Fair celebrates Sonoma County life

Susan Neu of Daly City watched Scott Weaver drop ping pong balls into his structure of San Francisco, built entirely of 100,000 toothpicks, including a representation of the Golden Gate Bridge.

“It’s awesome. It’s absolutely breathtaking. This is worth seeing by itself even if there was nothing else to see,” said Neu, 65, part of the crowd enjoying opening day at the fair.

Crowds poured through the gates at 11 a.m., many seniors enjoying free entry today.

Weaver’s toothpick construction was drawing big crowds. But other fairgoers were headed to livestock areas, were youth were preparing their animals for show.

“It is getting a bit more expensive to raise sheep,” said 15-year-old Cooper Maloney. He is showing two sheep at the fair, raised on the family’s apple farm in Sebastopol.

He said he enjoys the free ice cream and Cinnabons at the fair, but also likes raising livestock and being a part of the agricultural fabric of Sonoma County.

The fair, an annual rite of summer, is an obvious place to showcase a growing movement to buy local and live greener.

It’s where dozens of youth each year bring steers, lambs, hogs, rabbits and poultry they’ve raised to be judged, graded and sold at the fair.

"Lamb is either local or from quite a ways away," said Sydney Johnson, 16, of Windsor.

"The sheep we raise has a much different flavor than grain-fed. We're taught to give animals the best lives we can. The lamb at the store is from New Zealand or Australia."

Her fellow 4-H member, Aleshia Sbragia, 15, chimed in: "You don't know what they're feeding them over there."

Fair officials hope high gas prices are keeping locals close to home and are betting on the auction and races to help lure people back to the fair, which has suffered declining numbers during the past few years.

In the 1970s, total reported attendance for some years exceeded 400,000. The fair counts declined slightly before climbing to more than 390,000 in 1991.

This decade, the crowds haven't exceeded 340,000, and last year attendance fell slightly below 320,000, fair officials report.

But Monday, as a cool morning gave way to a sunny afternoon, the line for discount tickets in anticipation of Tuesday’s opening snaked along the front gate, with 50 people waiting.

"It's probably the longest line I've ever seen here," said David Hall, 41, of Santa Rosa. He was prepared to wait a half hour.

This year, the fair's patriotic theme, "Star Spangled Celebration," speaks both to the upcoming elections and a summer trend of Americans staying closer to home and supporting local economies, said fair spokeswoman Marlina Harrison.

"It's a history-making election year, and our flower show theme is New England, thought of by most as the birthplace of the American Revolution," she said. "All together it's about everything great about America."

The “American ingenuity” the fair is highlighting includes the region's agricultural tradition, of course, and its more recent involvement in such green innovation as solar energy.

The fair itself boasts a massive $4.8 million solar electric system that produces nearly half of its electrical needs.

And its first-ever Sustainable Sonoma tent, nestled between the Grace Pavilion and the grandstand, features talks on driving less, organic food, solar energy, worm composting and "water-wise" gardening.

One billboard sign inside the white tent urges, "Buy Local."

His hands dripping in white paste, school chef Ed Healy, 50, of Petaluma wrapped wet newspaper strips around white poles Monday that would later hold signs promoting the tent.

"There's a lot of people that are going to walk right by us, but if they come inside they're going to learn a lot," he said.

His Petaluma school, Mary Collins, has an organic garden where students harvest herbs, lettuce and about 10 pounds of strawberries a week, he said.

"I think people are realizing that the average food items travel 1,500 miles to get to you," he said. "More (people) are going to farmer's markets and realizing it's just better. It's more expensive, but we're showing how you can have your own garden if you have a back yard. It's worth it."

The 20-minute workshops are free and take place at 2 and 3 p.m. on most fair days.

The general admission fee is still $7, though there's a slight uptick in all-day carnival wristbands for unlimited rides Tuesdays through Thursdays -- up from $20 last year to $25.

The fair's total revenue climbed $1 million last year, to $9.4 million, but reserves are expected to decline this year because of capital investments.

Horse racing begins Wednesday, with post time at 12:45 p.m. There is no racing today.

The junior livestock auction set a record last year with $1 million raised for youth selling animals to the highest bidder.

"Sheep are up a good 30 or 40 this year, and all the open beef are up in the barns -- about 250 to 300 cows," said Jennifer Beretta, 20, of Santa Rosa, a member of the fair livestock crew.

That's up from about 150 to 200 cows last year, she said.

The junior livestock showings began Monday night with the FFA youth, she said.

Blue ribbons already mark the winners of the $275,000 flower show called "Red, White and Bloom.” The New England theme features a 35-foot tall lighthouse and a 40-foot long wooden covered bridge.

"It was fun. We enjoyed putting it together," said Jim Pugh, 71, a member of the Santa Rosa Men's Garden Club.

The club won the "Best Garden Design" prize for an exhibit that included flowers grown with the help of 20 students at Elsie Allen High School, where the club helps teach gardening.

Its prize money goes to scholarships for students, Pugh said.

Many of the exhibit's seaside touches were recycled from member's gardens and homes, including the lobster trap, and a wooden rowboat, which an 87-year-old Calistoga member had used as a boy.

"It doesn't even leak after all these years," Pugh said.