Otoe County Fair Exhibits Feature Oldest Tool, Garden Giants

SYRACUSE – The Otoe County Fair accepted open class entries Wednesday displaying America’s oldest tool, queen bee fashion and the county’s biggest produce despite an unusual growing season.

Wayne Wohlers of Syracuse brought in a 123-year-old stitching horse that belonged to the great-grandpa of his wife, Paula.

Wohlers: “In the early days the farmers and ranchers would bring their saddles and their harnesses in in the winter time and this is what they made to fix them with, to sew them together.”

Jackson Nordhues, 14, brought in a costume he used during a Destination Imagination competition to portray the chess queen.

Sabrina, Scarlett and Alex Buddenberg of Palmyra brought in their visual art and John Rudolph of Syracuse entered a freight truck and semi-trailer that children played with in the 1960s.

Yulonda Randall of Douglas brought in lanterns that were found in a barn when she was a little girl.

Duane Hansen entered the biggest vegetable competition, including largest cabbage.

Hansen: “I’ve got 20 like this. I tried to make them big and I couldn’t do it. This is on the edge.”

This year’s growing season was marked by frozen ground deep into March and an abundance of rain on the thawing ground that contributed to catastrophic flooding across the state.

Hansen: “The whole spring was horrible, everything was horrible. I was planting in wet dirt. That isn’t good. This wasn’t one of my better springs.”

Hansen said the strategy for growing super large vegetables begins with the seed.

Hansen: “You hand pollinate a lot of things you want to get big for the seed for next year, so you want the seed for next year. You can save the seed out of this and it will be this big or bigger.”

The Otoe County fair opens to the public Thursday and has a 4 p.m. parade on Saturday.