Sometimes the simplest things make the biggest differences. Take hay, for example.

Farmers use hay as feed, as bedding and insulation and as part of responsible land management techniques. As farming practices have evolved over the last few hundred years, hay has remained constant, its use consistent.

As part of its mission, the Swiss Pioneers Preservation Association (SPPA) is recognizing and featuring the nutritious, fiber-rich feed as part of its Hay Days celebration.

"It's supposed to be educational," said organizer Raymond Zimmerman of Hay Days. "We want to show people how farmers farm. People outside of farming circles don't realize how important hay is. Hay is important because farmers want to keep the animals fed over the winter. In the spring, more higher-energy feed is used. In the 1700s and 1800s, it was either muscle or horsepower, so hay was important."

SPPA will present this year's edition of its annual Hay Days from 1 to 8 p.m. on Friday, July 31, and from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 1, at Big Spring Farm, 735 Spruce Road, New Holland. The community event is free to attend, and all are welcome.

There will be plenty of parking available in the meadow, and horse-drawn wagons will transport visitors to the main events area.

Hay Days will feature demonstrations of hay making and storage on the farm throughout the years. The event will include early tools, tractors, displays, mowers, loaders and balers.

There will also be saw milling, stone crushing and pulverizing, horse training, meat smoking, corn shelling, log sawing and weaving and spinning demonstrations, as well as singing and tours of the 1786 Peter Martin log cabin. Food like pulled pork, sausage, iron kettle soups, freshly baked bread and ice cream will be available for lunch or supper.

"We work with the weather that God gives us," said Zimmerman. "We demonstrate how hay is processed and put into the barn. We go through it step by step, and we show 25 different steps. There's always a concern of getting the hay in the barn before it rains on it.

"We just do what farmers do," he added. "We have a lot of horses in our event."

As many as 1,000 total visitors are expected to attend during both sessions of SPPA's Hay Days.

"There's no one else who does hay demonstrations like this," said Zimmerman, a resident of New Holland. "There are a lot of people who haven't seen this before."

SPPA began hosting Hay Days in 2015.

"We do sort of the same types of things and (have) gotten better at them," said Zimmerman. "We started by sharing the hand tools."

Overseen by a governing board, SPPA consists of 150 members and a similar amount of people interested in the nonprofit. SPPA's mission is "to explore the past way of life and preserve the religious values and character of the Swiss pioneers."

"We want to inspire our communities with the stories of the faithful Swiss pioneers, who, in the fear of God, followed Jesus through fire, water and pestilence to come to the new world, and specifically to the Weaver Valley for religious freedom," said Zimmerman. "Our goals are to preserve, teach and demonstrate, and to establish a museum for the present and future generations.

"We're sort of quite unique," concluded Zimmerman. "We want to put more emphasis on education than entertaining. We want to make it interesting."

For additional information, go to https://swisspioneers.org.