2021 Country Fair

Country Fair was back at Sedalia on a beautiful summer day. The Bedford Senior Line Dancers got things swinging in the pavilion with their stylish, synchronized stepping. Big Island’s own Dale Overstreet Bluegrass Band featured grandfather Tony on mandolin, his son Robert, guitar, grandson Dale, banjo, with Mike Tyree on bass. As always, the music was authentic, meticulous, and moving.

The SW Virginia Draft Horse, Mule, and Donkey Show was alive with powerful horses and mules showing in harness, under saddle, and in hand. Children hurried their parents between the pavilion and arena, a tramp across the grass that is a free benefit to all who attend.

There for all to enjoy were the perennial garden and Sedalia’s Teaching Garden. This fenced vegetable garden is a project under way. The garden is the teacher; we are its humble students. Although its pathway through from the playground to the pavilion won’t be open till next season, the garden, late and hastily planted, yielded a beautiful crop of cantaloupe and watermelon, for which visitors left a donation and picked their choice. The tunnel, created by fastening 16’ cattle panels to rebar stakes to form a roofed tunnel, and delicious yard-long beans hung down for the picking.

Local food security advocates Jason Fowler of Land and Table, and Mark and Alison Angelini of Mountain Run Permaculture spent the day in conversation with fairgoers about sustainable gardening, local food security, and the Soil Amendments that fed it.

The Living Arts were on hand with visual and performing arts inspired by the mountains of the region. Roanoke-area resident Michael Milton’s one-man show in the Blue Room was a hit with fairgoers. A working man’s artist, Mr. Milton drives a truck around the region, and his show Blue Ridge Views: Art from Appalachian Counties spoke to people with its studies of light and landscape, and pen-and-ink drawings of old industrial engines and buildings. Not to mention Monet’s Couch…

On the Counter Ridge Stage, LHS Performing Art acquitted themselves well in a warm-up dramatic reading of Tales from Appalachia, The Three Old Women’s Bet.

The benefits of being and working outdoors are central to the Country Fair. The gardens and the arts are there for participation.