TCHS FFA hard at work

By Beth Christian Broschart
The Parsons Advocate

HAMBLETON – Members of the Tucker County FFA just completed showing their animals during the Tucker County Fair Livestock show and auction and now they are preparing for another contest – the FFA Regional Tractor Driving Contest which will be Sept. 15 at Tucker County High School.
Tucker County FFA members Micah Thompson and Vincent Moats said the contest will be a great opportunity.
“Every school from our region competes in a lawn and garden section and a big tractor contest,” Micah said.
Vincent said at last year’s competition he placed second in the regional and second at state competition. “This year, the state competition will be held at Cedar Lakes during the State Convention,” Vincent said. “It takes lots of practice to be able to get comfortable with what you are doing.”
During the summer, Tucker County FFA operated a greenhouse where they sold 19 varieties of tomatoes and 21 varieties of peppers.
“We also sold broccoli, cauliflower and eggplant,” said TCHS FFA Director Terry Hauser. “We also sold squash, watermelon and kohlrabi plants. Kohlrabi is one plant we are trying to educate the community on. We actually had some of that in the vegetable mix for lunch on Tuesday.”
Kohlrabi has a cabbage flavor and the plant is actually one of the first ones out of the ground in the spring. It is very nutritious and can be used in salad bars or fried with other vegetables.
FFA member Abigail Simmons said she likes kohlrabi and said her favorite way of eating it is in a vegetable medley.
Hauser said some of the students grow vegetables they sell to the school. TCHS is a farm to table school participant.
“I grow sweet corn, cucumbers, beans, lettuce and squash,” Jacob Beavers said. “I sell some at the Tucker County Farmer’s Market.”
Jacob Hauser has sold lots of his produce to the school.
“I have put 40 pounds of cucumbers in and about 10 to 12 pounds of banana peppers,” Jacob said.
The club will be selling mums again this year as a fundraiser, but a specific date for the sale has not been determined.
Andrew Hauser was the first FFA State President from Tucker County. Lindsey Knotts ran for a state office during the State FFA Conference. She attends Potomac State this year, and Hauser said he hopes she will run for an office again.
“The state officers travel through the state and visit schools. This is the first year the officers visited each program in the state – 76 in total,” Hauser said.
This year, another group of students from TCHS will travel to the National FFA Convention. Jeffrey Snider and Jared Bednarz are among those traveling to the convention, held Oct. 13 to 23.
“During the Leaf Peepers Festival we will sell fries and barbeque sandwiches,” Jared said. “We hope people will come out and support us.”