Last night we went to the Picton Fair. My new local fair. It is a great agricultural fair. If I were grading this fair, I would give it an “A”. It has all the attractions you would expect to find: rides for the kids, livestock judging, booths with interesting displays, lots of junk food including mini donuts, quilts and baking contests, antique tractor pulls – (where all the machines are pre 1955 and some dating back to 1920’s), and a demolition derby, cat and dog shows,… the list goes on.The Picton Fair is also just the right size. No, we didn’t have to take public transit to get there. There was lots of FREE parking directly on site. It was a beautiful warm evening and lots of happy fair goers showed up. In spite of the crowds it was not congested. There was no struggle or pushing to maneuver ourselves around baby strollers. No long line ups at the food concessions.
It is an encouraging sign that I recognized so many people and names. A definite indication that this is now my community. For example, my neighbour’s niece had an entry in the pie contest. Our arborist drove in the tractor pull. The owner of my favourite vegetable stand had numerous entries in the vegetable judging table and Jordan, the young man who has been helping Warren with renovations for the last five months is driving in Sunday’s demolition derby.
The Picton Fair understands the valuable role it plays in the community. It is an action packed weekend of celebration. It is greeting your neighbours, catching up on their news and seeing how much their children have grown over the summer. It gives all of us an opportunity to better understand the hard-working farmer and view their harvested accomplishments up close. It offers friendly competition and a chance to publicly recognize farming excellence. Hooray to an end of another growing season. Let’s celebrate at the Picton Fair.
Giant pumpkins waiting to be weighed in
Isn’t that a gorgeous display of garden vegetables
Antique farm tractors
Notice that steering column
Poultry judging
Antique tractor pull
The winner weighing in at 799 pounds
Cattle judging
westlakemusings 
I love antique tractors. What great pictures of the pumpkins. Nothing nicer in the fall than seeing a field of pumpkins before harvesting them.
I remember entering a chocolate cake at the Forest Fair twenty years ago when Paul and I were first married. I didn’t win any ribbons, but someone offered to buy it. I took it home for the family to enjoy. What a disappointment. My mother-in-law always won ribbons for her excellent pies and tarts.