FAIRMONT– Sunday marks Heritage Acre’s 48th annual Threshing Day. It’s one of the longest-running annual events that the Fairmont-based agriculture interpretive center hosts as it was first held in 1975 when Heritage Acres was established as a 501(c)(3).

“We concentrate on farm history from the 1900s on,” said president Jerry Simon.

While the historic buildings didn’t come on site until later on, Threshing Day started as more of a bluegrass festival where people would sit on hay bales. Event back then, demonstrations were a big part of Threshing Day.

Threshing is the process of loosening the edible part of the grain from the straw to which it is attached.

“All of the oat bundles are in four wagons and we’ll bring them out one at a time, if it’s not raining, over to the threshing machine. Out of one auger will be the oats going into the wagon and out of the blower. There will be straw coming out and that will be blown into a wagon and run that out into the field later on and bale it,” Simon explained.

He said after the meal on Sunday, the threshing demonstration will begin. There will be places alongside Prairieville for people to sit and watch the threshing.

In addition to threshing, the annual festival boasts several other activities. People can tour the many different buildings, including the barn, train depot, Prairieville and the school house. There will also be live music by Adam Sandhurst and the Jolly Jammers.

“I’ll be setting up my teepee and Chantill Kahler will give a demonstration by the log cabin,” Simon said.

There will also be wagon rides, bouncy houses, a corn hole tournament, tractor show and a petting zoo, which is new this year and replaces the kid’s pedal pull.

“We keep adding stuff. If we can find someone to run it, we’ll add more,” Simon said.

Vendors from around the county will also be on site selling a variety of items.

Along with the pork chop meal, vendors will be selling snow cones and mini donuts and popcorn and root beer floats will also be available.

Heritage Acres is strictly run by volunteers. Simon said there’s about 10 people who go out there all days of the week and work on maintaining the site by cutting grass, painting and repairing the machinery.

Along with Threshing Day, Heritage Acres also hosts a Fall Harvest Festival annually. It used to hold a Fourth of July event but dropped it several years ago.

Simon said Threshing Day, and Heritage Acres as a whole, really serves as a way to show people, especially children, the way things used to be.

“If you can imagine living like the Amish, that’s what we would have to do if we lost all technology. We have a lot of the old equipment out there… if we had to cut block ice and put it in the refrigerators in the two buildings in the winter time we could do that. If we had to dig a root cellar to put vegetables in, we could do that,” Simon said.

Threshing Day will be held beginning at 10 a.m. and run through 4 p.m. on Sunday.