Harvest Day at The REACH
Harvest Day: Celebrate Fall With Us at the Kennedy Center
Calling foodies, curious cooks, and anyone interested in where their food comes from! Together with the Kennedy Center, we are co-hosting our first-ever Harvest Day at the REACH Plaza for an interactive and delicious journey through the local food system to explore how food grows and is made.
When: Saturday, October 19th, 10am-2pm
Where: The REACH Plaza at the Kennedy Center
This event is free and no reservations are required!
Dive into hands-on activities to learn how food is grown and made – taste delicious fall apples, explore red wiggler worms, sample homemade mint tea and Apple Beet Carrot Salad, make your own seed packets, learn about composting at home, and more. Plus, enjoy live bluegrass music by Chuck Darwin & The Knuckle-Draggers (featuring farmer Ben Wenk of Three Springs Fruit Farm), shop for artisan foods from local makers, and connect with fellow food lovers!
DIY Seed Kits
Harvest seeds from sunflowers, okra, kale, marigolds, and more.
- Make origami seed packets, and fill the packets with your choice of herb and flower seeds
- Take home: Origami seed packets to plant on your windowsill, patio, or backyard
DIY Herbal Tea
Use all five senses to explore a variety of culinary herb plants.
- Sample homemade mint tea
- Fill tea bags with dried herbs to bring home and enjoy
- Take home: Homemade herb tea bags
Composting
Learn about the process of composting and what you do at home to divert food scraps from landfills.
- Get up close and personal with worms in a vermicomposting system
- Learn about community composting and other composting programs in Washington, DC
- Make a compost brew bag for fertilizing your houseplants
- For the littles: Get to know Red Wiggler worms, our composting superheroes
- Take home: Info on local composting options; compost brew bag
Make & Taste Apple, Beet, Carrot (ABC) Salad
Enjoy samples of A(apple), B(beet), C(carrot) Salad, a FRESHFARM fan favorite, and grab the recipe to make it yourself.
- Get tips on storing and cleaning apples, beets, and carrots
- For the littles: Scrub and wash veggies, a great way to introduce young chefs to cooking
- Take home: $10 recipe kit to make ABC Salad at home that includes apples, beets, carrots, and a recipe
Get to Know Local Grains
Meet FRESHFARM’s charming Mid-Atlantic Grain Stand staff to learn why local grains are an important—and delicious—part of the regional food system.
- Sample our refreshing wheat berry salad
- Grind wheat berries into flour, press whole oat groats into rolled oats, and explore sprouted grains and dried grain stalks
- Take home: Purchase locally produced grains, small-batch milled flour, fresh corn meal, specialty rice, heirloom popcorn, and rolled oats
Apples: Taste & Vote
Learn about the dazzling range of apple varieties that grow in our region, from Gold Rush to Ludacrisp.
- Learn about fruit tree grafting and fruit production in the Mid-Atlantic
- Sample local apples and cast a vote for your favorite
- Pick out your favorite apple variety with the option to purchase a $10 bag
- Explore treats made with local apples
- Take home: A variety of delicious, local apples for purchase
Plant Anatomy
Learn that we eat different parts of different plants.
- Test your plant knowledge: play a game to practice sorting fruits and vegetables by which part of that plant we eat
- Explore and identify a wide range of seasonal, local produce grown by regional farmers
- For the littles: Create plant parts with playdough
- Take home: FRESHFARM seasonality calendar, a blueprint to what’s in season and when in the Mid-Atlantic Region
