A free Harvest Festival for families will celebrate the return of fall Saturday, October 29, 1-4 p.m. at Tualatin’s Winona Grange. Fun for all ages will include ice cream sundaes and live music. Prizes for decorated pumpkins and a local harvest trivia contest will be highlights, along with a cake and pie walk and art contest. For more specific details on the festival, visit www.winonagrange271.org.
Tualatin has a long and rich history as an agriculture center serving the Portland metro area and beyond. Families who grew up in the original Jurgens Road area still farm here today. Kid and adult artistic talent and knowing answers to Oregon agriculture questions might win your family valuable prizes from Sherwood Ice Arena, Langers Entertainment Center, Tigard Bowl, OMSI, Tualatin Island Greens and Evergreen Air and Space Museum and more.
Tualatin’s Winona Grange celebrated its 125th birthday in 2020. Granges were originally created to serve largely rural areas of the country where farmers banded together to lobby for improved electricity and telephone service to less populated areas, negotiate better railroad freight rates for getting products to markets, offer home and farm insurance and provide the latest information to improve the productivity of farmers and increase the quality of family life. Grange halls were also a center for social activities. Tualatin’s historic Grange Hall was built in 1940 and still hosts Grange meetings every second Saturday morning and is rented by several organizations each month.
While the local Tualatin economy no longer centers on agriculture, today’s Grange activities center on promoting family values, horticulture, and healthy lifestyles. Scheduled on November 5 is a free workshop on suicide prevention.
For 13 years, the Tualatin Grange has given away thousands of free garden seed packets locally to encourage “growing your own” at home. Last year Tualatin Grange members mailed 111 seed mix boxes to schools, churches, community gardens and other Granges across Oregon and SW Washington. Hundreds of free seed packets were also available at Tualatin Public Library.
Winona Grange is located at 8340 SW Seneca near the Lake at the Commons.
