🍂 Autumn Harvest Festival

Festivity Notes:

• 🍂 The Harvest: Fields are sectioned off and open to the public. Rows of ripe vegetables are ready to be harvested by volunteers to help farmers with their crop or by Crederians who pay in order to harvest and take home some delicious gourds, corn, wheat, and other fall vegetables! This is a long standing traditional event that helps Crederians young and old see the various stages of growth for these plants. Take care not to accidentally grab a Lelokit with a subpiciously gourd-colored tail!
  
  
• Games:
  • 🍠 Gourd Roller: An enchanted, indestructable gourd is released from the top of an inclined hill. Crederians equipped with a small enchanted belt are then given the go-ahead to give chase! The first to catch this rolling gourd is crowned the winner! What are these belts for? In the event that a Crederian stumbles and falls a great height the belt activates, causing them to freeze in the air and float. A staff member will slowly lower them to safety. A belt activating means you're out of the game! Note: Sometimes the enchanted gourd may appear to roll independently of it's intended path, rolling just out of your grasp. This is a figment of your imagination, this is a completely Normal enchanted gourd.
  • 🌽 Pouch Toss: Bean filled pouches will be launched towards a decorated board with several holes cut out. Each hole counts for a different number of points! Challenge your friends to see who can get the most :) 
    
  • 🍎 Apple Bobbing: Tubs filled with water and various apples await you. The goal is simple: Using only your mouth, see how many apples you can get out of the tub and into a neighboring bucket in one minute! The apples come in many shapes and sizes and each type counts for a different number of points! The highest point winner each round gets a free mug of Cider! (as well as getting to keep the apples you fished out~) 
  • 🌰 Prickle-Paw Mayhem: A small group of Crederians is released into the neighboring forest. You have 5 minutes to collect as many "Prickle-Paws" or nuts encased in a spiny shell and bring them back before time's up! These nuts are uncomfortable to hold, so the challenge comes from both finding them and picking them up!
    
    
• 🍏 MYO Cider: Apples are set up in tubs in sorted colors and varieties. Small apple press machines are set up with locals to help grind them down. Crederians are invited to choose their apples and turn the crank to press the chunks down into juice. This step requires some effort but by the end of it you get a small barrel of your very own juice, with the added touch to allow it to ferment alongside instructions on how long to wait and where to place it for the best results. 
  • Look up "traditional apple press" to get an idea of what these machines look like!
    
    
• 🥧 Cooking Competition: Crederians have a week to prepare themselves for this event. Testing recipes, perfecting decorations, and making sure they have all the ingredients they might need! The early morning hours are spent putting things in ovens, mixing, proofing, and then cooking until time for judging. Soups and stews might be held in their own gourd shells, fruit/vegetable tarts, pies, breads made from local grain, roasted vegetables with careful garnishes for a deluxe look, cocoas, coffees, and ciders so delicious you feel like you're dreaming, and other culinary achievements line the tables awaiting judgement. After the competition is over, the foods are portioned and given out to festival-goers!
  
  
• 🌽 Farm Display: The morning of, farmers are allowed time to set up a small-medium display of their best produce and products in any waythey like. Decorations, banners, ribbons, and small enchantments for the base display are welcome, but the real judging is reserved for the goods: Cheese, Cider and Wine, Milled flours and sugars, fruits, vegetables, butter, milk, candles, soaps, and more.

Vegetable Notes:

• Not all gourds have horns but the ones that do tend to be extremely popular! And don't forget about the coveted Tufted Gemcorn, which has a dazzling gem-like appearance and is sweeter than traditional corn! Note: Gemcornbread has been known to heighten magic abilities unexpectedly, please take precautions if you're indulging...
  • Gemcorns have a sweeter taste to their yellower counterparts, with Crederians using the ground meal as a replacement for sugar. Gemcornmeal is finer than it's normal counterpart.
  • They are one of the most popular ingredients, with most dishes incorporating them giving off small sparkles!
• Thorny Gourds come in a variety of oranges and reds, with strikingly blue leaves adorning their stems. Their "thorns" are often called horns due to their resemblance to Mantibab horns. 
  • The flesh of the thorns is rather tender, considered the most delicious part of the gourd in cooking. Stick a skewer in one and roast it over an open flame and you're golden!