Veggie car races highlight Luseland’s Harvest Fest
By Joan Janzen
Everyone turned out in full force for the festivities at Luseland on Saturday afternoon, September 9th. It turned out to be a beautiful day for Luseland's Harvest Festival, and Main Street was a busy place with people shopping and visiting all the various outdoor booths.
The Harvest Festival started bright and early at 10:30 a.m. Local businesses joined in the festivities, offering sidewalk sales, a photo booth, all-day specials and free pumpkin spice cappuccino at Daisy's convenience store. Booths on Grand Avenue offered flowers for sale and cotton candy.
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Kids were invited to take a ride on the Smurf train from 11:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. Some kids enjoyed more than a few rides throughout the day. Later in the evening, Frank Beauseloil provided musical entertainment outside the Ranger Electric Shop.
There were over twenty vendors selling their wares at the farmer's market, with a soup and sandwich lunch available. One of the vendors was twisting up some unique balloon characters, making everything customers requested, from motorbikes to daisy wristbands and cows.
The library offered an assortment of homemade baking for its patrons and provided ceramic coasters for the children to paint and take home. The Travel Club sold hotdogs, lemonade and popcorn, and delicious homemade pie and ice cream was provided at the Pioneer Club.
The chickpea play box was filled with kids loading up their toy harvesting equipment. Adults and kids lined up for cotton candy while others tried guessing how many sweets were in the jar. Little ones were playing with the floating ducks at the Duck Duck Goose display, and others tried out the bean bag toss and ring toss.
I didn't wait for the Chicken Poop Bingo to play out. It was late afternoon, and the chicken had not yet done its business on a numbered square, but it's hard to defecate on demand when everyone is watching you!
But the afternoon's highlight was the Veggie Show & Shine and Veggie Car Races. Spectators made wagers on the veggie car races and cast their votes for the funniest, most creative and best veggie creations.
Wheel kits and instructions were provided, but the ingenuity and creativity came from the kids and possibly some help from their parents. The result was a large assortment of vehicles.
There were carrot dragsters, a burning onion car, potato-powered vehicles, a Goodyear Tire zucchini, a Jurassic Park zucchini truck and a zucchini submarine. A corn cob roadster was competing with a cucumber driven by Barbie and pumpkin monster vehicles.
After everyone had a chance to view the veggie vehicles inside the museum, a track was set up outside, and the racing began at 2:00 p.m. Everyone cheered on the veggie vehicles as they made their way down the track. And the kids pounded on the track, urging along vehicles that were having difficulty moving forward on their own.
At the end of the afternoon, most of the veggie vehicles had managed to race to the finish. More importantly, all the children, their parents and the seniors in the crowd were smiling after spending an enjoyable day at Luseland's Harvest Festival.