We’ve been busy at the auction! As the growing season tapers into fall, warm season crops are giving way to the surge of pumpkins and gourds that color the auction floor with an autumnal palette. We are beginning preparations for our 2nd annual Harvest Days, and are inviting you to join us on Saturdays (11 am – 7 pm) and Sundays (12:30 – 7 pm) starting September 30th. Every weekend through the month of October the CPA grounds will be filled with a variety of activities, including yard Jenga, cornhole, pumpkin bowling, corn pits, hand-painted photo props, 2-acre corn maze, a sunflower circle, and a woodland trail.
There’s a $10 entry fee on Saturdays, to include a horse drawn hay ride that will run every half hour. On Sundays there won’t be any hay rides, but for a $5 entry fee you can explore all of our other activities. For an additional $5 either day, you can pick your own pumpkin from our pumpkin patch!
We’ve been working tirelessly to create the corn maze, and we’re so excited to share it with you. Our service members from Rural Action’s AmeriCorps Climate Cohort helped us design a sunflower-shaped design using a GIS-mapping software, which we then cut into the field using a walk-behind tractor. We plan to have a drone operator take an aerial photograph of it when it’s complete. We also expanded the woodland trail this year with some help from the Forestry Program and their volunteers.
Along with being open to the public on the weekends, we have invited local elementary schools to come out for field trips. So far, we’ll have students coming from Morgan East, Morrison Gordon and Nelsonville-York. Some of them would have visited us in the spring for School Days at the CPA, where we taught them about the auction and the importance of a local food economy.
We really hope you’ll come join us to celebrate the season! Please reach out to emilye@ruralaction.org with any questions about the festivities.
Emily Elam is a Hocking College graduate and the current Community Development AmeriCorps Member with Rural Action’s Sustainable Agriculture Program.
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