Prescott Farm hosts 15th annual Harvest Festival Sept. 26

LACONIA — The 15th annual Harvest Festival returns to Prescott Farm Environmental Education Center this weekend, where guests will enjoy a variety of fall activities and games, completely free of charge.

This is Prescott Farm’s most popular community event of the year, typically bringing in about 700 attendees.

The harvest festival takes place from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 26.

To kick off the fall season, the festival will have a fresh apple cider pressing demonstration. Apples are donated from Smith Orchard, in Belmont, so kids and families can get firsthand experience making apple cider and cranking the press themselves, then enjoying their beverage.

Starting at 10:30 a.m., every hour on the hour, garden-to-table cooking demonstrations will be led by Prescott Farm educators.

“They'll be highlighting different recipes that you can make and use straight from gardens at home, or just our gardens here on the property,” said Sophie Acampora, communications and events director at Prescott Farm.

The sessions will include demonstrations with ingredients harvested straight from one of Prescott Farm’s three gardens.

The festival will also showcase artistic opportunities at the farm, with demonstrations from fiber artists.

“During Harvest Fest, we ask folks in the community if they want to highlight and demonstrate what they're doing in the fiber art community,” Acampora said. “So, we have everything from quilting to lace making and needle pointing, needle felting.”

Prescott Farm offers a variety of classes throughout the year, such as nature-based fiber crafts.

“It's just a few different folks in our community that are doing things, that highlight some of the work that we do here throughout the year,” Acampora said.

Throughout the year and at the Harvest Festival, guests at Prescott Farm can explore the 160-acre property with 3 miles of hiking trails, three gardens, and a natural play area built right into the woods for the kids.

Exclusive to the Harvest Festival are tractor rides, hay jumps, field games, and face painting, with plenty of fun for the whole family.

The O’Brien Clan, a celtic and folk family band, will begin serenading guests with live music at 10 a.m., followed by the DellaValla Trio, a bluegrass teenage sibling group.

Guests can purchase lunch and treats at a variety of food trucks. Gravy Train Food Truck will supply guests with poutine, smash burgers, hand-dipped corndogs, and loaded french fries. Goodfellas Grub Food Truck will cook up hot dogs, pizza, sandwiches, burgers, and fries. If guests want to go a bit lighter, they can order protein shakes, protein coffee, and energizing teas.

Acampora said when guests arrive at Prescott Farm’s main entrance on Saturday, they will park in the field, then head to the large, white tent, where program guides, maps, and schedules of the day's activities will be laid out.

“This is our 15th annual one, and it is a fully free event for families in the community to come out and just see our property and engage in different activities,” Acampora said. “Our mission is to provide nature-based learning experiences for all ages, kids and adults, to connect them with the natural world.”

Learn more at prescottfarm.org