Written By Lisa Breslin
For one week during the summer – July 28 through August 3 – thousands of people visited the Carroll County Agriculture Center and the Danele Shipley Memorial Arena for the annual Carroll County 4H & FFA Fair.
The smell of pit beef and funnel cakes lured them from the parking lot. Cows and goats bellowed from the arena at all hours, and on two nights, long after sunset, the roar of the tractor pull and a demolition derby filled the night air for miles around.
This year, Rick Jones, owner of RJ Custom Homes in Westminster, purchased nine-year-old Union Bridge resident Jordan Lawrence’s lemon bars for $4,900. The cake auction pulled in $58,595 for 4H, just shy of last year’s record high of more than $60,000.
Eighteen-year-old Westminster resident Brian Rasche earned approximately $1,325 when he got $5.25 per pound for his 252-pound crossbred pig. Between the sale of the pig and a steer, Rasche estimates that he walked away with more than $3,000 this year.
