Autumn
will inhabit the Harvest Festival on Sunday, October 12, in Sawyerville in the
Cookshire-Eaton municipality. The organizing committee plans a panoply of
activities, each more interesting than the one before. Starting at 9 a.m. at
the Hôtel-Auberge de Sawyerville at 18 Principale St. E., Yvan Perreault will
talk about his experience growing nut trees.
At
the same time, Marc Nault is to begin assembling the beams and joists to
construct the shelter in the to-be-inaugurated "Dr. Lowry's Garden" at the
Sawyerville Community Garden. Nault is the president of the Eaton Corner
Museum. The structure was prepared with the participation of engineer Steven
St-Cyr, Daniel Hurdle, Claude Thibodeau and Jacques Campeau. This activity will
take place on site at the Community Garden, near the ballpark on Route 210.
At
10 a.m., Perreault is to lead an excursion to identify and collect edible
plants in meadows and forests. At 10:30 a.m. is the official inauguration of
Dr. Lowry's Garden. At 11 a.m., biologist and seed-saver Brian Creelman will
share his considerable knowledge about late-autumn gardening. At noon is a
lunch created from vegetables grown in the Community Garden and other local
foodstuffs. The meal costs only $8 per adult and $2 per child.
At 1 p.m., Elsa Poulin will demonstrate how to produce,
harvest, process and market berries, nuts and non-woody forest products. Poulin
is part of the Coopérative de solidarité Cultur'Innov. She will also respond to
questions about developing the potential of participants' fields or forests.
Workshop leaders at the Festival will offer a variety of subjects such as
extracting apple juice the old-fashioned way, germinating seeds, braiding
garlic, making up and creating corn-cob dolls for children. Sarah Hui and Gert
Janssens of the D'Orée Farm, and the herbalist-therapist Chantal Parent will
have kiosks to visit. A representative of the Atelier Libertad, maker of garden
tools, will display their collection. Delegates of the Eaton Corner Museum will
speak about horticultural techniques during the period of about 1830, based on
their experimental garden behind the Foss House. Under the encouraging hand of
Chantal Bolduc, initiator of the project and the volunteer of the Sawyerville
Community Garden, the day promises to offer some priceless knowledge about a
multitude of subjects.
