Ag Day opens Harvest Fair

<p>A rite of autumn got underway Friday at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds with the revival of a longheld tradition.</p><p>Some 2,000 school children flooded the fairgrounds for the Sonoma County Harvest Fair's traditional opening — Ag Day — an annual, much anticipated field trip that was briefly eliminated in 2008 when budget problems forced the fair to cut its run to two days.</p><p>This year, Ag Day was reinstated after fair officials decided that some things — in this case, an opportunity to highlight the county's agricultural heritage and industries — can't be cut.</p><p>“We had a lot of kids saying, ‘What the heck.' and a lot of teachers too,” said Anne Marie Przyblyskg, the fair's publicist.</p><p>“I was really angry,” said Sue Storc, a fifth grade teacher at St. Rose Elementary who said Friday that 2008 was the first time in 24 years that she hadn't been able to bring her students.</p><p>“It's a wonderful way to connect the kids with agriculture and the community,” Storc said.</p><p>She spoke as she and a colleague dispersed 80 fifth and sixth graders into the heart of the fair, now in its 35th year.</p><p>Some wandered the aisles of a barn holding a variety of goats, making such comments as: “Can I touch it?” “Is it a boy or a girl?” “Nice manners.” </p><p>Jasmin Gongora, a Burbank Elementary School 6th grader, was asked about her favorite animals. (“Other than your classmates,” said her teacher, Ross Hause.)</p><p>Gongora said she wanted a baby goat at home.</p><p>“They were cute,” she said.</p><p>A classmate was less enthusiastic about the livestock.</p><p>“I didn't like the cows — kind of stinky,” said Jorge Villafuerte, a first-time visitor.</p><p>The influx of students, along with first-day visitors arriving for winetasting and an art show, is expected to push the three-day attendance back up to pre-2008 levels, which hovered around 20,000. Last year, attendance was 13,643.</p><p>In the line forming by Grace Pavilion for the noon winetasting, a Portland, Ore., couple said they were eagerly anticipating a taste of Sonoma County wines.</p><p>“We really don't know what to expect,” said Catherine Archibald, 32.</p><p>Her boyfriend, Roger Fitzsimon — a 35-year-old Englishman who three months moved to the United States — said the fair was part of his cultural education.</p><p>“I'm pretty new to wine, more of a beer drinker, really. I'm keen to find out more about it,” he said. “I'm just trying to develop that, really — more civilized.”</p><p>On Saturday and Sunday from 12:30 to 5 p.m., the fair offers wine tastings organized by winery. The $7 admission doesn't include the $6 fair entry, but does include a tasting glass and two tasting tickets. Additional tasting tickets are four for $6.</p><p>The fair will feature a microbrew beer tasting from 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday. The $15 admission includes a glass and five tasting tickets.</p><p>A wide variety of art and craft displays and activites ranging from scarecrow building to wagon rides are also offered through the weekend.</p><p>On Sunday there will be sheepdog trials, a giant pumpkin weigh-in, and beekeeping demonstrations.</p>