Wagon rides at the 2022 Adirondack Harvest Festival (News photo — Andy Flynn)

WESTPORT — The 8th annual Adirondack Harvest Festival will be held from noon to 5 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 23 at the Essex County Fairgrounds. It will include a farmers market, live music, farm animals, workshops, kids’ activities, local food trucks, and a beer, mead and wine tent.

The festival focuses on local agriculture and only features vendors that utilize locally harvested products and all activities are designed to provide all-ages education about agriculture in the region. The event is free to attend and celebrates the unique sense of community in the Adirondacks where farms and nature thrive together. The event is hosted by Adirondack Harvest, a program of Cornell Cooperative Extension of Essex County.

There will be a prefestival 6-mile farm and forest hike with Champlain Area Trails starting from 10 a.m. to noon.

The farmers and artisan market will highlight locally grown produce, meat, eggs, artisan dairy products, baked goods, flowers, herbal products, maple products, wine, spirits, fiber, wood products and more. There will be more than 30 vendors on hand.

There will be live music by local artists: Crackin’ Foxy (noon), Annie and the Hedonists (1:45 p.m.) and Ploughman’s Lunch (3:30 p.m.).

Farmers market at the 2022 Adirondack Harvest Festival (News photo — Andy Flynn)

There will be a kids’ potato sack race at 1:30 p.m. and a hula hoop performance and contest by Vestopia Hoops at 3:15 p.m.

Food vendors will serve local food, including: Crown Point Bread Co., Farmers Cone Creamery, Green Goddess Natural Market, Grilled Cheese Fundraiser for the Wadham’s Library, Orta Foods, Papa Duke’s BBQ, Ye Olde Phat Dragon Bakery, Rivermede Farm Market and Taste of Lahore.

Here is the schedule for the workshops:

¯ 12:30 to 1:15 p.m.: Paper making with Master Gardener Kathy Linker, $10, limit of 10 people

¯ 1:30 to 2:15 p.m.: Hand weaving for beginners with Suzanne Hokanson, $15, limit of 15 people

¯ 2:30 to 3:15 p.m.: Sheep shearing with Rogers Hastings of the Shady Hill Sheep and Wool Farm, free

¯ 3:30 to 4:15 p.m.: Dyeing with botanicals with Nichole Gerding of the Thankful Sage Farm School, $15, limit of 20 people

There will be several kind of demonstrations, including Akwesasne basket weaving, flax to linen, traditional shoe making, and wool weaving and spinning.

At the Young Farmers’ Circle, all day there will be face painting, kids’ activities by CCE Essex, Lakeside School, and Essex County Public Health and quiet space for baby changing and breast feeding. Plus, there will be activities such as finger knitting from 1 to 1:45 p.m., natural tie dye from 2 to 2:45 p.m. and felted soap from 3 to 3:45 p.m.

There will be a petting zoo, pony rides by Rookery Ranch, draft horse-drawn wagon rides by Country Dreams Farm, an antique tractor display, straw bale toss, wool and water exhibit, stilt walking entertainment by Pete and Amy Nelson, caricatures by Joe Ferris, gift shop and local ice cream.

For more information about the festival, visit adirondackharvest.com.