Our 5th Annual Harvest Fair and Pumpkin Patch is this Saturday from 10 am to 4 pm. We go all out for this event and we’ll have something for everybody–animals, rides, crafts, facepainting, gourmet food, apple cider pressing, apple tasting, great music, demonstration bee hive, bagpipes, farm tours, and more! Here’s the rundown.
Organic Pumpkin Patch: Clip your Halloween and cooking pumpkins straight off the vine in our pumpkin patch. We have classic Jack-o-Lantern style (35₵/lb), beautiful and delicious Rouge Vif d’Etampe or Cinderella (50₵/lb), and compact Winter Luxury baking pumpkins (80₵/lb).
Stop by our Mini-Produce Market to check out some of the other winter squashes we grew this year – heirloom hubbards, butternuts, green and orange kabochas, and carnivals. We’ll also feature several apple varieties, strawberries, and other vegetable goodies.
Visit the Apple Tasting table to try many varieties of heirloom and other apples both from our farm and from local heirloom fruit enthusiasts Freddy Menge and Ellen Baker.
Pony and Horse Rides are usually the biggest draw for the younger set. We will have a pony for the littlest kids, and 2 or 3 horses for the bigger kids. Rides will happen throughout the day with staggered breaks for the animals. Everyone who wants to will get to ride at least once. The pony will not stay until the very end, so get to the pony area before 3:00 if you have little kids who want pony rides.
Live Music: This year we will feature 3 acts—Brett Fowler will be back again on solo guitar and vocals to grace us with his lovely voice, singing tunes we know and love. Local music teacher Mike Rindt will impress us with his finger-picking solo guitar. And be here about mid-day for a half-hour demonstration on bagpipes—both Highland and Scottish small pipes—from none other than beekeeper Keith Kimes.
Keith will also bring a Demonstration Bee Hive, and be available from 10 am to 2 pm to answer questions about chemical free beekeeping and the honey his bees produce from hives located on our farm.
Farm Arts and Crafts: Make a cornhusk doll, create your own vegetable critter, draw a face on a real “egghead” that grows green hair, stuff a scarecrow, or make a collage with beans and glue. Or let us decorate you at our face-painting station!
No farm festival is complete without a Hay Ride. Hop on the tractor-pulled hay ride and get a tour of the farm from Farmer Steve. He’ll stop along the way to point things out and talk about the ways we farm here. Keep an 
eye out for interesting birds–white pelicans can usually be seen from our perch above the slough, along with egrets, herons, raptors, terns… Tractor rides run all day long (with short breaks for Steve now and then).
The Petting Zoo this year will be small but sweet. We expect to be visited by Cupcake the hair sheep and maybe a bunny friend as well. We know how fun it is to feed animals, so there will be an animal Feeding Station this year, so that you can feed goats and cows (through the fence). Can you identify all nine of our goats? We’ll have a Spot the Goats guide for you to follow.
Steve’s gathering up the culls from the apple crop to turn into fresh delicious cider—be ready to turn the crank on the Apple Cider Press and help squeeze that apple pulp. Jeanne gathered a few crates of Meyer and Eureka lemons from the Thomas Farm yesterday which we’ll be combining with our strawberries to make some super-delicious refreshing Strawberry Lemonade. The weather forecast is for a warm sunny weekend, so these drinks will be just the thing!
Last but not least is the Gourmet Harvest Fair Barbecue. This is your chance to taste some of Chef Andrew Cohen’s culinary creations. Using fresh vegetables from the farm, Andrew and his helpers will make organic veggie kabobs with a special dipping sauce, several side salads (kale, potato, cabbage), and quickles to go with our natural hot dog barbecue.
There is an entrance fee for the Harvest Festival of $10/adult, $5/child, 3 and under free. The entrance fee covers pony/horse rides, hay rides, all crafts, music, bee demonstration, animal activities, and apple tasting. Items available for additional purchase include pumpkins, produce, and prepared food and drinks. All proceeds go to Linscott Charter School in Watsonville—in return, Linscott teachers, parents, and students volunteer to help make the event a success.
Our goal with this event is to provide a fun and educational day on a real working farm for children and adults alike. We hope that you’ll all come out and join us, and tell your friends too!
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