By KEVIN WALKER
Michigan Correspondent

SALINE, Mich. — It’s basically a fair, and it’s not about the money: That’s the message promoters of the First Annual Farm Festival and Tractor Show at the Washtenaw Farm Council Grounds would like to send out.
“Washtenaw Farm Council has been hungry for an ag event for a long time,” said David Helmer of the Braun and Helmer Auction House, one of the event’s sponsors. “We really want to promote ag to the community; we’d really like to get the community involved. There hasn’t been an ag event on the farm council grounds in awhile.”
This free event will take place April 5 from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. and will feature a farm collectibles auction, a tractor show, a pedal power pull for children, an Amish lunch and bake sale and other activities. Diuble’s “Pumpkin Gone Mad” pulling tractor is also scheduled to be at the event.
The event will also be interactive – the Manchester Bakery, for example, will put on a cookie-decorating event for kids. Helmer said there will be a “meet the tractor guy” booth for anyone wanting to discuss tractor repair with an expert.
Other events will include a working engine show, club lamb auction and a kids’ art show. The kids’ art show will be an event where classrooms from around the area will submit artwork featuring agricultural themes. One of the classes will receive a pizza party, and winners from each class will be chosen based on achievement as well as effort. Some entries will be chosen for the Braun and Helmer calendar.
The pedal power pull is scheduled for 11 a.m., and the farm collectibles auction and club lamb auction are scheduled for 1 p.m. Anyone who’s interested in viewing what will be up for auction can go to the Braun and Helmer website, which features photos of many items for sale.
These include old farm booklets and other agriculture-related literature, many toy tractors and other toy farm equipment and collectibles such as knives, baseball cards and coin collections. There are also pictures of real tractors that will be on display at the show. To see photos of the items to be auctioned, just click on “View Photo Gallery” at the website, which can be accessed at www.braunandhelmer.com
Besides Braun and Helmer and the Washtenaw Farm Council, other sponsors of the event include the John Deere II Cylinder Club, Diuble’s, Schetten-helm’s, Morton’s, Bollinger’s, Jim Brown, Weisenreder’s, Weidemeyer’s, Saline FFA, Greg Shelton, Antique Truck Club and many others.
The Washtenaw Farm Council Grounds is at 5055 Ann Arbor-Saline Road in Ann Arbor, Mich. For more information about the event, check out the above website or call Helmer at 734-368-1733.