MILTON, Pa. — The latest coronavirus cancellation hits home for farmers across the Keystone State.
The 2021 Pennsylvania Farm Show will be a virtual affair in January.
There will be no in-person competitions at all at the farm show arena in Harrisburg.
One of those competitions is Sheep to Shawl, where teams shear a sheep and weave its coat into a shawl in record time.
One of the most successful Sheep To Shawl teams is Time Warp from the Northumberland County area.
"We had a feeling that it was probably going to be canceled," Time Warp weaver Libby Beiler said. "Most of us on the team either have an underlying health condition or live with someone who has an underlying health condition."
"I wasn't looking forward to going down to be in that crowd because even though you're in that arena and it's just your team that you're real close to, you still have to go through the crowd," Time Warp spinner Katherine Dashner said.
The Time Warp team spends the entire year gearing up for the Pennsylvania Farm Show.
"We already had our theme, and what we were going to do pretty much worked out," Beiler said.
Even though competitions are canceled, the farm show said it will be having virtual events next year focused on education and awareness for farmers and the general public.
In one back-handed way, the Time Warp team is glad to have the extra time to brainstorm for 2022.
"We can talk about going off in another direction or doing something different, and there's just more time to perfect the next prize-winning shawl," Dashner said.
The theme of the farm show in 2021 will be cultivating tomorrow, highlighting the agriculture community's resilience during the pandemic.
The virtual event is scheduled for January 9 through the 15.