It wouldn’t be Harvest Festival at the Community Garden without a harvest. And this year, the harvest will be abundant.

Brown County Farmers Market will have its final sales day of the year at the Harvest Fest, Saturday, October 19, offering not only naturally grown produce, herbs and flowers fresh out of the Garden, but artisan foods, baked goods and arts and crafts.

Brownwood Area Community Garden celebrates its fourth Harvest Festival this Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., at the Garden, at 1514 Dublin Street, behind the Central Texas Opportunities building.

Food and refreshments will also be available throughout the event, and live music by Sun Duo and other area musicians will entertain festival goers. Chili with all the fixings, plus a variety of drinks and desserts will be served for a nominal cost.

For younger festival goers, face painting, gourd painting will be available, and balloon artist Ashley Griffin will be on hand.

Brown County Master Gardener Leslie Courington kicks off festival events at 10:00 a.m. with a program on rainwater catchment and water conservation. This has been a popular program with festival goers in past years and is offered free of charge in the CTO building.

A special highlight of this year’s Harvest Festival will be a presentation at 11:00 by Connie and Stuart Veldhuizen, of Veldhuizen Family Farm near Stephenville, who will speak on the importance local and sustainable food, and of the importance of organic foods. The Veldhuizen Family Farm produces organic, whole raw milk and dairy products like artisan cheeses, butter and yogurt. Their presentation will also be in the CTO building, and is free of charge. A selection of their products will also be for sale.

Festival goers will have the chance to win an assortment of raffle prizes and door prizes, including a hand-painted 55-gallon rain barrel, an artisan food basket, gift certificates to area businesses, and much more.

Art will be a big part of the day’s festivities as artists from Brownwood Art Association set up in the vine-covered shade arbor to paint gourds with children. Artist Kathy Jones is transforming a 55-gallon rain barrel into a work of art, and will ask young festival goers to add their special touch. The finished barrel will be awarded as a raffle prize at the end of the event.

Established in 2009, the Brownwood Area Community Garden is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing area food pantries with fresh, naturally grown produce year-round, as well as providing gardening space for area gardeners. So far this year the Garden has donated more than 1,000 pounds of fresh, organic produce to the Salvation Army Loaves and Fishes soup kitchen.

Visitors to the Harvest Festival are invited to tour the Community Garden while there and learn about the Garden’s 6,000-gallon rainwater harvesting system, state-of-the-art drip irrigation, composting and vermiculture.

Festival organizers have tried to keep costs to a minimum to accommodate families on a budget.

Parking for the event is available at the Salvation Army building on Lakeway, which runs between Belle Plain and West Commerce Avenue. The Garden is a short walk from the Salvation Army parking lot.

For further information, contact Mary Green Engle at 325-784-8453, or Daniel Graham at 325-641-9029.

Pictured above:  Brown County Farmers Market manager Debra Mathis shows off some artisan food preparations that will be offered at the fourth annual Community Garden Harvest Festival.  Photo contributed.