Rite of summer: Burlington County Farm Fair opens

Mindy the goat hates taking baths and didn't much like being separated from her mother, Dani, or her twin brother, Phil, both still relaxing in their stalls.

"Oh, she can be moody when she wants to be," said Colleen Layton of Juliustown, clapping from the grandstands as her 8-year-old son, Harrison, paraded - perhaps pulled - the brown-and-white doe past the showmanship judge for a blue ribbon.

And what a head of hair on Mickey the sheep, who was not quite finished being sheered by Amanda Thomson, 13, of Columbus.

"Baaa," Mickey said.

Luckily, all of John Gossard's homing pigeons had returned safely to their cages.

"I got a great group of birds," said the 45-year-old Browns Mills resident.

Wednesday was opening day of the Burlington County Farm Fair in Lumberton, an annual rite of summer, which organizers say will draw more than 50,000 spectators before the 4-H animal tents are drawn up and the Ferris wheel and midway games are taken down Saturday night.

Bill Spicer, 82, who along with his wife, Carolyn, 72, has organized the event for the last 28 years, sat behind his folding table in a little red shack by the horse tent and antique barn.

Things have changed over the years, he said. The county's fewer farmers mean fewer animals, he said, remembering that when he first started with the fair, Burlington County had more than 100 dairy farms.

"Now," he said, "there are just two or three."

Yet more residential development has led to larger crowds.

"It's still the best ticket around," he said. "Where else can you go for 10 bucks [for parking] and be entertained the whole afternoon?"

By midmorning, the swelling fairgrounds smelled sweetly of funnel cake, pig races were about to begin, and a ventriloquist performed. The dunk tank was being filled.

Behind the cow tent, Jack Scholz, 12, of Medford, was scrubbing down Charlotte, a 1,500-pound Holstein.

"She's sweet," he said. "She likes people."

A few tents over, someone asked Isabella Morgan, 14, of Cookstown, to see her grumpiest rabbit.

"This is Delilah," Melanie Morgan said, lifting the droopy-eared creature into her daughter's arms. "Sometimes she grunts. Have you ever heard of a grunting rabbit?"

Nearby, 4-year-old Brynn Riches was standing on her tiptoes, staring wide-eyed at a snake the color of candy corn.

"His name is Malcolm," said the handler.

"Cool," the little girl said.

On the midway, Jacob Inness, 16, of York, Pa., and his crew had finished setting up the shooting gallery.

"We pulled up tent in Freehold on Sunday and have been here setting up since Monday," he said as the Ferris wheel cars swayed above him. "It's been hot. Real hot."

Kody Toomey, 15, of Mount Laurel, and his friends from Lenape High School were hanging at a booth selling sporty windshield decals.

They're too old for the animals, they said, but they were looking forward to a night on the midway.

"It's a great place to meet girls," Toomey said, his friends nodding in agreement.