Feastival (October Style)

In July, we attended the first ever Feastival at Whitton Farms. I can't tell you how excited we were to find out that they were having a second Feastival on October 11th (which also happened to be Warren's 43rd birthday!). The fall-style Feastival featured all of the great food and music from the first event, as well as new, exciting activities.

Ok let's talk about the food. I believe the widespread favorite was Ben Smith's squash and lemongrass soup. (Funnily enough, no one ever found the spoons.) A close second was the boiled shrimp (and potatoes and corn and sausage). Other highlights were sliders made from local beef, BBQ pork, greens and macaroni compliments of Jackson Kramer, chicken and dumplings, pear tarts, and so on. (And on.)

The activities were super fun. Warren, with a little help from our friend, Colleen, won the "Guess the Herbs" game. The prize was a small bag of candy, so naturally Satchel wanted to try his hand at the game. He eyed the herbs and then said, "This one is grass. That's some kind of flower. Oh, and that's garlic."

The kids especially loved hunting for mini gourds near the shitake "fields," which again garnered them some more candy. They even liked re-hiding the gourds for the next person to find. (And I assume themselves, since they did it several times.)

We never managed to enter the pumpkin carving contest, but we did do a few rounds of the cake walk. Jiro won the biggest cupcake ever!

The day culminated in a wild hayride in which Satchel and Jiro took turns jumping off and jumping back on. They took several spills and were covered in dirt and mud by the time we left, but we didn't care. I've never heard so many giggles in all of my life.

The entire day was about as laidback and fun as could be. Jill and Keith, despite having hundreds of people on their property, smiled the whole time and seemed to be enjoying every minute of the party. I had several people say they had a busy weekend and wanted to relax on Sunday, but I can't think of a better way to relax than with friends (old and new), good food, and the wild, open spaces of Whitton Farms.