There’s nothing more American than baseball and apple pie.
Johnson County Farm Bureau added all of agriculture to that list with a special Harvest Festival promotion on Sept. 3 at its hometown ballpark in Cleburne.
Johnson County Farm Bureau teamed up with the Johnson County office of the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service to celebrate area agriculture at The Depot at Cleburne Stadium, home of the Cleburne Railroaders.
Originally founded in 1906, the Cleburne Railroaders are a member of the American Association and the number one MLB partner league team in Texas.
Over 2,000 tickets were sold for the game, representing the largest number of tickets sold for a Railroaders game this season. Proceeds from the special event benefitted local 4-H chapters.
“The co-owner, president and general manager of the ballclub, John Junker, made the comment to me that he wanted us involved, because people here in Cleburne didn’t even realize they had a baseball team. But we wanted him for the same thing. We wanted to get out there and reach out to people that came to the ballpark to tell them, ‘Hey, we’re still agriculture. We’re still an agricultural community, and that’s what it’s about,’ and so the two of us working together has been a great partnership to achieve this,” said Chris Goodwin, president of Johnson County Farm Bureau, who threw out the ceremonial first pitch.
Tractors and combines were parked near the stadium. Texas Farm Bureau (TFB) brought portions of its Doorways to Agriculture exhibit, its Harvest Simulator and a Mobile Learning Barn for attendees to enjoy. TFB also provided baseballs to be awarded to contest winners during the event.
The special theme of the night was corn.
“Everything was based on corn. The concession menu was based on corn. Our little sandbox out here was corn. The kids could dig for prizes. Corn dogs, Frito pies, everything was based on corn,” Goodwin said. “We did the corn-on-the-cob eating contest. Everything was about the harvest of corn. This is what we do this time of year.”
Goodwin said Johnson County farmers and ranchers struggled with extreme drought this year like the rest of the state.
“We weren’t exempt from it. We were in a drought. Everybody compares it to 2011. I can remember 1980 when we were this bad, this long dry spell that we didn’t have the moisture,” he said.
Goodwin said planning discussions are already underway for another Harvest Festival at The Depot at Cleburne Stadium next season.
That is such a cool idea.