For hall manager Janice Haynes, every Agricultural Fair has its stories. This year is no different.
“There’s always a person I meet, a story I hear, and I just have to tell everyone. This year, well, take a look,” she said pointing to a quilt hanging from the rafters of the handsome reclaimed old barn that is Agricultural Hall.
A quilt by Joan Glodis depicting the seasons — snowy mountains, harvest pumpkins, flowers and greenery — had two ribbons, a blue one for first prize quilt and purple one for best in show.
“I believe this is the only best in show we gave to any adult this year,” Ms. Haynes said.
The centerpiece of the prize-winning quilt is a well known West Tisbury tree. “I carved my initials in that tree,” Mrs. Haynes said . . . It’s a special piece, this quilt.”
The hall was brimming with prize-winning vegetables, flower arrangements, eggs, cakes, pies and gleaming jams and jellies, all on display for the hundreds of fair-goers who streamed onto the grounds off Panhandle Road in West Tisbury for day two of the 158th annual fair.
In the junior natural resources and conservation category, a paper mache earth diorama by Stella Cowen highlighted global warming’s effect on the world’s oceans. The display won the June Cronig Kapell award, given by Tisbury Waterways Inc. (TWI) for the exhibit that shows the most dedication to conserving waterways.
Outdoors in the main ring, the horse pull was a major draw just after lunchtime on Friday.
John Mancuso ran the contest, as he has been doing for 16 years. There were two stages: one with teams of horses pulling less than 3,300 pounds, and a second stage for higher weights.
“The free-for-all category, I mean we’ve had years where horses have pulled over 10,000 pounds. We ran out of weight,” Mr. Mancuso said.
Draft horse enthusiast Valerie Fitzgerald had traveled from North Stonington Conn.
“My fiancé and his brother have the horses, they’ve got Rex, Sammy and Jay. They’ve mixed up the teams today so we’ll see what happens. Wait until you see the next class, they get a lot bigger,” she said.
“Way bigger,” Mr. Mancuso agreed
Under Island Grown Initiative’s waste station tent Ethan Knight a fourth grader at the Martha’s Vineyard Public Charter School, and Aiden Christiansen, a fifth grader at the Oak Bluffs School, and Anna Edey of Vineyard Haven answered questions and sorted items for composting, the landfill and recycling. All three wore rubber gloves.
The fair is a zero-waste event.
“I am very impressed by these two boys. They know so much, and they are so kind and courteous” Ms. Edey said.
Ethan said he would be back on Sunday, the last day of the fair.
“We weren’t really friends before. I think we are now. I’ll see them later,” he said.
The fair runs through Sunday. Grounds open at 10 a.m. today and at 9:30 a.m. tomorrow. Saturday events include the popular woodsmen’s contest (11 a.m.), clam and oyster shucking contest (4 p.m.) and music in the evening.
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