Don't Miss: Harvest Festival at Cropsey Farm Oct. 17

Cropsey Community Farm and Red Hill Café & Nursery are collaborating to create the First Annual Harvest Festival.

From 12-5 p.m. the event will feature healthy food, local beer, live music, hayrides, pony rides, farming, gardening and herbalism workshops, organic crafts, and plenty of ways to bring the Rockland community closer to the earth.

“This year’s Harvest Festival marks the beginning of a fun and healthy family tradition in Rockland,” said Suzanne Barish, Director of Communications for Rockland Farm Alliance and co-organizer of the event, in a prepared statement. “We all just imagined an idyllic autumn afternoon at the farm with our families, and then we did all we could to make it a reality.”

Cropsey Community Farm, a 25-acre biodynamic farm at 220 S. Little Tor Road in New City, is managed by Rockland Farm Alliance (RFA), a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving and revitalizing Rockland County’s remaining farmland before it is lost to suburban development.

The properties of Cropsey Community Farm and Red Hill Nursery & Café were once part of the original Cropsey Farm, an iconic farm established in 1893, when the landscape of Rockland County rolled gently over the terrain of more than 500 farms. Today, both Rockland Farm Alliance and Red Hill Nursery & Café are committed to keeping Rockland County connected to those deep farming roots with an annual Harvest Festival celebration.

“I’m so excited to have a festival like this right in Rockland County,” said Christina Place, Clarkstown resident and Cornell Master Gardener. “I teach my daughters to cultivate good health from our garden soil to our dinner table at home, and it’s heartening to find a festival that will provide entertainment, education and food that are all promoting my own philosophy of healthy living and eating.”

The Harvest Festival is being produced with the support of several community sponsors who value sustainability and seek to strengthen the link between family life and local farms. TD Bank, Morgan Stanley, Weld Realty, Abe’s Dairy-Free Muffins, and Tractor Supply Co. have generously sponsored this event so that Rockland families can experience a day full of earthy fun on the farm, discover the origins of real food, and develop a deeper connection to nature that will foster a lifetime of healthy, conscientious choices, organizers said.

A garlic-planting workshop will be held from noon to 2 p.m.