Fair Season is Here!

The last weekend in August, a participant on one of my Topsmead docent house tours asked if the property was still a working farm. My answer was "No," but the question prompted a conversation about how Edith Morton Chase had expanded her original 17-acre gift from her father into its final 500 plus acres and what made a farm a working farm.

As I explained, in its heyday as a working farm, Topsmead covered most of the bases. There were cows for beef and cows for milk and butter. There were sheep for lamb and pigs for bacon. There were chickens for eggs and finally for soup. There were turkeys destined for Thanksgiving, one for each staff and farm worker as well as one for the Chase Thanksgiving table. And of course, there were the requisite farm dogs and riding horses. In addition to animals, hay and apples were farm products, and a variety of fruits and vegetables were grown in the Underhill gardens to be eaten fresh or put up for the winter.

This Labor Day weekend was the start of the 2025 fall fair season. On its beautiful blue-sky Sunday morning as I was walking around the Goshen Fair's animal barns (the fluffy angora and lop-eared bunnies and the feathery-footed chickens are my favorites along with the beautifully groomed Holsteins taking a break from the show ring) or Building A with its fruit and vegetable and baking contest entries or Building B with its photography and flower entries, I got to thinking back to that conversation about Topsmead as a working farm. I started wondering if perchance there had been any Topsmead Farm entries in the Goshen Fair agricultural exhibits back when Miss Edith was alive.

Given that this is the 112th year of the Goshen Fair, it is certainly possible. Maybe there were Topsmead entries in the Vegetable Division for "Carrots, 5 specimens, Long" or "Onions, 5 specimens, Red Round" or "Tomatoes, 5 specimens, Red Large."  Miss Edith's friend Lucy Burrall, who loved to bake, might have entered the Baking Division with a "Loaf Cake: baked in a loaf pan - presented on a white paper plate, out of the pan wrapped in a plastic wrap or a baggie." Lucy, who also loved flowers, might have entered hydrangeas in the Flower Division's "Horticulture Class:  3 to 6 uniform stems of same color of one variety. Small and large bottles furnished by fair. No water additive allowed." Maybe the Topsmead farm staff even entered a Farm Booth Exhibit consisting of "6 feet of frontage and 30 inch depth on a table" consisting of "farm produce and products."

Knowing Miss Edith's love for her May-to-November time at Topsmead, her love of the land, and her respect for the dignity of labor and things made by hand, it is easy for me to imagine Topsmead entries in the Goshen Fair. In fact, I am inspired to participate in the fair next year.  Rather than eat them all in my summer salads, I plan to save and submit "Heirloom. Tomatoes, 10 specimens. Orange Cherry, stems on." It's not too early to think about submitting to the Goshen Fair 2026 in the spirit of Miss Edith!

Margaret Hunt
BlogMistress