Harvest on Henry Festival Is a Day of Fun Showcasing Saul Agricultural High School and Weavers Way Farms

PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 9, 2014 – This year’s Harvest on Henry, the fourth annual Philadelphia farm festival brought to you byWeavers Way Co-op and W.B. Saul Agricultural High School, is 1-5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 18,It’s a day of fun on the farm, celebrating the end of the main growing season with:

  • Vegetable-themed games and activities — including but not limited to pumpkin bowling, pumpkin golf, pumpkin ring toss and pumpkin painting.
  • Hay rides and the petting barnyard. Feed the lambs!
  • Canning demo by Philadelphia "Food in Jars" blogger Marisa McClellan.
  • Farm craft demonstrations (think apple-cider press), vendors and info tables.
  • Farmer photo booth.
  • Tours of the Saul farm.
  • Live music all afternoon, with percussionist Jim Hamilton, Nothing Wrong, Art Miron, Riley Luce on ukulele and more
  • Famous Cow Plop Bingo, featuring Nina the Cow, who inadvertently — but officially — will choose the winner of the 50-50 raffle.

Of course, there’s also delicious food: homemade ice cream churned on the spot by Saul students; apples, apples, apples, apple cider and fresh apple-cider donuts; and a fleet of food trucks, all donating 10 percent of the day’s proceeds.

Save room for pie

As in past years, a highlight is the Pie Baking Contest. Contenders are required to bring TWO pies, one for judging and one to be sold by the slice to the appreciative crowd! Details on how to enter are at www.weaversway.coop/pie. Entry fee is $15 per contestant, $5 per additional pie, FREE for Saul students. Cash prizes and gift certificates will be awarded to 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners, and the maker of the top student pie will get four movie tickets.

Celebrity pie judges this year include Philadelphia canning blogger and cookbook author Marisa McClellan (Food in Jars), Jimmie Reed of Little Jimmie’s Bakery Cafe, chef Valerie Irwin of Geechee Girl Café, chef Alex Fries of Earth Bread + Brewery and Saul student farmer Luke Reigal. 

Saul High School is the home of the 2 1/2-acre Henry Got Crops CSA, one of the first high school-based Community Supported Agriculture farms in the United States. It provides fresh produce to more than 100 subscribers and countless more folks who shop the twice-a-week Saul farmstand and buy Saul-grown vegetables at Weavers Way Co-op.

The CSA is a partnership of Saul, Weavers Way and the nonprofit Weavers Way Community Programs. Weavers Way farmers manage production aspects of the CSA, and Weavers Way Community Programs is responsible for farm education programs run in collaboration with teachers at Saul that allow students to learn about and take part in small-scale organic vegetable growing. There are many opportunities for Saul students, ranging from hands-on fieldwork to community outreach and newsletter-writing to applied research, budgeting and planning.

Harvest on Henry runs 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 18, at the Saul farm, across from Saul High School, 7100 Henry Ave. (Henry and Cinnaminson) in Roxborough. Pie contest winners will be announced at 3 p.m. In case of rain, the festival goes off at the same time the next day, Sunday, Oct. 19. Admission is free; proceeds from food sales, Cow Plop Bingo and pie entries go to support farm operations. There’s plenty of street parking and the Route 27 bus stops right at the gate!