Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Hoes Down

This weekend brought us out to the beautiful (and little known) Capay Valley for the 22nd annual Hoes Down Harvest Festival.

We packed our crew into three cars and treked 75 miles to this Wonderland of Organic Autumn Fun. The place was crawling with delighted ragamuffin hippy kids and their adult counterparts. Ours jumped right in to climb and disappear into the tunnels of a huge haystack pyramid; brave a ride down a zip line;

dye silks with natural pigments and paint their own Tibetan prayer flags;

make clover flower wreaths and corn husk dolls; indulge in a bit of roleplaying... as chicken

and potato farmer;

dance to rocking bluegrass bands;

navigate through an obstacle course;

ride in a covered wagon;


pow-wow;

and generally "celebrate rural living." Holy harvest festival.

And then there was the food! Organic smoothies blended by bicycle, apple cider the kids could press themselves, sweet hot barbequed corn and ridiculously good homemade ice cream.

We watched sheep shearing, cow milking, fiddle playing, flour grinding, spinning and weaving all under a glowing early October sun.

Why do the best days only come once a year?

1 comment:

mhp said...

seriously one of the best and most profound days i've had in a long while...and so glad you and your girls were there to share in it, or i might just think that i imagined it all...