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You can never go home again, but for one weekend in October, you can spend an old-fashioned day in the Iowa countryside at Aurora Farm's Fall Festival, October 20-21. "It's a good-hearted, nourishing way to spend a fall afternoon enjoying the simple gifts of nature and a spirit of generosity," says Linda Angelli, who attended last year's festival.
In keeping with this season of plenty, the bountiful autumn harvest is the prime attraction at the Fall Festival. "We want to showcase fresh food this year, as this will be the last opportunity for everyone to buy fresh fruits and vegetables here," says Dawn Hunter, owner of Aurora Farms, an organic sustainable farm located just south of Fairfield. Baked goods, jams, honey, and sorghum will be on sale, and organic growers from southeast Iowa will be on hand to take orders for organic chicken, beef, and eggs.
For lunch, available from noon to 2 p.m., you can savor an Alice Waters-inspired organic meal using locally grown produce, lovingly prepared by Mandy Cole and her mother, Janice Podoll. Or enjoy a delicious array of Middle Eastern delights from Baba's Falafels. For dinner on Saturday, beginning at 6 p.m., look for a veritable feast served by the acclaimed chefs from Iowa City's Red Avocado.
In a beautiful setting of wooded rolling hills, meadows, and pleasant views, families can picnic on the lawn and enjoy the casual, homey ambiance, or partake in an abundance of activities from bird walks and prairie strolls to hay rides. A seed exchange table will be set up with information on seed saving and preservation. Folk dancing, poetry, and music of all sorts is scheduled for the afternoon. Among the musicians performing this year are Irish piper Tim Britton, Celtic bard Rick Stanley, drummer Fons Koster, and bluesman Brian McDonald. Jennifer and Doug Hamilton will lead everyone in traditional folk dances.
Younger children will find plenty to do with pumpkin carving, mask making, three-legged races, a puppet show, and pony rides. Older children can run an obstacle course or participate in an on-going building project.
To top off the day's activities, everyone will gather for a bonfire, group circle folk dance, singing, and storytelling beginning at dusk on Saturday. Pies and hot drinks will keep everyone toasty as night falls on the farm.
To nourish the mind as well as the body, workshops and demonstrations will be presented throughout the weekend, all centered on the festival's theme, Building a Sustainable Community Around Food. Saturday's workshops are short half-hour mini-sessions on such topics as beekeeping, tree food crops, seed saving, grape growing, homemade herbal salves, pasta from scratch, compost making, and growing woodland plants. In other sessions you can learn about biodiesel fuel production, pumping water with solar power, constructing earthen floors, and the new ecologically minded development Abundance EcoVillage.
Sunday's workshops are longer four- to five-hour intensives in which a project will be completed. The cost for each is only $35 (some also have a materials fee), and to attend you must pre-register by October 13th. In the morning, 9:00-12:30, study earth-based writing with Iowa City essayist Steve Semken, learn about winter food storage with Dawn and Bill Hunter, make gourd utensils with Iowa City artist Bonnie Ogren, or pick up permaculture basics with eco-visionary Lonnie Gamble.
In the afternoon, 1:00-5:00, you can make a willow tower trellis with Lee and Lindsay Zeike Lee of Willow Glen Nursery in Decorah, learn basic solar set-up with Michael Havelka of Endless Energy Systems in Fairfield, find out how to extend the growing season with the Hunters and Simone Griffith, or enjoy Harvest Dances with Jennifer and Doug Hamilton of Fairfield Folkart Co-op.
As the site of the Midwestern Biointensive education and research gardens, Aurora Farm hosts workshops and classes throughout the year, drawing people from all over Iowa and throughout the U.S. Last year, Aurora Farm's first Fall Festival was an overwhelming success, and this year they expect attendance to rise with an expanded roster of weekend events.
"We want to inspire and reconnect people to the land in a community celebration," says Dawn. "It's important to live the idea that we are one with everything and make it a part of our daily life."
The cost of the festival is $6 for adults, $3 for children (free admission for children under three). Aurora Farms is located at 2309 Kale Boulevard, just south of Fairfield. Take Highway 1 south to Libertyville Road, go west 1 mile, turn south on Kale Boulevard (just after Stever Sanitation). Aurora Farms is on the left. For more information on the workshops, please call (641) 472-9941.
