FAIRMONT- Heritage Acres will hold its annual threshing day on August 14. The event will run from 10 am to 4 pm.

This year Heritage Acres will be remembering Ted Kittleson, Lola Talledge, and John Hilgendorf; three founding members who were volunteers at the center for more than 40 years.

In addition to watching the interpretive center use its titular threshing machine, visitors will be able to partake in numerous free activities.

Throughout the day buildings on the grounds will be open and area collectors will display an antique tractor show. Visitors can stop in the depot to view its model train. Wagon rides will be available to take families across the Heritage Acres Property. Both a bounce house and miniature train rides will be available for children.

Blacksmith demonstrations will also run throughout the day, and will showcase a variety of metalworking techniques for visitors.

At 11 am volunteers will begin a tipi construction demonstration. Visitors capable of lifting the 25 pound poles may also have a chance to participate in the construction.

Volunteers will also begin to serve food at 11 am and will continue until 1 pm. The meal is the only item offered by Heritage Acres on threshing day which is not free and consists of a pork chop, baked beans, potato salad, potato chips, a beverage and a dessert, which will cost nine dollars, but these items can also be bought piecemeal.

This year’s music will be performed by the Leon Olsen Show, and will run from noon to 4 pm. Olsen is a concertina musician who was inducted into the Minnesota Music Hall of Fame in 2013. The band plays a collection of old time, polka, waltz and country music.

Threshing will begin at 1 pm and will continue intermittently until either 4 pm or until volunteers exhaust their bundles of oats.

“The oats has a grain, like for making oatmeal. It has to be run through the machine and that knocks all the grain out, augers that into a trailer, and the threshing machine blows all that straw into a pile,” said Heritage Acres President Jerry Simon.

D&S Trophies will bring miniature pedal tractors for a children’s competition which will also begins at 1 pm. Different tractors and competitions will be available for different age groups.

While organizers had planned for horse plowing to take place between 1 and 3 pm, it had to be canceled due to heat and difficulties bringing horses in.

“It gets too hot to have horses ploughing out here, and all the public gardens are still out here and we can’t cross those with the horses,” said Simon.

Heritage Acres also invited over 15 vendors who will be selling craft goods and other items.

One new feature of this year’s threshing day is a series of railway speeders manufactured by Fairmont Railway Motors. These were donated to Heritage Acres by a collector from Colorado earlier this year and are now on display outside.

Heritage Acre’s next event will be its fall festival which will be held on the 3rd Sunday of October.

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