Skip to content

Airdrie Ag Society to host annual Art of the Harvest event this weekend

“I think it’s important for people to realize how it goes that you get your bread in the store. I think it’s important for people to see how it grows, how it gets cut down, and how it... becomes something.”

The Airdrie and District Agricultural Society is hosting its annual Art of the Harvest event on Sept. 17, with the goal of helping connect urbanites to the city’s rural roots.

The event will provide attendees a chance to witness traditional harvesting techniques, watch the city’s first antique tractor pull, and see demonstrations of old-time threshing. Those displays will be supplemented with old style country music from Pure Country on a plot of land just three kilometres west of Airdrie along Big Hill Springs Road.

“The Art of the Harvest event provides a great opportunity for guests of all ages to experience how farming happened in the past,” reads a press release from the ag society.

“We also look forward to the inclusion of the tractor pull event, which is a welcome addition to the event, and we hope will be part of the event for years to come.”

Phyllis McCallum-Hunter, chair of the Art of the Harvest committee, has been involved with the annual event for approximately five years. She said last year’s iteration was a resounding success, even though health restrictions impeded certain activities during the COVID-19 pandemic.  

“We felt there were lots of people [in attendance],” she said. “Everybody was happy to be out and about last year [even though] we were still doing masking.”

According to the event coordinator, this year’s iteration will include its regular line-up, featuring threshing, live music entertainment, wagon rides, and a vegetable sale in partnership with Rocky View Schools' The Farm program.

“The farm school has been keeping tabs on our little garden plot that we have out there,” McCallum-Hunter said. “They have planted potatoes, carrots, beans, and sunflowers, so they’ll be digging those up and having a sale.”

McCallum-Hunter added money garnered from the sale of the fresh goods along with any excess product will go towards the Airdrie Food Bank to help people who are experiencing food insecurity in the community.

Along with the vegetable sale, she added the society will be hosting some “old-time” games for children, that may or may not include a spirited game of tug-of-war.

“Unfortunately, Molly the Mule’s equipment broke down, so Molly won’t be able to attend this year,” she said regarding the much-beloved pony that frequented past iterations of the event.

New this year, there will be food trucks to nourish guests, as they wait for Airdrie’s first ever antique tractor pull.

According to McCallum-Hunter, the event typically draws a crowd of approximately 300 to 350 guests from rural and urban areas. It is free to attend and will begin at 11 a.m. and conclude with the tractor-pulling at a still-to-be-determined time.

Tractor-pulling is a unique motorsport competition whereby antique or modified tractors pull a heavy drag or sled along a track. The winner is the tractor that pulls the drag the furthest.

The ag society’s press release stated tractor pull competitors can register for the event at 9 a.m. for $20 per tractor.

“Keepsake items to commemorate the inaugural pull will be provided to all paid competitors and prizes will be awarded for first to third place in each weight class,” read the release.

McCallum-Hunter added the Art of the Harvest is becoming increasingly important as more and more people develop an interest in growing their own food and safeguarding themselves against food insecurity.

“Especially in the last couple of years, people have become more involved in planting their own little gardens and seeing how stuff grows,” she said. “[This event] is taking us back several generations to the original threshing technique.

“I think it’s important for people to realize how it goes that you get your bread in the store. I think it’s important for people to see how it grows, how it gets cut down, and how it... becomes something.”

She added she has been working to get local urban agriculture groups such as the Airdrie Urban Farm Collective and the Mud Pie Project involved in the event, as well as City representatives to talk about local bee-keeping and chicken-raising pilot programs that are available to Airdrie residents.

“It just makes such a difference – I think that’s the importance of letting people see how [agriculture] all transpires,” McCallum-Hunter said.

The ag society’s press release stated the planning committee is grateful to the local community for their “overwhelming support” of this year’s event and wanted to thank its platinum sponsor, Dairy Queen.

push icon
Be the first to read breaking stories. Enable push notifications on your device. Disable anytime.
No thanks