There she is...

“Every girl wants a tiara,’’ Mrs. Essex County said with a smile. “I set myself a list of things I was going to do before I turn 50, and this was one of ’em.’’

Bonanno won the crown on her second attempt, at the end of last year’s fair, a couple of weeks before her birthday. Fallen leaves rustled around the farm stand as she set out stacks of brochures promoting this year’s Topsfield Fair - where her successor will soon be crowned - and the local agriculture website northeastharvest.com. There was a big piece of cardboard covered with Topsfield Fair snapshots that was supposed to form a backdrop for her table, but the breeze kept blowing it over. Without interrupting her conversation or dirtying her outfit, she grabbed four or five pumpkins and used them to prop the cardboard in place.

She emphasized one point: “Mrs. Essex County is not a beauty pageant. There is no swimsuit competition. Put that in, so people know. . . . They’re looking for a person who can be a spokesperson. My job is to be the ambassador for the fair.’’

Entrants don’t have to be farmers, just at least 18, married, and living in Essex County with their husband. There are women hereabouts who would contest the tiara comment, the husband rule, or the whole notion of the pageant, which does have categories for appearance, poise, personality, and food (each contestant cooks a dish). But Bonanno is too busy to get tangled up in that debate.

She and her husband raised three children while running Pleasant Valley Gardens farm in Methuen, with help from family, three international interns, and six Jamaican workers who return year after year to the farm’s 60 acres of fields. Already this morning she was on the production line packing up boxes of produce for customers of Pleasant Valley’s new community-supported agriculture program. The farm produces lots of lettuce and mums, and recently branched out into more upscale products such as romaine hearts and esoterica like the maxixe, a cucumber-like vegetable from Brazil.

“Forward thinking is always the way to go,’’ she said. “People are more conscious of what they’re eating and where it’s produced. Eating locally grown is great for the environment and great for everybody.’’

Hands-on when needed and always busy with distribution, she’s a big part of keeping the farm running, said her husband, Richard, a fourth-generation farmer. He said he wasn’t looking forward to losing her to her fair duties, though.

“It’s pretty easy to get me to agree to something a year out,’’ he said. “It hit me a week ago that she’s going to be gone for 13 days.’’ A growing season that’s winding down a little earlier than usual made it slightly easier to contemplate.

It’s good to have a woman who’s a farmer herself as queen, said Lisa Colby, who was hosting Mrs. Essex County on that day. Bonanno’s reign has focused on promoting local growers as well as the fair and its operator, the Essex Agricultural Society. As she walked down the farm drive to see the Colbys’ latest litters of piglets, Bonanno said it’s about “educating kids who think milk comes in cartons.’’

Past winners tend to stay involved. Society president Priscilla Gerrard was Mrs. Essex County in 1998; pageant cochairwoman Cathy Carroll won the sash the following year.

“That was a life-changing moment,’’ said Carroll, as she folded event invitations in the fair offices a week before opening day.

Bonanno’s duties at the fair take in everything from introducing performers to judging contests, rushing from one end of the fairgrounds to another from morning till night. On Monday, she’ll help her successor learn the way of the tiara. Hints for the fair include: dress in layers, and bring shoes with flat heels.

“That is another thing Mrs. Essex really has to have,’’ said Gerrard. “An infinite stockpile of energy.’’

“That and a great support system,’’ said Carroll. “We do ask them to spend 10 full days here. She’s going to get here at 10 o’clock in the morning and go home at 10 o’clock at night.’’

At least one of this weekend’s hopefuls has an even stronger tie to the fairgrounds than Bonanno did when she was crowned: Gina Fawcett of Beverly got married in the 4-H building last year.

“I’ve been going to the fair since I was born, probably while I was in the womb still,’’ Fawcett said. The 28-year-old Tufts Health Plan employee began raising rabbits in a 4-H club when she was 8, and she’s been involved ever since. Early on, a fairground wedding became her dream. She married longtime beau Christopher Shaughnessy there last year, “and all the 4-H’ers in my club were my junior bridesmaids.’’

Fawcett met Mrs. Essex County 2008, Karen Ross Moniz, while planning her wedding, and started thinking of entering. Wearing the sash “would be a good way to promote 4-H, to get people to notice that 4-H still exists and it’s not just farm animals,’’ she said, already sounding like a fair spokeswoman.

Applications for the pageant are accepted up to the last minute, even today. If interested, call Coolidge Hall at the fairgrounds, 978-887-5586.