Last Updated on October 26, 2026 4:35 pm
The 69th Annual Farm City Banquet will be held on Thursday, Nov. 5, at 6 p.m. at the Boone United Methodist Church. According to the late RG Shipley, who helped organize the first Farm City Banquet, this long-standing community event was first held in Cove Creek just over 70 years ago.
The banquet and awards ceremony is organized annually by the Watauga County Cooperative Extension to celebrate the heritage of agriculture and recognize its continued importance in our local economy. The event is also hosted by many communities nationally. The very first “Farm City Week” took place in 1955 after a conversation between a Vermont businessman and the Chairman of the Kiwanis International Agriculture and Conservation Committee. Seated on a train together, they discussed how farm income was declining across the country while farm costs were on the rise, and that farm folks and city people were drifting farther and farther apart. The National Farm-City Committee was created shortly thereafter and was coordinated by Kiwanis International until 1988 when the American Farm Bureau Federation assumed the responsibility. The event has been held in Watauga County and across the state ever since, and Watauga Farm Bureau continues to provide platinum sponsorship for the event. National Farm City Week is designated as the week before Thanksgiving, but County Extension Director Jim Hamilton says “We’ve been celebrating Farm City the first Thursday in November for over 20 years as weather can begin having an impact on roads later in the month, and plus, Watauga County has always been ahead of the curve!”
The annual banquet includes a dinner, sourced from local farms and catered again this year by JP Mason & Coyote Kitchen. Following dinner, awards will be presented by commodity groups to their respective producers of the year, and the Watauga Soil and Water District will present the Farm Family of the Year award. The Boone Chamber of Commerce will present the “Tuckwiller Award” to recognize achievements in Community & Economic Development in memory of the late Lake Ernest Tuckwiller, past Watauga County Farm Agent. Several other awards are also presented to those in the farming, civic, and business community that have made significant contributions to agriculture and the economy, businesses, and volunteers that support it. Other awards include: the “Youth in Ag Award” presented to a standout in Watauga High’s FFA program; the “Outstanding in their Field” award, presented by Blue Ridge Women in Agriculture; the “Community Volunteer Award” presented by Cooperative Extension; the “Conservation Award” presented by Blue Ridge Conservancy; and the “Charles Church Sustainability Award” presented by the Sustainable Development Department at Appalachian State.
The event also includes music and door prizes of baskets full of locally produced foods and other goodies. This year, acclaimed local artist Richard Tumbleston, who has supported the event for decades with donations of his original artwork, will be unveiling a special art project for the Watauga County Agricultural Services Center.
Each year at the banquet, Extension hosts a canned food drive. Guests are asked to please bring canned food items to be given to area food banks. Additional sponsors for the event include New River Building Supply and Southern Ag.
Tickets are $15 per person (children 5 and under eat for free; children 6-12, $5) and can be purchased at the NC Cooperative Extension Office, 971 W. King St., Boone. No tickets will be sold at the door and ticket sales are limited to 225. For more info, please call 828-264-3061.
