Monday, August 21, 2006

Come to the Agricultural Fair

1come-to-the-fair
Martha's Vineyard, in addition to being a beach playground and rich folks retreat, really does still have substantial farming. Many residents hope to keep it that way. The Martha's Vineyard Agricultural Society holds its annual fair at the grounds in West Tisbury to showcase island produce and craft/art objects.

2dropspinner
Most of the craft items seemed a little tacky, though the practitioners were working some skilled magic. Here is a demonstration of the use of a drop spindle.

3judgingpoultry
Chickens, rabbits and other livestock are carefully judged. So are the food stuffs -- beans, corn, and the royalty of local produce, Island grown tomatoes -- but I don't have pictures. You can see some of these here.

4andy_pennedgoats
The highlight of this year's fair, for me, was Andrew Rice's exhibition of shearing fleece from animals, in this case baby angora goats. To cut off their coats, he uses an array of tools...

5shears
Shears were long the standard.

6clipper
But pros now use electric clippers. Rice says that if you want to hear an animal owner howl, just knick a sheep. The critters themselves heal quickly if pricked, but he almost never makes that mistake.

7gettng-a-grip
He grips the baby goat between his legs...

8shearingbegins
and starts cutting.

9squirmingfurandskin
Pretty soon he's got a squirming pile of goat and fluff locked between his legs.

10goatlookscatatonic
As the coat comes off, the goat seems to zone out.

11shorngoat
In about two minutes, the shorn goat is back in the pen, pounds lighter and a different color, but none the worse for its experience.

12codfish
Shearing is not just performance art. Rice visits the Vineyard twice a year, accompanied by Codfish, his working border collie, to shear hundreds of the local sheep.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey great article you just made. I was particularly interested about the shearing of the goat. I looked like difficult work but I think that in an experts hands it was routine. You could have also shown how the wool was made into thread.

Civic Center said...

"The Sundowners" needs to be remade with Cape Cod accents.