When George Sollman and son Tim, who farm five miles south of Turtle Lake, decided to harvest some of their crops the old-fashioned way, George’s wife Harriet decided to put on a big feast for all the neighborhood who came to help, just like the threshing bees of the past. That was in August 1984.
Last weekend the Sollman family hosted the 40th annual Threshing Bee, which in recent years was renamed the Old Time Farm Fest as a way to attract the younger generations, many of whom have no idea what a threshing bee even is. Each year the event has grown, now attracting 2,000-3,000 people over the weekend, a few times even more.
“We were just going to have a neighborhood deal with a great big meal, just like the old-time threshers got,” recalled George of the first one as he maneuvered a gator in and around the crowd on Sunday afternoon en route to watching a pair of Percherons owned by Clint Brown of Bruce pull a mower to cut a hay field on the farm. “Then it just got bigger and bigger every year,” he said.
The first threshing bee was such an enjoyable event that the Sollmans decided to do it the next year and the next, eventually passing the coordination of the event on to the Moon Lake Threshermen’s Association, which is a nonprofit organization.
In addition to displays of antique tractors, cars, snowmobiles and gas engines, there are demonstrations of steam-powered threshing, corn shelling and shredding, lumber planing, shingle making, feed grinding, wheat and corn milling, blacksmithing, rugmaking and more. Kids are treated to train rides around a track and all through the farm. Food, music and vendors add to the fun.
The third weekend in August has become the highlight of the year for George, who is 96, and Harriet, at just 92, who will celebrate their 77th wedding anniversary in December.
Tim said his favorite part of hosting the farm event is seeing all the visitors come through, meeting many of them and making new friends each year.
Others have also found it to be a great place to meet people as three married couples who help put on the annual show met there. One of the three, Albert and Kendra Eggert, were married three years ago in front of the lumber yard where they met.
Matt and Kara Norberg of Prairie Farm met there 23 years ago. Matt’s grandpa John Norberg helped Tim find a steam engine for the separator or threshing machine that separates oats from straw. Now their 17-year-old son has been running the Case steam engine and their 15-year-old daughter has been helping out at the saw mill.
Kettlecorn vendor Bradley Garly met his wife Shannon there, and now even with a young family the Chetek couple continues to make time in their schedule for the annual show.
Weather has been good for the show in most of the past four decades, with the threshermen’s club putting it on rain or shine and dealing with the challenges, such as ground being too soft for a tractor pull this year.
George said he hopes the association will keep it going for another 40 years so the younger generations will be able to continue to see how harvests were handled in the past — both with horses as his father used to work his fields and the advancements in farming that came with steam engines.
More information on the threshing bee and club can be found at MoonLakeShow.org or on Facebook.
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