Mark your calendars: The Youth Garden Project’s 7th Annual Harvest Festival on September 20 brings live music, family activities, and a $100 corn competition back to the land where Grand County’s champion corn growers dominated contests 80 years ago.
What makes this connection even more remarkable? The festival site sits on property once farmed by the very family whose corn was so exceptional it earned Grand County recognition as Utah’s “corn belt.”
A champion’s legacy lives on
Cory Farnsworth, USU Extension’s Agriculture Agent, discovered this connection through family history. His great-grandfather, R.L. Holyoak (Richard Leroy), lived in the Shaffer House— where the Youth Garden Project now operates— and farmed much of the surrounding area, including current high school land.
“For a long time, Moab was growing corn good enough that most people believed it may be the best corn in Utah, if not the west,” Farnsworth explained.
According to historical newspaper archives, Grand County corn won first, second, fourth, and fifth place at an international corn show in Chicago, competing against other western states. The 1920s and 1930s saw Moab earning recognition as Utah’s “corn belt” with local competitions that drew serious attention to kernel size, ear dimensions, and weight.
R.L. Holyoak dominated these contests, winning the trophy in 1938, 1939, and 1941. The original trophy—requiring three wins to claim permanently—still exists in the Farnsworth family.
The old corn crib still stands between the Youth Garden Project and the high school, a tangible reminder of when corn “supplied the whole neighborhood” and people “helped themselves to it with and without permission,” said Farnsworth.
Full circle: Modern festival, historic traditions
This year’s Harvest Festival embraces that heritage with corn as the central theme. A $100 cash prize awaits the best ear of corn in the Blue Ribbon Produce Contest—open to any variety, including field corn “too rank to eat.”
“It feels pretty cool to have the contest in the same place that some of the winning ears were grown 80 years ago,” Farnsworth noted.
USU Extension has partnering with YGP to create an annual produce exhibition with ribbons and cash prizes, rotating the “sweepstakes competition” each year. After corn in 2025, largest pumpkin will take center stage in 2026.
For Jade Valdez, YGP’s coordinator, learning about the land’s agricultural history felt like destiny.
“It’s incredible that 50 years later, we’re able to honor the history of agriculture in Grand County, and that this land is still being used to feed our community,” she said. “It goes to show the hard work and dedication that has gone into sustaining Moab’s passion for local grown foods for so many generations.”
This year’s festivities
The Blue Ribbon Produce Contest welcomes all growers—amateur to professional—with categories for vegetables, fruits, and preserved goods. Produce entries will be judged prior to the event’s start. Please drop off your produce entries at YGP on Friday, September 19 from 5-7 p.m. or Saturday, September 20 from 9-11 a.m.
This year features Salt Lake City bands The Last Wild Buffalo and Bridging Betty, playing for the first time in Moab.
Corn-themed activities include a corn shucking competition to crown a festival queen or king, grilled corn options, corn-infused cob-oven quesadillas, and honey butter sweet corn cookies.
Also new this year is “Jar Wars”—a preserves competition for pickles, jams, salsas, and fruit butters in the People’s Choice Tasting Contest. Submissions are accepted at YGP during the week leading up to the event during office hours or during produce drop off hours.
Family activities remain core to the experience: pin-the-tail on Butternut (YGP’s beloved farm cat), donut on a string, face painting, and flower crown making. Underdog Rescue brings puppies, and the library rolls in with their book bike.
USU Extension will host educational booths, seeking local farmers and students to showcase animals and produce.
For Valdez, events like Harvest Festival serve a crucial role in reconnecting Moab with local food production.
“The more we celebrate local food production as a community, the more we see residents taking action in their own ways,” she explained. “Whether that’s gardening in your backyard, shopping at your local co-op, or volunteering for farms such as YGP.”
She emphasized Moab’s dual challenge as both a geographic and food desert for many residents, making local agriculture efforts especially meaningful.
“For the past 50 years, it has taken a passionate commitment to continue to feed our town, and it provides hope for the next 50 years to come,” Valdez said.
The partnership with USU Extension aligns perfectly with both organizations’ missions of connecting people with food from seed to table while honoring Grand County’s agricultural heritage.
As Farnsworth noted, the timing aligns well with historical county fairs, when “Grand County used to be filled with farms and orchards.”
“Our goal is to remind people where their food comes from and to reward good growers and encourage others,” he said.
For complete contest rules and festival details, visit youthgardenproject.org or contact USU Extension at 435-797-1485.
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