Lacey Young, Hayden Clifford and Sofia Nieto prepare goat cheese and crackers at the 4-H Goat Club booth.

Text and Photos
By Deb Patterson
InkFreeNews

KOSCIUSKO COUNTY — Chilly April weather didn’t keep visitors away from the 2025 “A Taste of Agriculture in Kosciusko County” tonight, Tuesday, April 15. It truly was a family affair. The event was held at the Kosciusko County Community Fairgrounds.

A line started forming 15 minutes even before the “gates” opened for the evening to get their free goodie bag.

Booths from various organizations and agencies were set up in the Beef and Dairy barns, with free samples of hard boiled eggs, chips and salsa, seasoned hamburger, a choice of chocolate or white milk, and vanilla or chocolate swirl ice cream found in the Sheep Barn. There was also homemade ice cream and popcorn available.

A few live animals were housed in the Swine Barn — an ewe and her lambs, several horses, mini goats, and two hogs. All available for petting.

Over in the Show Arena, Wawasee’s FFA Chapter hosted a pedal pull for youngsters between the ages of 5 and 10, with every participant receiving a ribbon and the top three in the three age divisions being awarded trophies. The pull started with 200 pounds for the 5-6 year-olds and going to 300 pounds for the 9-10 year-olds. A few times the pullers made a full pull.

Throughout the evening guests wandered around the booths learning about agriculture, 4-H, soil and water conservation, watersheds, agricultural products and anything related to ag.

Allie Leininger plants her tomato plant.

The Kosciusko County Master gardeners provided an opportunity to plant your own tomato plant to take home in a plastic cup, along with a bag containing a variety of vegetable and herb garden seeds. The Kosciusko County Soil and Water Conservation District had Colorado Blue Spruce packaged and ready to take home and plant.

Agencies included Echoes of the Past, Kosciusko Water and Woodland Invasive Partnership, USDA, The Watershed Foundation, Lilly Center for Lakes & Streams, Kosciusko County Cattlemen’s Association, Purdue Extension, several 4-H clubs including the Goat Club offering a sampling of five different goat cheeses. The Kosciusko County Beekeeping Club along with an area beekeeper — North Paw Designs and County Farm Bees, also had displays.

Taking a step back to earlier days, Jerry Clase was there with his blacksmithing equipment showing one of the first projects made by 4-Hers in that club, a heart hook.

Area businesses provided information on products they had available, all ag related. Some of those included Farm Bureau, Beachler’s Sugar Bush with maple syrup, Maple Leaf, Hill N. Dale beef, Chapman Lake Nursery and participants of the Farmers Market at Winona, and The Olde Farmhouse .

The entire evening provided interactive and educational opportunity for all ages to learn about agriculture in the county. TWF and the county SWCD had interactive opportunities to learn about watersheds.

This is the 24th anniversary for the event and attendees had the opportunity to participate in give aways that included $1,500 in grocery gift certificates and more than $1,000 in other door prizes, including product or gift certificates in varying amounts for locally produced products.

A Taste of Agriculture is sponsored by the Kosciusko County Agriculture Awareness Committee, Kosciusko County Purdue Extension Office, Farm Bureau, Community Foundation and support by the Kosciusko County Community Fair.