Pumpkin Patches and Hay Rides Kick off the Airlie Harvest Festival.

October 15, 2008

do you want to go to the maze first? Aaron Kennel negotiated a bale squeezer around his Airlie Hills Family Farm like an artist, which in a way he is.

It was nearly Harvest Festival time at the farm, and Kennel was finishing a three-day effort of sculpting a hay pyramid, a hay maze and a hay fort using about 100 of the 1,000-pound bales he stores on the property behind a big old red barn.

Kennel also stuffed the inside of the barn full of the half-ton bales â€” along with up to 300, 120-pounders â€” to create another playground masterpiece â€” a hay slide.

And on an adjacent 2-acre plot of ground, he put in a day’s work using another of his artist’s tools â€” a yard tractor â€” to carve a maze into a field of Sudan grass.

Airlie Hills Family Farm has been in existence since spring 2007, when Kennel and his wife, Sarah, both 29, opened a quarter-acre u-pick hydroponic strawberry patch adjacent to Airlie Road. That agricultural enterprise recently was expanded to three-quarters of an acre with the inclusion of eight greenhouses, tripling his berry-harvest total.

In hydroponic agriculture, crops are grown in water in vertically stacked containers without soil, which allows a longer growing season.

Kennel said he “did a lot of self-study” to learn how hydroponics might work into his farm plans, adding that he is considering growing tomatoes “and other things” next year using hydroponic methods.

He said he’s always interested in getting the word out about his strawberry operation, and the Harvest Festival affords him an opportunity to bring people in for a look.

Kennel’s family has been farming in the central Willamette Valley area since the late 1800s, starting with Christian Kennel, his great-great-grandfather.

Today, father Robert Kennel and Robert’s brother John live and farm nearby and a third brother, Dwight, is retired and lives in the area.

Harvest Festival traditions

Pumpkin patches and corn and grass mazes have been a popular attraction during the early fall season in the Willamette Valley. There are only two in Polk County this year â€” Kennel’s and Daum’s Produce Farm at 8801 Wallace Road NW near Salem.

Up until two years ago, Eric and Michelle Setnicker operated a pumpkin patch off of Greenwood Road.

“I had been a teacher and took about seven years off to raise my children,” Michelle Setnicker said, “and it was a good business to have to bring in a little money. But it was a lot of work, and I had to spend all summer getting ready for it.”

She is back teaching school now that her children are older, she said.

Aaron Kennel said his first-year Harvest Festival has goals other than bringing in a profit.

He said the event is intended to add community and educational outreach components to their family farm concept, which he said is based on diversification. He also grows 3 acres of straw.

“We will open up to everyone on Oct. 1 with the pumpkin patch, weekend hay rides and other events,” he said.

Education benefits

During the school tours, for a set charge, children get to pick and carry out their own pumpkins and gourds, along with a pint of strawberries from the farm’s hydroponic system.

Teachers get a pumpkin and three gourds of their choice, and the tour includes a hayride and barn and hay-structure activities for the whole class.

While the children are gathered in the hydroponic gardens, Kennel gives an age-appropriate talk about how the berries are grown, what they need to thrive, how they’re pollinated by bees and how to choose a ripe strawberry.

“The biggest part of this is to see kids and others get an education about farm life,” he said. “We really wanted to do this because there’s not a lot of it (farm tours) going on in Polk County.”

Geoff Parks

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Written by Matt · Filed Under Featured, Uncategorized