Well, it was quite interesting. There were two divisions: stock (as is) and modified. There were two "lanes" with a starting judge in the middle. Here's the starting judge saying, "Gentlemen (or ladies), start your tillers!" Also, as any tiller starter worth his salt, he's wearing overalls; even if the temperature was almost 100F.
Here's two of the stock tillers "racing" down the strip.
Next come a couple of the modified tillers. Both were fast and kicked up a lot of dirt.
We heard several complaints about the rule changes for the tiller races this year. Seems like the size of the engine on the modified tillers has been significantly reduced. Last year the modified tillers really roared down the track - some with large motorcycle engines. Oh well, maybe they'll revisit the rule changes after this year's festival.One of the highlights of the festival for us was the pea sheller - this was a cool machine. Here's the sheller on its trailer.
The peas (purple hull of course) are added to the top - about a half-bushel.
The peas come out the side.
And the hulls drop out the bottom.
The pea sheller was able to shell a half-bushel of peas in 2-3 minutes. Wow - that would take me half of a day. We bought a half-bushel of shelled peas and brought them home to HSV. They look yummy. Naturally, we had lunch of peas, corn bread, peach cobbler, and SWEET iced tea.There were also several antique tractors on display.
However, my guess is many of these are still used on a regular basis.I don't know if we'll ever return to the Purple Pea Festival. Now that we've "been there and done that", we can mark it off the list. However, if you've never seen tiller races, it's an event of a lifetime.
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