Hilltown Families 
Celebrating Sustainability and Local Food at the 7th Annual North Amherst Harvest Festival
7th Annual North Amherst Harvest Festival
Sunday, September 23rd
Have you ever made your own cornmeal, or dyed your own fabric using wildflowers? Families can do all of these things and more at the North Amherst Harvest Festival on Sun, Sept 23rd from 12noon-5pm at the North Amherst Community Farm at 1089 N. Pleasant Street in North Amherst. This is a free rain or shine event (>$ parking). (Photo credit: Sienna Wildfield)
When was the last time that you enjoyed a bike-power-blended smoothie? Have you ever made your own cornmeal, or dyed your own fabric using wildflowers? Families can do all of these things and more at the North Amherst Harvest Festival!
The harvest festival takes place on Sunday, September 23rd from 12noon-5pm at the North Amherst Community Farm (NACF), a farm run as a grassroots project to provide affordable, locally and sustainably grown food to the community. The festival will include seasonal activities like hayrides and cider pressing, along with live music, local food, face painting, games, and other family activities.
A range of fun children’s activities will be offered throughout the day, including pumpkin bowling, face painting, operating a cider press and making your own smoothie using a kid-sized blender bike! (Photo credit: Sienna Wildfield)
In addition, the festival offers a plethora of hands-on opportunities! Kids can participate in pumpkin bowling, cider pressing, using fresh local apples and a manual press to extract delicious juice. Hayrides offer an opportunity to tour the farm fields – families can see the fields and animals, and learn about the farm’s biodiversity soil-rejuvenating practices. There will also be hand-crank food mills on hand for families to try out making their own homemade cornmeal – kids can hand-pluck dried kernels from the cob and use their own muscle power to grind the kernels into meal… and after all of that hard work, they can enjoy a smoothie blended using bike power!
Each activity is sure to be fun and exciting for kids of nearly any age, and each offers a unique learning opportunity. By participating in food processing, kids can become more aware of how food products are created and the amount of effort that is necessary to produce them. In touring the farm, they can become familiarized with farm machinery, farm practices, and farm animals, and can begin to develop a deeper connection to their food. Bring learning full circle by enjoying a local dinner together after the festival! For more information, visit www.nacfonline.org.
This year, NACF is collaborating with Amherst Community Connections (ACC) and Craig’s Doors, two local non-profits offering services to those in the community who are homeless, or at risk of becoming homeless. Hwei-Ling Greeney of ACC will oversee the food production for the Festival utilizing volunteers recruited from NACF, ACC, Craig’s Doors and The Amherst Survival Center. In return, a portion of NACF’s Festival proceeds will be shared between these agencies. The organizational missions of these groups all share a common concern for the issue of local food security.
Wonderful – I’ve been there every year in the past, and wish I could this year too!