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Deerfield welcomes fall at Harvest Fest

To celebrate summer transitioning to autumn, the morning Deerfield Farmers Market became a civic party at night for the 5th annual Harvest Fest.

The event on Sept. 28 in the parking lot at Robert York Avenue and Deerfield Road featured touch-a-truck and other children’s activities as well as alcoholic beverages and music for adults.

“The weather is cool. It clearly feels like fall,” Mayor Harriet Rosenthal said as she watched children climb aboard fire, police, public works and construction vehicles. “This is a great event year after year.”

Deerfield Bannockburn Riverwoods Chamber of Commerce sponsored the festival along with the village. Bales of hay provided seating for people listening to the music, but kids did something else with it.

“The kids enjoyed the hay, throwing it in the air and jumping in it,” said chamber executive director Vicki Street said. “It was a big mosh pit for little kids.”

Though Street said the threat of stormy weather may have kept some people away, there was no rain during the evening event. Early morning rain did impact some of the farmers market activities.

Jane Riffel of Deerfield, a volunteer at the market, said a craft project where youngsters were to make pumpkin hats had to be scrapped because it was too wet. That event is rescheduled for the market’s final day Oct. 12.

A balloon artist made his creations under the protective cover of a bus shelter. Preschooler Skylar Zitter of Northbrook ended up with a balloon hat taller than her.

“It’s so cool,” Zitter said. “I love it.”

Her mother, Lindsay Zitter, said they came with several friends for both the market and the trucks.

Wyatt Dillon, another Deerfield preschooler who was there with parents Ben and Emily Dillon, was wearing the plastic hard hat handed out by a tree care company displaying a 55-foot-tall tree-trimming apparatus.

While Wyatt did not see his favorite truck, a snow plow, Ben Dillon said his son is thrilled to get close to almost any kind of large vehicle.

Kylie Cerk, the village’s communications specialist, said one difference this year was a larger variety of food. Five restaurants sold barbeque, Mexican and Mediterranean cuisine along with coffee and desserts. In past years, the food was free.

“It’s hard to get a restaurant to donate food for (so many) people,” Cerk said. “This time there was a lot more variety. People didn’t seem to mind.”

Street said the chamber sold wine and beer, making Harvest Fest the only civic event where alcoholic beverages are served.

Steve Sadin is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.