O.C. Fair has a farm, and it’s turning 30 — Centennial Farm will ring in milestone with birthday barbecue
Have you ever been to a barbecue at a farm?
No, no, it’s not like that.
Centennial Farm, part of the OC Fair & Event Center in Costa Mesa, will celebrate its 30th anniversary Saturday with a birthday bash and barbecue from 2 to 6 p.m.
Guests will be able to tour the farm, see and pet the animals and play a variety of games including Jenga and cornhole. Beekeepers, composting experts and other industry leaders will show their goods and teach children about various aspects of farming.
There also will be line dancing, plenty of food and cow chip bingo.
Yes, that’s bingo played with manure.
The farm will have an area cordoned off with several hundred squares that bingo players can purchase with tickets. At a farmer’s call, a cow will be released into the arena.
“Wherever the chip falls is a winner,” said Evy Young, Centennial Farm’s agriculture education supervisor.
Clare Einsmann, a board member of the nonprofit Centennial Farm Foundation and a 28-year volunteer, said leading cow chip bingo and watching people’s reactions is one of her favorite activities.
“It’s fun talking to the people and the crazy questions that they ask,” she said. “It’s more fun to see these crazy Orange County people — all colors, all economic environments — stand around a paddock to wait for a cow to poop. I just laugh for half an hour.”
Since opening in 1989, Centennial Farm has welcomed and educated thousands of schoolchildren through annual field trips, programs and showcases.
The farm houses hundreds of plant and fruit varieties, plus a menagerie of goats, cows, chickens, pigs and other animals.
“While we are only 3.5 acres, we pack a punch,” Young said.
More than 100 volunteers guide tours of the farm every day throughout the year. The original mission of the place — to highlight the agricultural side of a county and state known for their food production — has become even more important in recent years as farmland has given way to large-scale developments, Einsmann said.
Children are not the farm’s only students, though. New Jersey native Bill Pemberton, 82, said he knew nothing about farms when he walked into the Fair & Event Center office 20 years ago and asked for a volunteer application.
Now he can spout animal facts like a true farmer. How many gallons of milk does a cow produce every day? Ten. Why is there no tail on the peacock? Because it loses its tail in the winter and grows it back by springtime. What makes up an angora goat’s horn? Keratin — the same stuff in your fingernails.
“Everything is education, education, education,” said Pemberton, a former operations manager at John Wayne Airport.
In the 20 years he has been volunteering at the farm, the young children haven’t changed much, Pemberton said.
“The attitude is the same,” he said. “They are just eager to soak up knowledge — and they ask some very pointed questions about animals.”
A favorite memory among staff is from the farm’s early years. A docent pulled a carrot out of the ground, much to the confusion of a little girl nearby who argued that carrots came from the grocery store.
That type of reaction still happens today, Young said. For many children who have never been to a farm before, Centennial Farm is where they learn about their food’s origins.
It also can be a place to commune with animals.
Einsmann remembers sitting in the cow paddock by herself one night when a boy walked by. He stopped, shocked to see her alone with the cow.
“Are you OK? Isn’t that cow going to hurt you?” the boy said.
“No, she’s very gentle,” Einsmann replied. “Would you like to pet her?”
For the next two weeks, Einsmann said, the boy stopped by every night to pet the cow.
“There is a sense of peace when you’re around animals,” she said. “We know that with dogs, we know that with cats, but we don’t think about that with cows and goats and sheep and pigs.”
So ... a barbecue? At a farm?
“We never serve our friends for dinner,” said Young, laughing. “Even though we talk about the circle of life, that’s a little too close to home.”
Though Saturday’s anniversary barbecue will be catered, Einsmann said the farm is honest with its guests about where food comes from, even if “it sounds cruel.” Yes, the piglets born at the annual Orange County Fair may later become bacon, but that lesson is cause to respect the animals.
“That’s one of the things that Centennial Farm does — teach [visitors] respect of the farm animals, teach them respect for what it takes to grow their food,” Einsmann said.
IF YOU GO
What: Centennial Farm’s 30th-anniversary celebration
When: 2 to 6 p.m. Saturday
Where: OC Fair & Event Center, 88 Fair Drive, Costa Mesa
Cost: Tickets are $25 (plus fees) through Friday and $30 at the door. Children 5 and younger get in free.
Information: ocfair.com/event/centennial-farms-30th-anniversary-community-bbq
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