petting zoo, interactive agriculture displays, live music by Chapel Street Junction, tours and more. Admission, including to the petting zoo, is free, with the bulk of activity set up behind the museum near the village.
One of the attractions are the chickens recently added to the museum’s village. They might be tuckered out, though — one of them laid the first egg of the bunch Aug. 10. The museum’sDirector Di Rafter said the four chickens just circled the egg, peering at it skeptically.
That connection to the land, its animals and the business derived from it is what the museum strives to keep alive. It will be celebrating 30 years of that during the event with a noon ceremony including comments from Secretary of Agriculture Ed Kee and Michael Scuse, USDA Deputy Under Secretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services. The museum will celebrate with shaved ice and tours following the ceremony.
Kee said the museum is a vital component in connecting the thousands of non-farm children who visit annually to where their food comes from and traditions they’ve never encountered. It reminds Delawareans of their state’s rich history.
“The Ag Museum is very, very important because it represents the history and tradition of agriculture in Delaware,” Kee said. “That tradition represents not only the economic impact of agriculture and food production, but also the social and cultural traditions that exist even today from our agricultural roots. So the Ag Museum has captured that and preserved that for the future.”
Rafter said the museum’s 30-year mark is something to crow about.
“It is so hard in this economy and we’ve survived being a private museum,” she said.
Rafter said people are often shocked by the size and capacity of the museum and village, once they take the time to look around. The Harvest Festival, which they hope to make an annual happening, is an ideal opportunity for those unfamiliar with the museum to visit.
“It will be an opportunity for people who have been driving by for 15 years to finally come in,” she said.
The event is rain or shine, and in case of inclement weather will be moved inside.
Email Sarika Jagtiani at sarika.jagtiani@doverpost.com.
