Bob Evans Farm Festival

The 38th Annual Bob Evans Farm Festival is being held
October 10-12th, 2008 in Rio Grande, Ohio.





First Some History on Bob Evans:

The Bob Evans Farm in southeastern Ohio was home to Bob
Evans, founder of the Bob Evans Farms Inc. and his wife Jewell
for nearly twenty years. They raised their six children in the
brick farmhouse known as the Homestead.





The Homestead was once a stagecoach stop and an inn, it is
now the company museum and historical center.
Bob Evans was the "king of sausage" and the restaurant
chain by his name. Bob Evans never wanted to be famous
but used his fame to call attention to the history of the area
and to aid better education to help save the American farmer.
He loved 4-H, conservation, year around grazing, and saving
wild mustangs. Using new grasses in year around grazing
a concept he learned from a trip to New Zealand, taught
farmers they could avoid the purchasing of costly grains
and silage for their livestock in the winter.Using low cost
crops such as turnips reduced feeding costs daily.
He loved children and helped to establish the Ohio
Appalachian Center for Higher Education for
children in Ohio and northern West Virginia.

Every year a Farm Festival is held at the Homestead
to celebrate harvest season.
Some of the events offered were Square dancing tractors,
chain saw carvers, horse mounted drill team, timber show
and farm demonstration contests.
Craft demonstrations included: blacksmithing, folk tool
making, quilting, soap making, weaving.
Demonstrations on horseshoe pitching, border collie herding,
sheep shearing, horseshoeing were held.
A display of antique tractors was also offered in one tent.





Traditional foods were offered such as pictured above, bean soup
cooked in open fired kettles. Also offered were cornbread,
kettle corn, pies, apple dumplings, ice cream. Ohio made cheeses,
and trail bologna.
Plus all the foods offered at other carnivals and festivals. Their
was a Bob Evans Food tent and one of his restaurant's is built
near the farm.





Musical entertainment was in abundance with different
Bluegrass musicians, comedians, square dancing and
clogging, and roving minstrels.




Children's activities included a interactive barnyard, splatter
painting, lead horseback riding, hay bale maze, wagon rides,
a game tent, pedal tractor pulls, corn shilling, cow chip tossing,
apple peeling, hog calling, feed sack races, and egg tossing.





The farm grounds were loaded with tents of artisan's
displaying every craft imaginable and antiques for purchase.
It turns out thousands of people in attendance over the three
day festival. The grounds were packed with people enjoying
all that was offered. Traffic was backed up with car loads
of people trying to get to the festival. So be prepared to be patient
if you plan to attend future festivals.
An RV Parking area also offered space for campers to
stay and attend which helped families and the traffic
jams.
With the beautiful Fall sunshine and temperatures in
the upper 70's to 80's it all made for a fantastic weekend
and a final outing before the weather turns colder.
The leaves are into their final weeks of beauty and
added to the backdrop of the area. Cameras
were in abundance.
Next weekend will be the best for
pictures of the leaves here in the Hocking Hills area.

In following posts I will show pictures of quilts
from the quilt barn and pictures of painted hats
that represented the 88 counties of Ohio that were
on display at the festival.