The annual Harvest Festival will feature horse-drawn hayrides, a cider press, farm animals and live music at a nature preserve along the Kokosing River from noon to 4 p.m. this Saturday. The free, family-friendly event takes place October 17 at the Brown Family Environmental Center, located at 9781 Laymon Road in Gambier.
The center, known locally as the BFEC, has hosted the festival for years as one of its signature public gatherings. According to Knox Pages, BFEC director Noelle Jordan said the festival usually draws hundreds of attendees and that she looks forward to the event every year. The preserve opened as part of Kenyon in 1995. Before a 2021 donor gift of more than 110 acres, the BFEC comprised 500 acres, according to The Kenyon Collegian.
Alpacas, Archery and Two Food Trucks
This year's lineup includes farm animals from Road Runner Rascals Alpaca Ranch, a Utica operation. A 2021 Mount Vernon News profile described the ranch's herd as 79 and covered breeding, fleece products and farm tours. Kids and families can also try their hand at a traveling archery trailer brought in by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, with archery learning opportunities and hands-on instruction.
Food trucks Cupzilla and Mama Lupes Kitchen will serve Korean barbecue and Mexican food, respectively, while plein air painters will show and sell artwork on site. The jazz and funk band Fat Tuesday will perform alongside several Kenyon student music groups, rounding out an afternoon built around children's activities, a cider press, vendors and entertainment.
Student Fellow Behind This Year's Planning
Cooper Bertschi, the BFEC's post-baccalaureate fellow and a 2026 Kenyon graduate, planned this year's festival. He said the event should offer something for everyone and recalled loving the festival as a student, watching the community celebrate the season together. Bertschi encouraged people who haven't attended before to come check it out this year.
Exhibitors will also include Natives in Harmony, the Knox County Park District and Bee City Mount Vernon. Mount Vernon itself earned certification as a Bee City USA affiliate in October 2022, one of 12 such communities in Ohio at the time, committing the city to expand pollinator habitat and cut pesticide use, per the Knox Pages.
A Festival Rooted in Decades of Land Conservation
The festival's setting is itself a product of a long-running conservation effort. Kenyon College founded the Philander Chase Conservancy in 2000 to shield surrounding farmland and habitat from commercial development, becoming the first college or university in the country to establish its own land trust; the conservancy now protects around 6,000 acres within a five-mile radius of Kenyon College, according to Ohio's Country Journal. The BFEC includes sections of the Kokosing River.
The Ohio Department of Natural Resources designated 41 miles of the Kokosing's main stem as a State Scenic River in November 1997, a status that protects an aquatic ecosystem supporting more than 70 fish species and the endangered hellbender salamander. The river later became Ohio's first official water trail in 2005, with paddle access points managed by the Knox County Park District, including a spot adjacent to Laymon Road in Gambier, the same park district has noted.
Kenyon College itself traces back to Bishop Philander Chase, who started the college in Worthington and later purchased roughly 8,000 acres in Gambier, according to Ohio's Country Journal. That rural character, and the decades of land-use decisions that preserved it, now forms the backdrop for Saturday's gathering of hayrides, alpacas and cider presses along the river.
