Harvest Fest offers fun activities in celebration of local growers
A cool, crisp autumn breeze set the perfect mood for the city's second annual Harvest Fest, held in Eggleston Park Saturday afternoon. The festival was organized by the Evanston Ecology Center in conjunction with the Department of Parks and Recreation.
The organizers have structured the festival to be a fun, family-friendly event which features such kid-friendly activities as pumpkin painting, marshmallow toasting, and the chance to make a real, not-so-live scarecrow. There was also music, pumpkin bowling and tours through the park's unique collection of food-related educational spaces, including the Food Forest and Bee Apiary.
Laura Nusekabel, a Department of Parks and Recreation program coordinator for gardens and natural areas, said that "part of the mission behind this event was to celebrate local agriculture...we have a lot of groups in Evanston that are doing really great work...we work with them in this space to grow food for the community. We wanted to celebrate those efforts..."
The festival received sponsorship this year from Whole Foods, McGaw YMCA and Windy City Garden Center, which supplied many, many pumpkins for painting and decorating. Additional support and participation came from community organizations and nonprofits concerned with growing and cultivating food for local consumption, such as Edible Evanston, Evanston Grows and the Evanston Environmental Association.
Linda Kruhmin, a co-leader of Edible Evanston, was supervising a craft project, as well as offering tours of the park's half-acre Food Forest, where the group's volunteers grow perennial plants vertically to make "use of all the vertical space" available. The food is eventually harvested and sent to local food pantries.
Attendees Ridho and Vidya Mohamed spent some time helping their two little boys build a scarecrow. Though the children were engrossed with the fun activities on offer at the event, their father said he was glad that "they learn about the environment...I think it's important in the context of climate change." With that, he and his wife soon directed the boys' attention back to the challenging task of creating a head for their scarecrow.
