I’m falling in love with agricultural shows all over again.
A mainstay of my youth, where frantic weeks were spent in the lead up to the Perth Royal Show doing additional chores to earn money for showbags; I lost interest in my 20s.
Then, working in agriculture meant I spent some time at shows and field days but I didn’t really step out beyond my work brief to enjoy the other activities.
But since having my son, I am starting to re-discover the simple delights agricultural shows offer. We recently spent a day at the Sydney Royal Easter Show and seeing it through the eyes of my 3 and a half year old has reawakened my appreciation of the role shows play in bridging the rural-urban divide.
What I love is that all of the education experiences at the Easter Show are fun and positive. It has a really lovely way of telling agriculture’s stories without demanding respect from, or criticising views of, urban visitors. And refreshingly the messages weren’t cloyingly sentimental and didn’t demean farmers.
So we picked up a Farm Hand Activity Book and passport and started our adventure!
First stop, the Food Farm which was fantastic again this year.
I hadn’t really appreciated in the past how the messages and activities are tailored at different age groups.
A message for kids -
A message for “older kids” -
There were a range of activities on offer in the Food Farm and while the toddler was not interested in milling his own grain or hearing the story of beef, he did enjoy sitting on the tractor, collecting eggs from the chookhouse (“cubby”) and posing as a “cow farmer.”
For grown ups, the windows into the kitchen making the pies and sausage rolls for sale was inspired. (How did they stretch all that pastry without one tear?)
It also warmed my heart to see so many school students at the Show, here's a group in the Food Farm.
I loved that the animal nursery had interpretive signs, which I lamented the lack of in my Canberra Show blog. No photos I'm afraid, too busy feeding the lambs... But a great way to introduce children to farm animals and the products they provide.
After all the excitement we headed to the Great Aussie Backyard where the cubby houses and sandpits provided a circuit breaker for the toddler and a bit of time out for me. Sure enough, more postive experiences on offer and the toddler got a real kick out of planting sunflower seeds to take home. A really simple and quick activity, perfect for toddlers with fun messages about gardening.
And as much as it pains me to say it, again not a lot of interest in the Year of the Farmer marquee... It failed at Canberra (in my opinion) and had no hope of competing with the other activities on offer in Sydney. It disappoints me that we can't get this right.
We also sampled the other delights of the Show including rides, showbags, meeting Puss n Boots, and eating hot chips and icecream, but when we asked the toddler for his highlights he said:
- Seeing the turkeys
- Tasting honey
- Planting a sunflower
Makes a mother proud. And the RAS should be even prouder.