Pyrah’s Fall Festival a rite of the season

PALMER — The very first Fall Festival at Pyrah’s Pioneer Peak Farm saw 200 people on its grounds. The festival has grown each year, becoming a giant annual turnout, reaching more than 5,000 people. There was an assortment of farm-related activities and carnival games for the whole family last weekend, including hay rides pulled by a tractor, a hay maze, a giant bowling alley, high strikers (or strength testers), tractor kart races, body balls, pumpkin-themed zorb balls, and a pick-your-own pumpkin patch. The Carhartt Brothers played music all day.

“I think this is a good, safe family environment,” said Janet Dinwiddie, General Manager of Pyrah’s Pioneer Peak Farm.

The farm offers a U-Pick system of crops throughout the summer and the festival was no exception. Many people grabbed a bag and plucked a fresh vegetable from the ground and paid for it. People come from across the state for Pyrah’s famous crops and its increasingly famous festival.

“Now, it’s its own monster,” Dinwiddie said.

This year, the festival’s usual Chunkin’ Punkin toss had a charitable cause behind it. It’s now called Launching Hope, and all proceeds from the pumpkin tossing event went toward local families in need. This year it was the Flores/Quackenbush family and another family with a young girl with melanoma. Donations of cash and items for a silent auction were also accepted throughout the day. All of the money raised from the Chunkin’ Pumpkin and silent auction went to the two families.

“I think there’s a lot of people that want to support a cause like that,” Dinwiddie said.

Those who signed up created their own pumpkin slinging device, be it Trebuchets, catapults, or slingshots, and launched their pumpkins for the longest distance. Many of the catapults backfired to the crowd’s amusement.

“It was awesome and hilarious,” Dinwiddie said.

The Fall Festival is often seen as a time to enjoy one last warm hoorah before the cold sets in. Autumn is one of Dinwiddie’s favorite seasons. She said that for farmers, autumn is the time for a big push to collect the year’s harvest, prepare for winter, and also a time to unwind a little.

“I enjoy providing a place for people to do that as much as possible,” Dinwiddie said.

Laura Gooch grew up with Janet Dinwiddie and managed to get entangled in the Fall Festival since the very first event. She attended the premier event and began volunteering regularly. This year, she oversaw a crew of adolescent volunteers, ranging from tweens to high schoolers. Most of the workers grew up in the area, friends of friends who knew about the festival and sent their kids to get some experience and give back to their community.

“It’s hard work,” Gooch said. “We couldn’t do it without them.”

Gooch and Dinwiddie’s children were a part of this year’s crew. According to Dinwiddie’s daughter, Ellie, most of the kids were already accustomed to this work-hard, play-hard, rustic lifestyle.

“When the parents are working here, they usually bring their kids along.” Ellie said.

Gooch said that the older kid workers tend to work hard and have a positive attitude no matter the weather or other obstacles. She said that working these festivals is teaching the children valuable life skills like customer service, helping others, and getting community-minded.

“They love helping the youngers, because that was them five years ago,” Gooch said.

She said the older kids could go and play games without having to hover over them. For the younger kids, there’s a lot of sensory stimulation, a lot for them to see, touch, and smell. She doesn’t think that many kids of this current generation get many opportunities to roll up their sleeves and get dirty. She believes this hands-on day of activities outside is important for all kids and their families to experience.

“It feels like a safe place,” Gooch said.

Gooch felt that the Fall Festival was a smaller, more intimate experience compared to the fair. People would often mingle with each other. A lot of regular U-Pickers who visit the farm periodically in the summer wind up at the festival.

Gooch loves autumn. She enjoys the smell. “If you break it down, it’s probably things deteriorating but I love it,” she said, adding that those factors also mean it’s time to go back to school and also is a time to prepare for winter, doing the work now so one can rest easy during the winter saying, “yeah, I already took care of that.”

Pyrah’s Project Manager Trisha Beames ran the kitchen for concessions this year. She said it’s tough to prepare for a range of 5,000 to 7,000 people. It takes months of preparation for a huge operation. Throughout the day, people could purchase hot meals like Mexican Sweet Corn, chili bowls, chili-dogs and baked potatoes. Like her fellow Pyrah’s farm staff and volunteers, she felt the work was worth it. She sees the event as a way to give back to public.

“We have such a great community,” Beames said. “This is a chance to say thanks for all the great business and let’s play.”

One festival goer, Bill Cartwright, said that going to the farm was something different and a chance to get the family out of the house. The Cartwright family lives in Anchorage. To them, the festival is a chance to take a break from the big city and enjoy the country scenery, with vast fields and giant mountains. His son, Logan enjoyed the sample of country life as well. “It’s really good,” he approved. “I got to pick a lot of vegetables.”

Collin Shockley also grew up in the Palmer area. He currently resides in Oklahoma but returns to the farm annually to help out with the festival. He said that when he was growing up, there wasn’t much to do besides the fair. When this festival came along, he liked that it filled the space of time before winter with more activity and also enjoyed that the prices were much lower than the fair’s. He also attested that the smaller crowd felt more intimate and filled with people who knew each other. He said that the festival was a time to celebrate the harvest and autumn was a time to reflect on the year itself.

“I kinda look back on what we’ve done, what we’ve accomplished this year,” Shockley said.

According to the Pyrah’s Pioneer Peak Farm Facebook page, due to popular demand, they are hosting one more day of activities called, the Fall Festival Reboot. The reboot festival will be Saturday, Sept. 30 from 12 to 6 p.m. A few games and activities will be omitted but a slew of the usual will be there, including hayrides, pedal tractors, pumpkin zorbs, leaf pool and more. Tickets are limited and can be purchased at: www.eventbrite.com/e/fall-harvest-festival-reboot-tickets-38290024494

Contact reporter Jacob Mann at: 907-715-8717 or jacob.mann@frontiersman.com