State and local fairs are first and foremost agricultural, and at the NC State Fair, they’re taking that message to kids and adults alike with what they call the Field of Dreams. It’s an actual micro farm where visitors can become farmers, if just for a few minutes. Carl Tart is the exhibit manager.

“We have a gentleman, Mr. Rick Sasser, comes in and starts in June planting some of these crops. And he does a masterful job, because you’re planting it the wrong time of the year for a lot of these things, but he does a great job and keep them going. And then, as I say, my role is to manage and put the whole scheme together, and then manage it while we’re here at the fair with staff to relate to the kids and the adults about what we’re trying to do and get the message across.”

The kids become farmers, right down to driving pint sized tractors, and learn how the real farmer grows their food.

“He’s got to harvest it. He’s got a carry it to market. He’s got to sell it. That’s how he gets his income, and then that’s how you and I as consumers get our product from the store. So we actually have the kids 12 and under, kind of harvesting a couple or three items each day, and they’ll sell it at our local market. We give them some play money, and then they’ll come to the grocery store inside and spend the money, and we give them a gift bag that’s got North Carolina apple, pickle, candy and a cow pencil in it.”

Tart says the kids and their parents learn a lot from the experience.

“We’ve got some garden signs out showing like what goes on a pizza or on a sub sandwich and this type thing. They are amazed that that’s what goes on there. You know, you have a kid and say, I will not eat a tomato. I didn’t know I was eating it on that pizza. And I didn’t know I was eating it. So we get a lot of that. A lot of adults didn’t realize that the peanuts were grown, the nuts themselves underground, things of that nature.”

Area FFA students take part to bring the little farm to life and answer questions.

“We get an FFA chapter every day. They bring about 20 kids, and they’re most from the eastern North Carolina. Like today we have South Lenoir, and as I tell them every day, the kids who that we’re trying to relate to, they would rather talk to them than they had me. I’m too old for them to talk to.”

Tart estimates nearly 180,000 people visit the Field of Dreams each year.