Ontario's Queen of the Furrow coming to the area this weekend

Ontario’s Queen of the Furrow will be in the area over the next few days promoting the 2019 International Plowing Match and Rural Expo that’s coming to Verner next month.

Derika Nauta will be at J&J Equipment Repair on Chiswick Line, Powassan from 1-3 pm tomorrow (Friday).

She’ll be answering questions about the event, RV Park and volunteer opportunities.

Nauta says there’s three parts to the plowing match.

“The first is the competitive plowing, where they use both tractors and horses. But, the International Plowing Match also has the Tented City, which is where they transform hundreds of acres into where you can find hundreds of vendors, live music, entertainment, there’s rodeos, lots of education tents and demonstrations,” she says. “The third part is the RV Park, which is always a hoot, so it’s a great place to go after a day at the IPM and they have lots of entertainment and there’s lots of laughs there.”

Nauta is the daughter of a Tavistock dairy farmer and says as Queen of the Furrow, she’s looking to bridge the gap between urban and rural.

“My goal is for those that are in agriculture to be more of an advocate and not being scared to speak up and supporting those that are maybe in more rural areas that don’t know much about agriculture, just being open to teach, and everyone being open to learning,” she says.

On top of tomorrow’s event in Powassan, Nauta will be in North Bay on Saturday at the Farmer’s Market and the Quilt Show in West Nipissing, then at the Feast On The Farm event on Sunday at Leisure Farms.

This is only the second time the International Plowing Match has come north in the 102 years of the event.

IPM 2019 goes September 17th to 21st in Verner.