On Saturday October 5, 2024 we had a TCOC Triumph drive to Butner, NC for the Granville Harvest Show. It was a beautiful sunny and warm day. The leaves were just starting to turn color along the way. We drove back roads up to the Show. The view was gorgeous out across Falls Lake as we drove Old Weaver Trail past the lake. We then took Cash Road and Gate2 Road up to Butner.

As we entered the show there was a display of old kitchen ware and then a display of old tools. We then immediately walked over to the “Hit and Miss” engine displays. There were some very large ones and some scale models. We met Lester Staub by the Hit and Miss engines, also a fan of these engines. We had long conversations with the owners of the engines who explained the history of their engines and how they functioned. We then went over to a large display of scale model engines. The owner and his father made most of the scale models themselves, including one that had a miniature working hay bailer attached that was driven by the scale model engine. It is amazing how he built it. He had several different types of scale models of old engines including gasoline driven and steam driven. He thoroughly explained his model building techniques and  demonstrated several of them.

The display of old tractors was interesting and there were some beautifully restored really old tractors. There were John Deeres, Farmalls, McCormicks, and other makes. I especially liked the old two cylinder John Deeres that we used to call “Johnny Poppers”
because of the engine sound. We walked around some more and came upon a “Hit and Miss” engine driving a sorghum squeezer to get the juice out. They gave us a taste of the squeezens and it was nice and sweet. There was also an apple juice booth where they were squeezing the juice out of the apples. They had apple juice available in jars to buy.

Since it was about lunch time we made it over to the Kitchen and had
a couple bowls of the very good. Brunswick stew cooked in a very large diameter cast iron cauldron over an open fire. It was free but we
donated a few dollars to help pay for the ingredients. We also got some free biscuits cooked in an old time oven, sausage biscuit and ham biscuit.

We walked the aisleway of vendor booths. We got a sample of several of the local honeys. Frank tried the Buckwheat honey. It was very dark and had a very unique flavor. Since it was quite warm we decided to get some cooling ice cream, but unfortunately they had sold out by then.

Later on as it was getting toward the middle of the afternoon we decided to head for the Kitchen again. As we approached the Kitchen one of the ladies there called us over and asked if we wanted to  participate in the cake contest judging. Of course we were glad to help with that! There were eight different cakes entered in the contest. The ladies in charge cut a small but good sized piece of cake from each of the eight cakes and placed them all on a plate with a number beside each piece. We were then asked to sample each cake and then input the number of our favorite cake into the voting box. Of course we did more than just eat a sample of each cake, we ate all of all eight pieces. That was a lot of very delicious cake. Both Frank and I voted for cake number five. I’m not sure of the name of the cake. But it had a pineapple ring on the top along with wafers of almonds and a very
sweet frosting.

Since it was late afternoon, we decided to head back to Raleigh after an enjoyable day at the Harvest Show. Thanks to Lester Staub for the pictures from the show.

Filed by Bob & Frank Suchy