Henry County event features
local farmers’ products, wares

Activities include hayrides,
tractor displays, family fun

By Helen E. McKinney
Contributing Writer

NEW CASTLE, Ky. (July 2010) – When Buck Herrell retired, he and wife, Janet, began raising vegetables to provide a supplemental income. The outcome was excess crops that they have been able to sell through local farmers markets and related venues such as the Henry County Harvest Showcase.

Photo provided The annual Harvest Showcase lets visitors enjoy the pastoral farming life.

“I never farmed for a living,” said Herrell. But he has done something right because the venture has paid off and kept the couple extremely busy during the summer months on their 15 acres, located between Sulfur and New Castle off Hwy. 157.
In addition to farm work, Herrell takes care of his granddaughter, Emily, and has named his produce business after her: Emily’s Out Back Nursery.
The Herrells are like many other Henry County residents who sell their produce when in season at local farmers markets. Herrell said in addition to the Showcase and the Henry County Farmers Market, he would be selling produce in Oldham County at a farmers market set up at the YMCA.
Only Henry County farmers can sell their wares at the annual Henry County Harvest Showcase and Lunch at the Farmers Market from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, July 31. The free event will be held at the Henry County Fairgrounds and is open to the public. Many resident farmers, crafts people and ag-related businesses will have their products for sale and on display.
The Herrells will be selling tomatoes, green beans, potatoes, zucchini, several varieties of squash, 16 varieties of peppers, corn, watermelon and cantaloupe. The Showcase is “an excellent way to sell products,” said Herrell.
Janet crafts handmade jewelry, which she sells at farmers markets and will have available at the Showcase. Janet’s jewelry is made mostly of stone, but recently, she began creating her jewelry with glass beads.
“A friend gave me some gemstones for my birthday, and I started collecting them and then making jewelry,” she said. Janet first considers “how a stone would look in a necklace,” then designs her own earrings, bracelets and necklaces.
When working on a new design, Janet “puts together stones until it pleases me and is unique.” She often gave the jewelry as gifts to family and friends, but found that she had so many extra pieces that she began selling it at farmers markets and at the Showcase.
This year’s Showcase will include a farmer’s breakfast at 7:30 a.m. sponsored by the Henry County Chamber of Commerce. Lunch will be available at the Farmer’s Market. It will include locally grown beef, pork, vegetables and homemade cantaloupe ice cream.
Returning traditional crowd favorites include hayrides, antique tractor displays and pulls, kids, games, livestock exhibits and a variety of homegrown products, such as the ones provided by the Herrells. For those who want to be entertained, Patrick Henry Hughes will sing with local country-gospel group, Music N’ A Box, at 11 a.m.
A few fun events have been added to this year’s lineup that also offers attendees an opportunity to earn a little extra cash. The Husband Challenge will take place at noon with a chance for participants to earn $100 in prize money.
Following this event, Capstone Produce Market will sponsor the Largest Watermelon Contest, providing another chance to win $100. The watermelon must be grown in Henry County, and the heaviest watermelon will be auctioned with proceeds going to help offset Showcase expenses.
“For a long time, I understood the event was a way to showcase Henry County people and their products,” said David Neville, owner of Capstone Produce Market. The Largest Watermelon Contest is “a way for Capstone Produce to say thank you to them.”
Capstone Produce Market, a distribution hub for locally grown produce, is located at the intersection of Hwy. 421 and Hwy. 55 in Campbellsburg. “We’re now in the heart of the growing season and sell anything anybody cares to raise in a 14-county region,” he said.
Neville said the Showcase is a “people-to-people” event. Unlike what the county fair has currently become (with lots of carnival rides and other entertainments), the Showcase “harkens back to an earlier time of an old-style county fair, reminiscent of the way farmers would bring their produce to market.”
He has participated as a visitor and as a cattle producer in all but one of the Showcases since it began 11 years ago. “You have folks from multiple states and counties looking for products processed right here in Henry County,” he said.
In the past, Neville has donated a heifer and auctioned it off, with proceeds benefiting Showcase expenses. He encourages “all growers to participate” in the Showcase.

• For more information on Capstone Produce Market, visit www.CaptstoneProduceMarket.com. For more information on the Harvest Showcase, contact the Henry County Extension Office at (502) 845-2811.