Minnesota Prairie Roots

THE PREP IS IN THE DETAILS. That’s evident at the Rice County Fairgrounds where the county fair opens on Wednesday for a five-day run in Faribault.

I’m detail-oriented. So when I was at the fairgrounds with my camera several days in advance of the fair, I focused on signage and other evidence of fair prep and readiness.

In the Rice County Master Gardeners Teaching Gardens on the east side of the fairgrounds, among all the plants and flowers, I found the smallest of welcome signs. In the fairy garden. Usually tiny figurines occupy the space along with small-scale plants and stones. But, none were there yet during my Saturday evening walk.

Over in the sheep barn on the opposite end of the fairgrounds, patriotic and 4-H banners, yet to be hung, draped pens.

The ticket booth was locked tight outside the grandstand, awaiting paying customers.

Likewise concession stands were shuttered. I’m drawn to signage like that on The Pork Booth, which leaves no question about the food served there. The Rice County Pork Producers sell pork chops on-a-stick, pork burgers and pulled pork.

This fair is rooted in agriculture as noted by the line of barns stretching along the south side of the fairgrounds. A sign on the children’s barnyard honors Diane Hohrman. She started the barn for kids. The Northfield woman, who died in 2017, served on the fair board and was as an adult leader of the Big Giants 4-H Club for 33 years. I’d say Hohrman deserved this name-sake barnyard in her honor.

Small Holstein Club signs label benches outside the barns, a nod to a breed of cattle. My dad raised Holsteins, which I helped care for while growing up. But I wasn’t in any clubs, including 4-H. No time for that, Dad said. He needed his kids on the farm, not going to meetings or working on projects. That may have been short-sighted on his part. But I wasn’t arguing when Dad needed me in the barn or field.

The fair provides a good opportunity to learn about agriculture for kids and others not connected to rural life. That’s reality, vastly different from my youth when nearly all of my peers lived on small family farms.

To celebrate agriculture up close with animals at the fair seems necessary in a time when many are a generation or more removed from the land. So the fair comes and goes each year, reminding us of our, or at least Rice County’s, agrarian roots.

TELL ME: What do you like best about a county fair?

Click here to read my first pre-fair blog post of a fairgrounds walk-about.

© Copyright 2026 Audrey Kletscher Helbling