WELSH — The Welsh Thershmen’s Association is holding their old-time rice harvest festival this Saturday at the threshers’ field adjacent to the Welsh Airport field.

The Old Time Rice Threshing Day will be held 10 a.m.-2 p.m. at the Welsh Airport field on Rowson Road, just south of Interstate 10.

Admission is free, and parking is available on-site.

Threshermen’s Association member Suzie Daniel Marcantel said the family-friendly is a way to welcome fall by stepping back in time and seeing how rice was harvested in the late 1800s and mid-1990s.

“We want to share this perspective of our history,” Marcantel said. “The rawness of the labor, the hard work and ingenuity and appreciation of how our heritage has cultivated our communities and current rice farming practices.”

Spectators can get a taste of yesteryear by watching as antique threshing machines and wagons collect shocks of rice from the field and separate the rice from the straw.

“This is our way of keeping the tradition alive and teaching everybody how the rice went from the field to the table,” she said.

New this year, there will be a milling machine. The group hopes to sell bags of rice.

Several antique tractors and vintage farm equipment will also be on display and children can play in the large piles of rice straw and ride on the wagons.

Food and t-shirts will also be sold.