Harvest Fair is all patched up

Published 5:00 pm Saturday, October 7, 2006

Funds from the new ‘Pumpkin Project’ will support the food bank at Helpline House.

This is one of those Cinderella stories.

Since it’s the Bainbridge Island version, we’ll drop the princess and zero in on the humble pumpkin – you know, the enchanted one that transforms from squash to stage coach.

At this Sunday’s Harvest Fair, island pumpkins will transform into food to feed the island’s hungry.

The jack-o’-lanterns-to-be won’t make the switch with a fairy godmother’s wand, but with cold hard cash.

“We’re going to turn pumpkins into cash and then into food,” said Howard Block, who founded the Pumpkin Project as a fund-raiser for the island’s food bank.

As a respectable island businessman and owner of Bay Hay and Feed, Block knows there are more lucrative ways to raise money. But few are as fun.

“Pumpkins bring joy to everybody,” he said. “They’re easy to grow, they don’t cost much money (and), you know, they’re the funnest fruit on earth.”

Bay Hay employee and Bainbridge High School senior Devin Groman was quick to pitch in on the project and enlisted a fellow student to help out.

They’re now harvesting pumpkins on a large plot behind the Rolling Bay store and plan to have 4,000 pounds to sell at Sunday’s fair. Future sales are planned at the island’s farmers market.

Block hopes to expand the project next year, linking volunteer growers with volunteer landowners.

“A lot of people have property to grow things, but not a lot of time,” he said. “Some have time, but no property. I want to have neighbors meet each other and grow pumpkins together.”

The island’s deer have given the project their consent.

“Last year, I made that garden behind the store and the deer just devoured everything,” Block said. “But they didn’t touch the pumpkins. So, this year, I planted more.”

Those that run the Helpline House and it’s food bank hope the project’s pumpkin patch pulls a pretty profit.

“The (Pumpkin Project) has great community spirit,” said Helpline’s executive director Joanne Tews. “It’s fabulous, and it will obviously have an impact because we’re serving more and more people at the food bank.”

More than 570 people each month make use of Helpline’s services, including a food bank, domestic violence support, free clothing and job search help. Half of Helpline’s patrons are children.

Harvest Fair organizer Darrah Cole also looks forward to the project’s contribution to this year’s event at the Johnson Farm.

“You can’t go wrong when people start connecting the ground they live on with the food they eat,” she said.

The island’s annual Harvest Fair kicks off at 11 a.m. Sunday and runs until 4 p.m. at the Johnson Farm on Fletcher Bay Road. The event will feature cider pressing, hay rides, sheep sheering, games, live music, island foods, and, of course, pumpkins.