Contests, and pumpkins, and Harvest Fest, oh my!

"Kootenai Brown" and Miss Pumpkin at Canyon School

Miss Pumpkin, Contributor

On behalf of the Kootenai Brown Pioneer Village in Pincher Creek, Kootenai Brown and Miss Pumpkin visited some local schools.  The two of us went to Canyon, St. Michael's, and Children's World Daycare on October 11.  We were there to talk to elementary grades about Harvest Festival and to invite the kids to enter the coloring contest.  If you are 12 and under and would like to enter the coloring contest and are not in these school you can contact Toni at 403-627-3684.

Eric from Canyon Preschool Cubs and Miss Pumpkin
deciding if the they are related
Farley Wuth photo

Occurring on October 19th and 20th this year, Kootenai explained that a Harvest Festival is traditionally a time that the harvest was celebrated.  Many times family, friends and neighbors would help each other to bring in their harvest, ever mindful that the time was ticking down to shorter days.  Even when the crops were in, it had to be stored for the winter.  Only in very recent times has electrical refrigeration played a part in most people’s lives.  Almost all food had to be dried, salted, smoked, pickled, tinned, jammed, jellied, or fermented, and stored.  For many this would be the food that would have to last them until more could be hunted or grown and gathered next year. After all that work was done, people would celebrate with a Harvest Festival.


Most cultures that had the seasons of winter and summer celebrated a harvest.  Most of us no longer work the land for the food we eat.  Transportation, radio, phone, tv, car and internet have forever changed the routines  that many of our forefathers experienced during the onset of winter.

We at the Kootenai Brown Pioneer Village would like to invite you to our Harvest Festival.  With a Farmers Market on Friday, Optimizing your Photography Skill sessions happening on the 19th and 20th, and a Saturday with food, music, games, a photo contest, and our colouring contest, there will be a bit of fun and some of that community spirit for everyone.  We bet you will have an A-Mazing time!

For more information about Harvest Fest at Kootenai Brown visit www.kootenaibrown.org