The Great Darke County Fair

I finally had the opportunity yesterday to take LuAnn to the Great Darke County Fair 90 miles northwest of us. It was another beautiful day to enjoy one of Ohio's many county fairs.

No wonder this one won the title of Great. It truly is a great fair with lots of exhibits and every kind of food you can imagine.

We were most impressed with the produce displays. I sent pictures of the displays to a big list of friends and if you weren't on the list, email me and I will gladly send you a copy.

The ear of corn competition was large and competitive. Darke is always one of Ohio's top two ag counties along with Mercer County just north of it. These two counties remind us of the flat and rolling lands of Iowa with good soils and weather for producing crops.

Unlike other Ohio counties they also have large livestock industries although Wayne County to the east on US 30 is usually our largest livestock producing county. The county seat there is Wooster and the longest notill records in the world come from there.

The flower competition was excellent too, and we agreed it would be a difficult show to judge. The youth competition was greater than most county's senior competition and reminded me of our neighbor Highland County to the south and east of us where we farm also. Their fair is coming up the week of Labor Day so we will soon be attending it, too, after LuAnn's work nearby each day.

Most of my friends commented things like that is what a fair should look like and all were impressed with the displays like we were. The bonus was it started drizzling rain about the time we left and the roads were wet all the way home although none of us got much rain.

If you ever get the chance, come see the Darke County Fair in Greenville, Ohio, where the Greenville Treaty was signed with our Native American's. We also recommend the Ross, Fairfield, Brown and Highland County fairs. Canfield has a good fair in the northeast part of Ohio. Like many Ohio fairs, you can't go wrong with them.

I remembered why they call it the Great Darke County Fair. It is as good as most state fairs and easier to walk. Two shuttle rides got us right to and from our car to the fair exhibits. They have more mature shade trees than any fair we attend. We still have the Clay County Fair in Spencer, Iowa(second week of September) on our bucket list.

Ed