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Farm Show's Celebration Of Pennsylvania Agriculture To Open

Matt Rourke
/
AP

Dancing tractors, farming drones and story time with Miss Pennsylvania are among the attractions that will draw hundreds of thousands to the annual Pennsylvania Farm Show this month.

The event begins Saturday and runs through Jan. 12 at the Farm Show Complex in Harrisburg.

This year's theme is "Inspiring Pennsylvania's Story," which will be reflected in a butter sculpture that will be unveiled Thursday morning.

New to the show this year are a craft beer competition and a market inside the main hall with cheese, honey, maple products and vegetables for sale by the state farmer's market association.

The vast exposition space features the usual livestock and agricultural products, but also branches out into robotics, antiques, cooking demonstrations and informational programs on food safety, selling eggs, and how to prepare for a cheese party.

Attendees can learn how to build rain barrels, what it's like to be a veterinary pathologist and how to start keeping bees.

Information about owning and caring for small ruminants? They have that. Wondering which whoopie pie ranks as the state's best? They'll decide it. Want to know all about butterflies? They'll tell you.

The food court, famous for its milkshakes and mushrooms, opens at noon Friday, the day before the full opening of the Farm Show.

This marks the 103rd show for what bills itself as the country's largest indoor agricultural event, with 12,000 competitive exhibits.

Admission is free, but parking in the complex's lots costs $15. As for the notorious Farm Show weather, the forecast for Harrisburg over the coming week or so calls for mostly highs in the upper 40s, with some periods of rain.

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