Festival blessed with good crowd

Kara and Kayla Saville, Morrison, compete at the Farm Heritage Festival at East Jordan United Methodist Church Sept. 5 to see who can be first to fill a pop bottle with oats while little Joseph Shank, Coleta, gets a little help from his mother Marcy. (Photo by Vinde Wells)

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The third annual Farm Heritage Festival at a rural Polo church was blessed with clear skies and a good crowd Sept. 5.

The parking lot was filled with cars, forcing some to park along the roads leading to the four-corner of Polo and Sterling Roads where East Jordan United Methodist Church is situated.

Adults and youngsters alike checked over the long line of antique tractors and farm equipment.

Dice, the Holstein cow, and several dairy calves, as well as pens of goats, sheep and chickens got their share of attention.

At the children’s activity table, sisters Kara and Kayla Saville, Morrison, raced to see who would be first to fill a pop bottle with oats.

Nearby, Elwood Koch, a Polo farmer, looked over an array of milking machines designed in the 1940s and 50s and before.

“It’s great for young people to see how they used to farm,” Koch said as he leafed through the instruction manual for one of the milkers.

Inside the church, the serving line for lunch, cooked by the women of the church, wound down the hall and into the entryway.

Steve Venhuizen, Polo, one of the festival organizers, said he was pleased with the event and the number of people who turned out for it.

He said the festival was expanded this year to include more machinery and activities than in previous years.

“It’s a good crowd,” he said. “We’re a small festival and this is our third year. We took a giant step forward this year with equipment and demonstrations.”

Demonstrations included threshing, corn shelling, hay making, and plowing with teams of horses.

Rides in a wagon pulled by a team of Belgian horses were also part of the fun.