Traditions come alive during yearly festival

Aurora and Callandor Farnham pick out pumpkins being sold by the Oasis Rural Fire Department during this year's Fall Harvest Festival on Saturday. Thousands of people gathered in the city's downtown area to mark the unofficial end of southern Idaho's yearly farming season. As vendors sold their wares on city streets, the rural fire department held a yard sale to benefit the all-volunteer organization.

Sunny skies and warmer temperatures drew thousands of people to downtown Mountain Home to celebrate an annual tradition on Saturday.

Celebrating its 17th year, the community's Fall Harvest Festival marked the unofficial end of southern Idaho's yearly farming season.

Hosted by the local chamber of commerce, the event traces its origins from the local Oktoberfest but then took on a life of its own and grew with the community, local organizers said. The festival resumed last October following a one-year break in 2011.

Members of the Elmore County Hispanic Organization perform a traditional dance as part of the featured entertainment that continued throughout the afternoon.

According to crowd estimates, approximately 3,000 people attended this year's festival, said Nancy Thompson, who helped organize this year's event.

"We had a really good turnout," Thompson said. Vendors saw a constant flow of people during the day, and people stopped by to watch the day's entertainment lineup or to participate in the free hayrides, she added.

"Fall harvest is a part of Mountain Home," said David Villeneuve, who stood in line with his family for a hayride, which took people across the downtown area. In addition to having fun, the festival is a way for the community to recognize the efforts of local farmers, he said.

Kenzie Thomason belts out a country tune during a solo performance on the stage next to the Mountain Home Chamber of Commerce.

Diane Venski came to the harvest festival with her five grandchildren and their mother.

"We always come every year," she said. "It's a good time for family fun."

Venski admits she enjoys the timing of the annual event, which marks "the end of one time of year and the start of another."

Jackie Gainnell from the local 4-H organization takes Madi Barnes for a pony ride.

Various entertainment performing on stage kept the festival atmosphere lively throughout the day. Christian rock music filled the air early that morning as Rev 7 took the stage. Shortly afterward, Kenzie Thomason belted out popular country tunes before she was joined by Kylee Teal for a series of duets. Later that day, members from the Elmore County Hispanic Organization took to the street to perform various ethnic dances.

For many youngsters attending the festival, it was a chance to get an up-close look at farm life. Among them was Madi Barnes, who was one of many youngsters that waited in line for a chance to ride a miniature pony.

Others like Zachary Miles were drawn to a display featuring alpacas from the local Waca Paca 4-H group. In addition to petting the woolly critters, he had a chance to feed them some fresh hay.

This year's festival even gave some individuals a chance to showcase their art skills. They included Myrtle McCarroll, who carved several pumpkins for a booth hosted by the Elmore County Friends for Recovery. Across the street, Gabrielle Chavez was using a miniature cutting tool to carve other pumpkins as people stopped and watched her progress.

A couple of attractions at this weekend's festival helped showcase southern Idaho's reputation as a leader in agriculture. This included the "Dinner on a Farmer" promotion where local growers donated some of their produce, which was then handed out to harvest participants.

This year's farm promotion included more than 200 pounds of beans and another 200 pounds of onions. However, what seemed to catch people's attention was t he heaping pile of potatoes that tipped the scales at more than 1,500 pounds.

"We have a lot more potatoes this year," Thompson said. On average, local farmers will donate roughly 1,000 pounds each year.

Even with people encouraged to take at least one bag of potatoes with them, organizers still had plenty of spuds to give away. That was more than enough of an incentive to persuade youngsters like Brenden and Tucker Cobb to sort through the small mountain of potatoes.

One by one, the boys searched for the spuds that caught their attention, which they dropped into a paper shopping bag for their mother, Jilian Cobb.

The farm promotion remains part of an overall effort to raise awareness and protect farming and dairy industries in the county, according to festival organizers.

As people milled around the various booths that filled the sidewalks in the city's downtown area, they also had opportunities to cast their vote during a pair of competitions.

At a table next to the chamber of commerce building, for example, Kathy Wudyka and Stacie Willis were serving up samples of various homemade pies. In the end, it was Dale Oren who walked away with $25 in Chamber Bucks for her award-winning banana split cream pie.

Meanwhile, Brandie Garlitz from Treasure Valley Hospice earned $50 in Chamber Bucks during a scarecrow-making contest. Garlitz and her children built a scarecrow they named Rudolf in honor of Santa's most famous reindeer.

It was the first time in recent years that the chamber had hosted this type of scarecrow-making event.

As vendors sold their wares in booths located throughout the downtown area that day, a separate effort helped raise money for the Oasis Rural Fire Department. Proceeds from its annual Fall Harvest yard sale helped benefit the rural community's fire department as well as its emergency medical team.

Bob Ruth with the rural fire department reported that sales remained steady that day with about 30 percent of their donated merchandise already sold by the early afternoon. Among the myriad of items up for sale were dozens of oversized pumpkins that children like Aurora and Callandor Farnham hoped to take home.