Campus News
Scarecrow Contest To Highlight UC Santa Cruz Harvest Festival October 14
SANTA CRUZ, CA–Brush the cobwebs off your creativity and create a seasonal sensation for the first-ever scarecrow contest that will highlight the UC Santa Cruz Farm’s annual Harvest Festival on Saturday, October 14. The contest will be a centerpiece of the annual festival,which takes place from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Harvest Festival features […]
SANTA CRUZ, CA–Brush the cobwebs off your creativity and create a seasonal sensation for the first-ever scarecrow contest that will highlight the UC Santa Cruz Farm’s annual Harvest Festival on Saturday, October 14.
The contest will be a centerpiece of the annual festival,which takes place from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Harvest Festival features family-oriented entertainment, including live music, events for children, food, gardening workshops, and an apple tasting of heirloom varieties. The scarecrow contest will begin at noon. Winners will be announced at 1 p.m.
Live music will begin at 11:30 a.m. with Dance Around Molly’s Irish tunes, followed by Mariposa, a local folk group. Later Alligator, a lively Cajun band, will take the stage at 3:30 p.m. (See detailed schedule below.)
Ongoing activities for children include crafts, face painting, pumpkin decorating, gardening activities, and hayrides. Delicious food will be for sale, and fresh-squeezed apple juice will be available for tasting. In addition, fresh organic produce, including pumpkins, will be available for purchase, as will dried-flower wreaths and UCSC Friends of the Farm & Garden merchandise, including aprons, cookbooks, and T-shirts.
As always, gardeners will have opportunities to soak up information about garden-fresh cooking, winter garden preparation, growing and using herbs, and the benefits chickens and turkeys offer home gardens. Local community organizations will have booths set up, and a display of rare-breed chickens and turkeys is bound to be a crowd pleaser.
To enter the scarecrow contest, please register by calling John Fisher at (831) 459-3248 or sending him e-mail at johnfish@cats.ucsc.edu. Teams of up to four people are welcome.
Entries must conform to the following guidelines:
- The height of each scarecrow should not exceed seven feet, six inches, nor should it be less than five feet.
- For display purposes, please build your scarecrow on a pole and leave at least two feet below so the scarecrow can be freestanding after it is set in the ground.
- Near the end of the festival you may take your scarecrow home or donate it to the Farm.
All scarecrows must be dropped off at the UCSC Farm’s back gate by 5:30 p.m. on October 13. Please be sure to attach a list of the name of each team member. Everyone who enters the contest will receive free admission to the festival. Prizes include T-shirts, produce, flower bouquets, and coffee mugs.
Admission to the festival is $3; admission is free for children 12 and under and members of the Friends of the UCSC Farm & Garden, which is cosponsoring the event with the Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems. Funds raised at the Harvest Festival support the scholarship and public education work of the Friends of the UCSC Farm & Garden. The event is made possible in part by the generous support of business sponsors Earthbound Farm, Clover Stornetta Farms, and Christiansen Associates Gardens and Design.
The Farm is located 1/4 mile up the gravel road above the Blacksmith Shop; free public parking is available across the street from the Blacksmith Shop in the Physical Plant parking lot. For more information about the festival, call (831) 459-3240.
2000 Harvest Festival Schedule of Events
Music
11:30-1:00
Dance Around Molly (Irish music)
1:30-3:00
Mariposa (Folk music for grownups and kids)
3:30-5:00
Later Alligator (Cajun music)
Workshops
11:30-1:30 p.m.
Apple Tasting with the Monterey Bay Rare Fruit Growers
12:00-1 p.m.
Getting Your Garden Ready for Winter
Christof Bernau, UCSC Garden Manager
1:15-3:00
Cooking Fresh from the Garden
Jozseph Schultz, Jozseph’s Extraordinary Culinary Events
1:30-2:30
Feathered Friends–Chickens and Turkeys in the Home Garden
Cathy Carlson, Elkhorn Slough small farmer
3:00-4:00
Herbs in the Home Garden with Julie Rothman
Scarecrow Contest Judging
12 p.m.-1 p.m.
Winners announced at 1 pm.
Farm Tours
1:30 p.m. and 4 p.m.