Animal Planet

Highlights from the Pennsylvania Farm Show

by Rachel Frankford

As the Pennsylvania Farm Show, the largest such event in the U.S., demonstrates, our farms are alive and kickin' (assuming farms, like horses, can kick). The eight-day showcase includes livestock judging, baking competitions, ducklings on waterslides and displays of antique farm equipment. Whether you grew up on a farm or you still don't know where milk comes from, you can find things to do. And things to eat.

Ten thousand furry, fuzzy, snuggly, delicious animals. (For more stats, see Running Numbers, p. 11.) Here we go: beef cattle, dairy cattle, sheep, rabbits, poultry and swine, in all their diversely bred glory, will be judged on whatever it is animals are judged on. Not to mention the sheepdog trial courses and the milking parlor, at which visitors can witness the process from udder to bottle and purchase real farm-expo-fresh milk.

This will be the fifth year of the show's "PA Preferred Culinary Connection," a week's worth of local food displays and chefs' demonstrations. This year's celebrity highlight is Chris Cognac, aka The Hungry Detective (Sat., Jan. 6, noon and 4 p.m., in the Large Arena). An LAPD detective who for years moonlighted as a food columnist, Cognac can now be seen on The Food Network traveling across America ferreting out the best places to eat. For his two demonstrations, he'll be cooking red-wine-glazed flank steak tacos with raspberry black bean corn salsa and Aztec chicken soup. There are also daily beekeepers' demos at the food court.

2007's theme is "Growing Pennsylvania Agriculture to Feed and Fuel Our Future," which, admittedly, is notcheerleader routine material. They mean it, though; new this year is the energy exhibition which will feature 40 Pennsylvania companies involved in the development of alternative power sources such as solar, wind, biogas, biomass and biofuel technologies. A most excellent excuse to eat elephant ears and deep-fried Twinkies.

Need to drop the offspring somewhere while you harass the wine sellers? More than a dozen "learning stations" are scattered around the expo center. "Learn to Ride Safely" sounds kind of lame, even if you do get a free coloring book, but the opportunity to pet rabbits and watch angora wool travel from the top of a rabbit to the top of a mannequin is pretty tempting. "See What Grows in the Dark" is all about mushrooms and promises to be creepy, tasty and delightful.

The show's competitions range from the odd (the Sheep-to-Shawl Contest, Wed., Jan. 10, 3 p.m., Sale Arena) to the possibly hazardous (the High School Rodeo Contest, Sat., Jan. 6, noon and 5 p.m., Large Arena and featuring team roping, saddle and bareback riding, breakaway roping, goat tying, calf roping, bull riding, steer wrestling, pole bending and barrel racing). The Bid-Calling Contest, featuring members of the Pennsylvania Auctioneers Association, will probably be less dangerous (Wed., Jan. 10, 5:30 p.m., Banquet Hall).

Pennsylvania Farm Show

Sat.-Fri., Jan. 6-12, 8 a.m.-9 p.m.; Sat., Jan. 13, 8 a.m.-5 p.m, $5, Farm Show Complex & Expo Center, Cameron and Maclay sts., Harrisburg, 717-787-5373, www.farmshow.state.pa.us