PULLMAN — Meat-eaters, there’s no reason to fear the vegan pastas, gluten-free soup and fake bacon on the menu at the Cooperation Operation Harvest Festival celebration on Friday.
But organizers say you might want to warn your children to watch out for the ghouls, witches and bird-headed monsters that haunt the farm when the sun goes down.
“The garden haunted house can get scary … for kids,” Cooperation Operation’s Liz Nerat said. “It’s a lot of fun.”
The urban farming charity, which started growing vegetables and herbs in giant planters on a concrete slab on an abandoned lot last year, plans to celebrate its second successful harvest season with an afternoon potluck meal and a last chance for folks to pick-your-own greens, veggies — and even pumpkins — before the weather turns.
“Whatever is ready, people can take home with them. It’s like grocery shopping for free,” Nerat said. “We had a larger harvest than last year, but it was a colder season and different things were more plentiful. Tomatoes, which like hot weather, had a shorter season. But we had a ton of kale and collards. And a lot of it we distributed in food boxes with one of our partners, Mission Covenant Church in Blue Island.”
But mostly, the Cooperation Operation’s bounty goes to feed Pullmanites, who exchange their time, material or even a little cash to have access to all the fresh produce they need. No one gets turned away.
The “Coop-Op,” which expanded its outreach to include free yoga classes, after-school programs and the beginning of a process of growing mushrooms to eradicate heavy metal toxins from the former Sherwin Williams-owned land, hopes to win grant money to expand educational programs, heat its greenhouse and build a geodesic dome.
“We worked with local elementary schools this year, but we want to have more programing and offer more extensive classes and service learning programs on gardening, farming, the use of herbs and medicinal plants and healthy living,” Nerat said. “We want to help teach kids about urban agriculture and what it takes to create a safe community space and the importance of treating your health holistically.”
But first, they’ll celebrate a second successful harvest with tasty grub made right from their garden — and other culinary delights that neighbors bring along.
And just in case the kids are wondering, the haunted harvest fest will have plenty of candy, too.
The Cooperation Operation Fall Harvest Festival is set for Friday at 114th and Langley in Pullman. The potluck feast starts at 2 p.m. and the haunted farm will run from 6:30 to 9 p.m. For more information go to coopop.org.
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