Apples, corn, cider, and pumpkins take center stage at the 18th annual Fall Harvest Festival, coming up Sunday, September 30, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at UC Santa Cruz’s 25-acre organic farm.
Along with the season's bounty, the festival features live music from rock to reggae and bluegrass to marimba, along with hay rides, kids’ crafts, workshops, tours, pumpkin and produce sales, and campus and community group information tables.
During the Harvest Festival you can sample more than 30 apple varieties, enter the pie baking contest, crank the apple press, scale the climbing wall, enjoy fresh-roasted organic corn and other locally sourced, tasty treats, and learn about a range of food and environmental issues. Want so see how your favorite apple pie recipe measures up? Be sure to enter the Apple Pie Contest by 12:30 p.m. (see rules, below).
Also on tap—workshops on saving seeds, planting the fall garden, making kombucha and vegan wraps and burritos, and “cupping” the perfect cup of coffee. Tours of the farm and an herb walk through the gardens are on the schedule, and Life Lab's "Food, What?" youth empowerment group will hold a sunflower-picking fundraiser in the Farm's fields.
Admission to the Fall Harvest Festival is free for UCSC students, kids 12 and under, and for members of the Friends of the UCSC Farm & Garden; general admission is $5. See a full schedule of the day's events below.
The Harvest Festival is co-sponsored by the UCSC’s Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems (CASFS), UCSC’s Food Systems Working Group, UCSC Measure 43: Sustainable Health & Wellness, and the Friends of the UCSC Farm & Garden, with major support from Driscoll’s, New Leaf Community Markets and Stonyfield Farm; and additional support from Veritable Vegetable and Tradin Organics. People Power will provide free valet parking for bicycles.
For directions to the UCSC Farm, visit the CASFS web site at http://casfs.ucsc.edu/about/directions-2. Free parking will be available at the Campus Facilities and Barn Theater parking lots, and a free shuttle will be available. For more information call (831) 459-3240 or email casfs@ucsc.edu.
2012 Harvest Festival Schedule
Music, Main Stage
| The Ashley Lloyd Experience |
11 a.m. – noon |
| Ancestree Reggae |
12:15 – 1:30 p.m. |
| Bean Creek |
1:45 – 3 p.m. |
| Singing Wood Marimba |
3:15 – 5 p.m. |
Workshops and Activities
|
Apple tasting - Varieties grown at the UCSC Farm and Alan Chadwick Garden |
11:30 a.m. – 4 p.m. |
| Apple pie contest | Entry deadline – 12:30 p.m. |
| Kombucha making |
Noon |
| Tours of the UCSC Farm |
12:30 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. |
|
Grubbin’ It Raw Vegan Style: Wraps and collard green burritos |
1:15 – 2:15 p.m. |
| Seed Stewardship: The art of cultivating, breeding, and saving locally adapted and open-pollinated seeds | 2:30 – 3:30 p.m. |
| Coffee cupping for the perfect cup | 3:30 –4:30 p.m. |
| Planting the fall garden, with Trish Hildinger | 3:45 – 4:45 p.m. |
Official Rules for the Friends of the UCSC Farm & Garden Apple Pie Contest
Pie entries accepted 11 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
Official judging begins at 12:45 p.m.
Winners will be announced at between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m.
- The Friends of Farm and Garden Apple Pie Bake-Off is a nonprofessional baking competition open to Harvest Festival attendees. (Entry to the Harvest Festival is $5; free admission for UCSC students, Friends of the Farm & Garden members and for children 12 and under).
- Contestants are responsible for submitting a written (preferably typed) recipe with their pie.
- Contestants are responsible for supplying all ingredients and baking the pie prior to bringing it to the contest.
- All entries in this contest must be homemade.
- A representative of the Friends of the Farm and Garden will assign each contestant a number. Contestants should verify the number on the bottom of their container is the same number assigned by the representative.
- Contestants' entries are judged on taste, presentation, and creativity.
- The decision of the judges shall be final. Pie not used during judging will be returned to the contestant.
All pies must be entered by 12:30 p.m. Sunday, September 30, at the Fall Harvest Festival, UCSC Farm. For questions or additional copies of the rules, call (831) 459-3240 or e-mail casfs@ucsc.edu
