SILK HOPE — At this moment — and throughout the rest of this week — a steady fire is being nurtured at a tobacco-curing barn nestled among the 38 acres that comprise Silk Hope Farm Heritage Park.
Approximately 150 sticks of tobacco are hanging inside the vintage wooden barn (built in 1850), where the time-tested heat source maintains the slowly-increasing temperature required to properly cure the leaf.
Overseeing the fire — it’s an around-the-clock task — are members of the Silk Hope Ruritan Club, who are busy this week gearing up for the return on Saturday and Sunday of Old Fashioned Farmers’ Days, of which old-time tobacco-curing methods are only one attraction.
The annual two-day Labor Day weekend event, which draws hundreds of visitors each year, is returning for its 44th installment.
Just as the tobacco-curing is being undertaken by traditional methods, Old Fashioned Farmers’ Days showcases an enormous variety of vintage farming equipment and old-time techniques.
On display throughout the weekend will be antique farm equipment, livestock displays, old-time craft-making demonstrations, a grist mill, a blacksmith shop and premiering this year, a fully-operational sawmill.
Clogging, a kiddie tractor pull and musical performances are also on the program for both Saturday and Sunday. On Sunday morning, Joy Baptist Church will present a church service at the Farm Heritage Park’s Show Barn.
Both days will feature and afternoon “Parade of Power,” a parade of old-time farm equipment.
Also on hand will be vendors offering a variety of food throughout both days, including fried chicken tenders, pork barbecue, hot dogs, Mexican cuisine and ice cream.
But before the festivities get underway when gates open at 9 a.m. Saturday, Ruritans are busy this week preparing, including keeping the tobacco-curing fire burning.
The tobacco, on loan from a Randolph County farmer, will be returned to its grower in finished form after the Labor Day weekend event concludes.
Earlier this week, the commodity was showing the expected progress.
“It’s starting to turn a little bit,” said Harold Rogers, a longtime Ruritan, opening the tobacco barn door Monday morning to reveal the leaves — still a bit green at this stage of the process — hanging inside.
“It’s getting there,” he said.
Throughout the week, Rogers explained, the temperature inside the curing barn will be increased — about five degrees per day — until the process is completed next weekend.
“One of the real joys in doing this is to see the older people come through, talking about how this is the way it used to be done,” Rogers said. “It brings back a lot of memories for a lot of people and it’s exciting to see that response.”
For younger folks, perhaps seeing tobacco hanging in a barn for the first time, Old Fashioned Farmers’ Days is a window into a world they likely wouldn’t get a look through otherwise.
“It’s a very educational experience,” said Bud Hansen, who joined the Silk Hope Ruritan Club after moving to the community from Apex in 2014.
“When you see all this old-fashioned equipment in action — the steam engines running — it’s something else,” said Hansen, who oversees the Ruritans’ website and Facebook page and was busy Monday morning helping man the tobacco-curing fire.
Rogers acknowledged that the two-day event requires “a lot of hard work” from the 70 or so members of the Silk Hope Ruritan Club, as well as the many volunteers who also lend their time and talents to the event.
“But it’s worth it,” Rogers said, “and we look forward to this every year.”
Johnny Johnson, a longtime Ruritan and currently the club’s assistant treasurer, said the two-day event is “weather-dependent.”
Previous installments have been affected by heavy rainfall.
But the forecast for this weekend looks promising, with no rain, though temperatures may return to summertime highs.
“It’s going to be a little warm, but that’s OK,” Johnson said. “We’ll have lots of good things going on here. Something for everybody.”
While Old Fashioned Farmers’ Days is perhaps the Ruritan’s most high-profile event, the organization — chartered in 1954 and active since — it’s not all its members do.
Proceeds from the event help fund the organization’s many community service activities, which include blood drives, roadside clean-ups, assisting those in need in the community, Bingo nights at the nearby Silk Hope Community Center, and awarding an average of approximately $12,000 in annual scholarships for rising high school seniors.
“This is a very community-oriented group,” said Hansen.
Rogers himself was an early recipient of a Silk Hope Ruritan scholarship, receiving $50 towards continuing his education after he graduated from high school in 1960.
Rogers said the Ruritans, still an organization that’s going strong, have been lucky in recent years attracting younger members to keep the club sustainable.
“We’ve been blessed,” he said. “We’re fortunate to have a lot of interest among younger people, students. That’s what keeps us going. We’ve had interest from a second and third generation.”
Old Fashioned Farmers’ Days runs from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 31 (a show by Dewey & Leslie Brown: The Carolina Gentlemen follows in the Barn from 6 to 8 p.m.) and 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 1.
More information on the event can be found online at www.silkhopenc.org.
Randall Rigsbee can be reached at rigsbsee@chathamnr.com.