PA Bloggers at the Farm Show

You may have read my past post on attending my first PA Blogger Meetup, and what a great time it was!  We gathered at a great restaurant for yummy foods and intriguing conversation.  It was there we learned that we’d be heading to the 97th Annual PA Farm Show as special guests of PennAg to get an indepth tour of their exhibit, Today’s Agriculture.  Last month, Melissa, our great PennAg representative shared with us a sneak peak of the construction for the exhibit.   Our tour finally happened, and today I’m here to share how great of a time we had!

Last Friday our (quickly growing!) group of PA Bloggers gathered at the Farm Show eager to learn more and try some of the delicious raved about food.  Even though I’ve lived in Pennsylvania my entire life and most recently have spent the last four years within an hour drive of the Farm Show Complex, I’ll be the first to admit… I’ve never been!  That’s one of the reasons why I was even more excited to attend this year.

After getting some introductory info from Melissa, we started through the exhibit.  We chatted with a ton of knowledgeable people throughout the tour, so much so, it was basically information overload!  We started with the beef cows and learned how to pick the perfect cuts of meat (by using keywords “round” and “loin”.)  The dairy cows were up next and our representative Raechel is even a blogger herself!  Check her out on Go Beyond the Barn.  We then learned about veal cows, which honestly just makes me sad to think about (but my friend Erica did a great post about them that I encourage you to read.)  On the other side of the barn we learned about chickens, ducks, turkeys and piggies.  Everything from living environments to food… and we got to pet the chicks and piglets too (clearly my favorite part!)

After making it through the barn we walked through the crop display.  This area was equally as eye opening, but in a different way.  My grandparents live on a farm and a frequented them when I was younger “helping out” with baling hay and going along to feed the cows.  I had no idea the costs that came along with farming equipment, feed, and more.

The extra yummy part came next…

The PA Bloggers were special guests of PennAg and got to hang in the VIP lounge and order off their extensive menu!  I opted for the tortilla crusted tilapia and corn chowder.  Joe selected the pulled pork sandwich and coleslaw with the trout soup.  We had all intentions of sharing and sampling each others dinners, which I followed to a tee.  Joe on the other hand swears the pulled pork was so delicious he forgot to share (don’t worry, I scraped the scraps off the plate!)  Everything was so delicious.  We ended the night with milkshakes straight from the cow and yummy whoopie pies!  The Farm Show is famous for these and now I understand why.  Don’t see a photo?  Well I held self control to wait until the ride home to sample it, but then scarfed it down within seconds.  Joe wasted no time.

I’d say this was another successful meetup of the PA Bloggers!  Our leader of all things blogging and yummy, Lauren, is off to Chicago for a once in a lifetime internship opportunity and we are all very sad to see her go.  While she’s gone, however, I will be taking over the organizing of events and meetups for our group!  I’ll be the first to admit, Lauren has created a lot of large shoes to fill and I’m already getting worried that my February plans aren’t going to work out… but in the world of event planning, you always make it work!  Before we knew she was leaving us, Lauren guest blogged for TEC in December on How to Plan a Blogger Meetup – thank goodness!  If you’re a PA Blogger, reach out and join us!

Note: As a member of the PA Bloggers community, I was a guest of PennAg for the PA Farm Show and received a free meal, however all opinions expressed in this post are my own.  I was in no way compensated for a positive review.