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The weather was chilly and iffy in the rain department but that did not deter a crowd estimated at more than 3,000 from visiting East Farm Saturday May 10 for the Sixth Annual East Farm Spring Festival.
Plant sales were the big draw but after making their purchases visitors were then able to find snack food, have their soil tested free, pet some farm animals, visit educational booths, have fish print T-shirts made and buy compost bins and rain barrels.
The turnout was the largest in the history of the festival and reports indicated the traffic was backed up for a while on Route 138 all the way to The Farmer’s Daughter more than three miles away.
“This has become a real community outreach event,” remarked Jeff Seemann, dean of the College of the Environment and Life Sciences which sponsors the event in conjunction with the URI Master Gardeners. Seemann himself was stuck in a traffic line for 45 minutes.
The festival—only four hours long— was a record-setter in several areas. The RI Resource Recovery Corporation sold 360 plastic compost bins. The line to buy the bins stretched out into a roadway for most of the morning. Master Gardeners processed a record 222 soil samples. The Southern RI Conservation District in conjunction with Beverly O’Keefe, a.k.a “The RI Water lady,” sold well over 100 rain barrels and took orders for more. The district uses the festival as a pickup location for pre-ordered seeding shrubs, trees and flowers.
Chef Normand Leclair, an Honorary Master Gardener who always volunteers for the festival, served 350 free “decadent” banana desserts and nearby members of the RI Commercial Fishermen’s Center served up free chowder and sold raw bar delicacies.
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In the main tent, several CELS departments had information booths and vendors offered everything from honey to health products from wood crafts to recycled plastic gardening gear.
In a workshop tent, visitors heard about ways to cut energy costs, how to plant trees, how to make a rain garden, how to use disease resistant plants and how to make compost at home.
Master Gardeners were on hand to answer growing questions and URI Master Composters fielded questions on how to make compost. Fisheries, Animal and Veterinary Science personnel had several animals there from Peckham Farm, an entire tent was jammed with children’s activities and another tent sheltered a story teller. The URI Plant Science Club sponsored a presentation on growing a succulent garden, the URI Landscape Architecture Department had a display as did the URI Good Agricultural Practices program, the URI Student Action for Sustainability and URI Healthy Landscapes Program.
A band provided music and two strolling musicians entertained the crowd.
Down at the Master Gardener greenhouses vegetable, annual and perennial plants sold briskly. By the end of the festival, virtually everything was sold (prior to the sale, some 1,500 vegetable plants raised by the Master Gardeners, were donated to community gardens throughout the state).The Plant Sciences Department sold off excess trees and shrubs.
In all about 150 Master Gardeners volunteered their labor including traffic control. A planning committee had been meeting for two months, the last on a weekly basis.
Dean Seemann said a meeting will be held soon, to address plans for next year’s festival.
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