40th Annual Threshing Bee event

The Threshing Bee in Granite, Iowa, is the largest free admission show in the Midwest and the goal of the event is to bring people back to the basics of farming.

The town of Granite is holding its 40th annual threshing event. They have this event not only to bring the community together, but give them a learning opportunity.

“We’d bring them out here to learn what things were going on with the tractors and how they did the field work and everything just gave them ideas comparing to nowadays. And I think it’s very educational and very good for them to learn,” the Bruner family said.

The event included demonstrations of a thrashing machine and sawmill. The Bruner family says it helps show people what life on the farm used to be like.

“And to compare people understanding how tractors really work and what they did in the hard work with the corn and the wheat. And just to show what it used to be like to live back then,” the Bruner family said.

Some of the people here are no strangers to the agriculture concept of the Threshing Bee.

“It’s a hobby for a lot of us. You know, a lot of us that grew up with this stuff, we enjoyed it. We did. We want to pass it on, but it’s a hobby, too,” Threshing Bee founder Darrel Hansen said.

For others this event helps them stay true to their roots.

“It’s agriculture and we’re born and raised here in the Midwest. And as things progress, I guess we don’t want to really forget where we came from,” Hansen said.

The Threshing Bee continues Sunday starting at 7 a.m. with a pancake feed. Events run until 3 p.m.