Harvest Festival Sunday

Last Sunday was Harvest Festival time at the South Whidbey Tilth Farmers' Market. I'm slowly getting more stable on my feet after a fall three weeks ago, and was glad to be part of the beautiful day. I took most of these pictures seated on the stumps circling the fire pit. The photos above are that of our friends and Tilth members Paula and Janet Richards and their dog Ollie who was most appreciate of the shade we created for him. Thanks Paula for permission to share your family photo here.

 Above us the Wind and Clouds were creating a harvest dance of great magnificence. My camera loved it, and my eyes embraced them.

 Pete joined me for a selfie on the stumps between his rounds of helping with apple pressing, setting up this and that and generally being busy.

 The Cranberry Bog Bluegrass Band was Harvest Festival entertainment.

 That's Pete playing the "Guess How Many Game"

One of the most gratifying experiences of a Sunday Market is seeing families enjoying the space. This is the Gonzalez Family. Shown here with their permission, I drank in the joyful times they had together, introduced myself and learned a little about them ... truly, a fine expression of the meaning of "harvest."

The Gonzalez family is Yumiko, Emmanuel (9), Michihiro (6), Ren (4) and Ezekiel (1) and Christian.

There was pie! A call to pie makers resulted in a table lined with pies. Each pie maker baked and brought two pies: one to sample and the other to be raffled off.  A $2.00 investment into a single raffle ticket put visitors and pie lovers in line to win a whole pie. Your ticket entitled you to sample ALL or any of the pies. Your favorite pie got your vote (into the Mason jar it went). Before the market closed, winners were drawn and a WHOLE pie was your prize.

Two winners, photographed with their permission, show us how their investments paid off. On the left is Kathryn Burgomaster with a French Apple Pie, on the right is Cormac Nazarian with the Blackberry-Apple Pie.

It takes a lot of energy and many volunteers to pull off events like this. Many thanks to each and every one of the volunteers, and Farmers' Market Manager, Kirstin Clauson for their time and energy. And, to the Elemental Gods and the Eagle who flew above us on his/her way to the water's edge thank you for your blessing, too.