KELSEYVILLE — The 23rd annual Harvest Festival Fun at Steele Wines took place over the weekend, with grape stomping being one of the big draws for kids and adults.
Looking for the grape stage took meandering around vendor booths, listening to music under the trees, traversing the Steele Wines tasting table, passing the fountain and more booths filled with photographs, handmade quilts, urban ponchos, metal art, soap and bath products, hand crafted herbal products, booths serving pita bread open-faced sandwiches, snow cones and many more. By the time one found the Grape Stage, the stomping was ready to happen.
Grape Stomp announcer Sinda Hanson, a ball of lightening dressed in a shocking pink T-shirt and tan colored shorts that would soon be grape-stained, lined up the kid teams and heckled the crowd for adults to participate. “I’ve been doing this for 20-plus years,” Hanson said. “Adults will do it for anything, kids do it for candy, snow cones and toys. It’s the best festival ever. People come from all over—from Santa Rosa, L.A. and even Great Britain and France.”
With pants rolled up, socks and shoes off, ready to jump into the giant wine barrels to stomp the squishy grapes, children and adults dove into the fun of grape harvest. Teams of two took to the stage; one the stomper and one working the stick to keep the spigot clear of grape skins for the liquid to flow.
One boy said he’d been working out, getting his leg muscles in shape. Quentin Biggers, 11 years old, said, “It felt weird.” Winning veteran stomper Leland Kirkpatrick, 15, raised his arms in victory. “I’ve been doing it for as long as I can remember.” Announcer Hanson told the crowd, “He always wins. He has big feet!”
Joan Luke, 67, a first-timer, jumped right in with three other women, to end up the winner. Her prize was a ticket for the Corn Maze, located across the highway from the winery. She competed against youngsters Annette Broyles, 50, from Kelseyville who said, “It was super fun. I’m out of breath!” Erin Malastina, 41, from Rivera said, “We come here just for this!” and Karen Pavone, 58, also from Kelseyville, who showed off a handful of grapes that she was going to pulverize.
After grape stomping came storytelling, a pie eating contest and a hula hoop contest. Hoops were handed out and the contestants given the “On your mark, get set, go!” They had to walk around hay bales set aside for people to rest on. The minute the hoop hit the ground the contestant was disqualified. Winner Shawnna McCool, 16, said that she’d won once before in elementary school, but she “didn’t expect winning this time. I’ve never walked while hooping.”
Vera Greenwood, 5, showed off her face paining. Her mother, Renee Greenwood, said, “I’ve been here [at the festival] probably six times since I moved to Kelseyville from Santa Rosa in 2000.” When asked what kept her coming back she laughed, “The wine tasting, of course. Plus we love the food and all the art.”
The variety of the juried goods showed the care that Steele Wines took to make sure all products were quality hand crafted goods. From honey to photography, quilts, metal cutouts, furniture made from recycled wine barrels and much more. Vendor Joanne Horn from Boooneville, said that this was her ninth year showing her hand crafted herbal body care ’AfterGlow Naturals’. “I have repeat customers every year.”
If a person got tired of walking around they could sit and listen to the quality music groups playing under the giant walnut tree. Those attending the festival enjoyed the music of the Cal Alumni Big on Saturday afternoon. Some festival goers spent their entire afternoon just there, sipping their Steele Wines.
The Corn Maze and Pumpkin Patch were next on the list of activities to do, located across the highway on the Wildhurst Winery property. The vast pumpkin patch covered 4 acres, with 32 different varieties of pumpkins grown there, more than 50,000 pumpkins in total. “Any that aren’t sold will be given to someone with livestock, said Michael Hat, owner. “100 percent of the proceeds from the pumpkin patch go to the FFA. They are both open each October weekend.”
Hat planted the 7-acre corn maze with 800,000 plants. When the corn was 4-inches tall, the pathways were blazed by razing corn on the routes. Hat, who designed the maze, made it the shape of a 400-foot wine bottle with grape leaves and grape clusters surrounding the bottle, encompassed by an arrow pointing to Kelseyville. 8 miles of trail in total.
“This is way better than the Petaluma maze!” said Ron Fambrini of Lakeport, who emerged from the maze with his wife and two kids. “We weren’t sure which way to go!”
“There are two trails,” Hat said. “The short one is a little less than a mile, about a 15-minute route for the little kids. The second takes roughly an hour, if you don’t get lost,” said Hat. “The trails are all numbered and if you have your map, or your T-shirt, you won’t get lost. But I’ve seen people come out crawling, after being lost,” he laughed, as more happy people ventured into the corn maze.
