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Shona Jordan, a taxidermist/hide tanner from Pike County, demonstrates to how to skin a hide to a couple of young attendees at the Arkansas Homesteading Conference Saturday at the Cleveland County Fairgrounds in Rison. -
Dr. Amanda McWhirt, fruit tree and berry specialist with the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture discusses starting a home orchard to a packed exhibit hall for the first session of the day.
RISON - The Arkansas Homesteading Conference saw another record-setting crowd this past Saturday as attendees from as far away as Colorado took in the educational event held at the Cleveland County Fairgrounds in Rison."We were expecting to see maybe a slight bump from last year's crowd, but this year's crowd was a lot larger than we anticipated," said Britt Talent, Herald publisher and organizer of the conference.Talent said he had 142 seats in the exhibit hall and 80 in the meeting room for the educational sessions that began at 9 a.m. Saturday. By the time the first session was underway, he said the chairs in both venues were filled and there was standing-room-only crowd, forcing them to add extra chairs to both venues."By the time we figure in the youth, vendors, speakers, demonstrators and staff, we were probably in the neighborhood of 350 people or more," he said. This was the 10th year for the conference and the second time for it to be held at the fairgrounds. It was previously held at the Pioneer Village in Rison to utilize the community garden that was there.Talent said he was surprised At the distance that many traveled to attend. While the majority were from across Arkansas, he said there were also people there from Colorado, Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana. "I visited with one man who said he and his family got up at 4 a.m. to drive in from the Yellville area in northern Arkansas," he said.Homesteading, in its most basic definition, is a desire to become more self-sufficient through subsistence agriculture and home preservation of food, among other things. Talent said most of the people he comes across at the confer(see (continued from page 1) ence want to get into homesteading, but lack the experience. He said that is the reason he places a higher emphasis on education sessions and demonstrations on topics like gardening, raising poultry and livestock, preserving food, herbal remedies, alternative energy, earning income from home and more.This year's…
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