Every first weekend in October, the Key Peninsula is the place to be if you like to hang around a bucolic place away from the city buzz. The Key Peninsula Farm Tour and the Fiber Arts Festival are two longtime events that have become an annual destination. It’s a weekend to celebrate the rural lifestyle, visit local farms, see fiber-arts demonstrations and more.
The Farm Tour, which started more than a decade ago, is a multifarm event that has now become the longest-continuously-run in Pierce County. This free, family-oriented event spotlights the value of farm-fresh products — catering to those who support the local-food movement and appreciate knowing the source of their foods.
The tour will have 12 stops, including PackLeader Farm, Bea’s Flowers, Grand Farms and Kaukiki Ranch and Minterbrook Oyster Co. Make sure to also stop in Key Center for the “Scarecrow Invasion” arts show, the Farm Tour Art Show at Blend Wine and for the traditional Fire District 16 breakfast.
The Fiber Arts Festival, hosted at the Longbranch Improvement Club (LIC) in conjunction with the farm tour, features the theme of Threads Through Time. Turning a decade old this year, the one-day fest features more than two dozen artists who demonstrate, exhibit and sell their work. The full gamut of fibers, utilizing traditional techniques and modern adaptations, will be on display as well.
Inside the clubhouse, vendor displays will include quilts, hats, bags, handwoven baskets, buttons, clothing, jewelry, rugs, wall hangings, table decorations, hand- tooled leather craft, embroidery, wearable art from silk, alpaca fur and wood and much more.
Watch weaving, spinning and cross-stitch demonstrations; make your own wallet out of duct tape (courtesy Pierce County Library System); and wander outdoors for a display of antique tractors, Boy Scout demonstrations of nautical know tying and Girl Scout demonstrations of building fencing for compost bins out of yard trimmings.
For more information, go to www.kpfarmtour.com or check out the latest update on the farm tour’s and the fiber arts fest’s Facebook pages.
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