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Learning Labs Added, Will Be Expanded
On a cloudy and relaxed Saturday morning, the Rockbridge Regional Fair and Expo was set up at the Virginia Horse Center for a final day of food, fun, and agricultural edification, including the event’s third and final learning lab, one of the new offerings at this year’s fair.
On the upper floor of the Anderson Coliseum, an area known as the Appomattox Mezzanine, multiple fair offerings were being showcased. Several rows of quilts hung on display. Attendees browsed the impressive designs, looking for standouts to receive their votes for the Viewers Choice Award.
On the other end of the floor, numerous shelves held the winners and runners-up for various expo categories: baked goods, horticulture, visual arts, preserved foods and more.
A small room just off the main mezzanine held one of the new learning labs. This one, “Introduction to Beekeeping,” was the third of the fair, with a “Land Conservation” lab held Thursday evening and a “Composting and Soil Health” lab Friday evening. -The addition of learning labs was just one of changes to the Rockbridge Regional Fair and Expo, which returned to the Virginia Horse Center after a few years of being held in Glasgow.
The fair, put on this year by a new board and an all-volunteer organization, was in what fair board chairman Bill Russell called a “transition year.”
From that standpoint, said Russell, “we got a very positive response from the people there. We got pretty good crowds, and the events were really well-attended and enjoyed.”
Events at the fair included a livestock show and auction on Friday, a breeding animal show and poultry show on Saturday, expo exhibits, the quilt showcase, watermelon- and pie-eating contests, the “Redneck Olympics,” and in place of the usual fair rides, a large area of free bounce houses and similar activities for children.
While some attendees were disappointed by the lack of rides, Russell saw only a positive response from the bounce houses. “Rather than being outdoors, they had a large space indoors where [parents] could watch the kids more closely, and no one could wander off,” he said. “The kids loved it and were all lined up” during the whole event.
Megan Sheets, this area’s 4-H Extension agent, told The News-Gazette that the location at the horse center made a positive difference to the farmers and 4-H folks in attendance.
“The infrastructure is a really critical piece of what we do,” she said. “When we don’t have a barn or some type of permanent structure, it’s really difficult to have the animals come in and leave them overnight.”
At the horse center last week, on the other hand, “some families brought their animals in on Thursday and they didn’t leave until Saturday. That made it a lot easier.”
Sheets noted that youth participation held steady from years past, with 33 young people showing livestock, four showing poultry, and two showing both.
“I think we had either four or five additional surrounding counties represented with youth as well [as Rockbridge County],” she said. ”It was a good representation of different counties, but the majority of the kids were Rockbridge kids.”
She credited the location for easing potential logistics issues. “The general consensus is that folks were really pleased with the return to the horse center. It makes it easy, with it being right there in Lexington. If you need to run to Walmart or to the extension center, it’s not a 45 minute drive.”
Russell also had nothing but praise for the Virginia Horse Center, and looks forward to the fair being held there for the next two years at least. “That’s the most helpful place I’ve ever [worked] with, and I’ve done a lot of other kinds of events,” he said.
Since the event will maintain its location and its board for the next year, Russell looks forward to the possibility of expanding the fair’s offerings, with a focus on agricultural education.
“I think we’re gonna absolutely expand the learning labs,” he remarked. “I personally am wanting to expand into bringing more technical outside people to talk about a variety of things that affect the agricultural community.”
Regarding the beekeeping lab, he shared his vision for next year: “We probably will try to do a panel of beekeepers next year. We’ve got six commercial beekeepers in the county. I know several of them, and I’d like to get them in a panel to talk to.” -Thirteen attentive participants had gathered Saturday for this year’s beekeeping lab, presented by agricultural and natural resources Extension agent Kari Sponaugle.
For just under an hour, attendees listened, and sometimes took part in discussions, as Sponaugle outlined the detailed and knowledgeable work required for one to be a proper beekeeper, touching on issues like maintaining a pollinator garden, or what happens when a swarm is found outside a hive.
“What we try and do at the Extension is have a list of local beekeepers who might be interested in catching the swarm,” she explained. “Once we get a call for a swarm, they could only be there for a half an hour before they’re gone,” since swarming bees are in a dire situation and just trying to survive.
“We had a swarm come into our fireplace, and there were thousands of them,” one attendee piped up. “But then the queen found her way out, and within an hour they all left.”
“These guys really don’t want to be bothered,” Sponaugle assured the crowd. “So the likelihood of them stinging you is actually not too bad in this situation.”
The presentation ended with a list of local resources for people interested in beekeeping. There’s a Virginia Beekeepers’ Group on Facebook, as well as a Shenandoah Valley Beekeepers’ Association, which will be holding a meeting next month.
Participants filtering out of the beekeeping learning lab, instead of leaving directly, meandered through the Appomattox Mezzanine, marveling at the beautiful quilts and the prize-winning goods at the expo, highlighting once again the local talent in the Rockbridge area.
