Four of the past eight years Bailey McIntee has been crowned the “Best Baker” at the Severn Bridge Fall Fair.
Including today at the 150th annual farmers’ festival where she accumulated the most total red ribbon points in the Sr. Hall competition. Maureen Clipsham won it the other four starting in 2016.
Bailey gets to keep the coveted rolling pin award, below, one more year.
It’s all part of the family fun at the fair that celebrated its sesquicentennial with its biggest and most impressive display of country living in decades.
Call it the little fair that certainly could. And did dating back to 1873 and still going strong than almost ever now.
With and horse and wagon rides, an electric bucking bronco, 27 entries in the open horse category in the competition ring, barrel racing — and free corn — it was their best year in years for the hundreds of local and city folk who showed up all afternoon.
Tonight’s there’s a big $20 ticked country and western show on the main stage with stars Brian Jon Harwood opening at 6 p.m. for Jason Blaine at 7 p.m. Local singers were on all day.
Barrel racing is always a popular feature of the fair in which this young rider excelled. PHOTOS Mark Clairmont MuskokaTODAY.comThe show ring was busy with 27 entries in the open equestrian horse class this afternoon.Ride ’em cowbowy. This youg buck lasted about 30 seconds before being bucked by the electronic bronco.You can’t beat free corn on the cob with a pound of butter to roll it in. Not even if your second teeth are still coming in.Board member Jackie Decaire and Karen Tolton turned the old Animal Display Barn into a Fair museum of items previously stored in farm houses. Including. left, the oldest program they have dating back to 1923 and one from 100 years later sandwiched between this year’s guide.Among items and binders full of photos is this one of former prime miniser Joe Clark visiting when he led the Opposition Conservatives.Local politicians, too, came out, including Gravenhurst Mayor Heidi Lorenz, left, ward councillor Michelle Robinson, District Chair Jeff Lehman and MPP Graydon Smith with plaques recognizing the sesquicentennial.This coveted Best Baker rolling pin from the Morrison Agricultural Society (which preceeded the Severn Fair before its renaming) stayed this year with Bailey McIntee.The colourful fall Jr. Hall exhibits included school entries in the food, flowers and craft categories from nearby K.P. Manson.The fair was recognized this year by the Municipal Heritage Committee with three story boards showing its origins and long history.A lot of farm history, cattle, horses, farming and agricultural pursuits have been celebrated and showcased over 150 years.And it’s not over for a proud community in the south of Gravenhurst that continues to survive and thrive with its own unique cultural way of rural Canadian life.
